HE-5..initial musings

[Shahrose]

I wanted to refrain from posting any developments until burn-in was complete, but I just had to briefly comment. There have been some very interesting developments just in the first 8 hours. Pretty dramatic improvements from a little break-in reminiscent of my Ultrasone cans.

 

[bdh]

Well, I've had them for a week, and the wood has split today. I didn't drop them or handle them roughly. How common is this? I haven't read every post here, but I did see one report of this. It is really making me leary of keeping these long term if there is a high chance they will sooner or later crack, especially if it happens after the warrenty expires.

 

[Shahrose]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, I've had them for a week, and the wood has split today. I didn't drop them or handle them roughly. How common is this? I haven't read every post here, but I did see one report of this. It is really making me leary of keeping these long term if there is a high chance they will sooner or later crack, especially if it happens after the warrenty expires.

I saw one other report on these forums (the one you're referring to) and yours is the second. Could you post pictures of the split so we can get a general idea of how it cleaved and which way the wood gives way.

 

[momomo6789]

yes yes post pics

 

[tintin47]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bdh /img/forum/go_quote.gif Well, I've had them for a week, and the wood has split today. I didn't drop them or handle them roughly. How common is this? I haven't read every post here, but I did see one report of this. It is really making me leary of keeping these long term if there is a high chance they will sooner or later crack, especially if it happens after the warrenty expires.

It happened to me as well. I am still waiting on the replacement. Sometimes wood is just weak. With such a thin ring of wood as the one on the HE-5, a certain rate of failure is expected. Notice that for both of us it happened in the first couple of weeks. If the wood doesn't crack in the first three years, you almost certainly have nothing to worry about.

 

[Hygienist]

Is there any info (especially release date) regarding that higher end headphone Fang hinted at?

 

[Zoide]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tintin47 /img/forum/go_quote.gif It happened to me as well. I am still waiting on the replacement. Sometimes wood is just weak. With such a thin ring of wood as the one on the HE-5, a certain rate of failure is expected. Notice that for both of us it happened in the first couple of weeks. If the wood doesn't crack in the first three years, you almost certainly have nothing to worry about.

So are there two people who have had the problem or three? I certainly hope this doesn't become widespread.

 

[gopack87]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoide /img/forum/go_quote.gif So are there two people who have had the problem or three? I certainly hope this doesn't become widespread.

Me too, I was really considering buying the E5/HE5 combo, but now I'm really hesitanat

 

[Zoide]

Just listened to "Little Green" from Joni Mitchell on my new HE-5's. I tried to type this out during the song but her voice sounded so damn good that I couldn't help but keep my eyes closed

BTW, volume was at 11 o'clock on my Corda Opera. The gain switch was set to Low. So they don't seem so impossible to drive...

 

[Zoide]

Just listened to "You Never Give Me Your Money" from The Beatles. Everything sounds great! Damn, now I'm onto Sun King and it's also amazing.

One thing I can definitely tell you: there is no bass lightness problem with the HE-5. Coming from the Ultrasone Edition 9's, this was a big concern to me. From what I'm hearing (6 hours of burn-in), the HE-5 gives you as much bass as there is in the record, without adding and subtracting. The bass in Abbey Road is sounding great, thank you very much. I can certainly feel the impact of the bass drum on the right channel (remember these old Beatles albums have extreme stereo separation).

Wow, now listening to Mean Mr. Mustard. Talk about PRAT! Makes me want to dance around the house. Everything sounds so clear. The crash cymbal is amazing.

OK, I'm gonna stop now because otherwise I'm gonna write all the way through the album

 

[Zoide]

Just listened to the Heavens Gate cover of Judas Priest's "The Sentinel". These cans can *rock*. Once again, nothing to complain about regarding the bass. It's pretty kick-ass, actually.

I just noticed I cranked up the volume to 12 o'clock... That always seems to happen with "The Sentinel"...

Now listening to Manfred Mann's "Handbags and Gladrags". His voice is incredible.

One common aspect I have noticed in all the songs is how *clear* the cans sound. I haven't A/B'ed with the Edition 9's but my gut feeling is that a veil has been lifted.

 

[Zoide]

Last post for tonight (1:51AM) I promise:

I dare anyone to listen to Groove Armada - "Suntoucher" with the HE-5 and tell me they don't have deep, impactful bass.

 

[smeggy]

hopefully the wood splitting thing will be a few isolated incidents

 

[smeggy]

boing!!!

 

[bdh]

As far as impressions after only ~45hrs burn-in is that the treble is still very prominent and noticable. Comparing to my reference highly-modded JVC DX1000's, detail is a touch better on the JVC still, despite the appearance of more detail due to the brighter nature of the HE-5 -- the way I am judging clarity is how clear and easy it is to understand various difficult to understand lyrics.

Despite good prat for an open can, the JVC is far better, especially since it extends to all frequencies as opposed to being limited to the lower half of the bass register on the HE-5. The HE-5's openness sounds great, but despite the JVC sounding more closed-in, the JVC still sounds much more natural, both in tone and in recording venue - e.g. studio recordings sound like they're in a studio and live recordings sound like they're in the open.

The biggest problem I have with the HE-5 at this early point (besides the crack), is that the JVC conveys increable emotion to the music and I get hardly any from the HE-5 -- (and I'm not talking about prat, but I guess 'musicality'.) The music sounds very good, but it's just there, and doesn't pull me in.

Of course these are just initial impressions and will most likely change significantly with more break-in, and especially tailoring my configuration to these cans (eq settings, asio4all and foobar settings, tubes, etc.) I've owned the MAD HD-250 amp for four months now and have been trying different things the whole time, and only recently feel I've tweeked my system to the point where it can't get any better -- and I would expect something similar with this new headphone and amp.

BTW, I do like the EF5 amp - I'm using an Amperex tube in it right now. It's not nearly as good as the MAD, but I still like it. The HE-5's sound good out of the EF5; has bad bass distortion out of the Extreme; but sounds far better out of the MAD than the other two amps. I haven't done enough comparisons to describe the differences yet.