AudioCats was generous enough to send me his HE Audio Jades for measurement, so I figure I would post CSD plots. Per my usual practice, I will begin with subjective impressions (on my own rig).
BTW, just in case you didn't know, these are electrostatic headphones.
I've heard these before at an earlier meet and liked them somewhat. These remind me of the HD800s, especially in the treble. The HD800s have always been hard to describe for me. HD800s have kind of have a split personality. Sometimes the HD800s can sound lush or laid back, but other times they can sound brittle and bright. The bass on the HE Audio Jades extends down slightly lower than the HD800s. Impact wise, the Jades hit as hard HD800s properly powered. By no means is the Jade bass lite, unless you are a basshead.
The HE Audio Jades have less of the HD800's split personality. The Jades are more consistent sounding across different recordings. The FR sounds flatter, but with the same upward tip and brittle hardness of the HD800 (can you say 6k peak?) Like the HD800s, they have a bit of energy from 6k onward. Although it doesn't sound like there any serious ringing issues, it does seem hot around 8k, or 7k or 9k? Maybe some mods can correct this? I have some ideas already and will experiment (will discussed be in an upcoming post.)
BTW, these headphones look extremely DIY. And we are not talking about good quality DIY, but more like "I sorta don't give a crap because I'm not an anally retentive person and probably shouldn't be doing DIY in the first place."
Finally, the Jades do extract low level information extremely well. Better than the 007mk2.5 I have on hand. YMMV.
These are CSD graphs. Please note ranges.
CSDs show some moderately broad ridge structure between 5 and 9kHz. Somewhat similar to the HD800 CSD. Maybe that's why these remind me of the HD800s so much. It turns out that those notches are really small resonances in disguise. It's definitely hot around 12-13k too, which contributes to the treble graininess - again similar to the HD800.
I like what the Jades do, but I have am having a hard time with the brightness in the lower treble. To be continued...