[mysticstryk]

The price certainly isn't far off from what hardcore audiophiles usually pay for the highest sets like abyss, stax, and vintage headphones. I like how the general feedback has been negative though so hifiman really reconsiders changing their products and pricing

Except the $4k Utopia FEELS like a $4k product. It's exudes quality craftsmanship and ultra premium materials. The years of R&D work put into making it is felt when you hold it.

Hifiman uses low quality materials and R&D work amounts to releasing halfway finished prototypes disguised as flagship products.

 

[conquerator2]

We're also back to the powerplant days with 84dB sensitivity...
Here I thought Hifiman wanted to go the opposite. Unless, the amp... Oh, I get it

 

[mtoc]

Once there's a guy who asked Dr. Fang Bian: Hi, Dr. Fang Bian, how do you feel about the famous HD650?
And Fang just answered calmly: HE400(i) better than HD650 in every aspect.
 
Fang doesn't care about these complaints on the net, at all. He once said clearly that only 5% of HFM users will go to these kinds of forums to "discuss" these kinds of stuff. 95% of HFM users just buy HFM headphones straight from dealers and without discussing with nobody. These 95% users, they are too busy (or too rich) to bother with internet bubbles.
 
These 95% is HFM's targeted customers, those 5% not.
 

Fang's biggest regret, that he metions many times is that he set the price of he560 too low, too low to make audiophiles' brains believe that he560 is actually exceedingly damn good (beyond the price), so, now he will set the price of new products according to their actual SQ performance.
 
About Edition 6
He made a declaration a few days ago:"edition 6 is better than the HE1000 v2 by miles, and you will hear this within 5 seconds, I promise."
 

He also mentioned that HFM has a bunch of ultra high-tech for the successors of the Edition 6 and the successors of the Shangri-la in the future. And he will apply these techs one by one, step by step. He won't throw all these techs into a pair of new cans, what he gonna do is put one high-tech into a pair of new cans, and put another tech into the successor, etc....
 
The word overkill is never in Fang's dictionary. He says this proudly.

 

[Thenewguy007]

Fang's biggest regret, that he metions many times is that he set the price of he560 too low

I believe him!

 

[oneguy]

It's blatant money grabbing business practices like this that make you want to sell the gear you have from those companies just because it disgusts you so much.

 

[Yugo]

Apologies if I sounded too negative, but I really really hope the 'grill thing' won't make into the final product. And by no means I am trying to ridicule the company of HFM, if it sounds like I am, apologies again.
 
Personally I am still interested in ED6 and it's sound, I should be able to demo it once it is available in Australia. But I will likely not consider the whole combo. 

 

[chowmein83]

 
About Edition 6
He made a declaration a few days ago:"edition 6 is better than the HE1000 v2 by miles, and you will hear this within 5 seconds, I promise."
 

 
I'm sorry, but I really have to laugh at this statement.
 
The reason I can is because I was just at CES, and I just listened to the Edition 6 and the HE1000 v2 on the same setup at the Venetian hotel suite they were demoing the headphones in. The setup was Hifiman's HM901S DAP hooked up to the EF1000.
 
I didn't do exact volume matching, but I did try do it by ear (not the most reliable way, unfortunately). I was swapping back and forth between the two headphones on the same setup for about 10 minutes. Listening was done in somewhat noisy conditions, though I found that by cranking the volume up it was enough to drown out most of the noise.
 
To get to the point, basically I could hear almost no difference in most aspects between the HE1000 v2 and the Edition 6. Perhaps with a longer listening session I could maybe hear some differences, but nothing in my listening session really jumped out at me. The tonality of the two headphones is extremely similar. At one point I thought the Edition 6 might have slightly better bass (as in more well-controlled) but AB'ing them I felt that I couldn't reliably tell a difference.
 
There are perhaps two things that differentiate these headphones. One, the HE1000 v2 has a taller soundstage, which I actually like better and IMO better immerses you into the music.
 
The second would be that the Edition 6 is extremely inefficient - much more so than the HE1000 v2. With the HE1000 v2 connected to the EF1000 via the 6.3mm single-ended output, I had the volume knob at around 9-10 o'clock. With the Edition 6 connected to the 4-pin XLR output of the EF1000, I had the volume knob at around 1 o'clock.
 
Oh, and one more thing: at this stage, the Edition 6 is noticeably heavier than the HE1000 v2, though the Hifiman rep I spoke to said that they're trying to get the weight down by the final release, as well as change the color of the wood veneer from its current lighter color to the darker color seen on the Shangri-La.
 
Most people probably wouldn't care about these impressions since it seems like nobody here at least would really consider these, but hopefully somebody will find these brief impressions interesting.

 

[drez]

FYI: no one is making you buy these.

 
FYI: Nobody is making you comment either  Or making me comment on your comment.  Or making you read this thread.  Or making me continue to revise this comment.  

 

[Yugo]

 These 95% is HFM's targeted customers, those 5% not.

 
For sub $1000 products, this may be true. But I don't believe there is 95% of people who willingly spend over a thousand dollar without a heartbeat and looking for some reviews and impressions at least. I think most people do it without 'discuss' so he just doesn't realise. 

 

[wink]

   
FYI: Nobody is making you comment either  Or making me comment on your comment.  Or making you read this thread.  Or making me continue to revise this comment.  

I'd like to comment on this comment but the preceding commentary being commented upon by some commentators defies commonsense in their communistic and commercial communications.

 

[canthearyou]

I'd like to comment on this comment but the preceding commentary being commented upon by some commentators defies commonsense in their communistic and commercial communications.

 

[Ancipital]

   
FYI: Nobody is making you comment either  Or making me comment on your comment.  Or making you read this thread.  Or making me continue to revise this comment.  

 
Mind control rays are forcing me to buy both these and a Chord Poly. LET THE BLACK HELICOPTERS LAND.

 

[oneguy]

Mind control rays are forcing me to buy both these and a Chord Poly. LET THE BLACK HELICOPTERS LAND.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't drag Chord's name through the mud by putting them even in the same thought as Hifiman. The Poly pricing is nowhere near the level profit making markup that Hifiman seeks.

 

[Ancipital]

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Don't drag Chord's name through the mud by putting them even in the same thought as Hifiman. The Poly pricing is nowhere near the level profit making markup that Hifiman seeks.

 
..and that's the bit that bothered you, not the mind control rays? You monster.

 

[rthomas]

  Let me redirect this thread a little bit. (No, I am also really not happy with the idiotic price tag! 21K for the whole system? It equates to almost 30K in Australia! I am done...)
 
 
It is curious to see what kind of magnet configuration they implemented in the ed. 6 as shown in Fang's Weibo account, it looks awful like those of the 'Audeze Fazor'. They called it the 'Stealth Magnets' and is a patent pending technology. And it looks like it is symmetrical instead of those asymmetrical magnets that were implemented on the HEK.
 
Now we have Audeze with Fazor and Fluxor magnet, Hifiman Edition 6 with 'Stealth Magnet', Hifiman HEK with asymmetrical magnet, Abyss with one sided magnet (biggest soundstage of them all), and Mr. Speakers with TrueFlow. Really interested to see how those competing technologies stack up against each other. 
 
Top to bottom, ED6, Audeze, HEK
 

 

 

 
 
How can ''ergonomic headband'' be a feature?

 
Isn't that supposed to come standard with all headphones?!