HEXv1 is not a technical phone. It has pleasant tonality. But nothing to write home about technically. It also loses its **** when you drive it loud. Combined with its cheap build, $1800 was daylight robbery when it came out. I'd gladly stick with my HE500 if it is still alive. At least it got some balls and character.
Havent tried the HEXv2. But from the impressions I heard, the v2 should be an improvement across the board.
Note: using 5' Artic Cable Cardas 24 ga. XLR cable, not stock
OK, bought a used V2 and have had at it for 15+ hours now. I'm struck by the similarity between my modded HE-500 and the V2, I would not say that about a stock HE-500. The other transducers they sound like are:
Maggie MG-II circa 1980
Maggie 1.5 circa 1998
That means they have microdynamics done very well, have good detail - but to a point - nowhere near the razor edge of a ribbon speaker or the Senn 800S. They also don't do macrodynamics that well, you might find yourself turning up the volume. I have not heard most cans of this or above quality, but of those only the HE-6 does macrodynamics in a way that grabs my attention - almost like a horn speaker can do. I personally have usually passed up macrodynamics to get killer micro and a sense of coherence that few dynamic multi driver speakers have. Yes - these sound like refined well driven panels. They ring less then the HE-500 so the sound is more transparent but less sweet.
The V2 is very good on jazz, classical, and chamber music of all stripes. It's also a terrific late night can - you know - you don't want to be irritated by some annoying singer or brass.
Whoever said 2-3 weeks ago that the V2 has a "V" sound with pumped up bass and treble must be listening to a very strange sample. Bass is well flatter than a HE-500, there is the usual HFM reticence in the 2-4.5k area, and they have a bit of that rise at 8-10K that HFM have, but less than any other version of HFM I've heard (HE-400 (3 versions), HE-500, HE-6, HE-5LE, Sundara, Ananda and HE-560) The treble above that is very civilized and clean, perhaps a bit reticent or soft.
The V2's sound is more like an inverted U, with 3/4 of the legs cut off and the remainder pressed down towards flat, with a bit pushed down for the 2.5-5k reticence. That's a slightly mid-centric polite picture - and so it is.
The modded HE-500 has a bit more dynamic life, a bit more body. It has more 2nd order harmonic (making it sound sweeter and tube like - and adding that "body"). The 500 can play 98-99 db programme pretty well, the V2 doesn't go above 97 well - it flattens out. For me no issue since I'm usually 85-90 db. The sound stage it throws is much better to my ear then the V2 (see below).
OTOH, the modded HE-500 has a lot of cruft in the upper bass into the middle of the mids, and general distortion (the dark side of the body and sweet tubeyness). The 500 bass is uneven compared to the V2 and doesn't go as low well. The mids of the V2 are better, cleaner, open, flatter. The treble is much better. Less grain, not as peaky, and the ridiculous decay of cymbals is tamped down to where it belongs. They are more coherent, sounding like the sound comes from one driver, and in phase. The 500 stock sounds like a 2 or 3 way. As long as you don't overdrive them they do nothing unpleasant. That's the big theme. Pleasant and coherent.
The sound stage isn't my taste. It's very tall - perhaps near double the height of the 500, but, the center fill is less than the L & R, and its in my head, the L & R are right next to my head. Very headphone like. There can be a bit of an echo/cave thing going on probably due to the size of the pads - not as pronounced as the HE-500 rear screens - so don't freak. I'm going to have to "felt" my head *jk* to do away with it.
UPDATE 3/5/19: The cups are huge, they can be positioned in a number of places. I found two spots where the treble gets into my ear better than just throwing them on. It gives an image that doesn't buckle, but the back plane is one plane, it is very tall and quite wide, its still in my head, but its well forward. It's far better than I wrote here before.
Also the fit of the pads isn't perfect, there are two mirror imaged gaps between my head and the pads. Fill in the gaps with some toilet paper and the bass is deeper, less diffuse, more authority. It'll never be a bass head can, but it delivers nicely under most conditions.
The HE-500 soundstage: very speaker like, that's the biggest edge IMO. It's very wide, moderate height, good depth, and in front of your head.
I used to think I'd need to buy a used 500 so I'd always have one when my current one dies, but the V2 isn't far off, so no. I think my next can is going to have macrodynamics and/or detail to burn. Maybe a Voce or an Abyss - or a 800S for the soundstage and definition.
The Ananda by comparison has a flatter freq response up to 5kHz, but an area of higher frequency response and ringing in the 8-10kHz area frequently makes them sound astringent. On top of that overall they don't have the image depth or body of the V2.
When the used Arya's show up is when we'll see the next price drop, that and the MD XX. You can get a 1000 v2 for about $1600 now for goodness sake.
A really mint HE-500 with an upmarket cable is about $425 - but is 5-8 years old (and probably needs new pads too); The V2 can be had $675-750 with up market cable and is 2.5 - 0 yrs old. Both are real good buys, depends on taste, and maybe nerves about age. I agree that the original list of the V2 was well off the mark, $1200 closer. In a year used prices should slide to $550-600 range and hold there.
They should be far more efficient than the HE-500 by spec, but I'd say it's 4 db or so. They can be run off of a DAP. My venerable FiiO X3 can run them loud - but the bass and treble don't "pop".
Somehow whats above doesn't read as well as I like these. They are quite good. If you like orthos for coherence - listen to these. If you want over cooked bass, or searing treble (certain German cans), or micro detail - don't bother - because you won't like them for those things.
