[sinae]

Right, 380g.

I find it intriguing that HE1000 ends up being similar to 560 in weight, even though it's clear that 1000 has more magnets on the outside face of the drivers due to its larger driver, as well as magnets lining the inside face (whereas HE560 has no magnets facing inward). How are they keeping the weight down, is my question.

I guess push pull is more efficient hence need less magnet

 

[nicholars]

I bet they sound good but I don't like the look of them

 

[CyberAthlete]

  I bet they sound good but I don't like the look of them

I can assure you they sound amazing. I demo'd them for 20-25 minutes at CES. 5 different songs, 3 genres. All scored an A+ on these headphones. Only thing I would take away is that my ears were ever so slightly touching the inside of the headphone. Don't know what the part is called but the top of my ear was just brushing the inside (not the pads, but the diaphragm?) 
 
Thanks!

 

[bmichels]

Any release date yet ?  I have put other purchase on hold for this one !

 

[conquerator2]

Perhaps the earpads should be deeper

 

[money4me247]

Perhaps the earpads should be deeper

deeper earpads!!! my favorite topic

 

[speedracer1]

Background:
I wanted to attend the HIFIMAN event held on the 19^th of March at Stereo Exchange in NYC but I was heading out of town that day so I contacted the folks at Stereo Exchange and Dr. Fang Bian was kind enough to allow me to take a listen to the pre-released HE-1000’s the day before the event.   To make the most of my visit I packed my Cord Hugo, Fostex TH-900 cans and my trusty little AK240.  I was very excited to have an opportunity to finally listen to these bad-boys and potentially consider them to replace my 900’s. 
 
As I arrived a full day before the scheduled event, not everything was completely set-up and this was completely understandable.  What I was able to do was to listen to the HE-1000 attached to the EF-1000 amp.  According to Dr. Bian, this amp is a custom purpose built hybrid amp.  Essentially it’s a “one-off” for a pair of speakers.  He mentioned the name of the speakers but the name escapes me at the moment. 
 
Yes the amp is “very powerful” as others on similar HE-1000's threads have already indicated and it weighs approximately 60 pounds!  The amp cost Dr. Bian over $10,000 to build and each component was “hand selected” as best in class technology and the entire amp is hand built.  I listened to the EF-1000 and HE-1000 combination thru my AK240 connect via optical cable to the Hugo and from the Hugo thru the stereo RCA outputs connected to the EF-1000. 
 
As far as the sound it’s as musicman59 describes it in a single word “sublimed”.  My adjectives are “really ridiculously amazing”. The combination of the amp and headphones are transparent, clear, musically accurate, excellent sound stage and imaging and overall physically engaging.  A true toe tapping euphoria! That said, I was not able to make an honest assessment of just the HE-1000 as I’m familiar with my source amp (the Cord Hugo not the EF-1000) and I simply couldn’t isolate just the HE-1000.  Again, I was there a full day before the event and the necessary cables were not available at the time.   
 
I have a few brief comments and thoughts to share with the HF Community:

1. According to Fang, “the Cord Hugo will NOT sufficiently drive the HE-1000”.  This is really very unfortunate for me and 10,000 other Cord Hugo customers who continue on their quest for the very best sound in headphones and either can’t or don’t have the money to spend on electrostatic headphones and electrostatic amps.  This simply knocks out a huge market segment for HiFIMAN!
2. According to Fang,”the new 901S will drive the HE-1000” as there will be a specific “amp card” available for the 901S.  Yes more powerful than the Cord Hugo amp.  Again great for anyone looking to buy a new DAC player and more HIFIMAN stuff.
3. The EF-1000 is a long way off from production ready.  I asked Dr. Bian how long and it looks like its months or more out.  He didn’t exactly say.  The issue is taking a custom, one-off, purpose built amp like the EF-1000 and designing and re-designing it using components that may not be in the current amp but are required to work in a production ready version is a large under-taking.  Many things can change including the “sound signature”.   That said, I have no question that Dr. Bian and his team can do it at “some point and at some price” but this is where things are at the moment. 
4. I hope for those fortunate enough to purchase the HE-1000 in the near future the build quality and product failure rates are very low.  And most importantly the “sound signature” that I’ve heard and come to expect in the HE-1000 is consistent from headphone to headphone. 
5. Let’s face it, $3k is a lot of cabbage to spend on headphones and if I’m going to shell it out I’m making a big investment in the company not just the headphones!   I’m relying on their customer service and their reputation, build quality and so on….
6. HIFIMAN is known for building affordable, good sounding products for a wide audience of people.  Quality materials and quality control on some of the products I’ve wanted to purchase has not been to my standards and that was the reasons I purchased the AK240 over the 901.  These headphones are “hi-end” and don’t appeal to the larger wide audience. Therefore the HE-1000 are outside what the consumer has typically seen from the company.  This will without question place force changes within the company to cater to the very demanding high-end marketplace.   

 
I hope my views were helpful and thank you for reading.
Sincerely your friend in HF,
-Speed

 

[Lan647]

Intrigued by this. However, I hope what we've seen on pictures doesn't reflect the production model. While I like the overall aesthetic, it needs some refinement for sure to earn a price like that. 

 

[ubs28]

I see. So I'm better off buying a dedicated amplifier for my Sennheiser HD800 and stick with that, since the HE-1000 won't be driven to it's fullest on the Chord Hugo too? 
 
The appeal of the HE-1000 was that it was able to driven out of anything. 

 

[XVampireX]

  I see. So I'm better off buying a dedicated amplifier for my Sennheiser HD800 and stick with that, since the HE-1000 won't be driven to it's fullest on the Chord Hugo too? 
 
The appeal of the HE-1000 was that it was able to driven out of anything. 

 
Right...
 
does 90dB/mW tell you anything?

 

[bmichels]

[*] According to Fang, “the Cord Hugo will NOT sufficiently drive the HE-1000”

May be the TT will ?

 

[conquerator2]

The TT probably would.

 

[bigragu]

Listened to the HE1000 at the San Diego Canjam today, the sound was gorgeous. Plugged them into my Hifi M8 and had to almost crank it up all the way to push them.

 

[chowmein83]

Just went to CanJam today, and listened to the HE-1000 again (after listening to it for the first time at CES). It still sounds excellent, pretty much like what I remember from CES in terms of detail retrieval, soundstage, and overall technical ability. So I'll just refer people to my CES impressions if they want more details on what I think about the HE-1000. Here's the post: http://www.head-fi.org/t/748334/hifiman-he1000-planar-dynamic-flagship/225#post_11197631
 
However, I will note that the tuning seems to have changed a bit since I heard it at CES. The HE-1000 seems to have been tuned to be a bit warmer, which is what I heard and what Fang Bian confirmed to me when I asked him about it there. However, you still have that Hifiman sound, so that you means you still have a well-extended treble and definitely not Audeze sound.
 
I was also very lucky to be able to listen to the HE-1000 with the Schiit Ragnarok and Yggdrasil combo. First off, I'm going to say that while I thought the Schiit combo was good, it's not going to make current owners of other high-end gear be very jealous. Don't get me wrong, the Yggdrasil and Ragnarok combo sounded very good, excellent even, but to me did not sound really better than any of the other high-end combos that I heard at CanJam (for example, to me it didn't sound any better paired with the HD-800 or the Ether than those same headphones paired with the Cavalli Audio Liquid Gold paired with some really expensive DAC that I forget the name of). Also, the HE-1000 sounded really, really bright with the Ragnarok/Yggdrasil combo (to the point of being harsh at times in my opinion). However, if I look past that, I found the HE-1000 paired with the Schiit combo to be really, really good. With well-recorded music, once again there was this realistic layer to the sound that no other headphone at the show (with the exception of the SR-009 paired with Frank's amp) could really come close to. I especially remember some kind of orchestral/chorus track that I randomly picked at the Schiit table, and I was pretty impressed with what I heard in terms of actually feeling like being in the actual concert hall for such a thing. I think a lot of people will be extremely pleased with the HE-1000/Schiit combo, but personally I found the HE-1000 to pair better with Hifiman's EF-1000 amp (which is warmer but still not lacking in detail, and much closer to my tonality preferences). I do wish that I could've plugged in the HE-1000 into one of the Cavalli Audio amps (which I was extremely impressed with), but Mr. Bian wanted to keep the HE-1000 in the room where Hifiman was, and so I respected his wishes.
 
Once again, the HE-1000 impressed me a lot. To be honest, I'm actually starting to think that it's actually worth the $3000, because I have heard the Abyss (back at CES) and have heard the SR-009 (here at CanJam) and I don't think the HE-1000 is lacking in any way compared to either of those headphones.
 
Also, does anybody know why the other HE-1000 thread was locked?

 

[conquerator2]

I think it went too off topic all the time :mad: