[mrscotchguy]

Thanks for all the help and feedback guys.  I feel pretty confident that the HE-500 won't be worth the price difference for me, so the HE-4 is the obvious choice.  If they were closer in price, it'd be a lot tougher decision, but given the price difference, the HE-4 seems like a no-brainer.  

Maybe with a little pad rolling or creative modding I can get the sound to be even closer to my preferences.

Pad rolling does wonders for the HE-4. They are not subtle changes either. I cannot emphasize enough, any complaints about mids or separation completely go away with the NVX angle pads. The only penalty is needing to create "bass vents" to prevent diaphragm flex from too perfect of a seal. The vents roll off a touch of the sub bass for a much cleaner, realistic sound... without the need to remove the star felt.

I have never owned the HE-500, but I can tell you from the handful of listens, I would have to do major modifications to really enjoy those headphones. The HE-4 on the other hand, just sound great to my ears stock, even with it's shortcomings.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Hmmm...I wonder what it's like to have both star felt removed AND these pads?! Something super special? I might try these on the 560s just for craps and giggles.
Quote:

Pad rolling does wonders for the HE-4. They are not subtle changes either. I cannot emphasize enough, any complaints about mids or separation completely go away with the NVX angle pads. The only penalty is needing to create "bass vents" to prevent diaphragm flex from too perfect of a seal. The vents roll off a touch of the sub bass for a much cleaner, realistic sound... without the need to remove the star felt.

 

[Makiah S]

Yikes! I'm locked out my Locked Mail box, xD 
 
how ever the pads are safe. Tommorow [most likely wednsday] I'll be giving the new Focus pads a listen, I found my Stock Velours, so I'll do a Hifiman Pad SHOWDOWN
 
I still vastly prefer my Beyer pads though to every :x, I swapped em out for the Focus pads to hear them again, and for gamine they where fine, as soon as I played music, YIKES I noticed the extra mids and slight lack of "exciessive" air 
 
Still in the next few days I'll be comparing all three Hifiman Pads, then shippin em out to the next person.
 
Remind me, though who's gettin which pad, atm I've got Thujones, but if you guys could, give me a heads up who's gettin what. When I finish comparing everything 
 
also I've missed Metal on the HE 4, I love the speed of it and the overall sound. Nice n Tactile! 

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

  Yikes! I'm locked out my Locked Mail box, xD 
 
how ever the pads are safe. Tommorow [most likely wednsday] I'll be giving the new Focus pads a listen, I found my Stock Velours, so I'll do a Hifiman Pad SHOWDOWN

Those are Focus A pads you just got, so it's clear. Focus have the perforated pleather on the inside and the Focus-A have the fabric. Those pads are going to MrScotchGuy after you and he'll hand them off to Thujone during the meet.

 

[Thujone]

First, as far as the HE-4 vs. HE-500 goes, let's not forget, like Soundsgoodtome stated, the HE-500 is super heavy. Like, a considerable-apocalypse-weapon-heavy.
 
Aaaand as far as modding goes... let's not get everyone into thinking that mods=better all the time. It's simply not true. I posted some objective measurements showing that removing the star felt, while subjectively making the HE-4 more open, razors up the midrange fairly drastically. I have yet to notice any big changes subjectively (I can't even confirm that they sound more open now) but I feel HFM put that there for a reason, and the measurements say so. As far as the fuzzor mod goes... yes, it's going to help with reflections but it's not a night-day difference like some have stated. Think about it. Unless your headphones sound like the Grand Canyon, this mod is a "just for good measure" kind-of-mod. If you feel the HE-4 has such an unnatural treble peak and if you feel the HE-500's fuzzor mod is a godsend, throw a piece of felt in front of the HE-4 driver and you're helping two problems at once. I'm not saying the fuzzor mod isn't a good idea, even jerg has made comments about the changes being minimal, but it's silly to disregard someone's opinion on a headphone just because they didn't open them up and throw crap inside as much as you have...

 

[Ron12]

  First, as far as the HE-4 vs. HE-500 goes, let's not forget, like Soundsgoodtome stated, the HE-500 is super heavy. Like, a considerable-apocalypse-weapon-heavy.
 
Aaaand as far as modding goes... let's not get everyone into thinking that mods=better all the time. It's simply not true. I posted some objective measurements showing that removing the star felt, while subjectively making the HE-4 more open, razors up the midrange fairly drastically. I have yet to notice any big changes subjectively (I can't even confirm that they sound more open now) but I feel HFM put that there for a reason, and the measurements say so. As far as the fuzzor mod goes... yes, it's going to help with reflections but it's not a night-day difference like some have stated. Think about it. Unless your headphones sound like the Grand Canyon, this mod is a "just for good measure" kind-of-mod. If you feel the HE-4 has such an unnatural treble peak and if you feel the HE-500's fuzzor mod is a godsend, throw a piece of felt in front of the HE-4 driver and you're helping two problems at once. I'm not saying the fuzzor mod isn't a good idea, even jerg has made comments about the changes being minimal, but it's silly to disregard someone's opinion on a headphone just because they didn't open them up and throw crap inside as much as you have...

 
No one has ever stated that fuzzor mod makes a 'night-n-day difference'. Also, no one has tried to disregard someone's opinion - I personally only posted a counter-opinion, that's all. I haven't seen anyone else to behave differently. Also, I don't understand why you are saying 'helping two problems at once' - HE-4 does not have magnet on the inner side of drivers - there is no need for fuzzor/anax/whatever mod until you want to modify HE-4's frequency response (for this purpose, I used perforated 2mm thick felt with great results). To finish off, I have tried fuzzor mod twice... And I prefer my way of dampening which is closer to Anaxilus mod for HD800. The difference between stock and modded is no artificial brightness due to reflections (clean sound even in busy passages) and more microdetail resolving ability.

 

[Thujone]

   
No one has ever stated that fuzzor mod makes a 'night-n-day difference'. Also, no one has tried to disregard someone's opinion - I personally only posted a counter-opinion, that's all. I haven't seen anyone else to behave differently. Also, I don't understand why you are saying 'helping two problems at once' - HE-4 does not have magnet on the inner side of drivers - there is no need for fuzzor/anax/whatever mod until you want to modify HE-4's frequency response (for this purpose, I used perforated 2mm thick felt with great results). To finish off, I have tried fuzzor mod twice... And I prefer my way of dampening which is closer to Anaxilus mod for HD800. The difference between stock and modded is no artificial brightness due to reflections (clean sound even in busy passages) and more microdetail resolving ability.

 
I wasn't trying to point fingers at anyone, it just seemed like the discussion as turning into a "well, I heard the headphones under these conditions, so there!" haha
 
If there is a theory about reflections off the metal plates on the HE-500, why not the plastic on the earside of the HE-4 driver? You'd have to make a pretty weird pattern with the felt but that's why I do what you do, put some felt in there. I actually mean to get a puncher here soon so I can punch some holes in mine too

 
Do you have a pic of the Anax-like fuzzor mod? I don't know if I understand how you did it, I'd like to check it out.

 

[Ron12]

   
I wasn't trying to point fingers at anyone, it just seemed like the discussion as turning into a "well, I heard the headphones under these conditions, so there!" haha
 
If there is a theory about reflections off the metal plates on the HE-500, why not the plastic on the earside of the HE-4 driver? You'd have to make a pretty weird pattern with the felt but that's why I do what you do, put some felt in there. I actually mean to get a puncher here soon so I can punch some holes in mine too

 
Do you have a pic of the Anax-like fuzzor mod? I don't know if I understand how you did it, I'd like to check it out.

 
As of now, I used the second version (not pictured but similar in approach)...
 
Looking at the HE-4, it's really far from HE-500 case... HE-500 have the metal magnet surface everywhere, therefore reflections are really going to take a considerable place here. HE-4 just have some plastic 'star-shaped' patern that is very unlikely going to cause any significant troubles. However, I should have observed this better and maybe try to specifically focus on that. I basically didn't because perforated felt theoretically does the job (if needed) well hand in hand with improving HE-4's frequency response
 
HE-4:
 

 
 
HE-500:
 

 

[Thujone]

Cool, thanks for the link/info. The Anax mod is similar to the modding you did on the HE-4 with pad/felt mod, gotcha.
 
Yeah, I know what the inside of the headphones look like, I've owned them both. I must have a very unreflective ear since I had no issues without the mod.

 

[mrscotchguy]

Cool, thanks for the link/info. The Anax mod is similar to the modding you did on the HE-4 with pad/felt mod, gotcha.

Yeah, I know what the inside of the headphones look like, I've owned them both. I must have a very unreflective ear since I had no issues without the mod.

Can I borrow your ears on Saturday?

 

[Thujone]

Can I borrow your ears on Saturday?

 
Of course! I'm excited to hear the pads you've been using, we can swap cans and ears.

 

[mrscotchguy]

I'm really happy with them running from the Oppo. The bass is tight, tactile, and not over emphasized. On the other side of it, I can't wait to compare my EF5 to your Ember.

 

[jaxz]

I have both headphones (HE-500 and HE4) in stock form with with Focus Pads. I like them very much for the things that do well. I do not care (waste time thinking) about which one is better/worse at any particular frequency or which one is better technically speaking. I use them depending on the music i want to listen and/or the mood.

Have fun!

 

[Rinx7]

Well I am going to get a chance to try these with from what I have heard is one of the best amps for orthos the WA-6SE can't wait to see how it performs.

 

[hemipowered007]

Well, I like the he4, with and without felt, with velours, with alcantaras, hell with alpha pads. Sooo ya, I like them.