[blankdisc]

I just heard the HE-500 (formly known as HE-6P) during the New York meet yesterday. it is indeed very easy to drive (much easier than HE-4), and i have to admit even if i really don't want to that it sounds better than HE-4. Well...i guess it has to since it costs almost twice as much. the sound signature is close to HE-6. You can only hear the difference when feed through a good and powerful amp which can drive the HE-6 to its full potential. Without proper amping, HE-500 will actually sound better than HE-6.
I was told it will be on sale in couple weeks.

 

[Epoch]

So it sounds better than the HE-4 and its easier to drive than the HE-4?  That sounds like a winner to me.
Now I just need to find the cash to buy a pair after it comes out.

 

[.Sup]

Quote:

So it sounds better than the HE-4 and its easier to drive than the HE-4?  That sounds like a winner to me.
Now I just need to find the cash to buy a pair after it comes out.

well if its twice as expensive and almost twice as heavy it doesn't sound like a winner to me. Is it also twice as good?

 

[nc8000]

Does sound like a winner but also near twice the price of the HE-4. I hope Fang will still run the trial he requested volunters for at that I get to part of it since I've fallen in love with the HE-4

 

[decur]

i spent some time with the he-500 at saturdays meet and really loved these phones.
the midrange is the star of the show here. the mids on these phones are the best mids i have ever heard on all the phones i have heard. they are warmer,lusher and more liquid sounding than both
audeze lcd-2 and hifiman he-6,however,they are not as detailed as lcd-2 and he6.
also,while they are easyer to drive than he6,they are harder to drive than lcd-2.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm gonna assume that the difference between the HE500 and HE-4 is more than just "this one is clearly better". FWIR, the HE-4 is more on the 'fun' side with bass and treble emphasis, which I'm sure most of the typical HE-6 and LCD2 owners wouldn't normally go for, so they'd prefer a mid-centric can by default.
 
Just going by what I've read. I'm still waiting until I get a Lyr before taking a stab at the HE-4. I'm sure I'd prefer them over the HE500.

 

[blankdisc]

I have also spent some time with HE-500 during the past NY meet. i totally agree with decur. The sound is pretty close to HE-6. You can tell that HE-6 is better ONLY IF you have a good amp. I feel without proper amping the HE-500 will actually sound better. At least to my ears the sound came out of HE-500 seems to be fuller and richer. The super efficient driver is definately the key here. it will be on sale in couple weeks. time to start saving AGAIN!
btw, i bought the HE-6 prototype from Fang. Damn, it's good. Was wondering how he can price the HE-6 at $1200 while HE-4 only costs $500. Now i can have HE-4 in the office, and HE-6 at home. life can't get any better than this.

 

[Faust2D]

I heard HE-4/5LE/6/500 headphones at the meet, I heard HE-5 before a few times. Since the room was mostly empty I was able to listen critically. I like their ability to sound very transparent and fast, but overall sound signature is not to my liking. Overly bright with slightly thin mids and somewhat tonally wrong to these ears. I prefer LCD-2 although they do have slightly rolled off HF, they have much meatier and ballsy sound. Since I am coming from a lot of vintage orthos, such as Fostex T-20/30/50 and Yamaha YH-1/100 I like LCD because they are much closer in sound to that sound signature. I also think LCD-2 image a bit better and create a more realistic sound stage. Angled leather pads might help them to do that.
 
I spoke with Fing and from that conversation I think the diaphragm used for HE phones is much thinner that traditional orthos and does not have printed traces so they are closer to electrets in this regard. Anyhow they are nice phones, but have their issues. If you like their sound signature HE-4 as well as HE-5 and 6 a have a lot to offer.
 
There were some great deals to be head at the meet, but I had to take a pass. I have a ton of headphones already that I have to sell, not buy more

 

[immtbiker]

Quote:

Was wondering how he can price the HE-6 at $1200 while HE-4 only costs $500. Now i can have HE-4 in the office, and HE-6 at home. life can't get any better than this.

It helps that the HE-4 only has a one-sided diapraghm, and it's made out of metal and not gold. Don't forget the HE-6 went for ~$899 for over 3 months.

 
 

 

[BlackbeardBen]

Quote:

It helps that the HE-4 only has a one-sided diapraghm, and it's made out of metal and not gold. Don't forget the HE-6 went for ~$899 for over 3 months.
 
 

Single-sided magnets, you mean.  The diaphragms are always single-sided (AFAIK) as they're so thin and the etching process is expensive.  But the magnets are also very expensive, hence single-sided for the HE-4.
 
Also, that's interesting, I didn't know gold wasn't a metal! 

 
Actually, every other planar magnetic transducer I know of uses aluminum, of course.  I don't know the specific reasons behind the gold in the HE-6; I'm not sure if it's been discussed outside of Srajan's review here.
 

 

[maverickronin]

I think there may have been a few reasons gold was used.
 
1.  To increase the impedance to something that would be easier for most headphone amps to drive.
 
2.  High ductility allows for a very thin trace without having to worry about fractures.  This could increase diaphragm excursion and/or allow for lower overall mass by using a thinner layer of a denser substance.
 
3.  Marketing.
 
Its probably a combination of all 3.

 

[BlackbeardBen]

Quote:

I think there may have been a few reasons gold was used.
 
1.  To increase the impedance to something that would be easier for most headphone amps to drive.
 
Alternatively, you could possibly use a narrower and/or thinner trace of aluminum.  But that's just a possibility of course without knowing the details. They may have been at what they see as the limits for aluminum.  Also, easily being the hardest-to-drive headphone ever made, it's hard to imagine that they wanted to increase the impedance to make them an easier load for most amps.  It's not like the jump from 38 ohms to 50 ohms is big, either - although without seeing the specific trace pattern it's not really possible to see if they did something like having fewer coils at a much thinner deposit thickness.
 
2.  High ductility allows for a very thin trace without having to worry about fractures.  This could increase diaphragm excursion and/or allow for lower overall mass by using a thinner layer of a denser substance.
 
Yes, the gold could be deposited thinner than aluminum thanks to its ductility.  However, diaphragm excursion has always been limited by the magnet spacing rather than the diaphragm itself (not including artificial limits imposed by the tension on the diaphragm).  As for the mass, well, gold has 7.3 times the density of aluminum yet aluminum only has 16% more resistivity than gold.  That doesn't really add up if you're trying to reduce the overall diaphragm weight.
 
3.  Marketing.
 
Certainly a consideration.
 
Its probably a combination of all 3.

It's not that I don't think there is any reason for using gold; I just don't see a clear one for it yet.  It's not really explained AFAIK.

 

[WhiteCrow]

This made my graduation gift to me self a much harder choice now....
 

 

[.Sup]

I have received my headphones today and these are my first impressions: at first I was a bit disappointed finding only one backup earpad, was expecting one pair. The real issue with the pads, especially the backup one is that they are very porly made- they are corrugated and the backup pad is unusable while with the pads on the headphones they are usable but still very poorly made. There is also lots of glue on the headband. And I'm not exaggerating when I say lots of it. Overall the headphone structure is very solid which I like a lot (HD800 are so fragile when you hold them in your hands).
I'm not sure why everyone said these are very hard to drive. harder than HD800 yes but not nearly hard enough for a speaker amp. Cannot go over 10o clock on the Auditor which has very low power output. I have recently bought a speaker amp just for these which I now regret because I now have no need for it. But since I have made a cable adapter to use HE-4 with this speaker amp I connected the two components. Listening at 7o' clock and would go lower if there was no channel imbalance at the lowest level (Azur 350A).
I like the sound, don't find them too bright since I'm coming from HD800, bassy, not much mids but you can't have it all can you. hehe
The weight is perfect, they are comfortable enough, should be even more soon when the pads adapt to shape of my head. The headband setting on default which is on minimum is just perfect. The pressure the headband and the pads make is quite strong at the moment but I think this too should loosen a bit with time. I am however bothered by the long connectors a bit because they touch my shoulder if I move left or right.
While I was writting this I reduced the volume even more because they were too loud, I can't believe people said these need a powerful amp. I'm going to try them with the HM 602 tomorrow.
 
Peter

 

[blankdisc]

Since HE-4 is still a headphone, i think that everyone assumes that ppl will drive it with a headphone amp, not a speaker amp. For most of headphone amps, it is hard to drive. 
 
Quote:

I have received my headphones today and these are my first impressions: at first I was a bit disappointed finding only one backup earpad, was expecting one pair. The real issue with the pads, especially the backup one is that they are very porly made- they are corrugated and the backup pad is unusable while with the pads on the headphones they are usable but still very poorly made. There is also lots of glue on the headband. And I'm not exaggerating when I say lots of it. Overall the headphone structure is very solid which I like a lot (HD800 are so fragile when you hold them in your hands).
I'm not sure why everyone said these are very hard to drive. harder than HD800 yes but not nearly hard enough for a speaker amp. Cannot go over 10o clock on the Auditor which has very low power output. I have recently bought a speaker amp just for these which I now regret because I now have no need for it. But since I have made a cable adapter to use HE-4 with this speaker amp I connected the two components. Listening at 7o' clock and would go lower if there was no channel imbalance at the lowest level (Azur 350A).
I like the sound, don't find them too bright since I'm coming from HD800, bassy, not much mids but you can't have it all can you. hehe
The weight is perfect, they are comfortable enough, should be even more soon when the pads adapt to shape of my head. The headband setting on default which is on minimum is just perfect. The pressure the headband and the pads make is quite strong at the moment but I think this too should loosen a bit with time. I am however bothered by the long connectors a bit because they touch my shoulder if I move left or right.
While I was writting this I reduced the volume even more because they were too loud, I can't believe people said these need a powerful amp. I'm going to try them with the HM 602 tomorrow.
 
Peter