[Zoide]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmswjm /img/forum/go_quote.gif I compared the EF5 directly with the Audio-GD Phoenix powering the HE-5's. The Phoenix slightly out-classed the EF5 on all counts. The EF5 seemed somewhat granier, but required less volume. However, the Phoenix can still provide plenty of volume. My guess is that the EF5 has more gain which probably accounts for the graininess.

I see you owned the Ultrasone Edition 9, which I have. I'd be very interested to know how you feel they compare to the HE-5.

Thanks

 

[lmswjm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoide /img/forum/go_quote.gif I see you owned the Ultrasone Edition 9, which I have. I'd be very interested to know how you feel they compare to the HE-5. Thanks

I replied to you in another thread on this. They are very different phones. I consider the Ed 9's on one end of the spectrum, with the HD800's on the other extreme. I found that the ED 9 had a small soundstage, the most bass I've experienced, very intimate and "fun". The HE5 may compliment your Ultrasones though. The HE5's have a smaller soundstage and more bass weight than the HD800's. These are attributes I like. The HE5's treble and mids are on another planet compared with the ED9.

I lasted 2 days with the HD800's and 2 weeks with the HE5's. I really liked the HE5's, but as time went on, I missed the palpability of the Denon Bass (which is less than the ED9's) so much so that it inspired me to do an open back/front mod on the D7000 which is detailed in the link in my signature. Hope this is helpful.

 

[Zoide]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lmswjm /img/forum/go_quote.gif I replied to you in another thread on this. They are very different phones. I consider the Ed 9's on one end of the spectrum, with the HD800's on the other extreme. I found that the ED 9 had a small soundstage, the most bass I've experienced, very intimate and "fun". The HE5 may compliment your Ultrasones though. The HE5's have a smaller soundstage and more bass weight than the HD800's. These are attributes I like. The HE5's treble and mids are on another planet compared with the ED9. I lasted 2 days with the HD800's and 2 weeks with the HE5's. I really liked the HE5's, but as time went on, I missed the palpability of the Denon Bass (which is less than the ED9's) so much so that it inspired me to do an open back/front mod on the D7000 which is detailed in the link in my signature. Hope this is helpful.

Sorry I missed your other post, but after reading 75+ pages in the main HE-5 thread it's hard to remember everything

You mention that the HE-5 would make a good complement to the Ed9. Would it make a good *replacement*? I wouldn't have the money to keep both.

EDIT: Ouch, just found that post you were talking about. That's the one where you praised the Shaq quote, how could I have missed that! Sorry man...

I see you said "If you like the impact and bass of the ED9, I would venture that you would think the HE5's were sterile." A point of clarification: after listening carefully, I've noticed that the Ed9 bass may be too much at times. I don't think I'd mind cans with a bit less bass.

 

[lmswjm]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zoide /img/forum/go_quote.gif Sorry I missed your other post, but after reading 75+ pages in the main HE-5 thread it's hard to remember everything You mention that the HE-5 would make a good complement to the Ed9. Would it make a good *replacement*? I wouldn't have the money to keep both. EDIT: Ouch, just found that post you were talking about. That's the one where you praised the Shaq quote, how could I have missed that! Sorry man... I see you said "If you like the impact and bass of the ED9, I would venture that you would think the HE5's were sterile." A point of clarification: after listening carefully, I've noticed that the Ed9 bass may be too much at times. I don't think I'd mind cans with a bit less bass.

Beyer T1, (which I haven't heard) or an unmod'd D7000 to start. The Denon will still have stong, impactful bass with better mids and treble response than the ED9.

 

[toolio]

Has anybody tried the HE-5s with a Peachtree Nova, or have any thoughts on the possibility? I already have the Nova but am looking for an alternative to my AKG-701s.

Thanks.

 

[Gu Sensei]

I am in with a pre-order on the HE-5LEs and am hoping that I can get a decent sense of them with one of my amps on hand. I would rather not purchase the EF5 unless necessary.

Anyone have success with the HE-5s and one of these amps or better yet feel that one of them is a better choice over the EF5?

Luxman P-1
AT-HA5000
CEC 53Rv8
Zana Deux
Elekit TU-882
Leben CS300X (Skylab???

)

Any help would be appreciated!

*Also, I started a new thread (Hifiman HE-5 & HE-5LE Amp Registry) with the idea that this thread here might turn out to be a good place to inquire about/discuss specific amp pairings and that new thread would be a handy list free of discussion. The idea would be to save folks time trying to weed through a long thread for sporadic recommendations.

 

[foaming at the ears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shahrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif Could you please check something? Run some sine waves to see how low the bass goes and high the treble goes on the HE-5 powered off your CKKIII. Some people have found a lack of frequency extension from underamping, so I'm wondering how well the CKKIII does in this regard.

Sorry for missing this a few months ago, Shahrose.

I'll be glad to run this test for you when I have time, but I do not know how. I don't have any measuring equipment... The only equipment I have is:

DAC19, CKKIII, HE-5, RCA cables, SPDIF... Don't I need some loop to perform this test? Any insight would be a help to me and, hopefully some help to the community if I can do the sine wave test.

 

[foaming at the ears]

I wonder if you mean just send 25hz tone test through it, etc.?

 

[foaming at the ears]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shahrose /img/forum/go_quote.gif Could you please check something? Run some sine waves to see how low the bass goes and high the treble goes on the HE-5 powered off your CKKIII. Some people have found a lack of frequency extension from underamping, so I'm wondering how well the CKKIII does in this regard.

I performed an unscientific test with the low frequency files here Burn-in wave files: white noise, pink noise, frequency sweep, channel mix

Test involved

-MisterX CKKIII
-Gain 4, volume at 12:00.

This is a position where I believe the HE-5 is at its "rock out" volume, which is a description used regarding these headphones before.

30hz: well extended, pleasant rumbling

25hz: recesses noticeably but still very audible

20hz: can barely hear

15hz: basically nothing

I am a big fan of the CKKIII. As my first amp, it really did introduce me to the gains of an amp w/ the SR225. Glad it was strong enough to amp the HE-5 thanks to recs from some people here. It's an affordable amp that's capable of amping the HE-5 and probablyt he HE-5LE. Unfortunately, it does make me curious how they sound out of a balanced b22.

 

[lecky]

Zoide, if you're thinking about buying the HE-5 new then it's worth knowing that it's about to be replaced by the HE-5LE amongst the supposed benefits of which will be that it is easier to drive, so peoples experience of driving HE-5s may be beside the point... Time will tell...

 

[Zoide]

Quote:

Originally Posted by lecky /img/forum/go_quote.gif Zoide, if you're thinking about buying the HE-5 new then it's worth knowing that it's about to be replaced by the HE-5LE amongst the supposed benefits of which will be that it is easier to drive, so peoples experience of driving HE-5s may be beside the point... Time will tell...

Hi Lecky. Thanks, but actually I bought the HE-5 several months ago

This thread is a bit old. Indeed, I'm already eyeing the HE-5LE

 

[lecky]

Ah, sorry Zoide, I should have checked the date of the thread.

 

[BlackbeardBen]

Anyone have any suggestions for budget (<$300) portable amps for the HE-5?  I need battery or USB power.  I don't expect anything that portable to run them perfectly - for stationary use I plan on trying a few of the speaker amps I have around.
 
The Headstage Arrow 12HE looks promising, but they're between versions right now and they're not often for sale used.
 
The CEntrance DACport looks good too, but it's a bit above what I want to spend.
 
I guess I could look in to portable speaker T-amps too.  That is probably the cheapest option, and I could replace the speaker terminals with a 1/4" jack.

 

[edvardd]

I have the same question. anyone?
Quote:

Anyone have any suggestions for budget (<$300) portable amps for the HE-5?  I need battery or USB power.  I don't expect anything that portable to run them perfectly - for stationary use I plan on trying a few of the speaker amps I have around.
 
The Headstage Arrow 12HE looks promising, but they're between versions right now and they're not often for sale used.
 
The CEntrance DACport looks good too, but it's a bit above what I want to spend.
 
I guess I could look in to portable speaker T-amps too.  That is probably the cheapest option, and I could replace the speaker terminals with a 1/4" jack.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

Anyone have any suggestions for budget (<$300) portable amps for the HE-5?  I need battery or USB power.  I don't expect anything that portable to run them perfectly - for stationary use I plan on trying a few of the speaker amps I have around.
 
The Headstage Arrow 12HE looks promising, but they're between versions right now and they're not often for sale used.
 
The CEntrance DACport looks good too, but it's a bit above what I want to spend.
 
I guess I could look in to portable speaker T-amps too.  That is probably the cheapest option, and I could replace the speaker terminals with a 1/4" jack.

 
Quote:

I have the same question. anyone?
Quote:

Anyone have any suggestions for budget (<$300) portable amps for the HE-5?  I need battery or USB power.  I don't expect anything that portable to run them perfectly - for stationary use I plan on trying a few of the speaker amps I have around.
 
The Headstage Arrow 12HE looks promising, but they're between versions right now and they're not often for sale used.
 
The CEntrance DACport looks good too, but it's a bit above what I want to spend.
 
I guess I could look in to portable speaker T-amps too.  That is probably the cheapest option, and I could replace the speaker terminals with a 1/4" jack.

 

I have tried the DACport with HE-5 and HE-5 LE and it works nicely, with moderate loud levels but not "rocking" loud.  The frequency balance is good and the bass sounds full with it.  The higher power portable amps with 9v batteries seem to be noticeably better than the 5v amps that charge off the USB, but the DACport is the 5v exception.  For instance the iBasso D10 or uDAC in 5v mode aren't that great with HE-5/HE-5 LE.  My old RSA P-51 was also underpowered, as is the Nuforce Icon Mobile and Pico Slim.
 
I found the iBasso D4 with 9v mode was much better than running off 5v USB power, but only slightly more powerful than DACport and the sonic balance wasn't quite as good.  The Meier 3MOVE seems to have even more power than D4, despite both running off 9v batteries; and it drives the HE-5/5 LE better than DACport, but it's DAC is not as detailed and spacious.  The RSA Protector in balanced mode works even better with the HE-5/5 LE, and I use that combo a lot with my laptop and a Pico DAC (but single ended isn't quite powerful enough for me).  The Protector can't really drive the new HE-6 in balanced mode, but the new SR-71b can drive them nicely.  So, while I haven't tried the HE-5 or HE-5 LE with the SR-71b yet, I can't imagine why it wouldn't be a good pairing in balanced mode since it's like a Protector with 2x the power.
 
In the end, the <$300 answer is the 3MOVE.
 
Also, my understanding is that with T-amps you don't want to be shorting the left and right channel ground terminals together with a TRS adapter, because the left and right speaker outputs don't use a common ground.  You'd want to get a 4-pin XLR balanced cable from head-direct, and make an adapter for speaker output to 4-pin female XLR.