HiFiman HE-500 (HE as in High End) Proving to be an enjoyable experience in listening.

[Fearless1]

Quote:

and the lyr sounds the muddiest of the three.. 
 

Again, what tubes have you heard with it. The stock tubes are terrible to my ears. I don't like the way my DV sounds with my HE-500 one bit, I swapped some tubes and it sounds much more to my liking. A couple of E188cc Mini-watt tubes and the Lyr is magnificent with the HE-500, kills my DV (stock tubes) in sound stage and dynamics. The Lyr is the very responsive to tube rolling. I assure you it is the other end of the spectrum from "muddy". It is a wonderful fit with the HE-500.

 

[snip3r77]

Which dv are you using?

Again, what tubes have you heard with it. The stock tubes are terrible to my ears. I don't like the way my DV sounds with my HE-500 one bit, I swapped some tubes and it sounds much more to my liking. A couple of E188cc Mini-watt tubes and the Lyr is magnificent with the HE-500, kills my DV (stock tubes) in sound stage and dynamics. The Lyr is the very responsive to tube rolling. I assure you it is the other end of the spectrum from "muddy". It is a wonderful fit with the HE-500.

 

[snip3r77]

I thought the 339 sounds pretty dark. I'm considering this amp pretty hard because it's a tube you're saying it isn't.

Although iagree with thetwo u mentioned..u forget one..lafigaro 339 and especially with the tubes mentioned (i have a DV 337 with 5998 and tungsols sj7gt mesh plates which i prefer over 5693reds)..and with the he500 u cant wish for more..its an almost untubey sounding amp...and put velours pads on the 500 and then get urself a good stranded litz 2 coppercable and ur hooked! But as i said the other two are good also..but for my taste to cold sounding..and the lyr sounds the muddiest of the three.. 
By the way..For the lcd 2 rev 2 i prefered the violectric v200 best.
i dont believe u can say that a certain amp is the right one for EVERY orthos..as its more important to get the right synergy..and power is not always the way to go (except maybe for the he6).. But its more important to get quality power instead of just power without synergy. Imho

 

[Solude]

Quote:

But as i said the other two are good also..but for my taste to cold sounding..and the lyr sounds the muddiest of the three.. 
By the way..For the lcd 2 rev 2 i prefered the violectric v200 best.
 

 
I wouldn't use either but of his list... those are safe.  For that level I'd suggest a Burson Soloist over pretty much anything under $1000.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

hows the WA6-SE work with the HE-500? (power and synergy), especially vs. some of the other popular options.
 
im still debating selling my D7000 to get the HE-500, i love my denons but they're far too sibilant (with MarkL mod)

 

[rgs9200m]

Quote:

hows the WA6-SE work with the HE-500? (power and synergy), especially vs. some of the other popular options.
 
im still debating selling my D7000 to get the HE-500, i love my denons but they're far too sibilant (with MarkL mod)

I would sure make that trade. I have both and feel the the HE500s are much more refined, spacious, non-fatiguing (but NOT boring) and basically more
enjoyable in every way over the D7Ks. HE500s have much better bass and much easier-to-take highs than the Denons.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Quote:

I would sure make that trade. I have both and feel the the HE500s are much more refined, spacious, non-fatiguing (but NOT boring) and basically more
enjoyable in every way over the D7Ks. HE500s have much better bass and much easier-to-take highs than the Denons.

 
i like the denons bass cause its really powerful subwoofer like and fun, but its only good for rap music, since my T1, LCD-2, and Hd 800 do everything else better, and i usually do rap on the T1 or LCD-2.
 
im worried the HE-500 might be a letdown since the T1 is supposably better, but the HE-500 might be just what i'm looking for (slightly more forgiving than the T1, a tad more bass, while not being as dark as the LCD-2)
 
of course, if i sell the D7000, i might even have money left over to buy a nice DHC cable for them too 

 
and then of course, hopefully the HE-500 work well with the WA6-SE.

 

[hifimanrookie]

Quote:

Again, what tubes have you heard with it. The stock tubes are terrible to my ears. I don't like the way my DV sounds with my HE-500 one bit, I swapped some tubes and it sounds much more to my liking. A couple of E188cc Mini-watt tubes and the Lyr is magnificent with the HE-500, kills my DV (stock tubes) in sound stage and dynamics. The Lyr is the very responsive to tube rolling. I assure you it is the other end of the spectrum from "muddy". It is a wonderful fit with the HE-500.

I said mudiest of the three..didnt say they are  muddy in general..ofcourse u can better/change the sound of the lyr..and to be honest..i dont know which tubes were in thelyr i heard.but they were not standard...but as i stated before..the 337 with standard cheap!!! Tubes sounds worse then even a 200 dollar amp imho..if u really wanna compare..as i once said to u..try the337 with GOOD tubes..and then come back that the lyr (with any tube) soundsbetter then the 337 (or 339 ofcourse) .try the pair i use..tungsol 5998 (or chatham) with sj7gt mesh plates (or rca 5693 reds)..as long u didnt try the 337 with good tubes the 337 isnt worth to own..imho
but as i said..the 337 pairs perfect with the he500..but not so with lcd 2 rev 2 (didnt hear the lcd3) or he6 or totally horrible with hd800.
this is ofcourse all imho.
and...i loved how that shiit lyr sounded..and if i didnt stumbled upon this 337 i propably would have bought one..but i love the 337 more..and i was not only one at that meeting..but mine is not standard..it has almost 300usd worth of tubes in it.

 

[Terja]

It's amazing how much this is a game of micro-increments. It's a holiday up here in canuckland and I was all set to convert my extra canare hifiman cable into XLR when I realised I couldn't get the Neutrik connectors until tomorrow. I already have a re-terminated silver cable and was eager to see how the canare sounded via the speaker taps of my go to Toshiba receiver. It just hit me that I could test it directly by simply cutting the cable and connecting to the amp that way. Man am I blown away. I'm not sure what it is but the direct connection without the 4-pin XLR connectors is simply blazing. The XLR silver cable was already awesome, but this chain simply pushed the envelope. It's possible the Neutrik connectors add resistance, it's just a few other elements for the electrons to travel through. The direct cable doesn't have any additional bottlenecks. Of course anyone can do this if one has the gumption to cut the stock cable and try it with a reasonably powered SS amp. Of course you need a multimeter to figure out which wires are right, left, positive, negative. You have to remove the cable from the headphone to figure out the right and left positive wires by touching the center pin in the connector with the multimeter probe.

 

[Terja]

P.S. I tinned the wire ends with solder before connecting to the speaker terminals. Just a note for posterity.

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

 
i like the denons bass cause its really powerful subwoofer like and fun, but its only good for rap music, since my T1, LCD-2, and Hd 800 do everything else better, and i usually do rap on the T1 or LCD-2.
 
im worried the HE-500 might be a letdown since the T1 is supposably better, but the HE-500 might be just what i'm looking for (slightly more forgiving than the T1, a tad more bass, while not being as dark as the LCD-2)
 
of course, if i sell the D7000, i might even have money left over to buy a nice DHC cable for them too 

 
and then of course, hopefully the HE-500 work well with the WA6-SE.

I heard it on the woo and it sounded very good. The He500 is excellent and does not have denon like bass but what does. I also owned it when I had the T1 and the T1 is better for different types of music but the he500 does all well. I am also getting a LCD 2.2 tomorrow to compare with the HE500an d keeping either the lcd 2.2 or the HE500 one will be returned,  I also will doing  a full blown review on the CablePro Freedom cable which I hav ebeen using and still burning in but eary impressions it is very good UPOCC cable and well  made.

 

[Katun]

Been comparing the HE-500 to the HE-400 over the past week or so.
 
I prefer the HE-500 immensely. HE-400 reminds me of the HE-4 in sound, but I'm pretty sure I liked the HE-4 better.
 
Just wish they still had the Canare pairing as opposed to the sliver twist cable.

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

Been comparing the HE-500 to the HE-400 over the past week or so.
 
I prefer the HE-500 immensely. HE-400 reminds me of the HE-4 in sound, but I'm pretty sure I liked the HE-4 better.
 
Just wish they still had the Canare pairing as apposed to the sliver twist cable.

Look for my upcoming review I will be doing on the CablePro Freedom cable for the he500. Been listeniong all day and most of yesterday and like what I have been hearing on this UPOCC copper cable.

 

[Clemmaster]

Quote:

Been comparing the HE-500 to the HE-400 over the past week or so.
 
I prefer the HE-500 immensely. HE-400 reminds me of the HE-4 in sound, but I'm pretty sure I liked the HE-4 better.
 
Just wish they still had the Canare pairing as opposed to the sliver twist cable.

 
Strange, to my ears the HE-4 and HE-400 have nothing in common (planar wonders aside).
 
The HE-4 is airy, fast with better sub-bass extention. It is also well balanced.
The HE-400 is the least balanced can I listened to. It's dark with splashy treble and heavy vocals. It has overall a better definition (close to that of the HE-500) and more texture in the bass (again close to that of the HE-500, but not better, YMMV).
 
I prefer the 500s over the 400s, no doubts. The HE-4 gives me a different presentation that I also like.
 
I just wish the 4s could be a tad more technical...

 

[hifimanrookie]

Quote:

 
Strange, to my ears the HE-4 and HE-400 have nothing in common (planar wonders aside).
 
The HE-4 is airy, fast with better sub-bass extention. It is also well balanced.
The HE-400 is the least balanced can I listened to. It's dark with splashy treble and heavy vocals. It has overall a better definition (close to that of the HE-500) and more texture in the bass (again close to that of the HE-500, but not better, YMMV).
 
I prefer the 500s over the 400s, no doubts. The HE-4 gives me a different presentation that I also like.
 
I just wish the 4s could be a tad more technical...

Maybe u need the he5le?