[IcedTea]

I hate you people 

 
btw, are the new shipment of He-500 coming in a box? or are they still coming in the travel case?
 
I'm just debating if I should sell my He-400 to fund the He-500, or if I should keep the He-400 as a dedicated EDM headphone? My hd650 aren't going anywhere (I truly love their sound for certain genres). I had a tough time between the HE-500 and LCD-2, but in the end I would rather have a headphone that can do it all (I listen to a wide variety of genres).

 

[conquerator2]

Quote:

I hate you people 

 
btw, are the new shipment of He-500 coming in a box? or are they still coming in the travel case?
 
I'm just debating if I should sell my He-400 to fund the He-500, or if I should keep the He-400 as a dedicated EDM headphone? My hd650 aren't going anywhere (I truly love their sound for certain genres). I had a tough time between the HE-500 and LCD-2, but in the end I would rather have a headphone that can do it all (I listen to a wide variety of genres).

 
If you want a fuller midrange, slightly tamer vocals and slightly tighter bass conveyed more clearly then yes :]
If you want even more detail and air on top of that then that is the HE-6 for you
 
I am merely following the opinions of others though as my first hifiman HP was the flagship. Yeah crazy and risky move but YOLO 

 

[IcedTea]

How well does the He-6 pair up with the Lyr? That's the only headphone amp I have at the moment and I don't plan to upgrade to be honest.
 
If I ever do, it'll be for balanced or electrostats lol

 

[conquerator2]

How well does the He-6 pair up with the Lyr? That's the only headphone amp I have at the moment and I don't plan to upgrade to be honest.

If I ever do, it'll be for balanced or electrostats lol

To my knowledge very well.
Lyr and Bifrost is a nice starting setup for the HE-6.
Mine is very similar to yours.
Enough power is the 1st priority and Lyr got that covered.
Lyr pairs well with all Hifiman. Bifrost is a solid DAC too.

 

[preproman]

Quote:

How well does the He-6 pair up with the Lyr? That's the only headphone amp I have at the moment and I don't plan to upgrade to be honest.
 
If I ever do, it'll be for balanced or electrostats lol

 
 
 

 

[justin w.]

Quote:

I hate you people 

 
btw, are the new shipment of He-500 coming in a box? or are they still coming in the travel case?
 
I'm just debating if I should sell my He-400 to fund the He-500, or if I should keep the He-400 as a dedicated EDM headphone? My hd650 aren't going anywhere (I truly love their sound for certain genres). I had a tough time between the HE-500 and LCD-2, but in the end I would rather have a headphone that can do it all (I listen to a wide variety of genres).

the he-500 and he-6 have been coming in the hard box for about 5 months

 

[Dubstep Girl]

 
Quote:

Sweet! I probably would have done the same thing but had a Q cable leftover from my HE400 days.
How's the break in process going for you?  Had mine about 10 days and probably has 150 hours of burn in.  I still feel that it needs more so I'm running them on my Lyr for about 10 hours a day. 
Have you tired the velour pads yet? Had the velour pads on for most of the time but they creaked and fit funny.  Went back to the pleathers last night and I'm liking them much more.  Opposite ot what I experienced with the HE400.  More break in time required.
 

.
break in's going good, their sound has changed slightly a few times, its only been like 20 hours-ish, haven't left them playing for too long yet. i will keep burning them in of course
 
i didn't like the velours, they where way too flat and the foam inside is hard and chunky, the metal bar inside touches my ear and its uncomfortable. also cause of this, the headphones feel extremely heavy, similar to the LCD-2 (except the LCD-2 doesn't bother me weightwise, but rather, the pressure it places at the front of the pads)
 
i switched back to the pleathers, at the end convinced the sound difference was minor and didn't drastically affect SQ as much as i thought it did. the pleathers are much nicer to me. 

 

[OldSkool]

Quote:

.
break in's going good, their sound has changed slightly a few times, its only been like 20 hours-ish, haven't left them playing for too long yet. i will keep burning them in of course
 
i didn't like the velours, they where way too flat and the foam inside is hard and chunky, the metal bar inside touches my ear and its uncomfortable. also cause of this, the headphones feel extremely heavy, similar to the LCD-2 (except the LCD-2 doesn't bother me weightwise, but rather, the pressure it places at the front of the pads)
 
i switched back to the pleathers, at the end convinced the sound difference was minor and didn't drastically affect SQ as much as i thought it did. the pleathers are much nicer to me. 

DG, glad to hear burn-in is going well. Please keep your impressions coming, as I'm very interested in the synergy (or lack of) between the HE500 and both of your Woo amps.

 

 

[Dubstep Girl]

i sure will! 
 
i plan on posting some sort of LCD-2/HD 800/T1/He-500 comparison thread soon, since i get questions about them alot, as they are probably the top 4 headphones in this price range (along with the now discontinued d7k)
 
also gonna post some tube rolling notes/mini review with the HE-500 for the WA6-SE (on the WA6/WA6-SE thread). as of now, the WA6-SE surprised me, it has tons of power for the HE-500, no issues driving them. vocals are very nice and the soundstage while not as wide as my other headphones, is presented very well, with alot of depth. the same 596/6GL7 combo with worked for the LCD-2 works very good with the HE-500 as well.
 
my WA2 unfortunately cannot drive them very well, or any low impedance for that matter, so i won't say much about it. However, at the low volumes i heard, it sounds very good, i think if it had more power, it would be a very lovely pairing.
 
 
 
EDIT: also listening to my HE-500 with the Norse cable now, i'm very impressed, for the first time i heard a decent change in sound vs. the stock silver cable. overall, the sound is very smooth, with no edginess, and there seems to be alot of depth and transparency in the midrange. the treble is even better than before, vocals seem even better presented and the sound is more refined now. with the stock i felt like something was holding the headphones back a bit, like some small veil somewhere in the sound.
 
also with the stock, i felt like the bass was slightly further back from the mids/highs, now the bass seems more coherent and more in line with the rest of the sound. impact/quantity is about the same, it just doesn't feel as far back as before, which made the sound rather washed out originally. overall, the cable added slight but noticeable improvements without affecting the overall sound.

 

[OldSkool]

Quote:

i sure will! 
 
i plan on posting some sort of LCD-2/HD 800/T1/He-500 comparison thread soon, since i get questions about them alot, as they are probably the top 4 headphones in this price range (along with the now discontinued d7k)
 
also gonna post some tube rolling notes/mini review with the HE-500 for the WA6-SE (on the WA6/WA6-SE thread). as of now, the WA6-SE surprised me, it has tons of power for the HE-500, no issues driving them. vocals are very nice and the soundstage while not as wide as my other headphones, is presented very well, with alot of depth. the same 596/6GL7 combo with worked for the LCD-2 works very good with the HE-500 as well.
 
my WA2 unfortunately cannot drive them very well, or any low impedance for that matter, so i won't say much about it. However, at the low volumes i heard, it sounds very good, i think if it had more power, it would be a very lovely pairing.

Thank you, DG!

 
I trust your ears and I'm totally looking forward to your headphone review.

 

[MickeyVee]

Give the HE500's some time before you start doing comparisons.  Mine now have 140+ hours and their really starting to open up. I started making some comparison notes with the HD700 but felt that I haven't give the HE500 enough time so I stopped.. getting close though. I'm going to use them exclusively for another week or two before I start the comparison again.
re Cable: I pretty much found the same thing going from the stock cable to the Q.
re Woo: I'm following the WA7 thread.. looks promising.  Woo is at the TAVES (Toronto Audio Video) show each year and if there are there this fall, Im definitely going to audition and give it a serious listen. Been lusting over some woo gear for a while now.
There is nothing now in my system that I find wanting. Love both the HE500 and HD700 with the Schiit stack.
Looking forward to your impressions.
Quote:

 
i plan on posting some sort of LCD-2/HD 800/T1/He-500 comparison thread soon, since i get questions about them alot, as they are probably the top 4 headphones in this price range (along with the now discontinued d7k)
 
also gonna post some tube rolling notes/mini review with the HE-500 for the WA6-SE (on the WA6/WA6-SE thread). as of now, the WA6-SE surprised me, it has tons of power for the HE-500, no issues driving them. vocals are very nice and the soundstage while not as wide as my other headphones, is presented very well, with alot of depth. the same 596/6GL7 combo with worked for the LCD-2 works very good with the HE-500 as well.
 
EDIT: also listening to my HE-500 with the Norse cable now, i'm very impressed, for the first time i heard a decent change in sound vs. the stock silver cable. overall, the sound is very smooth, with no edginess, and there seems to be alot of depth and transparency in the midrange. the treble is even better than before, vocals seem even better presented and the sound is more refined now. with the stock i felt like something was holding the headphones back a bit, like some small veil somewhere in the sound.
 

 

[KingStyles]

unlike my audeze, my he500 never needed burnin. They sounded the same out of box as they did when they were older.

 

[BobJS]

Quote:

unlike my audeze, my he500 never needed burnin. They sounded the same out of box as they did when they were older.

Same with mine ..... they were supposed to be new @ list price from Crutchfield, serial # 9### , but who knows if they were really virgin.

 

[MickeyVee]

Interesting.. I've noticed that the bass has tightened up, seemed a little HD650'ish at first (slow), mids have alway been brilliant and the highs are smoothing out. Maybe because I was mostly using an ill fitting set of velour pads.  Have the pleathers back on now and am really liking it. YMMV.. just my experience.
Quote:

unlike my audeze, my he500 never needed burnin. They sounded the same out of box as they did when they were older.

 

[IcedTea]

Quote:

 
 
 

noted