[detoxguy]

Not to mention that many (myself among them) much prefer bass quality over quantity. I have compared the he 400 to my he 500 on my system and it wasn't even close. The he 400 to my ears over emphasized the bass at the expense of the rest of the music.

If you are a bass head the he 400 are spectacular. If you want a truer representation of what he artist intended go with the he 500

 

[dryvadeum]

But the HE 500'S bass is also quite wooly compared to the clean, tight bass of the HE 400'S even if they do overemphasize.

 

[detoxguy]

I don't find it wooly at all

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Not sure what people even mean by wooly. Sounds ok to me. If i wanted cleaner bass i also have the LCD-2 or HD800

 

[dryvadeum]

Not sure what people even mean by wooly. Sounds ok to me. If i wanted cleaner bass i also have the LCD-2 or HD800

I meant ill-defined. Overall the HE 500's are a much better headphone but there's no denying the HE 400'S bass is tighter.

 

[Clemmaster]

Quote:

I meant ill-defined. Overall the HE 500's are a much better headphone but there's no denying the HE 400'S bass is tighter.

 
This

 

[Zoom25]

I find the bass on HE-500 fine. The bass is wooly on the HE-500? The LCD-2 has more impact and it's transients and 50 Hz square response is better, but the HE-500 can make the LCD-2 seem like a one noter in quite complex passages. Basslines are easier to track in HE-500. I mostly listen to electronic music, definitely don't think wooly at all.

 

[dryvadeum]

I meant wooly bass relative to the he 400s.

 

[jerg]

HE500's sub-bass is rumblier and dirtier than HE400's or LCD2's, rumblier as in it rumbles more, dirtier as in it has noticeably higher second order harmonic distortion from measurements compared to the other two which are comparably low on 2nd order. The two (rumble / dirty) are associated of course, as the more distortion you have, the more summed volume you have, so the more perceived rumble you get from sub-bass, but at the same time due to the decreased cleanness it won't sound as tight.
 
If you want to know where you can see those particular measurements and discussions, it is a website that is currently forbidden to be mentioned on here.

 

[Zoom25]

Makes me wonder how electronic music sounds on the Stax models. Dubstep on SR-009 haha I can imagine the Stax engineers being so pissed just at the thought of it.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Makes me wonder how electronic music sounds on the Stax models. Dubstep on SR-009 haha I can imagine the Stax engineers being so pissed just at the thought of it.

Precise yet boring, is what I'd imagine.
 
Extremely high fidelity is best suited for music where timbre and ambiance / microdetail is important, e.g. live concerts / acoustic / instrumental.

 

[Dubstep Girl]

today i got to hear DutchGFX's HE-5LE and compare it with HE-500.
 
sucked with stock tubes on WA6-SE, was underpowered, sounded bad like muffled. i put 6FD7 tubes and they opened up alot, it was amazing. the WA6-SE definitely has enough muscle for them.
 
i was really impressed at how they compared with HE-500, just slightly harder to drive. they sound very similar, except the HE-5LE has tighter bass and a more neutral sound, but the mids are slightly recessed and not as sweet, the treble definitely is dry and tizzy, theres a sizzle which can make sibilance in females and raspy vocals in males. bass extension/impact was similar as well as detail/soundstage/etc. they where extremely similar to HE-500, was really impressed. looks like im definitely gonna upgrade to HE-6 someday, its a step in the right direction.

 

[Spiderman]

I put up my he-500 for trade, basically I could not justify the cost of buying an additional amp just to power these. I also want that bass from the he-400 back, overall I didn't notice a huge difference from the 400 to the 500 except for basically a lack of distortion and a forward mid range.

 

[M-13]

Quote:

I put up my he-500 for trade, basically I could not justify the cost of buying an additional amp just to power these. I also want that bass from the he-400 back, overall I didn't notice a huge difference from the 400 to the 500 except for basically a lack of distortion and a forward mid range.

You probably needed to power them a bit more. Even the E17 docked to a E09K doesn't really drive them to full capability, bass is lacking and everything sounds thin overall. I can only imagine how bad it would be if it was the E17 alone. I've had a chance to try the Magni and that does indeed drive it better, not the best amp in the world, but can't think of anything that can actually drive the HE-500 at that price range.
 
I do understand your tight budget situation though... I'm sure you can try the HE-500 at a later point in your life.

 

[nicholars]

That is suprising considering the difference in the FR graphs I would expect the HE500 to have a lot more around 2-8khz and more bass howevr I have never actually heard either so that is purely from the graphs. Interesting to hear that they are very similar in sound quality though.