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

[Anaxilus]

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Anaxilus - just curious, how did you mod your HE-5? Is it difficult to do? I have a pair here sitting with me, beautiful phone and sound great but I cannot listen to them for long periods as they are rather shrill. i'm wondering if modding them would suit me better. 

 
Ditch the velour pads, they're attrocious.  You can try pleather Shure 840 type pads.  I use Beyer Gel pads currently w/o any foam in front.  You can play w/ different damping schemes/materials in front and behind the driver to suit your tastes.  Search out Fang mod to see how to pop off the grills, just be careful w/ the plastic inner ring snapping.  Source and material will matter of course so YMMV.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

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Impressions?  The bass is one note, boomy, lacking resolution, detail and clarity in the low end.  The rest is pretty good but the bass presentation is too incoherent and distracting for my tastes.  The HE400 has better low end resolution which is astonishingly good for the price.  I prefer my modded HE5 and HD800 to either. 

 
Weird, I have the opposite feelings about my HE-5 vs HE-500 comparison.  My HE-500's bass is better in quality than my HE-5 bass, and the mids are more rich and coherent in the imaging, with smoother treble.  Via my DACmini my HE-500 sound amazingly like my Lambda Nova Signature out of my KGSS amp, but with tighter and more detailed bass than the LNS as well.  I'm pretty certain of this, as I spent some time comparing the LCD-2, HE-500 and LNS.
 
And I don't think the HE-5 were bad, especially with the EF5 or ZDT amp that tightened them up nicely.  I still preferred my old HE-5 over my APS V3 cabled RS-1, with the bigger soundstage and being the main attraction.  The RS-1 needed flat pads to match the HE-5 bass impact, but bowl pads to match the HE-5's treble clarity and air, but I never got both at the same time with the Grados.  Then the HE-5 LE improved the recessed mids and tightened the bass up while making them a little darker to my ears, while the HE-500 kept those improvements and improved on midrange coherency and imaging, while having smoother treble than HE-5 and more sparkly treble than HE-5 LE.  Like Goldilocks, this one is just right.  (I do still have the HE-5 and HE-5 LE but don't use them much anymore)

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

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you score one for the win..
 
using my Hifiman EF5 (also a modded amp, and in high gain mode capable of driving the headphones to ear-damaging lemels without strain), the bass is very nice.
 
The only problem is I like my Woo better, but you takes what you gets. I like treble on the Hifiman HE-500 and I'll take that any way I can get.

 
Yeah, my EF5 does the bass on the HE-500 much better than than my maxed WA6 (not SE), but my WA6 has a much bigger soundstage and better detail.  I use the HE-500 more with the DACmini in my bedroom, which falls between the other two in terms of bass being better than WA6 although less impact than EF5, while offering the same soundstage and detail as the WA6.  
 
My best amp for the HE-500 by far is my Eddie Current ZDT, which puts out 3-watts into 32 ohms according to the manufacturer.  The EF6 amp is even more powerful, but not quite as refined sounding as the ZDT, and I can't use all the power of the ZDT let alone the EF6.  Still, EF6 is a much better choice for the HE-500 than the EF5, and bests ALL my other dynamic headphone amps except the ZDT.  You don't need an HE-6 to benefit from the EF6 amp, and it's great with my HD-800 and LCD-2 as well.  The only phones I don't like with the EF-6 are my Grado HF-2 which are too sensitive and too aggressive sounding to mix with that amp.
 
[fixed a few typos]

 

[Anaxilus]

There's a good chance your HE5 doesn't sound like mine.  

 
I'll give the HE500 another listen on my Sansui to rule out power issues when I can.

 

[Muzik]

Am I crazy?
 
Recently I've purchased the Lyr, Bifrost and HE-500 combo and it sounds amazing! But I decided to plug the HE-500's into an old Technics SU-G50 (not speaker taps the 1/4 headphone out) which is connected to my pc out of my motherboards 3.5mm line-out. Surprise surprise I can almost hear no discernible difference between the Lyr + Bifrost and the Technics coming from an Intel motherboard.
 
My question is is there a possibility the Lyr and Bifrost isn't working correctly? which I doubt.
 
Should I be disappointed with the Schiit combo or really really impressed at how good the Technics amp sounds? Im sort of shocked at the moment.

 

[Anaxilus]

It could be the Lyr combo or the perhaps you're listening to the *****cat Dolls which sounds the same as my 1980's Sony cassette Walkman.

 
The HE500 always struck me more for its strength in tonal balance than resolving ability.    

 

[Muzik]

haha nope, was testing with the Chesky Binaural CD ripped as flac. Also had two other people test it, both of which couldn't hear a noticeable difference.
 
Even though they may not be the most resolving headphone ever I'd think the differences would be clear between an amp I paid $50 for with no dedicated dac and a $900 setup.

 

[Anaxilus]

Certainly possible.  Not like Technics is known to make bad gear.  Are you running bit-perfect/wasapi into the BifRost?  I'd be surprised that your Mobo's 3.5mm would be that transparent.
 
Have you rolled any tubes?  The only way to rule out all possible explanations is to rule out all possible explanations before we can say the 3.5mm mobo out sounds like a BifRost/Lyr.
 
Also try listening to one setup  for a while noticing the cues in your music then going to the other.  Rapid switching can make everything sound the same due to fatigue.

 

[Muzik]

No, I wasn't using wasapi is there any reason I should be? 
 
Yeh Iv'e tried a few tubes, all seems to be fine.
 
hmm, maybe although I'd think rapid switching would be enough to tell the difference if $850 was worth it...I'll try that out though.

 

[Anaxilus]

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No, I wasn't using wasapi is there any reason I should be? 

 
I don't know what you are running for an OS but the player could certainly be a limiting factor.  You wouldn't believe the things some computers can do to your audio.  Any system is only as strong as it's weakest link.  If your hose can do 5 gallons per minute but it has a 2.5 gpm restrictor on it, you'll get 2.5 gpm.  This may or may not apply to your case but finding out will require investigating the possibilities.  It is always possible to make a potentially better sounding system sound like a worse one.
 
Try these Genelex Gold Lions if you haven't tried anything as good or better.
 
http://thetubestore.com/goldlione88cc.html

 

[Muzik]

Using foobar tried switching from waapi to the standard setting and no difference.
 
Not very familiar with tubes at the moment but am using some Amperex orange label tubes are the Genelex Gold Lions better/worse or worth the $50?

 

[mike1127]

You might be getting too "analytical" when doing a comparison. The important differences show up in the musical effect the equipment has, and focusing too much on specific factors tends to block musical response. I've found that quick switching is the worst way to check how things sound---you aren't able to hear the important musical differences. One thing to check is the sense of the highs getting fatiguing versus staying smooth over a long listening session.

 

[Anaxilus]

Quote:

 
Not very familiar with tubes at the moment but am using some Amperex orange label tubes are the Genelex Gold Lions better/worse or worth the $50?

 
I heard the Golden Lions from the Liquid Glass for the first time and they were quite a step up in transparency over the other tubes Alex likes to bring to his demos.  I know he had the EHs which suck and I think JJ's in the blue/gold box?

 

[pp312]

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You might be getting too "analytical" when doing a comparison. The important differences show up in the musical effect the equipment has, and focusing too much on specific factors tends to block musical response. I've found that quick switching is the worst way to check how things sound---you aren't able to hear the important musical differences. One thing to check is the sense of the highs getting fatiguing versus staying smooth over a long listening session.

 
That's absolutely true. It's also true in my experience that a lot of integrated amps sound just as good as expensive HP amps.

 

[.Sup]

I have swapped HE-4 velours latest edition with HE-500 pleather also latest edition. Pleather tammed down treble on HE-4 while velour considerably opened HE-500. HE-500 has less muffled treble, more bass and midrange is still there. However its no unique anymore and is now closer to HD800. The pleather made the midrange unique but its now a more balanced headphone. Velour is less comfortable but thicker and it stretched my HE-500 so that the lowest headband position now fits perfectly. Anyway I like them with both pleather and velour, they just sound different. Unique midrange with pleather vs the best balance I have ever heard on a headphone with velour- perfect treble, midrange and bass.