[Pasquale]

Quote:

Damn I will be getting a Lyr next week ish...well at least it should sound better than listening to them um amped like I am now

 
I agree with the other posters, the Lyr can definitely work with the HE500, but getting really good sound required - on my system at least - a bit of tube rolling and some patience.  I am low on patience.  I like to plug-play-and-forget.  The Lyr is quite a good bargain.  The Soloist is clearly better, but 2x the price.  In fact, the short coming of the Lyr may not have been so obvious to me if I had not kept comparing it to the amp section of my Benchmark DAC1.  As some have said, it's hard to trounce the DAC1's amp section for under a grand.
 
Party On!    

 

[gerald410]

I love the pleathers. I haven't tried the velours; 'don't want to break what's not broken. Great phones as they are delivered.

+1

 

[Happy Camper]

I agree with the other posters, the Lyr can definitely work with the HE500, but getting really good sound required - on my system at least - a bit of tube rolling and some patience.  I am low on patience.  I like to plug-play-and-forget.  The Lyr is quite a good bargain.  The Soloist is clearly better, but 2x the price.  In fact, the short coming of the Lyr may not have been so obvious to me if I had not kept comparing it to the amp section of my Benchmark DAC1.  As some have said, it's hard to trounce the DAC1's amp section for under a grand.

Party On!    

I think a lot of the new DACs are upping the headphone amps.

 

[Tinola]

Just bought this and gonna pair it with the burson ha-160D. Can't wait

 

[stereolab]

After about 15 hours of listening to the HE-500 I must say the bass is somewhat muddied when compared to the HE-400. Some recordings reveal my findings much more than others. Am I under amplifying these with my Pico amp, or is this the nature of the two cans? I still however prefer the signature of the HE-500 by a wide enough margin.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

After about 15 hours of listening to the HE-500 I must say the bass is somewhat muddied when compared to the HE-400. Some recordings reveal my findings much more than others. Am I under amplifying these with my Pico amp, or is this the nature of the two cans? I still however prefer the signature of the HE-500 by a wide enough margin.

That is well-known. HE500's bass is a tad more "wooly" than other orthos like LCD2 or HE400 etc, but really it is only apparent when you compare them head-to-head.

 

[stereolab]

Quote:

That is well-known. HE500's bass is a tad more "wooly" than other orthos like LCD2 or HE400 etc, but really it is only apparent when you compare them head-to-head.

 
Thanks for the clarification. I've been seriously considering upgrading to another dac and amp, but I have a hunch I'll be disappointed regarding money spent versus sonic upgrade. Perhaps I should just check out some pad modding!  

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
Thanks for the clarification. I've been seriously considering upgrading to another dac and amp, but I have a hunch I'll be disappointed regarding money spent versus sonic upgrade. Perhaps I should just check out some pad modding!  

That IMO is the best and most direct way to improve the sound. Changing dacs/amps/cables etc are like taking medications to calm symptoms of an illness, while more invasive mods like driver damping / earpad modifications are the "surgeries" needed to truly fix the sound, or at least change it in the right direction in a dramatic way.

 

[disastermouse]

That IMO is the best and most direct way to improve the sound. Changing dacs/amps/cables etc are like taking medications to calm symptoms of an illness, while more invasive mods like driver damping / earpad modifications are the "surgeries" needed to truly fix the sound, or at least change it in the right direction in a dramatic way.

Jerg Pads made the bass less woolly but made the upper mids way too etched.

 

[elwappo99]

Quote:

Jerg Pads made the bass less woolly but made the upper mids way too etched.

 
It's always a balance. The Velour pads usually help tame the highs and bring out the mids, while making the bass less crisp. I have a pair of the original dog pads on mine and really like the results. They sound great. 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
It's always a balance. The Velour pads usually help tame the highs and bring out the mids, while making the bass less crisp. I have a pair of the original dog pads on mine and really like the results. They sound great. 

Strange, I have the exact opposite experience. My velour pads (I have a couple...mostly bonus velours from a few replacement exchanges I had to do with Hifiman due to HE400 issues last year) have definitively more energetic upper mids and treble, and thinner lower end, than pleathers.
 
The velour clarity is great but the tonality just throws me off all the time, it never sounds "natural" enough.
 
That's one of my main motivations behind modding the pleathers, because intrinsically their tonal balance sounded "right" to my ears with vocals / instruments, they just needed a fix on clarity / soundstage / separation etc.

 

[disastermouse]

Quote:

Strange, I have the exact opposite experience. My velour pads (I have a couple...mostly bonus velours from a few replacement exchanges I had to do with Hifiman due to HE400 issues last year) have definitively more energetic upper mids and treble, and thinner lower end, than pleathers.
 
The velour clarity is great but the tonality just throws me off all the time, it never sounds "natural" enough.
 
That's one of my main motivations behind modding the pleathers, because intrinsically their tonal balance sounded "right" to my ears with vocals / instruments, they just needed a fix on clarity / soundstage / separation etc.

 
I'm mostly listening with Spotify.  It could be that I'm just hearing artifacts in that upper mid that I wasn't before.  I have new versions of each pad coming, so I'll complete the mod (hey, why not?) and see what I think.  I'll also try them with vanilla pleathers and see what the difference is.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
I'm mostly listening with Spotify.  It could be that I'm just hearing artifacts in that upper mid that I wasn't before.  I have new versions of each pad coming, so I'll complete the mod (hey, why not?) and see what I think.  I'll also try them with vanilla pleathers and see what the difference is.

Davidsh and I actually talked about this and we made sense of it mostly.
 
 
(read this post and onwards) http://www.head-fi.org/t/646812/hifiman-he500-he400-jergpad-mod-v2-0-new-revised-feb-28-2013/600#post_9312100
 
Here's the "too long, didn't read" summary:
 
 
 

 
Blue = stock velours, Green = jergpad pleathers. Notice the 4kHz~8kHz region where stock velours have a massive dip, and the jergpads fill in mostly? That's the upper mids / lower treble region, and the fact that it is filled in is probably why you perceive more energy there (aka "shout").
 
It is good though because the FR is smoother because of it, so as you adjust to the new sound signature, the coherency and mids~treble transition is plain better.

 

[disastermouse]

Some of what I thought were artifacts (and may indeed be artifacts or recording flaws) I'm finding with my velours now that I'm looking for them, but they are not accentuated by the velours where they are brought further forward by the Jergpads mod.  I'm thinking about switching back and forth for awhile to see if I can get used to the Jergs.  And like I said, I'll finish the mod when my new pads come too....except maybe the last part because taping the pad to the cup will make it much harder to switch back and forth.

 

[davidsh]

Quote:

Some of what I thought were artifacts (and may indeed be artifacts or recording flaws) I'm finding with my velours now that I'm looking for them, but they are not accentuated by the velours where they are brought further forward by the Jergpads mod.  I'm thinking about switching back and forth for awhile to see if I can get used to the Jergs.  And like I said, I'll finish the mod when my new pads come too....except maybe the last part because taping the pad to the cup will make it much harder to switch back and forth.

Could be really nice with some kind of solution to taping the pad to the cup that is more reversible.