Audio Addict
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Aug 5, 2001
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At this year’s ChiUniFi, in addition to their generous support to the raffle, Head-Direct and HiFiMan sent their HE-300, HE-500 and HE-6 for the attendees to audition. Since I have the HE-6, I really wanted to listen to the HE-500s as I was reading the comments on Head-Fi about this headphone. Just before the meet, I received an email from HiFiMan they had re-positioned the HE-500 with a price drop of $200 for a new price of $699.
At the meet, I had a chance to listen to the HE-500 through several different systems as well as get a chance to listen to Warp08’s pair he brought to the meet that had been modified by Whiplash Audio. Needless to say, I was very impress at the meet with the sonics I heard but I wasn’t familiar with most the material and equipment I auditioned the HE-500s with. This led me to ask Dr. Bian if I could spend some time with these after the meet and he graciously agreed. With the holidays coming up, I would have more time with these phones in my own system and material I am more familiar with.
For these extended listening sessions, I utilized the HE-500s balanced with a Whiplash Audio TWag v1 cable I have been using on my HE-6 since I am familiar with this setup and it remove a variable I didn’t feel was appropriate in trying to evaluate these phones. Sure these phones can be run single-ended but that just isn’t how I listen these days so I didn’t want that variable in my evaluation. As far as equipment being used; here is the equipment:
Headphone Amplifier: Ray Samuels Audio Apache (revision C) with AphroditeCu29 umbilical cord - strongly recommended
Sources:
PS Audio PerfectWave DAC w/bridge (balance to the Apache)
PS Audio PerfectWave Transport (using the I2S HDMI connection)
VPI HRX (rim drive and superplatter) with Benz LPS cartridge
Ray Samuels F-117 Nighthawk phonostage
Miscellaneous power conditioning and cabling
I started by listening to some vinyl. Two albums I selected were 180 gram 45 rpm lp versions of Fleetwood Mac “Rumors” and Natalie Merchant “Tiger Lily”.
First the remaster “Rumors” album is a great album, especially the 45 lp version, It was really difficult to concentrate on the HE-500 as I found myself constantly just enjoying the music. To me, this says a lot about these headphones as they really just let you enjoy the music. To try and put the enjoyment into words, I found the HE500 provided a level of naturalness and separation to the instruments. The vocals were clear, harmonized and extended. I must say if there was a single thing that kept standing out was how well the HE-500 reproduced the bass line in this album. It went deep and was well controlled. I found myself getting even more engaged, if that was even possible.
Moving on to Natalie Merchant’s “Tiger Lily”, it was more of the same. Her voice was just so natural and extended. The bass continued deep and well controlled. Everything was just crystal clear, dimensional as expected and thoroughly enjoyable. The only downside was on these two albums I had to get up and turn the record after 2 to 3 songs just as I was getting into the groove of the music with these headphones. However, that is the tradeoff I willing make for the sonic improvement of the 45 LP. Overall on vinyl, the HE500s performed flawlessly letting the music flow through my setup so much so I really didn’t want to stop.
I moved on to listening to CDs through the PWT/PWD combination. I am a Diana Krall fan so I first put on “from this moment on”. Like the vinyl session, the vocal presentation was just spot on. Diana’s voice was almost like she was in the room with me. It was extremely intimate. John Clayton’s bass line was so full and deep I found myself toe tapping to the beat. I could hear so much detail coming from Jeff Hamilton’s drums and cymbals I could visualize his location relative to Diana and John Clayton on stage. When you put everything together it was truly an engaging performance. One song that just exemplified the overall capabilities of the HE-500 from this album is the title track. Everything just comes together, especially the horn sections. When they come blazing in, it makes you sit up and just listen. At the same time the HE-500 handled the delicate passages in “Little Girl Blue” with ease.
To stir it up, I decided to put on “The Very Best of Chicago Only the Beginning”. This album always makes me nostalgic as I remember those years when I was just a few years younger. Of course they produced just a few albums that spanned several years so quite a few of us grew up with them. The HE-500 continued to not disappoint. As I noted earlier, the depth, separation and musical performance presented, especially the horns and vocals, continued to surprise me as I was not really prepared for how well these headphones handled everything. They continued to scale to whatever was asked of them. At times the music just surrounded you and if you closed your eyes Chicago was right up there on center stage. A couple of my favorites on this album are “Make Me Smile” and “25 Or 6 To 4”. I could play them over and over again and not feel any fatigue from the presentation by the HE-500s.
To summarize, I have thoroughly enjoyed the past month I have had the opportunity to listen to the HE-500 in my system. The excitement I got at ChiUniFi from having the opportunity to hear them for the first time has only been reinforced. At their new $699 price point, I think they will be a tough act to beat. They scale up to the equipment being used very well. They readily respond to improved cabling as well as being used balance.
Are there any downsides, unfortunately I have to say yes. The biggest downside is they still need a good amount of power to really come alive so the amplification is something to consider. I tried the HE-500s with my RSA Stealth. While I could get the loudness, I really couldn’t get the energy with the Stealth. I didn’t try different tubes in the Stealth but I have never had to do that with other headphones. However they definitely don’t have the same current demand as the HE-6s or even the HE-5s, both which I own.
I saw another recent review that referred to these headphones as a diamond in the rough. I am not sure they are actually in the rough. I have thoroughly enjoyed any musical genre I threw at these headphones. They are easily headphones that can stay in your system as you upgrade your source and amplification. They responded extremely well to better cabling. I recently purchased a Zeus Quad 22 AWG from AproditeCu29 for my HE-6s and know what that cable did for those phones. I can speculate the improvement they would add further to the HE-500 over the TWag v1 cable I did this review with. The Whiplash Audio Reference modification Warp08 had done further shows the capabilities of this headphone.
I strongly suggest anyone looking at moving up the headphone scale to give these phones an audition. Personally, if your wallet would let you, I would skip the in between steps and consider these as soon as possible.
