[Haris Javed]

Wow this is sad - I guess the he 560 quality went down? I own the original he 560 and they still look and function excellent to this day. Maybe 3 years old now. I take them to my office twice a week since I bought them and they have been rock solid. I did pay 699 for my unit. It came in a large fancy wood box (slide cover, tons of padding - just like DavidA’s, with manual/ warranty card, but no balanced cable) - actually my he 560s feel better than my Hd650 and fostex thx00 - they feel super solid to hold and extremely well built, just not as fancy as my other headphones.

 

[Haris Javed]

Well, I took your advice...



After spending considerable time with the 560s and perhaps 20 hours with the LCD-X, I agree with nearly everything you said above. Your impressions were remarkably accurate to my experience. There are only two spots where I slightly disagree.

• I have a hard time telling any difference between the two headphones on bass extension. They both seem to go down to 20hz (and perhaps beyond) with exceptional linearity. The LCD-X feels weightier in the sub-bass and bass (perhaps due to the larger driver pushing more air), but is just as fast and resolving. I also find that I like the iFi bass boost with the 560, but not with the LCD-X.
  
• The X sounds a bit warmer to me, but I don't think the 560 has the edge on speed of decay. To my ears, I am able to pick out more resolution and separation from the X, especially on more complicated passages. Moreover, when I EQ to subjectively match bass amounts, the X seems just as fast as the 560s to me. I don't know how scientific that is, but there you go.

Two places where I couldn't agree more:

• "The Mids on the LCD -X are far superior than the HE-560" Mid-range on the LCD-X is phenomenal and, differences in tuning aside, the 560 doesn't even come close to the detail and richness of the those mids.
• "when you listen to music on LCD - X it honestly sounds like your are listening to extremely well placed speakers (without the room acoustic issues) - in this regard LCD - X is miles ahead on the HE 560" Yep. It does project an eerie sense of being surrounded by music, more so than the LCD-2F even. It's difficult to describe, but it's a magical thing.

Anyway, thanks again for the advice! Having both is absolutely the way to go, but anyone who hasn't should buy a 560 before they are gone. The 560 excels at treble and is probably better than the LCD-2F from a technical standpoint. It shouldn't be missed.

Thank you bud! I am glad you are happy

 

[Mkoll]

Just got mine off backorder from the Adorama sale. Shipping box has Chinese shipping stickers. Came with the both a standard and balanced cable. No fancy wooden box. Definitely swivels.

Initial sound impressions are quite positive and I echo the common impressions. We'll see how the durability fares and how they change with some burn-in.

 

[gardibolt]

Wow, that's interesting. Why don't you take it up with HifiMan?

I have sent an email to HiFiMan customer service to see if I can clear up whether these are just packaging variations and Adorama is in the clear (which suggests that HiFiMan just has abysmal QA), or whether there's an actual issue here, to avoid speculation. I'll report back on whether HiFiMan has any response.

 

[wazzupi]

I have sent an email to HiFiMan customer service to see if I can clear up whether these are just packaging variations and Adorama is in the clear (which suggests that HiFiMan just has abysmal QA), or whether there's an actual issue here, to avoid speculation. I'll report back on whether HiFiMan has any response.

Adorama is listed as an authorized dealer

 

[Jerda]

Hello! I saw that in USA the he560 is SUPER low cost ( like 300 bucks when on sale! )
I am going to Hong Kong the next month, someone know if I can buy a pair with a low cost there? pm me if so!

 

[SgtPepper]

According to Hifiman they switched the boxes to cut down on shipping costs. They wanted me to take a picture of the balanced cable though lol.

 

[George Taylor]

According to Hifiman they switched the boxes to cut down on shipping costs. They wanted me to take a picture of the balanced cable though lol.

Well you know, that's good. Maybe someone finally wants to get to the bottom of what's going on quality wise with the one's coming from that supplier. I've only bought one item from them, the iFi Black label, and it's been perfectly fine. And I've never noticed them coming up as selling bad products before in any other threads I've read here. So if I was either one, Adorama or HifiMan, I'd want to get to the bottom of it. I know HifiMan has a mixed reputation. But all I know is if I was trying to sell audio equipment for several thousand dollars I'd want my reputation to be better than there's currently is.

 

[Mkoll]

I'm thinking it's more likely to be HifiMan than Adorama at fault, given that my package from Adorama had Chinese shipping stickers on it and didn't appear to be opened. In other words, I don't think Adorama even opened the package, which is ironic because there's another sticker on the shipping box that requests the receiver open the package and ensure the presence of all the contents to absolve HifiMan of responsibility). But all of that doesn't make sense if HifiMan didn't know there was balanced cable in the product box; why would they ask SgtPepper for a picture of the cable?

Granted, I've had no problems or complains, so far. But this is all very confusing and not the kind of air you want around an expensive headphone purchase.

 

[ra990]

Is there an actual difference in quality between the amazon one and the adorama one? Are they refurbs or something maybe? That would explain the price difference.

 

[gardibolt]

Well, it looks like Adorama is in the clear and it's just that HiFiMan build quality is atrocious. Here's the response I got from HiFiMan customer service:

Hi there, 1 yes the packaging changed to a less costly one to post. 2 yes the balanced cable with Adorama was a special deal for them, they dont otherwise normally come with the balanced cable. 3 they should swivel though some are stiffer than others but they should move. 4 they should be the same [referring to the veneer differences].

They should be legit as they are an authorised dealer but as ever its hard to be certain without having in my hand but id be super shocked if Adorama were selling stock that wasnt legit.

So that solves that issue. Apologies to Adorama. I wish the ones I bought from them had kept working, because they sounded fabulous. Until they stopped working ten hours later.

 

[Haris Javed]

Well, it looks like Adorama is in the clear and it's just that HiFiMan build quality is atrocious. Here's the response I got from HiFiMan customer service:



So that solves that issue. Apologies to Adorama. I wish the ones I bought from them had kept working, because they sounded fabulous. Until they stopped working ten hours later.

yup seems like the QC department quit - cant believe your unit stopped working around 10 hours, I have slept with mine on my head on few occasion (sleeping on a lazy boy straight, no turning around) and have had zero issues. My pair is about 3 years old, and gets used very frequently. Sorry to hear about your issue - I would return them, and see if Hifiman can send you a replacement directly - since seems like something funky might be going on with the Adorama stock - I was tempted to pick up another one for 350$, but decided not to - I dont have much space to keep this gear. Its a battle between speaker/speaker amps vs headphones/headphone amps!

good luck my friend

 

[gardibolt]

yup seems like the QC department quit - cant believe your unit stopped working around 10 hours, I have slept with mine on my head on few occasion (sleeping on a lazy boy straight, no turning around) and have had zero issues. My pair is about 3 years old, and gets used very frequently. Sorry to hear about your issue - I would return them, and see if Hifiman can send you a replacement directly - since seems like something funky might be going on with the Adorama stock - I was tempted to pick up another one for 350$, but decided not to - I dont have much space to keep this gear. Its a battle between speaker/speaker amps vs headphones/headphone amps!

good luck my friend

Thanks. We will see whether I can get more than 10 hours out of these new ones before they conk out. I'm not too optimistic, but maybe I'll get lucky.

 

[wazzupi]

Nothing wrong with mine. Ive had them for 2 weeks

 

[thebkt]

Got mine in September and haven't had any issues yet