[Clemmaster]

I guess you want lush and rolled-off sound.
You should give the Oppo PM-1 a try

 

[zxc]

  How many hours on the 560 you listened to?

7-8 hours. Burned in over two days.

 

[zxc]

  I guess you want lush and rolled-off sound.
You should give the Oppo PM-1 a try

Actually I do like my treble a little emphasized. At least neutral. LCD-2 had significantly recessed treble. From what I've heard, PM-1 treble is a little recessed as well. Actually, HE-560 is the first planar headphone I've listened to that doesn't have recessed treble.

 

[rwelles]

 
7-8 hours. Burned in over two days.

Unless you're in a hurry to make up your mind, you may want to wait for a few more days. I found the treble continues to "mellow" out even after 100 hours. 
 
(cue the "brain-burners" witty retort in ...5....4....3....2...)

 

[TMRaven]

If the upper treble of my HE-560 mellows out after 100 hours of usage I'll have to return it for being rolled off.

 

[SBranson]

Well, I fell for the "limited time offer" and bought the focus-A pads. It is kind of annoying to have tweaks available before even receiving the headphones but since the headphone has already undergone a major revision.... Off to check the tracking for the nth time today...

 

[zxc]

  Unless you're in a hurry to make up your mind, you may want to wait for a few more days. I found the treble continues to "mellow" out even after 100 hours. 
 
(cue the "brain-burners" witty retort in ...5....4....3....2...)

I am OK with the treble. But I doubt the bass will evolve to my tastes after a longer burn-in.

 

[Ron12]

Love these burn-in hopes and debates... Good luck, guys, you will definitely need it!

 

[MattTCG]

Okay, these are my thoughts after a few hours. I recognize that's it's only been a few hours, but my opinion rarely changes with additional time. 
 
 
Initial Impressions:
 
As has been mentioned almost ad nauseam, the comfort is supreme with the new design.  What HFM has done with regard to the design and improved comfort is impressive. This is all day comfort folks. It's not just about being lighter in weight, they are. It's also about "balanced" weight. That being said, this is what I have issues with:
 
*For goodness sake, please get the pad design issues resolved. For me personally, my left ear touches the dust fabric over the driver. Drives me nuts…yes, even more than my usual nutty.  After discovering the pads weren't oriented to the correct 6:00 position, I adjusted them. This eliminated the problem I had with my left ear touching the driver screen. 
 
*I still don’t like the connectors.  I would have opted for mini xlr...but I will not beat that dead horse anymore (although I’d like to).
 
*There are some very slight inconsistencies with the veneer cups.  Most people would likely not notice…I’m not most people.
 
*The overall design and execution is good but not on par with say, Oppo or Sennheiser and others. Take that for what it’s worth.
 
Sound:
 
*The first thing that strikes me about the signature was that these sound like a mixture of the he500 and he6…somewhere in between, leaning a little more towards the he6.
 
*The mids are very nice. Coming from the he400 you’d be floored by the improvement in the mids (even MLE would probably like these mids. Vocals are natural but just a touch thin from my favorite (hd650). I listen to a lot of vocal centered music and I could be happy with these as my daily driver with the likes of Dianna Krall, K.D. Lang and Eva Cassidy.
 
*The treble is more resolving than the he500 but not harsh like the he4 can be.  Highs are closer to the he6 on a good amp. Very resolving and extended, but remain confidently in control with everything from hi-hat cymbals to the upper register of the violin. Still, if you prefer a darker treble response, you would likely have issues here as the treble here is pretty well extended and holds nothing back.
 
*The transition from the mids to the bass is very coherent and I could not detect any bleed from the bass into the mids.  The bass presents itself in a very linear fashion, meaning that I didn’t find the 560 to color bass into a recording where it wasn’t there in the first place.  On jazz tracks, the acoustic upright bass plucks are satisfying and with appreciable texture (this is important to me, as I don’t like hp’s that make that “one note” bass response).  Becoming Insane by Infected Mushroom is a good EDM test track for me. The 560 images the acoustic guitar nicely as the track opens. The track builds quickly and drops a seriously hard bass line. This track gives a lot of hp’s trouble with the heavy electronic sub bass. The 560 carries the bass out with aplomb…never out of control. While the quality, texture and speed of the bass is certainly there, there were some tracks where I would have appreciated more quantity and weight. While this is not a “bass light” hp by any means, it does not match the sub bass ability of the he400 or lcd-2.2 (pre-fazor).
 
Overall and would I buy it…
 
*Mids: 9.0
*Treble: 8.5
*Bass: 8.0
 
Does the 560 get the MattTCG seal of approval? 
 
Hm…this is an enjoyable hp and I don’t question that in the least.  Will I run out and purchase it? Well, no…not yet.  My gut feeling is to let the dust settle and see if there are any furthers changes or revisions. Plus, I’m very curious as to how the 400i fits into the puzzle. Does it warrant the sticker price? Honestly, it’s a tough call. I’d have to admit that I’d be more comfortable at the $800 mark.  In the end, I come away with an appreciation for what Hifiman has done and applaud their ability to produce a better product…well done Fang!!
 
*These are my observations based on my personal preferences and nothing more than that. YMMV . All testing done with uberfrost>lyr (telefunkens)

 

[tinyman392]

   
It's interesting how no one ever talks about burn-in negatively... All the changes that ever happened to anyone in relation to so called burn-in were strictly or even dramatically positive.
 
I have owned quite a lot of headphones across different driver technologies and price tags... and I have yet to hear any significant changes due to burn-in. I have heard some small hints of it with one or two particular headphones but no - no huge improvements (or degradations) in performance. I can hear differences across various equipment (not only headphones)... But almost no AUDIBLE burn-in detected on my side.

 
I know this is the second time you've stated this...  But I can put a spin on that with a lot of things...  Shoes for example...  No one has ever stated that breaking in a pair of new running shoes will be bad for, or talk about it negatively...  The idea is that, like the shoe, the driver will be able to move in a smoother motion and be less rigid when it moves...  Tyll, along with Rin, have both shown that distortion decreases as the driver burns in.  They've both also been able to show minor changes in frequency response (1-2 dB across the spectrum, some places as large as 3-5 dB).  The question isn't, does it burn in, the real question is, can you hear it?  And as it stands right now, half the population of Head-Fi can, the other half cannot.  There really is no problem with being on either end of that spectrum. 
 
Just because you can't hear it does not mean it's not there.  Either way, the changes are generally small changes, but in various places, and sometimes, it's just that 1-2 dB of change that a person needs to cross the line. 

 

[tinyman392]

 
I am OK with the treble. But I doubt the bass will evolve to my tastes after a longer burn-in.

 
Bass doesn't change much during burn in...  The treble does...  However, more mellowed out treble also means less mellowed out bass.  Softer treble, slightly more bass emphasis...  Same thing  

 

[stjj89]

 
*There are some very slight inconsistencies with the veneer cups.  Most people would likely not notice…I’m not most people.
 

 
I mentioned this earlier in the thread, but I noticed some rough spots on my veneer cups too. I was considering sending them in for exchange, but I decided not to because of the hassle, shipping costs, and lack of assurance that a replacement would be any better. As someone who is OCD about his purchases, it does annoy me too though.

 

[cute]

  Okay, these are my thoughts after a few hours. I recognize that's it's only been a few hours, but my opinion rarely changes with additional time. 
 
 
Initial Impressions:
 
As has been mentioned almost ad nauseam, the comfort is supreme with the new design.  What HFM has done with regard to the design and improved comfort is impressive. This is all day comfort folks. It's not just about being lighter in weight, they are. It's also about "balanced" weight. That being said, this is what I have issues with:
 
*For goodness sake, please get the pad design issues resolved. For me personally, my left ear touches the dust fabric over the driver. Drives me nuts…yes, even more than my usual nutty.  
 
*I still don’t like the connectors.  I would have opted for mini xlr...but I will not beat that dead horse anymore (although I’d like to).
 
*There are some very slight inconsistencies with the veneer cups.  Most people would likely not notice…I’m not most people.
 
*The overall design and execution is good but not on par with say, Oppo or Sennheiser and others. Take that for what it’s worth.
 
Sound:
 
*The first thing that strikes me about the signature was that these sound like a mixture of the he500 and he6…somewhere in between, leaning a little more towards the he6.
 
*The mids are very nice. Coming from the he400 you’d be floored by the improvement in the mids (even MLE would probably like these mids. Vocals are natural but just a touch thin from my favorite (hd650). I listen to a lot of vocal centered music and I could be happy with these as my daily driver with the likes of Dianna Krall, K.D. Lang and Eva Cassidy.
 
*The treble is more resolving than the he500 but not harsh like the he4 can be.  Highs are closer to the he6 on a good amp. Very resolving and extended, but remain confidently in control with everything from hi-hat cymbals to the upper register of the violin. Still, if you prefer a darker treble response, you would likely have issues here as the treble here is pretty well extended and holds nothing back.
 
*The transition from the mids to the bass is very coherent and I could not detect any bleed from the bass into the mids.  The bass presents itself in a very linear fashion, meaning that I didn’t find the 560 to color bass into a recording where it wasn’t there in the first place.  On jazz tracks, the acoustic upright bass plucks are satisfying and with appreciable texture (this is important to me, as I don’t like hp’s that make that “one note” bass response).  Becoming Insane by Infected Mushroom is a good EDM test track for me. The 560 images the acoustic guitar nicely as the track opens. The track builds quickly and drops a seriously hard bass line. This track gives a lot of hp’s trouble with the heavy electronic sub bass. The 560 carries the bass out with aplomb…never out of control. While the quality, texture and speed of the bass is certainly there, there were some tracks where I would have appreciated more quantity and weight. While this is not a “bass light” hp by any means, it does not match the sub bass ability of the he400 or lcd-2.2 (pre-fazor).
 
Overall and would I buy it…
 
*Mids: 9.0
*Treble: 8.5
*Bass: 8.0
 
Does the 560 get the MattTCG seal of approval? 
 
Hm…this is an enjoyable hp and I don’t question that in the least.  Will I run out and purchase it? Well, no…not yet.  My gut feeling is to let the dust settle and see if there are any furthers changes or revisions. Plus, I’m very curious as to how the 400i fits into the puzzle. Does it warrant the sticker price? Honestly, it’s a tough call. I’d have to admit that I’d be more comfortable at the $800 mark.  In the end, I come away with an appreciation for what Hifiman has done and applaud their ability to produce a better product…well done Fang!!
 
*These are my observations based on my personal preferences and nothing more than that. YMMV . All testing done with uberfrost>lyr (telefunkens)

Very well articulated......thanks @MattTCG!

 

[TMRaven]

   
 The question isn't, does it burn in, the real question is, can you hear it?  And as it stands right now, half the population of Head-Fi can, the other half cannot.  There really is no problem with being on either end of that spectrum. 

 
Able to hear what?  You think you'll be able to hear something that amounts to a 1-2db change in a very specific part of the frequency 100 hours after you heard the headphone prior?  Auditory memory is a person's weakest memory, you're not hearing anything different unless you directly a/b a burned in pair side by side with a new pair of headphones, there you're talking about a span of mere seconds to compare two sounds rather than talking 100s of hours.  There are people who've done just that however and I do respect their effort for doing it.
 
Saying half the head-fi population can hear it while the other half can not is almost spinning the assertion to the point of saying 'half of head-fi can't hear good enough to know the differences burn-in made.'  That's the type of elitism it comes off as.  Better to just keep it as 'half of head-fi believes in burn-in, half does not.'
 
For what it's worth, at the end of Tyll's burn-in article he didn't prove anything.  He showed some measurements that were small enough to be written off as measurement inconsistencies, and at the end of his article he flat out said 'did I show that burn-in exists?  No.'  He also said that he couldn't disprove it as well.
 
Also, the shoe analogy is no that good.  You could compare the shoe analogy to the actual earpads of a headphone for sure, but to compare it to sound is not so good.  Everybody uses the notion of burn-in to defend a headphone's sound right out of the box.  I've read countless assertions from Audeze and Sennheiser folk that the treble opens up and comes alive after so and so amount of time, but have heard AKG users and now 560 users, that the treble settles and mellows down after so many hours.  What if I wanted the treble on my HE-560 to come alive and more present after x amount of hours like Audeze and Sennheiser headhpones supposedly do?  The idea of any headphone breaking in to an ideal sound is well and good, but everybody has a different opinion of what their ideal sound is, so it's borderline illogical to suggest that a headphone should always burn-in positively to every person who's into the hobby.
 
That's all I have to say about that really, I don't want to make any more posts about the idea of burn-in, even if Hifiman itself is well behind it and is fueling such opinions.

 

[TMRaven]

Very sound impressions Matt!  They're pretty much how I hear the 560 as well.  I still don't have or never had an issue with the screw-in plugs on the hifiman 'phones though, although I know a lot of people do.  

 
I think what bothers me about the veneer on the new 560 is the finishing of the cut on the edge of the veneer.  It's not as smooth as it could be.