[borrego]

hey guys! I want to ask you for some advice. I have a pair of Philips Fidelio X1 and source hifiman 601 with Haedstage Arrow 4g. I am looking at upgrade solutions. Headphones Hifiman 560 or 400 !. and as source, I have looked at Chord Hugo. I can not afford to buy both the headphones and source at the same time. What do you think I should start with. What makes the greatest diference upgrade headphones or source?

Best regards
Jonny

 
I would upgrade the source first. IMO the Hifiman 601 is the bottleneck of your current setup, it is limited to playing 16/44kHz files and roll off heavily in treble. Your Fidelio X1 and Arrow 4g are not being driven at their full potential. With the Hugo, you can start enjoying a much larger variety of media (e.g. native DVD audio when using it to watch movies), and allows you to better judge the next headphones upgrade.

 

[drweincpa]

I have the HE-560 and from just reading this thread I noticed multiple scratches as well; I already knew of one like Peter has posted here. Honestly, I think you'll never get a perfect pair,and part of this may be because that's just the how the finish is on that part of the headphone, kind of like a wood floor. And I also own the HIFIMAN HM-901 and although it's great, it's got it's physical defects as well. I actually do not like the cable connections on their headphones which I'm sure I have read on more than one occasion in a thread. Just my 2 cents.

 

[TMRaven]

HE-560 is not an upward-tilting headphone.  Quite the opposite.  

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Specially with the focus-a pads. I can see how the speed of bass might make one think that though.

HE-560 is not an upward-tilting headphone.  Quite the opposite.  

 

[grizzlybeast]

  HE-560 is not an upward-tilting headphone.  Quite the opposite.  

100% disagree with that.
 
or I am using the word wrong. It is bright, though not high beam bright it still has a boosted treble

 

[TMRaven]

No it's not even bright either.  It might be a perspective thing though.  I remember calling the silver-driver 650 a little bright after coming from a D2000.  In hindsight I wouldn't say it's bright but pretty neutral sounding.  D2000 was rather dark sounding with its fat bass though.
 
I can point you in the direction of some bright sounding headphones.

 

[grizzlybeast]

  No it's not even bright either.  It might be a perspective thing though.  I remember calling the silver-driver 650 a little bright after coming from a D2000.  In hindsight I wouldn't say it's bright but pretty neutral sounding.  D2000 was rather dark sounding with its fat bass though.
 
I can point you in the direction of some bright sounding headphones.

 
IMO this, the t1, and the he6 are above neutral in the highs....but hey I could be wrong... we also may be different ages and sensitive to different parts of the FR.
 
I will say that it is literally impossible for it to be the opposite("quite the opposite")which would mean dark. This is FARRRR from a dark headphone.

 

[TMRaven]

Yeah I don't think it's a dark headphone.  
 
When you said it was tilted upwards, I said it's quite the opposite.  The graphs suggest it's downward tilting, although the decay of the bass is fast so it's not as dark sounding as an Audeze.
 
The T1 I thought had great balance until the upper treble.  Its upper treble is very bright.
 
I'm in my late 20s so not too much treble loss here.

 

[Maxx134]

I was getting fed up with my 560's clamping pressure so just today I took the top of the headband with both of my thumbs, and bent it to reduce the clamping pressure.  Now I feel at home again.

Yes I did similar to two he560 headbands..
Held pressure on the two corners, one at a time right on the metal, not any pressure on the gimbal or cups..
The corners are are hard to bend but once done it really gets comfortable when less pressure and if using the softer focusA pads ..


Also if I remember correctly, my headphones also had a tiny scuff that disappeared with use,
and I think that all previous posts about scuff is pretty petty and highly out of context to be bickering over..

I would much more be concerned about the different resistance in the drivers,
and would assume that the lower resistance is louder (?)..
In that case anyone that has a volume issue of one side being louder should check also the resistance.

To me the he560 seems like the offspring of an hd800 with a he6..

I seem to prefer the he560 imaging to be more descriptive and solid, over the rather encompassing and distracting imaging of the hd800, which to my surprise I was able to notice a slight treble diffusion when compared to the he560. .
Yet the sound image is larger on the hd800..

 

[TMRaven]

I never knew it but my 560 has small scuff-marks on the edges of the gimbals too, I guess mine are smaller than some of the pics because I never noticed them until I looked really close at certain angles and lighting.
 
 
I don't think it's the plastic or its finish that's causing the scuffing.  The 400i I received has no such scuff-marks, but it also didn't come in normal packaging.  I have no idea  where the problem could be originating from.

 

[grizzlybeast]

  Yeah I don't think it's a dark headphone.  
 
When you said it was tilted upwards, I said it's quite the opposite.  The graphs suggest it's downward tilting, although the decay of the bass is fast so it's not as dark sounding as an Audeze.
 
The T1 I thought had great balance until the upper treble.  Its upper treble is very bright.
 
I'm in my late 20s so not too much treble loss here.

lol ha ha yeah we are close in age Im barely in my 30's. 
 
Maybe you are right. I see what you mean, as I just looked up some graphs. It may be the persception of the headphone. There are several songs that sound really bright and others that sound balanced. Just like I am blaming the bass on the mix I probably should blame the mix on the highs but the headphones treble is never shy. The times when it is bright to me I just have to take them off and reach for something darker. I am also coming from a headphone that is darker. 
 
The perspective also is from me being more so accustomed to the monitors I had and gear I know as being neutral. Once I heard the Focal Spirit Pro I knew that was spot on and I would say this is brighter than that(from a faulty memory). Even though graphs show  a downward tilt the ears are most sensitive from the upper mids to the highs so a slope in the tuning there is necessary. Relatively speaking, how much of a dip/curve would determine what pitches the ears hear at the same volume.
 
I know the explanation was in vein because we all know this but in short..... A graph doesn't necessarily explain what I hear as much as it explains what the headphone does and my ears say bright

 

[davidsh]

I think the HE-560 is a slightly warm headphone, generally speaking. Certain parts of the upper mids and treble should be boosted and 12 kHz taken slightly down for me to call them neutral to my ears.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

IMO the he560 is neutral enough that your chain will effect its sound greatly. For me the difference between the Polaris (ss) and Ember (Hybrid Tube) is most audible on the 560 out of all my HPs.

 

[jexby]

IMO the he560 is neutral enough that your chain will effect its sound greatly. For me the difference between the Polaris (ss) and Ember (Hybrid Tube) is most audible on the 560 out of all my HPs.

Wow would love to hear your comparisons with those amps! Been wondering about garage1217 products for awhile...
especially now with HE-560.
Thanks in advance,

 

[justin w.]

There should be some impressions coming soon from the HeadAmp demo program for the HiFiMAN HE-560 -- 3 pairs have been sent out and received, one for the east coast, midwest, and west coast. Each will go to about 10 people to try for a few days