[Nimzerz]

You mean PRAT.... another lame term

 

[MattTCG]

Pace, rhythm and timing...not quite. 
 
Some hp's, and speakers for that matter, seem to have an innate ability to connect me to the music. It's the ability, rather ironically, to make you forget the gear and experience the music on an emotional level. 

 

[raspiguy]

I'm curious about a comparison between the 560 and the HE-4, since it was the first single-ended design, and may be more similar to the 560 than the 500 is.

+1 on this - I'd basically assumed it was a given that somebody (Thujone?) would have offered to send theirs to Jerg for the inevitable comparison analysis - if I still had mine, I certainly would have.  It'll probably be more relevant for initial 400i reviews/comparisons, but it wouldn't exactly hurt here, either.
 
As far as the amping argument/discussion goes:  When I had the 500, 4, and Mini-X all at the same time, I thought the 4 really scaled in the bass punch/slam department with the Mini-X power much more than the 500 could - so much so that it almost felt like a physical effect.  I always wondered if it was possibly due in part to the single-sided design and kind of thought that these new models might show the same type of effect.
 
I'm willing to bet these aren't going to have an obvious threshold but will scale up (& down) well with whatever setup/application you're going for.

 

[raspiguy]

This isn't the thread for this but my mind is blown that you don't have Spotify. I highly suggest upgrading from free to premium. Try it for a month.

Regardless of how great of a deal it is / can be for the average consumer, some people object to Spotify based on principle due to the royalties issue.  That's one of the reasons I stopped using it a couple years ago, among others.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Binaural albums sounded amazing on the hd800s, someone please try them on the he560s.

 

[Edwood]

Let's stick to comments on the HE-560 rather than Spotify.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Larry pretty much was very accurate in some of the things I heard after about  7 hrs of listening to it yesterday. The bass is nice and deep with impact. The midrange is excellent and the treble has no harshness or glare. The HE560 has excellent prat with very good transparency. It also is very accurate with instrument tonality. The soundstage is similar to the other Hifiman headphone . I think this is a step up from the HE500 and have not done extensive comparison to the HE6 which I will do over the next couple of weeks and compare the HE560 to the Audeze phones and Dan Clarks  magnificent Alpha Dog. I think the musicality from the HE560 is admirable in a headphone priced this competitively. 

I am proud of what Fang has been able to accomplish with the improvements and to lessen the weight of the planar headphone without sacrificing sound quality. I was able to spend the time yesterday without any discomfort. The sound coming from both the GSX MK11 and WA5 both very transparent amplifiers that reveal major faults and  the HE560 delivered the music with you are there realism and musicality. More to come as the day and weeks come and a full review.

Thanks Frank, and agreed.

It's hard for me to gauge the holographic size of the soundstage without feeling like I am making things up.

I will say that these have a much more convincing soundstage than my two other Hifiman cans, because of the sheer openness of the sound, neutrality / accurate timbre, and treble extension / airiness, and fast transient response. Listening to binaural recordings, I still have to close my eyes with HE500s/400s and force my brain into believing that things are projected outward, with these I can have my eyes open and my brain still gets tricked.

That's what I was describing with "the sound seems to come from everywhere but the earcups." Even with a $250 Nuforce iDo the soundstage remains huge. Some people complained that the HD800 artificially expands the soundstage, but I don't agree. But I do think that those same people might make the same complaint about these.

Okay jerg, here's a question that hasn't been asked yet. How do you rate ERI on the new 560? What, you don't know what ERI means? Well, that's cause I just made it up.    ERI is Emotional Response Index. It's given on a 10 point scale with 1 being utterly boring/sleep inducing and 10 being toe tapping, tingles down the spine, you want to get up and dance around the room in your boxers strumming the air guitar. 

It would help if you would assign an ERI to the 400 and 500 also. 

In the 9+ range for toe tapping fun

 

[Chik0240]

One question beside the he560. Did a anyone tried the new pads with he400/500? Did it colour it more or make them a tad more neutral?

 

[jerg]

I've spent the last 3 hours doing a pretty tough mod on these, the result? solid extension down to sub-20Hz. I think the part of the mod that did the job is quite easy though, I spent most of the time doing a rather unnecessary chore.
 
The best part is this should be applicable to all Hifiman headphones.
 
I can't believe I never thought of this, it's really just a quick patch-up of the weakest link in the sub-bass conduction from the drivers to the ears.
 
Edit: I'll document this in its own thread in the near future when I get around to doing it again on my HE500s (I forgot to take photos today).
 
 
 
The quick and dirty explanation is that I realized that the plastic baffle ring (which the earpad mounting tabs slot into) which is supposed to be conducting very low frequencies, makes terrible contact with the drivers due to a bunch of driver screws propping it up at various spots; simply adding strips of thick creatology adhesive-backed felt all along the outer perimetres of the driver, so that the baffle ring sits onto it but screws in securely as well, boosts the contact between the baffle and the driver immensely. I've always been so focused on the earpads, even for sub-bass, that I completely overlooked this weak link until now.
 
(What i spent most of the last 3 hours on, for anyone who cares, was I tediously carved out holes on the baffle rings to let the driver screws through, before doing what I described above).

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

  I've spent the last 3 hours doing a pretty tough mod on these, the result? solid extension down to sub-20Hz. I think the part of the mod that did the job is quite easy though, I spent most of the time doing a rather unnecessary chore.
 
The best part is this should be applicable to all Hifiman headphones.
 
I can't believe I never thought of this, it's really just a quick patch-up of the weakest link in the sub-bass conduction from the drivers to the ears.
 
Edit: I'll document this in its own thread in the near future when I get around to doing it again on my HE500s (I forgot to take photos today).
 
 
 
The quick and dirty explanation is that I realized that the plastic baffle ring (which the earpad mounting tabs slot into) which is supposed to be conducting very low frequencies, makes terrible contact with the drivers due to a bunch of driver screws propping it up at various spots; simply adding strips of thick creatology adhesive-backed felt all along the outer perimetres of the driver, so that the baffle ring sits onto it but screws in securely as well, boosts the contact between the baffle and the driver immensely. I've always been so focused on the earpads, even for sub-bass, that I completely overlooked this weak link until now.
 
(What i spent most of the last 3 hours on, for anyone who cares, was I tediously carved out holes on the baffle rings to let the driver screws through, before doing what I described above).

 
You're modding a review sample?  How do you know what effect that will have on the rest of the frequency response?  I would't do mods and review it without being able to measure them before and after, so now you have to ship them to Tyll. 

 

[jerg]

   
You're modding a review sample?  How do you know what effect that will have on the rest of the frequency response?  I would't do mods and review it without being able to measure them before and after, so now you have to ship them to Tyll. 

Experience. 

 
 
Edit: and logic.
 
Edit 2: YGPM.

 

[ThurstonX]

  I've spent the last 3 hours doing a pretty tough mod on these, the result? solid extension down to sub-20Hz. I think the part of the mod that did the job is quite easy though, I spent most of the time doing a rather unnecessary chore.
 
The best part is this should be applicable to all Hifiman headphones.
 
I can't believe I never thought of this, it's really just a quick patch-up of the weakest link in the sub-bass conduction from the drivers to the ears.
 
Edit: I'll document this in its own thread in the near future when I get around to doing it again on my HE500s (I forgot to take photos today).
 
 
 
The quick and dirty explanation is that I realized that the plastic baffle ring (which the earpad mounting tabs slot into) which is supposed to be conducting very low frequencies, makes terrible contact with the drivers due to a bunch of driver screws propping it up at various spots; simply adding strips of thick creatology adhesive-backed felt all along the outer perimetres of the driver, so that the baffle ring sits onto it but screws in securely as well, boosts the contact between the baffle and the driver immensely. I've always been so focused on the earpads, even for sub-bass, that I completely overlooked this weak link until now.
 
(What i spent most of the last 3 hours on, for anyone who cares, was I tediously carved out holes on the baffle rings to let the driver screws through, before doing what I described above).

 
Thanks for sharing.  Sounds like a simple thing to try, if I'm reading you correctly.  I've got plenty of that felt left, so if I get a chance tomorrow or Sunday, I'll give it a shot, and take some pix.

 

[jerg]

   
Thanks for sharing.  Sounds like a simple thing to try, if I'm reading you correctly.  I've got plenty of that felt left, so if I get a chance tomorrow or Sunday, I'll give it a shot, and take some pix.

It should be fairly obvious as soon as you take the earpads off and examine the baffle ring; it will look all crooked because it is propped up by the protrusions of the silver screws from the driver, all there is is just air under the baffle ring, rather than solid coupling to the driver. I might contact Dr. Fang about it...seems like a minor design oversight that could be easily adjusted for a lot of improvement (especially for subbass-head customers, which seems to be about 80% of Head-fiers).

 

[ThurstonX]

  It should be fairly obvious as soon as you take the earpads off and examine the baffle ring; it will look all crooked because it is propped up by the protrusions of the silver screws from the driver, all there is is just air under the baffle ring, rather than solid coupling to the driver. I might contact Dr. Fang about it...seems like a minor design oversight that could be easily adjusted for a lot of improvement (especially for subbass-head customers, which seems to be about 80% of Head-fiers).

 
Thanks again.  Sounds like what I was imagining I'll see when I try.  I take it that I don't need to be so meticulous in carving out holes for the screws, not that I mind being meticulous.

 

[jerg]

   
Thanks again.  Sounds like what I was imagining I'll see when I try.  I take it that I don't need to be so meticulous in carving out holes for the screws, not that I mind being meticulous.

If you have a hand drill with a small drill-bit (~4mm diametre) then you could make short work of the additional holes for the screw protrusions; otherwise don't bother unless your pseudo-OCD gets triggered.