[TeamHiFiMAN]

Hi everyone,
Good news!!! Today we have completed all the testing of the final production version of HE-560. Here are two quick pictures. As you can see that we have made some change with the ear cup. It is now made of macassar ebony veneer. Hope you will like the new design. Production will start very soon.
 
Besides the cosmetic change, we have also done the following:
 
1. Added additional internal damping for the drivers. This results in better frequency response and produces even more transparent and detailed sound. 
 
2. As requested by some headfiers we have modified the new ear pad to give a larger inner opening. The inner circle of the new ear pad should now match the old one.
 
3. We have further tweaked the headphone cable with better conductor which makes the sound more musical. BTW, for ppl who is looking for 4-pin XLR connector headphone cable, we are planning to release a cable with 4-pin XLR connector as an accessory. It should be available shortly after we start delivering the headphone.
 
For people who has already received the early version of the HE-560, we will provide free replacement service for you. We will cover shipping fee both ways, so there will be no cost for you at all. We will let you know when it's time to contact us for the replacement. Stay tuned.
 
btw, as i mentioned previously we will have the new HE-560s at the upcoming Newport show. Please stop by and take a listen. We promise that you will like it.
 

 

 

[henwell]

I guess I'M going to wait till the initial demand dies down to get mine maybe they will have all the changes made and maybe even drop the price like they did on the HE 500's

 

[KurtW]

My pre-order HE-560 has over 200 hours on it now, so I thought I would give some further comment.  I had originally planned to buy the LCD-X after borrowing a pair for a few days and then comparing them to their sister headphones at a meet, although the weight did bother me some.  When I read about the HE-560 I decided to try them out first, and I am glad I did.  Sound wise I think the HE-560 is in the same league as the LCD-X, but I no longer have those for a direct comparison.  However the 560 is a lot cheaper, and a lot more comfortable.  The 560 seems like a very neutral headphone with a bit more treble energy than what I'm used to.  The bass goes very deep and is detailed but not at all heavy.  If they bring up the bass level slightly I think this will be an improvement.  The midrange is very neutral...I wouldn't change anything there.  The treble seems to be very smooth, and only with bad recordings do I want to back off the treble at bit.  The sound is very detailed but still very musical.  I have heard the Senn. HE-90 Orpheus several times (both with the original amp and the blue Hawaii), and this is the most musical headphone I have ever heard, by a wide margin.  But the only other headphone that is clearly better than the HE-560 in this way is the Abyss, which is 5 of 6 times the cost of the HE-560.  More detail is not always better.   I don't care for the HD-800 which has too much detail for my taste and is not very musical as a result.  The HD-800 is like looking at masterpiece painting from 6 or 8 inches away from the canvas surface.  Yes, very impressive but you may see Mona Lisa's lips in great detail but you miss her smile.  I had the good fortune of seeing this painting before they put plexiglass in front of it and roped it off, so I got to see it both ways.  In summary, I am very impressed with the sound of the HE-560 as well as the comfort level.  I have used it with three different amps that have power output (at 33 ohms, both channels driven) that measured 200mw, 450mw and 1.3 watts, and they all drove it well.  
 
Much as been made about the pad size and various quality issues, resulting is a redo of the product and the delays this has caused.  The pads worked for me fine.  I did experience a little scratching on the wood from the yokes.  The finish on the wood looked like it was a bit rushed, with some small imperfections.  The PVC covering on the cable seems cheap, and the cable itself is a little stiff.  I haven't come across any other issues.  
 
I worked in the semiconductor industry for many years as a Product Engineer, who's job was to take a new integrated circuit design and characterize it over the manufacturing process corners and run reliability tests on it to make sure that when it was released to manufacturing that there would be no issues.  This took quite a while to do (many months), and when problems were found they had to be fixed, which took even longer.  There was always a lot of pressure from sales and marketing and upper management to get the thing released.  The process has gotten better now that for new processes they release a DFM (design for manufacturing) document that helps the designer understand early in the design stage, what the manufacturing variances are so the circuit can be designed for them.   So HiFiMan stumbled a bit at first, but they sure seem to want to make everything right, and I appreciate that.  However rushing the product is not the answer, even it is painful to wait.  

 

[jerg]

  Hi everyone,
Good news!!! Today we have completed all the testing of the final production version of HE-560. Here are two quick pictures. As you can see that we have made some change with the ear cup. It is now made of macassar ebony veneer. Hope you will like the new design. Production will start very soon.
 
Besides the cosmetic change, we have also done the following:
 
1. Added additional internal damping for the drivers. This results in better frequency response and produces even more transparent and detailed sound. 
 
2. As requested by some headfiers we have modified the new ear pad to give a larger inner opening. The inner circle of the new ear pad should now match the old one.
 
3. We have further tweaked the headphone cable with better conductor which makes the sound more musical. BTW, for ppl who is looking for 4-pin XLR connector headphone cable, we are planning to release a cable with 4-pin XLR connector as an accessory. It should be available shortly after we start delivering the headphone.
 
For people who has already received the early version of the HE-560, we will provide free replacement service for you. We will cover shipping fee both ways, so there will be no cost for you at all. We will let you know when it's time to contact us for the replacement. Stay tuned.
 
btw, as i mentioned previously we will have the new HE-560s at the upcoming Newport show. Please stop by and take a listen. We promise that you will like it.
 

 

That looks sick!
 
Edit: I have a feeling that some owners of the teak cup HE560s might not be willing to give those up though, as they'd be the owners of the "limited" edition. I can imagine that this new design is definitely more reliable to manufacture and maintain, and from an aesthetics point of view it works way better with the headband visually.

 

[MattTCG]

It does look pretty good, but so did the teak wood. I like them both actually. Hard to say. The new wood may be one that you have to see in person to appreciate most. 
 
Thanks Peter for sharing the changes and the pictures. Much appreciated. Can't wait till these start shipping. 

 

[KurtW]

I like the look of the new wood!

 

[MattTCG]

It will match my stand to perfection!! 

 

 

[jerg]

  It does look pretty good, but so did the teak wood. I like them both actually. Hard to say. The new wood may be one that you have to see in person to appreciate most. 
 
Thanks Peter for sharing the changes and the pictures. Much appreciated. Can't wait till these start shipping. 

That's the rep Eric I think, Peter posts under @hifiman-us AFAIK. 
 
I guess Hifiman got fed up working with solid wood in the end, too much headache for very little gains.

 

[MattTCG]

^^ Thanks Jerg. In my excitement over the post, I neglected to notice. 

 

[jerg]

  ^^ Thanks Jerg. In my excitement over the post, I neglected to notice. 

You can tell with the distinctive smiley faces in his posts. 

 

[jamato8]

Solid wood will have issues at times and in extreme climates and can end up cracking. To have highly stabilized wood, expense goes up and you are always going to have throw aways. 

 

[mlxx]

So is this now an all plastic cup with a strip of veneer over it?
 
Seems to be plastic on top where the grill is and there is some plastic running across the wood near the connectors.

 

[up late]

wood veneer cups with plastic yokes. how much is this can selling for?

 

[jerg]

wood veneer cups with plastic yokes. how much is this can selling for?

Less than a completely plastic one (HE6) apparently. Don't forget the costs associated with boutique headphones is always overwhelmingly on R&D (research and development) rather than material costs of the actual product.

 

[up late]

does that include grado? at least they use real wood in their high-end cans.