[Shane D]

Because of my poor impulse control, I just ordered a pair. lol.

Love, love, LOVE the R9, so I'm curious to see how these compare.

I will be curious to read your findings. I was going to bite at $409.00, but I went for used 109 Pro's instead.

 

[Kukuk]

Got these in just today and put a couple hours of listening time on them. I have really mixed feelings about them so far.

The bass isn't as far-reaching as the R9s, for one. Huge amounts of mid bass, then significant roll off. It's well-controlled, but like with the R9 it bleeds into the mids, except because the bass is boosted more, the bleed into the mids is worse. It can make some vocals sound quite bad. In vocal tracks that aren't affected by this they can sound quite good though.

The whole treble region is elevated compared to the R9, but it's less spiky to my ears. They end up sounding a little sweeter because of this. Oddly enough, the boosted treble doesn't provide any knock-on effect on soundstage or imaging.

I think I gotta give these a bit more time, but so far I'm not blown away. I'm certainly glad I didn't spend $1300 on them. $400 is a pretty decent price for the sound, build, and all the included extras. I can use the bluetooth adapter and all the cables it comes with on my R9s, so that's nice.

 

[Slim1970]

Got these in just today and put a couple hours of listening time on them. I have really mixed feelings about them so far.

The bass isn't as far-reaching as the R9s, for one. Huge amounts of mid bass, then significant roll off. It's well-controlled, but like with the R9 it bleeds into the mids, except because the bass is boosted more, the bleed into the mids is worse. It can make some vocals sound quite bad. In vocal tracks that aren't affected by this they can sound quite good though.

The whole treble region is elevated compared to the R9, but it's less spiky to my ears. They end up sounding a little sweeter because of this. Oddly enough, the boosted treble doesn't provide any knock-on effect on soundstage or imaging.

I think I gotta give these a bit more time, but so far I'm not blown away. I'm certainly glad I didn't spend $1300 on them. $400 is a pretty decent price for the sound, build, and all the included extras. I can use the bluetooth adapter and all the cables it comes with on my R9s, so that's nice.

Did you get the planar version HE-R10P's or dynamic version of the headphone the HE-R10D's?

 

[Kukuk]

Did you get the planar version HE-R10P's or dynamic version of the headphone the HE-R10D's?

Dynamic. While the planars are definitely interesting to me, they're well outside my price range.

Also, I totally forgot that these were sold as open box. The box was sealed, with all the cables still wrapped and no cosmetic issues anywhere. I might have to continue buying open-box from Hifiman from now on.

 

[Slim1970]

Dynamic. While the planars are definitely interesting to me, they're well outside my price range.

Also, I totally forgot that these were sold as open box. The box was sealed, with all the cables still wrapped and no cosmetic issues anywhere. I might have to continue buying open-box from Hifiman from now on.

Hifiman has great open box deals. It would be the way I would purchase Hifiman headphones for sure if you can stand to wait for the set you want.

I have the Planar version and although expensive, they are worth it to me. The addition of the Stealth magnets improved the technical aspects of the headphone. The headband switch made the HE-R10P’s look and feel more premium.

 

[mrjayviper]

the old R10P's headband look like cheap

Hifiman has great open box deals. It would be the way I would purchase Hifiman headphones for sure if you can stand to wait for the set you want.

I have the Planar version and although expensive, they are worth it to me. The addition of the Stealth magnets improved the technical aspects of the headphone. The headband switch made the HE-R10P’s look and feel more premium.

 

[Slim1970]

the old R10P's headband look like cheap

They did, it was not worthy headband for that headphone

 

[Kukuk]

The more time I spending critically listening to these, the more faults I find. Basically from top to bottom, in virtually every technical aspects they're faulty. I'm really having a hard time coming up with justifications on why someone should buy these.

And yet... I absolutely adore them. It almost feels like it's missing the point of these headphones to talk about the technical aspects. Hell, even from a musical level they're sorta all over the place. But there's a certain charm to them that I really can't explain. Describing something mediocre as being "charming" has always been a lazy cop-out to me, and here I am using it because I have no better way to describe them. Their sound is (far) more than the sum of its parts, which is a truly rare thing. I would almost describe them as a refinement on those junk headphones you owned back in the day that made you fall in love with music you heard for the first time.

You can really push the volume on them without them falling apart, which is another unique thing to me. Most headphones have some little spike in the treble that makes them absolutely unforgiving of high volumes, but these really don't. I was absolutely blasting these with a couple songs and they really held up beautifully. The bass just has so much weight to it, too. It's fairly unrefined, definitely looser than the R9s, and it doesn't go as low, but man is it visceral. That bloated mid bass gives them so much heft that rock music in particular has an unmatched energy.

I really hope nobody buys them on my impressions, though. If you get them, get them because you want to try something really weird and different. I'm sure people grabbed these at full retail price and absolutely fell in love with them after some time, and I'm definitely getting that now. The original MSRP isn't quite so outlandish to me after they've clicked with me.

 

[saujamhamm]

It's still in stock though? https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/he-r10-planar.html

Where are you seeing it dead? Funnily enough both HE-R10s are here on a review loaner, so I just chanced upon this thread.

thanks for this - was having a bugger of a time finding a graph against harman to tune my r10d. too bassy for my tastes out the box and i want to fix that hump. cheers!

 

[hardpike]

The more time I spending critically listening to these, the more faults I find. Basically from top to bottom, in virtually every technical aspects they're faulty. I'm really having a hard time coming up with justifications on why someone should buy these.

And yet... I absolutely adore them. It almost feels like it's missing the point of these headphones to talk about the technical aspects. Hell, even from a musical level they're sorta all over the place. But there's a certain charm to them that I really can't explain. Describing something mediocre as being "charming" has always been a lazy cop-out to me, and here I am using it because I have no better way to describe them. Their sound is (far) more than the sum of its parts, which is a truly rare thing. I would almost describe them as a refinement on those junk headphones you owned back in the day that made you fall in love with music you heard for the first time.

You can really push the volume on them without them falling apart, which is another unique thing to me. Most headphones have some little spike in the treble that makes them absolutely unforgiving of high volumes, but these really don't. I was absolutely blasting these with a couple songs and they really held up beautifully. The bass just has so much weight to it, too. It's fairly unrefined, definitely looser than the R9s, and it doesn't go as low, but man is it visceral. That bloated mid bass gives them so much heft that rock music in particular has an unmatched energy.


I really hope nobody buys them on my impressions, though. If you get them, get them because you want to try something really weird and different. I'm sure people grabbed these at full retail price and absolutely fell in love with them after some time, and I'm definitely getting that now. The original MSRP isn't quite so outlandish to me after they've clicked with me.

So similar to the original sonys
Colored
Crazy
But a legend

 

[saujamhamm]

i do so enjoy reading these impressions. for me, without eq, the selection of music i enjoy on these comes down to bass. if the track has any, these are going to find it and explore it to the ends of the universe and back... twice.

anything without lower bass into the sub region and you're probably fine. but anything modern, or with an actual bass instruments in it just destroys songs for me. it legit feels like the bass is standing over me cracking its knuckles getting ready to swing at any moment. it's always TOO there.

but with a tiny bit of eq. suddenly they're awesome and fun and unique and i reach for them often. these and the senn hd8xx are the only two cans i have that demand EQ - but once applied, they both do magical wizard things with music.

 

[Piotr Michalak]

Guys! HE-R10 mk1 (black headband) was a dark bass-heavy headphone. I regarded this as too colored and thus almost unlistenable.

Thankfully Hifiman allows an upgrade for roughly $500 (plus minus $50, don't remember now). That's what I did after failing to sell my mk1.

And the newer version - I call it mk2 - the one with upgraded headband - sounds very differently. Contrary to Hifimans statements that they didn't change the tuning.

It may be due to the headbands change of pressure force, not drivers or tuning change. Mk2 sounds much more neutral, to the point where I have finally accepted HE-R10 as a really great headphone. Now it's a real competitor to the likes of DCA Stealth, to the extent of even being better, as it has superb technicalities in parralel to the now-neutral tone.

I really recommend every mk1 owner to get yoursel an upgrade as it does not only look, but also sound better.

 

[Kukuk]

I'm assuming you're talking about the planar version, in which case I'd be curious to hear for myself how they compare with the dynamics. I feel like if they are in fact more neutral I'd find them terribly dull. I love that the R10Ds are so wild and so unconventional. Seems to me that if you wanted neutral, pick literally any headphone out there. I'd really love to see more manufacturers take risks and put out more unconventional high end headphones.

 

[Shane D]

I'm assuming you're talking about the planar version, in which case I'd be curious to hear for myself how they compare with the dynamics. I feel like if they are in fact more neutral I'd find them terribly dull. I love that the R10Ds are so wild and so unconventional. Seems to me that if you wanted neutral, pick literally any headphone out there. I'd really love to see more manufacturers take risks and put out more unconventional high end headphones.

So, are you now happy with the purchase? Will you keep them? What music do you think they excel at?

 

[Kukuk]

I love them to death, but I still wouldn't recommend them just because my taste in headphones can be so odd. They're basically built for classic rock, though. They do rap and the like well, but any genres softer than those are ill-suited for these.

I do plan on keeping them though, and I feel like I got my money's worth, even disregarding all the extras they come with. To any sane person I would recommend the R9 over them, but if you've got a screw loose like me, R10D all the way.