cgb3
500+ Head-Fier
This is what I use with my He1000se phones.
https://shop.zmfheadphones.com/products/ofc-braided?variant=44057977487523
Hifiman HE1000 Planar Dynamic Headphone
https://shop.zmfheadphones.com/products/ofc-braided?variant=44057977487523
Slackaveli
Headphoneus Supremus
thats pretty exceptional at that price point.
lfgoodsound
New Head-Fier
and this cable sounds better than stock, right?
cgb3
500+ Head-Fier
I prefer it, yes. They have a return policy.
Mikeoscar
New Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2016
- Posts
- 15
- Likes
- 33
After almost buying the HEKS back in september 2023, only to ultimately go for the ZMF Atrium open, I've today acquired a pair of these headphones.
Roughly half a year ago I moved house, which enabled me to buy a high-quality pair of stereo speakers. Consequently, my ZMF AO were receiving no love at all, partially due to a lack of user friendliness to interact with my audio chain. Since these headphones were still worth a (for me) significant amount of money, I sold them and went back to using my old and trusted B&W P9's.
These are, let's say, an interesting pair of headphones. I believe the word 'veiled' was introduced into the english language for the expres purpose of describing these. They were warm, lush and did certain tracks or artists incredibly well, at times almost matching the quality of my ZMF's at stuff like jazz. However, for other types of music the synergy was missing entirely and it sounded, quite frankly, a bit crap. What is worse, everytime I would switch back to my main (speaker) system, I would get a mental whipslash while my brain had to adjust to the different, far more neutral but still warm, sound signature. Thus the P9's also had to go, even though had I had my system far more user-friendly by acquiring a new DAC.
So off I went and started reading and watching reviews of different cans. Since my main system was already so good, I had no desire to spend a lot of money to try and match or improve it. This is why I initially started looking for 'cheap and cheerful' headphones, which led me to the Meze 105 AER. It had some excellent reviews and matched my pricing requirements, so I picked up an almost brand new pair from the classifieds. Unfortunately, these were a bit of a mess. The bass was very poor at some frequencies, timbre was middling and seperation was only good during the more peaceful parts of the track - once complexity started rising, seperation of instruments completely collapsed and it became a bit of a mess. Thus exit the Meze 105.
This put me in a bit of a dilemma, since it seemed that I needed to pay a bit more cash to get a pair of headphones that would be enjoyable to me. But how much more? I started looking at Arya Stealth's and Organics, but I feared the sibilance and treble (I am a little sensitive in that region and even on the Atrium I suffered from it). I started looking at the DCA stuff, both the Aeon Noire X and the E3 look very interesting, but I really wanted to listening to these before purchasing. And especially the E3 was way outside my desired price range. Meanwhile, I also started looking at the HEKS, which had once again dropped in price since last I had compared these to the Atriums (pricepoint at that time was €1800 and they then already represented good value for money). With the current price for a new pair, I was considering pulling the trigger, since I knew how good they sounded (at least I believed that I did) and I never had treble issue's with these. But being a stingy person, I waited.
Two days ago I found a great local classified with a killer price for an almost unused pair of HEKS's, so I pulled the trigger. I'm glad to say they are really as good as I remembered them to be. It feels totally bonkers to me that you can now get these headphones for only double the price of a new pair of Meze 105's. I've seen it commented before in this thread, but it really feels like the community and the wider world is sleeping on the insane value that these headphones now offer. I'm very happy to have bought these and they seem to pair very well with my Violectric V222 amplifier.
Two questions for my fellow HEKS owners:
1. What is the consensus on equalization? I've currently thrown in Oratory1990's target curve and am largely pleased. It tames some treble on song where I struggle with the treble. John Hiat's 'Adios to California' is a great personal test track for me - it's a great song, but the sibilance everytime he sings an 's' is off the charts for me. With EQ it becomes far more tolerable. But on the other hand I've noticed certain instruments sounding a little less natural - trumpets and saxophones in particular lose a little bit of life. So right now I'm a little conflicted - thankfully my DAC allows easy, on the fly swapping of EQ.
2. Padswapping: I've seen Dekoni and ZMF pads being discussed in this thread. Is there anyone that has taken the plunge to buy a pair of these and is willing to share their experiences?
Roughly half a year ago I moved house, which enabled me to buy a high-quality pair of stereo speakers. Consequently, my ZMF AO were receiving no love at all, partially due to a lack of user friendliness to interact with my audio chain. Since these headphones were still worth a (for me) significant amount of money, I sold them and went back to using my old and trusted B&W P9's.
These are, let's say, an interesting pair of headphones. I believe the word 'veiled' was introduced into the english language for the expres purpose of describing these. They were warm, lush and did certain tracks or artists incredibly well, at times almost matching the quality of my ZMF's at stuff like jazz. However, for other types of music the synergy was missing entirely and it sounded, quite frankly, a bit crap. What is worse, everytime I would switch back to my main (speaker) system, I would get a mental whipslash while my brain had to adjust to the different, far more neutral but still warm, sound signature. Thus the P9's also had to go, even though had I had my system far more user-friendly by acquiring a new DAC.
So off I went and started reading and watching reviews of different cans. Since my main system was already so good, I had no desire to spend a lot of money to try and match or improve it. This is why I initially started looking for 'cheap and cheerful' headphones, which led me to the Meze 105 AER. It had some excellent reviews and matched my pricing requirements, so I picked up an almost brand new pair from the classifieds. Unfortunately, these were a bit of a mess. The bass was very poor at some frequencies, timbre was middling and seperation was only good during the more peaceful parts of the track - once complexity started rising, seperation of instruments completely collapsed and it became a bit of a mess. Thus exit the Meze 105.
This put me in a bit of a dilemma, since it seemed that I needed to pay a bit more cash to get a pair of headphones that would be enjoyable to me. But how much more? I started looking at Arya Stealth's and Organics, but I feared the sibilance and treble (I am a little sensitive in that region and even on the Atrium I suffered from it). I started looking at the DCA stuff, both the Aeon Noire X and the E3 look very interesting, but I really wanted to listening to these before purchasing. And especially the E3 was way outside my desired price range. Meanwhile, I also started looking at the HEKS, which had once again dropped in price since last I had compared these to the Atriums (pricepoint at that time was €1800 and they then already represented good value for money). With the current price for a new pair, I was considering pulling the trigger, since I knew how good they sounded (at least I believed that I did) and I never had treble issue's with these. But being a stingy person, I waited.
Two days ago I found a great local classified with a killer price for an almost unused pair of HEKS's, so I pulled the trigger. I'm glad to say they are really as good as I remembered them to be. It feels totally bonkers to me that you can now get these headphones for only double the price of a new pair of Meze 105's. I've seen it commented before in this thread, but it really feels like the community and the wider world is sleeping on the insane value that these headphones now offer. I'm very happy to have bought these and they seem to pair very well with my Violectric V222 amplifier.
Two questions for my fellow HEKS owners:
1. What is the consensus on equalization? I've currently thrown in Oratory1990's target curve and am largely pleased. It tames some treble on song where I struggle with the treble. John Hiat's 'Adios to California' is a great personal test track for me - it's a great song, but the sibilance everytime he sings an 's' is off the charts for me. With EQ it becomes far more tolerable. But on the other hand I've noticed certain instruments sounding a little less natural - trumpets and saxophones in particular lose a little bit of life. So right now I'm a little conflicted - thankfully my DAC allows easy, on the fly swapping of EQ.
2. Padswapping: I've seen Dekoni and ZMF pads being discussed in this thread. Is there anyone that has taken the plunge to buy a pair of these and is willing to share their experiences?
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Dede1982
New Head-Fier
I have the Dekoni Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin pads installed and they definetely are an upgrade to the stock ones to my ears:
They add a little more base without losing any details or soundstage.
cgb3
500+ Head-Fier
I second the Dekoni Elite Fenestrated Sheepskin pads. I use them with all my phones.
I really like the Schiit Lokius. No band is boosted or dumb more than 10-15% (most under 5%), but that makes all the difference with my HEkS. I think it's more about compensating for my own aging hearing, than perfecting the headphone.
I start with these settings, and alter them to my preferences. The frequencies don't perfectly match the Lokius, but it's a start.
I am not sure you can solve this problem.
I came to the conclusion that you cant have a tuning fitting all kind of music, simply because songs are mixed differently in studios. You can find an EQ taming the trebles for one song mixed on the bright side but for another one mixed « correctly » the same setup will sound darker and instruments will have less accuracy.
You can even find for the same song a mix really on the edge with sibilance and another version (a live or another recording) absolutely fine. Take jar of hearts (Christina Perri) studio version and jar of hearts 10th anniversary live. The second is perfectly tuned, the first one is really on the bright side.
Hifiman are on the edge about brightness, just because it provides excellent details as it is. If you change FR, you will loose on instruments because they dont work as voices. It is all about compromise. Darker headphones are more allrounders but not as precise or having this wow factor. But it is not on the headphones side. Mixing is the explanation.
On my side, even with the Unveiled being less bright by nature, using EQ can make some songs more easy to listen to, but instruments sounds less accurate then. It is a pity but I dont think you can have the best experience for all genres with one pair of headphones, songs are too sensitive for ears. I have the same problem with a song I love from Muse (Verona). Vocals are really on the bright side. EQ solves this issue, but when comes the guitar part which is sooo good, you loose all this magic and airyness… (in fact, aligning the FR to the Harman curve simply flatten the soundstage on my side).
It is the same thing with pictures in homecinema. An excellent projector with a precise and accurate picture will show you all the bad details of a poor movie, but it will sublimate the good ones and you will have a great experience with good masters. They are a kind of magnifier, in both ways… I really think it is the same with he1000 series.
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andrewchoppa
500+ Head-Fier
Agree 100% I found this listening to my Focal Radiance last night. A new album I hadn't heard before, came out that I was eagerly waiting. I sipped my glass of red, sat back into the couch, ready for aural nirvana, then BANG!!!!!! They were shouty, muddled and sounded bloody awful (exaggeration but I definitely did not like what I was hearing!!). I changed to music I knew well and Ahhhhhhhhhh. Fantastic again. Mixing/Producing really makes a huge difference imo.
I have listened to the last Resolve video. He gives a playlist to test some frequencies. I tried the female song to test the 6khz/10khz zone. Of course it was pretty sibilant. So I EQed to have some thing good. For other songs « well recorded » I lost all the magic of 3d sound and details (and naturalness). Instruments are not so proud to be here. And changing amp or dac to change that sounds silly to me (I tried).
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Longtime He1000 users, is it safe to hang them by the leather band (as if you are wearing all the time) or will the headband stretch too much?
I'm looking for a sturdy and tall enough stand; the room audio aluminium one is an option but i will have to hang the hp by the headband; or maybe the woo audio, which is more difficult to import in europe.
If you have other suggestion i'm all ears.
I'm looking for a sturdy and tall enough stand; the room audio aluminium one is an option but i will have to hang the hp by the headband; or maybe the woo audio, which is more difficult to import in europe.
If you have other suggestion i'm all ears.
If you wanna hang-up the HE1K, try little hooks which fit in the space between the metal headband and leather strap:
By audioenthusiastlistener - Head-Fi.org .
Slackaveli
Headphoneus Supremus
He1000 are going brand new for $1007 with the active 10% off stacked onto a current promotion on SoundApproach which also doesnt charge sales tax... So if there are any lurkers in here wanting to get in on the fun THIS IS the time to strike with it being $1k out the door.
Lowest price ever, cheaper than used HeK sell for.
Lowest price ever, cheaper than used HeK sell for.
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andrewchoppa
500+ Head-Fier
Damn that's cheap!!!!! Anyone considering buying, this is a STEAL, trust me!!!!!He1000 are going brand new for $1007 with the active 10% off stacked onto a current promotion on SoundApproach which also doesnt charge sales tax... So if there are any lurkers in here wanting to get in on the fun THIS IS the time to strike with it being $1k out the door.
Lowest price ever, cheaper than used HeK sell for.
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