[dcguy73]

I did spend a lot of time in a quiet room with the Chord DAVE and the HE-1000s at the meet. That was an amazing combination. Just incredible. And unbalanced, too!

 

[TheAttorney]

I've previously sang the praises of Roon's Parametric EQ function and how that has helped give my HEK V2's a subjectively more neutral and pleasing tone. Last post was here.
I've also previously posted that, with any DSP, you have to balance the pros and cons - the primary con being a potentail loss of fidelity/transparancy with any data signal manipulation.
But overall, I felt Roon's PEQ had more pros than cons, beating a highly regarded pro PEQ plugin on the transparency stakes.

But now I'm not so sure. Maybe it's because my source has recently been incrementally improving, but for whatever reason, I now notice the downside of engaging Roon's PEQ and, once heard, the OCD part of my brain refuses to let me un-hear it again. It's a cumulative effect that gets worse as each band is added. With the 3 bands in the above post, I now find the loss of transparency unacceptable. It manifests itself as an unnatural smoothness. Now, there can be Good smoothness (lack of glare and grain) and Bad smoothness (a smothering of fine detail, a loss or air and sparkle). Unfortunately for me, this is the Bad version. Unfortunate because I have no Plan B for a Roon alternative.

So I've now dropped the 3rd priority band (at 1.9khz), and the 2nd priority 50hz band is touch and go at the moment - currently it's staying. The 1st priority band at 8.3khz is definitely staying as the pros still outway cons, particularly noticeable on hotly recorded female vocals.

These are probably objectively tiny differences, and the Roon team doesn't think there's any problem with their 64-bit DSP in the first place, but it further re-enforces my view that the HEK V2 thrives on transparency and tends to sound a bit "soft" with lesser upstream components.

 

[onsionsi]

.

 

[onsionsi]

I did spend a lot of time in a quiet room with the Chord DAVE and the HE-1000s at the meet. That was an amazing combination. Just incredible. And unbalanced, too!

How did you compare Holo to Dave?

 

[dcguy73]

How did you compare Holo to Dave?

I did not have the Holo with me at the Head-Fi meet referenced above where I listened to the Dave. I have not had the pleasure of directly comparing the two, though I would like to do so, especially with a Blu MK2 feeding both DACs.

 

[Slim1970]

I'm selling my He1K V2's if anyone is interested. I'm moving up to the Susvara. If interested follow the link in my signature.

 

[Gibson59]

I'm selling my He1K V2's if anyone is interested. I'm moving up to the Susvara. If interested follow the link in my signature.

Congrats! Can’t wait to hear impressions of the difference between the two.

 

[Maxx134]

I have no Plan B for a Roon alternative.

Instead of a softwae approach,you can try a hardware approach in adjusting real EQ with the Schit Loki...

 

[TheAttorney]

Instead of a softwae approach,you can try a hardware approach in adjusting real EQ with the Schit Loki...

I've thought about a Loki-like h/w solution, but there are some downsides for me:

1. I'm meant to be downsizing, and this is another liitle box requiring another power supply, socket, interconnect cables and power cord.
2. One of my red lines is that my headphones MUST be directly driven by DAVE DAC, and the Loki will only work with an external headphone amp.
3. I've found that the HEK responds to tiny adjustments in EQ (e.g. 8.3khz vs 8.2khz ans similarly tiny adjustments to Q value), so the 4 bands of the Loki are nowhwere near precise enough.

As it happens, some people have commented that the recent Roon 1.5 release has improved SQ compared to 1.4. I hadn't noticed this myself because Roon updated at much the same time as my microRendu 2.6 update and Fidelizer Pro 8.1 update, so although I heard improvements, I can't say how much of that was down to Roon. However, ever hopeful, a couple of days ago, I retried the PEQ test and this time I could barely tell the difference between adding/removing any band. This is not conclusive because I need to retry at different times to be sure, but I'm hoping I no longer have a problem that needs solving.

BTW, my simple test of PEQ transparency is to add a band with the minimal posssible level (0.01db) and then A/B compare that band switched in or out, That is such a tiny db difference that it shouldn't skew the result becuase of a tonal change,

 

[Maxx134]

I've found that the HEK responds to tiny adjustments in EQ

Have you looked into my HEK modding solutions?
They are highlighted in blue in my signature below...
All are reversible as well.

 

[TheAttorney]

Yes, I was one of the first ones to try the Felian mod - and reported it on your thread .
Well worth doing - I'm surprised more HEK'ers haven't tried it yet, As you said, it's fully reversible. And requires no specific skills such as soldering or sewing that sometimes put people off modding.

 

[Maxx134]

One of my red lines is that my headphones MUST be directly driven by DAVE DAC,

If I remember correctly, the Dave has a few settings in menu for crossfeed, so wondering if it has any other adjustments you could take advantage of.

 

[rutter]

How does the v2 compare to the HEXv2?

 

[RobinTim]

This thread has been quiet lately. Is there another HEK thread that people migrated to?

Meanwhile I have decided to sell a new set of HEK V2s on the forum here that was sent to me as a replacement unit. I love the HEKs but I think overall prefer the immediacy of the Utopias. Hopefully I wont regret this and want them back as soon as they are sold

 

[Slim1970]

This thread has been quiet lately. Is there another HEK thread that people migrated to?

Meanwhile I have decided to sell a new set of HEK V2s on the forum here that was sent to me as a replacement unit. I love the HEKs but I think overall prefer the immediacy of the Utopias. Hopefully I wont regret this and want them back as soon as they are sold

I had mine up for sale, but I called off the sell after getting some more head time with them. They are just so spacious and airy sounding, which is a big contrast to the Utopia’s sound. The transparency of the HE1K V2’s is amazing and unique. I knew I would regret selling them because I don’t have another headphone that sounds like them. The only way I would get rid of them is if I had the Susvara’s in my hand first. Then and only then would I feel okay about selling them.