[preproman]

The impression thread has gone to schiit.  
 
Has anyone else got a chance to compare these to the Abyss?  Would like to hear your thoughts..

 

[doctorjazz]

As I've said, I had the same initial impression, lack of "attack", lack of involvement, I think they have their own world view, their own unique perspective/presentation. Once I entered that sphere, everything just clicked and sounds great (and right!)

 

[Sorrodje]

Who said they are lacking in attack? Definitely hasn't been a problem for me either

 
Several people including me noticed  the softness of the attack , the lack of depth in the soundstage , the lack of presence and the imprecises imaging. we wrote pages to explain exactly what we heard . It's not subtle and once thoses issues are noticed , it pervades in all the frequency range and "haunts" the music. we compared the HE1000 to HD800 , HE-6 , AByss, SR009 mostly and use somet decent dac andamps ( Eddie Current 4-45, 2A3 mkIV , Ragnarok, Dynahi, AudioGD HE-9 , totaldac , Yggy, Krell speaker amps ... )  I don't have enough experience with a HE560 or a LCD3C/F . Maybe what we noticed is less obvious compared to this headphones. 
 
For some of us it's noticable enough to become a dealbreaker and we asked a refund instead of a new production pair. for some other it' was not annoying to enjoy the music they listen to.  Some (Purrin for example) still enjoy his HE1000. We were talking about BEta units but Some impressions about production unit popped here or there and seem consistent with what we thought about our Beta. 
 
As  I wrote myself those shortcomings  killed the HE1K for me but YMMV. 
 
@preproman :  A kind guy took the time to write a comparison with his owne Abyss : 
 

 Impact, attack, punch and leading edge go to the Abyss no doubt.  This area of the HE1K is not bad, it’s just not all that good either, so if I had to pick one it would be the Abyss.

 
SOurce : http://www.head-fi.org/t/767883/official-hifiman-he1000-impressions-thread/450#post_11670499 

 
More seriously; we did the comparison ( HE1K, SR009, Abyss) with a friend who own both the Stax and the  Jpslabs and I agree with the comparison you did. Imaging and depth are far superior with the Abyss, Bass slam, leading edge as well.  My friend was even more severe than me with the HE1K.  To each their own  .
 
As I wrote in my own review , I can see how the mellow , forgiving yet very "hifi" and beautiful HE1000 sound can please to a lot of people but IMO it's NOT a better headphone than most current flagship. it brings something different . Jack of all trades, easy to listen and love, good with about every music....  for me,it's uninteresting , especially considering the huge price tag but YMMV.

 

[isquirrel]

  The impression thread has gone to schiit.  
 
Has anyone else got a chance to compare these to the Abyss?  Would like to hear your thoughts..

Mine have shipped, will have them on Monday  

 
I have the DHC adapters for them so I can run them fully balanced into the Woo's and directly compare with my Abyss and listen to how they respond to good cables etc. I expect they will need some hours on them so will get at least get 100 on them.
 
Will also have a a couple of new DAC's to play with.

 

[reeltime]

   
That's wishful thinking. Have a look at Headroom's or Inner Fidelity's FR graphs! The amplitude responses even of the most expensive and highly regarded headphones are far from being flat. 

I don't want a flat headphone, unless I'm mixing something.  Flat headphones are dry, analytical, and boring.  I want a headphone with an attitude, with a point of view.  I like the sound signature of the HE1000.  It's warm, forgiving, great dynamics, deep bass and on and on.  My analog chain goes from the turntable, to the phono stage, to the headphone amp, to the headphones.  As little coloration as possible so I can understand a headphone's true nature.  
 
I don't subscribe to the idea that you can dial in attack.  The snare snap isn't a frequency response issue, it's about the diaphragm's response to certain impulses.  It's a characteristic which my other headphones seem to have no problem resolving.  

 

[goobicii]

 Flat headphones are dry, analytical and boring

tell us what flat headphones you heard from what amp,what dac,what music format,was your that specific pair freqency response tested when you listened?

 

[LouisArmstrong]

I think the HE1000's transient response is just second to SR009. That's quite a feat to achieve considering it's only planar but not electrostatic.

 

[Sorrodje]

  I think the HE1000's transient response is just second to SR009. That's quite a feat to achieve considering it's only planar but not electrostatic.

 
In my experience, well amped planars are damn fast. Even mid-fi ones ( at least  the old Hifiman HE-4 and 400 for example) .  Sure the 009 is the faster headphones I heard though.  
 
IMO and IME the HE1K is really fast... once started.

 

[tiagojsag]

Hi, head-fiers
 
I am currently looking for an online store to buy the HE1k, in Europe (pref Germany). I looked around and, although I could find a couple of hits on google, they all go for 3500€, which, after conversion, is a nice $900 premium over the recommended $3000 in the USA. While I do expect them to be a bit more expensive over here, $900 seems like a bit too much.
Can anyone recommend a place where I can order these with a nicer price?
 
thanks

 

[Sorrodje]

http://www.audiophonics.fr/en/casques-casques-audio/hifiman-he-1000-planar-magnetic-headphone-balanced-high-fidelity-90db-p-9793.html  Maybe you can try there. 
 
You could Ask before ordering maybe.  

 

[Xenophon]

  Hi, head-fiers
 
I am currently looking for an online store to buy the HE1k, in Europe (pref Germany). I looked around and, although I could find a couple of hits on google, they all go for 3500€, which, after conversion, is a nice $900 premium over the recommended $3000 in the USA. While I do expect them to be a bit more expensive over here, $900 seems like a bit too much.
Can anyone recommend a place where I can order these with a nicer price?
 
thanks

I was going to recommend Madooma who are in Germany (Dortmund) until I saw your price restrictions.  I don't think you'll be able to do better, it's a new product, HifiMan probably set the minimum price and you have to figure in about 20% VAT (not sure if the US price includes sales tax, typically not).
 
Not unimportant:  you can actually listen to them in their shop.  I tried both my HE-6 and HD-800 there at the time.  I'd strongly recommend doing so, given the pricetag and some remarks I read about a lack of 'bite'.  Better yet, they also sell STAX, compare them with an SR-009.

 

[isquirrel]

Good thing about tubes being able to alter the sound as is required. Doesn't help anyone not running tubes though. Be interesting to see how much the sound changes with different cables

 

[JaZZ]

  I don't want a flat headphone, unless I'm mixing something.  Flat headphones are dry, analytical, and boring.  I want a headphone with an attitude, with a point of view.  I like the sound signature of the HE1000.  It's warm, forgiving, great dynamics, deep bass and on and on.  My analog chain goes from the turntable, to the phono stage, to the headphone amp, to the headphones.  As little coloration as possible so I can understand a headphone's true nature.  
 
I don't subscribe to the idea that you can dial in attack.  The snare snap isn't a frequency response issue, it's about the diaphragm's response to certain impulses.  It's a characteristic which my other headphones seem to have no problem resolving.  

 
To each his own. But actually I think you haven't heard a flat headphone – there aren't any. And I can't imagine that you find the sound of a live event boring. «As little coloration as possible so I can understand a headphone's true nature»: That's quite a contradicton to the above and actually hard to comprehend. Why is it important to understand the headphone's true nature, not to explore and enjoy the orchestra's or the recording's true sonic colors? To my ears and according to my experience the spectrum of instrument timbres and recording characteristics is much larger through a neutral system, leading to a stronger expression of the sonic presentation.
 
Yes, you can certainly «dial in» attack – I'm not lying, I do it on a regular basis on my headphones. And it's perfectly in line with logic and electroacoustics (see my above statements to frequency response and transient response).
 

  I think the HE1000's transient response is just second to SR009. That's quite a feat to achieve considering it's only planar but not electrostatic.

  In my experience, well amped planars are damn fast. Even mid-fi ones ( at least  the old Hifiman HE-4 and 400 for example) .  Sure the 009 is the faster headphones I heard though.  
 
IMO and IME the HE1K is really fast... once started.

 
I do agree that the HE1000 is very fast – without having heard it. Its ultra-thin and -light membrane can't really be slow. But the dip between 2.3 and 6 kHz seems to prevent it from showing the necessary attack with percussive sounds, as some comments indicate. It certainly hasn't to do with membrane acceleration issues, but most likely with acoustic interferences from the magnet system – which are to be expected from planar drivers generally.
 
The good thing is that one can adapt to the sound of headphones or a specific headphone, so any sonic issue gets less and less noticeable, or you can go so far as to equalize it, provided the equalizer doesn't introduce a complication of the signal chain (hence it has to work in the digital domain). Soon I will have the opportunity to audition the HE1000 myself – with FiiO X5 and Hugo in the luggage.

 

[wink]

Had a listen to the HE-1000 which just arrived here in Sydney. ..... WANT....!!

 

[pearljam50000]

I would say that the HD800 are the flattest headphones i have ever heard.