Listening to Diana Krall's Wallflower album on the HE1000 now. Sublime.
Love that album. I am going to see her live this Friday!
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Listening to Diana Krall's Wallflower album on the HE1000 now. Sublime.
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Hi,
My two cents: After comparing the LCD-3, HE1K, HD-800 and SR-009, I decided to get the HE1K. I honestly think they are overall better than the others. The LCD-3 and the HD-800 just couldn't create the level of detail that the HE1K and the Stax can. They are still great headphones, but in the end, they are in a different (but still very awesome) league.
The hard decision was between the Stax and the HE1k. In the end (and this might be just me, as I didn't actually get a chance to do a side by side comparison), the HE1k seemed to handle bass a little better, with a bit more punch than the Stax. The HE1k also win on the image department, while the Stax seem to be able to handle some finer details better than the Hifiman.
In the end, I feel like the HE1k is a better all-around headphone: throw whatever music you want at them, and they will make it sound awesome. The Stax, on the other hand, seem to offer different levels of awesomeness depending on the track you are playing.
Answering my own question from a few days ago: IMO you can drive the HE1K with an AK240 with a decent sound volume. I've been doing it for the past 2 days and, for me, anything between 65-70 (the AK240 goes up to 75) is adequate, and you still get a little extra margin on top. It will probably not be enough for some lower volume recordings, or if you plan on blasting your brains out, but it will still allow you to enjoy most of your music catalogue.
The HE1k I tested and bought were brand new, so I will burn them in and report back
Listening to Diana Krall's Wallflower album on the HE1000 now. Sublime.
I actually think that the HD800 can match the details retrieval of the HEK on the right setup...
Bass information should also be considered when assessing detail retrieval. The HD800s can't match the planar offerings from Audeze & Hifiman in this regard. The 800s don't go as low, and more importantly, don't articulate as well. The HE1000s ups the game further yet in this regard, taking bass reproduction to another level.
That said, it would be interesting to compare top end cans like these after EQing them to account for differing frequency responses. I'm sure the textural resolution of the 800s would still be very good with that 6 Khz bump neutralized. And I expect bass detail would still be best in class even if EQed down on the HE1000s.
Received my HEK from Todd, very enjoyable so far, smooth and detail at the same time, the added bass is welcoming compared to HD800.
Driving it from the WA5 K1K port using WE422A + C3G + WE300B:
Bass information should also be considered when assessing detail retrieval. The HD800s can't match the planar offerings from Audeze & Hifiman in this regard. The 800s don't go as low, and more importantly, don't articulate as well. The HE1000s ups the game further yet in this regard, taking bass reproduction to another level.
That said, it would be interesting to compare top end cans like these after EQing them to account for differing frequency responses. I'm sure the textural resolution of the 800s would still be very good with that 6 Khz bump neutralized. And I expect bass detail would still be best in class even if EQed down on the HE1000s.
I drive both headphones with the Chord Hugo. As expected, the Corda Symphony and my other amps make the treble rawness much less apparent, but they do so by smoothing the edges and giving up on the excellent imaging, which isn't my goal with a source known for its high accuracy and a headphone as revealing with a sound as unvarnished as the HE1000.
YMMV
You need a beefier amp to fully realize the potential of both the HD800 & HE1000. I high recommended picking up the Krell Klone KSA-5 (from a reputable builder) or grab the super symmetry dynahi whenever it is up for sale.
You know what's a myth? Wire-with-gain.