[boodi]

I have quite a story of basshead cans and research , the Abyss 1266 might be the only totl for basshead i still have not heard. 2 Denon and both Grado PS1 and PS1000 have gone , and Fostex th900mk2 Onkyo a800 remained.

I must say that hekse sort of re-educated my habits in the way that it is hard to go back to less detail . I would never ever said so before .

Hekse are sublime and majestic also for some rock . anything hi-res and with a solid production is a promise of amazement with them . They also are particularly alive with old recordings where the extra-separation is useful
..

I can't say their voice and timbral rendering for mids frequencies is particularly engaging though, hekv2 might cover the gap..let' s see at what cost.

 

[InquisitiveLogic]

I also found the HEK v2 bass to be well north of reference. Some of my classic rock and jazz albums just sound wrong on them. Surprisingly, they do quite well with classical music.

I guess that there is no such thing as too much bass if you're a *true* basshead...

HEKV2 bass is what I will define as neutral/reference for my listening.
Is appreciable to the tune and in line with the levels recorded in the music but give the bad boys a lil bass shelf and pump up the volume, that's when these truly shine.

Thunderous big tight deep punchy plucked bass with that hard hitting visceral feel and detailed as well.
So there is quality in quantity.

For my listening tastes bass gives emotion to music and is not just for head banging. Those piano hammer drops in the lower notes, the bass guitar plucks, a strong male baritone, the kick drum strikes and decays, the humming low notes in ambient music... These need to reproduced well or they surely lack character and feel and musicality!

Too much bass is as subjective as how much spicy food is spicy!

Hell, there are listeners for whom the Grados are end game and then there are listeners who give even the FatFreq IEMs a bass shelf, for reference here - the Maestro Mini model of theirs already comes with a factory default +20dB bass boost!

 

[Archlize]

I got a deal on the Soloist 3XP, can't wait to use it with the HEKV2, once I got it!

 

[boodi]

II day with he1000v2 - burnin in still , they are far from matured , just took a 10m AB with hires tracks for curiosity and, there's no chance against he1000se at this stage

 

[Thetaburn]

II day with he1000v2 - burnin in still , they are far from matured , just took a 10m AB with hires tracks for curiosity and, there's no chance against he1000se at this stage

What are the main differences you are hearing?

 

[boodi]

At present time they feel very much related to lack of burning in : the hekv2 have grit or shouty mids, or not completely refined midrange - as I would expect when burning in is complete or so ; but they are already more pronounced and fleshed out , more textured then on hekse ; highs are far from perfect , the stage is not so defined ..

Hekse are as usual , quite a revelation when switching headphones : very hi-end in a lot of areas ( saving tue usual weakness ); they make a lot of things right - and alltogheter right

Hekv2 have bass and warmness ..it's already there and it makes for a superwide soundstage . But going to hekse is another planet , the bass sounds much more tight and authoritative , more coherent ; and it is deeper ; the stage measures in hekse are built from precision and subtle reverbs between mids and highs more then from bass. On hekse bass is usually dry , I would say it even very dry - opposite of warm anyhow . It separates very well from the rest .

 

[SemiAudiophile]

It's finally here...

 

[Archlize]

It's finally here...

What's your impression so far with the EF600?

 

[SemiAudiophile]

What's your impression so far with the EF600?

Early impressions are good and you can consider this the big brother to the EF400. However, I'm not sure it performs 2x as good at almost double the cost. I do like the form factor and features though.

The DAC is noticably a step up from previous version EF400 being more detailed and refined. This time around it's going for more of a neutral reference sound rather than warm, musical. OS mode sounds pretty clean and transparent perhaps slightly dry, while NOS mode adds a hint of warmth.

However, the amp section appears to be about the same as before. Which is very powerful and has tons of volume, but I think I still prefer the Burson 3XP. The Burson sounds more transparent and does a better job at separation, micro detail, and imaging. While the EF600 has decent size width and depth. The Burson, from memory, presents a much more vast (wider, deeper, and taller) stage.

It's still early and I have yet to burn it in, but I plan to take the Burson out of storage and do a comparison over the weekend. Gonna try bypass mode this time using the TA-22 as a tube pre.

 

[Archlize]

Early impressions are good and you can consider this the big brother to the EF400. However, I'm not sure it performs 2x as good at almost double the cost. I do like the form factor and features though.

The DAC is noticably a step up from previous version EF400 being more detailed and refined. This time around it's going for more of a neutral reference sound rather than warm, musical. OS mode sounds pretty clean and transparent perhaps slightly dry, while NOS mode adds a hint of warmth.

However, the amp section appears to be about the same as before. Which is very powerful and has tons of volume, but I think I still prefer the Burson 3XP. The Burson sounds more transparent and does a better job at separation, micro detail, and imaging. While the EF600 has decent size width and depth. The Burson, from memory, presents a much more vast (wider, deeper, and taller) stage.

It's still early and I have yet to burn it in, but I plan to take the Burson out of storage and do a comparison over the weekend. Gonna try bypass mode this time using the TA-22 as a tube pre.

Amazing review, thanks for the in depth comparison too! That's what I heard about the 3XP too, I heard it makes the soundstage feels very 3D compared to others, while making the sound not to be super analytical. What DAC did you pair the 3xp with? I'm thinking of pairing it with the composer 3xp, but not too sure for now!

Excited to see more in depth comparison soon!

 

[JacquesCustodian]

Early impressions are good and you can consider this the big brother to the EF400. However, I'm not sure it performs 2x as good at almost double the cost. I do like the form factor and features though.

The DAC is noticably a step up from previous version EF400 being more detailed and refined. This time around it's going for more of a neutral reference sound rather than warm, musical. OS mode sounds pretty clean and transparent perhaps slightly dry, while NOS mode adds a hint of warmth.

However, the amp section appears to be about the same as before. Which is very powerful and has tons of volume, but I think I still prefer the Burson 3XP. The Burson sounds more transparent and does a better job at separation, micro detail, and imaging. While the EF600 has decent size width and depth. The Burson, from memory, presents a much more vast (wider, deeper, and taller) stage.

It's still early and I have yet to burn it in, but I plan to take the Burson out of storage and do a comparison over the weekend. Gonna try bypass mode this time using the TA-22 as a tube pre.

That echoes what I got from reading the Bloom Audio review/impressions section (the only review available for forever, it seemed). Happy to see the Dac takes a step up in terms of detail. Do you think it still pertains some of those characteristics of the EF400 that makes it so fun (i.e. the weight of notes, reverberation and welcomed warmth), or is it now a completely different thing?

From the people I've seen testing the Dac section of EF400 (to then subsequently infer the quality & characteristics of the amp) it seems like the Dac is what makes the unit special. The amp sure has tons of power, but other than that I don't really know what to make of it (I'm an EF400 owner myself + new HeadFi'er, so curious to learn about the gear that I've got).

 

[JacquesCustodian]

Got a question for ya! What are your personal experiences with the scaleability of the He1000 (V2)?

I just got in the Phonitor XE (with Dac) this week. I had been eyeing it for a bit (PLENTY of interesting things to say about this unit - but that's for another time), and once I found a good used deal I had to make the move. For reference, I'm a new HeadFi'er, having saved and saved to make the Hifiman He1000 V2 my first pair of headphones. Once I got it I needed a Dac and an amp but my budget was tight so I went with what seemed like a good starting point with a lower barrier of entry - the EF400 seemed to fit the bill with its musical R2R Dac and powerful amp.

The He1000 V2 + EF400 has been my setup for about a year and I've really liked it. Some sibilance issues for me though, and a bit treble harshness, despite the warm-oriented Dac I've used. But, really engaging and lovely for acoustic music. So, having recently gone to my first CanJam-ish local show, I went to hear the He1000 (Stealth version, that time around) on quite a few different Dacs and amps - to see whether these issues could be fixed. Seemed like they could, but it also got me thinking.. 'The He1000 sure seems like it scales with its source gear!'.
Fast forward to me now spending as much on the Dac+amp as on the headphones. I've been comparing the Phonitor XE (with its Dac) to the EF400 (and its Dac), because I wanted an honest idea of 'how much better does the He1000 V2 actually get form higher end source gear..'. I didn't just want to upgrade my chain without accessing whether it is worth the cost. After all, the EF400 + HeK has given me tons of joy.

I'll spend more time later, perhaps, diving into my impressions - but it is now very, very, very immediate how much detail is to be gained from source gear that itself is detailed. So although it perhaps is not the most detailed headphone out there (not as much as HeK SE for example) it is still plenty detailed, but with the EF400 I couldn't begin to appreciate just how detailed it actually can get. Also, dynamics are now grrrreat. Soundstage too is immense. And, despite the Phonitor XE not being the warmest source out there, I was surprised to find absolutely no sibilance or treble harshness (unless a track is absolutely brutal). Tracks where voices previously would pierce are now smooth and non-fatiguing.

And this has gotten my curious - what have you found in terms of scaleability? I'm still assessing and trying to get to grips with this quite radical change from what I've been used to over the past year.

Ps. Didn't know I needed VU meters in my life, but I do.

 

[boodi]

I have the ef400 too but my hekv2 are still "congested" for lack of burning in. I will report later.

Ef400 + hekse is not my favourite pair ( lacks of details for hekse )

 

[SemiAudiophile]

What DAC did you pair the 3xp with?

The TA-22 has a pretty good built in DAC. I used the D30 pro before and like that pairing too. For some reason it didn't synergize well with Ares II.

That echoes what I got from reading the Bloom Audio review/impressions section (the only review available for forever, it seemed). Happy to see the Dac takes a step up in terms of detail. Do you think it still pertains some of those characteristics of the EF400 that makes it so fun (i.e. the weight of notes, reverberation and welcomed warmth), or is it now a completely different thing?

From the people I've seen testing the Dac section of EF400 (to then subsequently infer the quality & characteristics of the amp) it seems like the Dac is what makes the unit special. The amp sure has tons of power, but other than that I don't really know what to make of it (I'm an EF400 owner myself + new HeadFi'er, so curious to learn about the gear that I've got).

I still need to spend more time with it. But the EF400 has more musical and fun character to me. While the EF600 has more "mature" and clean sound.

Honestly, the EF400 is still great value for the sound performance. There's some trade-off between the two in terms of outputs and features set.

I think if you don't already own a high power amp and good DAC, then any of them would be good options for AIO. But if you already own a good DAC/amp, then it will be hard to justify.

 

[Thetaburn]

Got a question for ya! What are your personal experiences with the scaleability of the He1000 (V2)?

Very well.
Huge difference from my initial starting pairing of Topping D50s DAC & Atom Amp to the Gustard x26pro & Burson Soloist 3x.
Not sure if I am willing to go further as any higher tier DAC & Amp would cost more than than the headphone.