[rwelles]

I'd like to offer my personal speculation in regards to price drop.

I believe that HFM is simply trying to increase market share.

High-end audio typically have a very high markup. I have little doubt that HFM makes a pretty penny/yuan even after the price drop of several models.

Consider how the new prices compare to the offers of other manufacturer. With the HEK se at $2K, what else can you buy at that price?

 

[gabriely]

May I propose that we leave any baseless speculation that you can't back up off this forum? I'm sure there's lots of tabloids and other places that would love to clutch at straws and jump at conclusions from absolutely nowhere but I'm not sure this is the place - you're not contributing any value to anyone, you're only making noise. If you have a source, go ahead and name them, until then you are contributing zero value and zero substance.

I'd like to offer my personal speculation in regards to price drop.

I believe that HFM is simply trying to increase market share.

High-end audio typically have a very high markup. I have little doubt that HFM makes a pretty penny/yuan even after the price drop of several models.

Consider how the new prices compare to the offers of other manufacturer. With the HEK se at $2K, what else can you buy at that price?

I can see this making sense. As someone very new to the hobby, I was seriously put off the HE1000v2 Stealth at its original asking price for many reasons, but a big one is because the unboxing experience is... garbage. I know a lot of seasoned veterans in the hobby care much less about the unboxing experience, but if I'm going to be spending a lot of money on something special, I want to really feel that from the moment I part with my money and I get the item in my hand. At the Arya's price point I can still try to understand, but at the HE1000v2 Stealth's original pricepoint I felt pretty insulted lol - $2000 and you get a pizza box!

 

[borkenarrou]

I find it very coincidental that as soon as I hear news like this we see for the first time in over five years Susvara going on sale as well as a huge drop in price for a large percentage of their entire lineup including HE1000SE which has never been on sale at such a discounted price.

Any link for the Susvara sale, I see the regular price everywhere.

 

[morpheus69]

Any link for the Susvara sale, I see the regular price everywhere.

Haven't seen any sale on Susvara (new), only on open box or refurbished.

 

[Kevintj604]

Any link for the Susvara sale, I see the regular price everywhere.

The Father’s Day sale is over so you missed that sale on the new units. They’re just running through the rest of the open box and refurbished sets throughout the summer now. Here’s the clearance sale link:

https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/susvara-3-5-refurbished.html

 

[Bansaku]

I can see this making sense. As someone very new to the hobby, I was seriously put off the HE1000v2 Stealth at its original asking price for many reasons, but a big one is because the unboxing experience is... garbage. I know a lot of seasoned veterans in the hobby care much less about the unboxing experience, but if I'm going to be spending a lot of money on something special, I want to really feel that from the moment I part with my money and I get the item in my hand. At the Arya's price point I can still try to understand, but at the HE1000v2 Stealth's original pricepoint I felt pretty insulted lol - $2000 and you get a pizza box!

Seriously? So a $3000 OLED should come in a leather box laden with satin? What about a $4000 gaming laptop? How about $6000 speakers? ALL come in an ugly brown with black labeling plain box. You want to be pampered or something? It's a freaking BOX! My HE-560 box sat on the shelf taking up space for years! For what, 5 seconds of oooo and awe?! It's a waste of cost and materials.

 

[morpheus69]

Seriously? So a $3000 OLED should come in a leather box laden with satin? What about a $4000 gaming laptop? How about $6000 speakers? ALL come in an ugly brown with black labeling plain box. You want to be pampered or something? It's a freaking BOX! My HE-560 box sat on the shelf taking up space for years! For what, 5 seconds of oooo and awe?! It's a waste of cost and materials.

I rather the cost go into the product, than the packaging beyond being utility enough to protect the product. Also all the unnecessary material stuff that incurs costs... for a product sitting on your head, that you don't see, and most likely are listening to on your own. Unless of course you like posing in the mirror with your cans on your head.

 

[Bansaku]

So I took advantage of the Father's Day sale and grabbed a pair of HE1000 Stealth and they arrived last Wednesday. Been breaking them in ever since. First impressions are that they are worth every penny at their original asking price of $2K and an absolute bargain at $1300!

The most noticeable trait I picked up on was their ability to not only etch out every drop of detail but their resolve of the micro dynamics. Every subtlety is both heard and felt! Nothing seems to escape these headphones, for good and bad. Thus far I haven't heard many poor recordings that sound overly bad. The HE1KS does highlight the poop, but it doesn't throw it in your face.

Tonality wise, I agree they are neutral-bright, but only just so. That's is HiFiMAN's house sound, so it's not surprising. Overall the HE1KS are smooth, extremely detailed and transparent with excellent holographic imaging. Timbre is spot on, coming across as natural and organic. Vocals have excellent body and controlled sibilance. Bass is tight, fast, textured, controlled, and of course powerful with excellent weight and impact! To my ears the response from the bass right through to the mids around 1K is as flat as the prairies of Saskatchewan. The rise to the upper-mids is shallow at first then shoots up, kind of like a fighter jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. From their the sound just ever so slightly overshoots the neutral (revised Harman) curve as it tapers off into the upper treble.

As for my source, so far exclusively out of my TOPPING D30/A30 Pro stack. For balanced it's straight DAC to amp. The A30 Pro's power and grip combined with the D30 Pro's quad CS DACs produce an uncoloured, detailed, punchy and spacious sound. For single ended there is a tube preamp in the middle, and I must say the HE1KS sound phenomenal with tubes! So far my favourite pairing is with the EF95 Mullard. These tubes bring out the mids and slightly de-emphasize the treble. OP amp rolling is next, but with my current Oracle-02 on the tone control and the V4 on the volume, the HE1KS sounds absolutely sublime with a MASSIVE soundstage!

Much fun to be had still!

 

[Bansaku]

I rather the cost go into the product, than the packaging beyond being utility enough to protect the product. Also all the unnecessary material stuff that incurs costs... for a product sitting on your head, that you don't see, and most likely are listening to on your own. Unless of course you like posing in the mirror with your cans on your head.

Or the cost reduced for the product. Either way it's a win win by reducing the unnecessary and passing it along to the consumer. Besides, the packing double for a headphone stand as well which is also reducing waste and gives the end-user somewhere to place their cans. Another plus in my book!

 

[gabriely]

Seriously? So a $3000 OLED should come in a leather box laden with satin? What about a $4000 gaming laptop? How about $6000 speakers? ALL come in an ugly brown with black labeling plain box. You want to be pampered or something? It's a freaking BOX! My HE-560 box sat on the shelf taking up space for years! For what, 5 seconds of oooo and awe?! It's a waste of cost and materials.

Dude, an iPhone's unboxing experience doesn't come with leather and satin - it's pretty easy and minimalistic, and it's still just a joy every single time. I didn't say it had to be ridiculous on material cost, I just wish there was some more to it than a raw, naked pizza box. The good news is, we can agree to disagree!

Fair point about cost reduced for the consumer - like I said, at $1.3K I think I can understand it a bit better, if the unboxing experience is what has to be compromised to drop the retail price for consumers, fair! But at the original price it was, come on.

 

[Archlize]

So I took advantage of the Father's Day sale and grabbed a pair of HE1000 Stealth and they arrived last Wednesday. Been breaking them in ever since. First impressions are that they are worth every penny at their original asking price of $2K and an absolute bargain at $1300!

The most noticeable trait I picked up on was their ability to not only etch out every drop of detail but their resolve of the micro dynamics. Every subtlety is both heard and felt! Nothing seems to escape these headphones, for good and bad. Thus far I haven't heard many poor recordings that sound overly bad. The HE1KS does highlight the poop, but it doesn't throw it in your face.

Tonality wise, I agree they are neutral-bright, but only just so. That's is HiFiMAN's house sound, so it's not surprising. Overall the HE1KS are smooth, extremely detailed and transparent with excellent holographic imaging. Timbre is spot on, coming across as natural and organic. Vocals have excellent body and controlled sibilance. Bass is tight, fast, textured, controlled, and of course powerful with excellent weight and impact! To my ears the response from the bass right through to the mids around 1K is as flat as the prairies of Saskatchewan. The rise to the upper-mids is shallow at first then shoots up, kind of like a fighter jet taking off from an aircraft carrier. From their the sound just ever so slightly overshoots the neutral (revised Harman) curve as it tapers off into the upper treble.

As for my source, so far exclusively out of my TOPPING D30/A30 Pro stack. For balanced it's straight DAC to amp. The A30 Pro's power and grip combined with the D30 Pro's quad CS DACs produce an uncoloured, detailed, punchy and spacious sound. For single ended there is a tube preamp in the middle, and I must say the HE1KS sound phenomenal with tubes! So far my favourite pairing is with the EF95 Mullard. These tubes bring out the mids and slightly de-emphasize the treble. OP amp rolling is next, but with my current Oracle-02 on the tone control and the V4 on the volume, the HE1KS sounds absolutely sublime with a MASSIVE soundstage!

Much fun to be had still!

What tube amp are you using for the preout? : D

 

[borkenarrou]

The Father’s Day sale is over so you missed that sale on the new units. They’re just running through the rest of the open box and refurbished sets throughout the summer now. Here’s the clearance sale link:

https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/susvara-3-5-refurbished.html

The sale is still on.
https://store.hifiman.com/clearance-sales

I don't think new Susvara was ever on sale else it would have been mentioned in the Susvara thread or here because everybody is watching it.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-he1000-se.886228/post-17608033

As for the open box and refurbished of course they are always at reduced price

 

[borkenarrou]

Having said that most hifi stores does give discount if you bargain with them, I bought my HekV2 (brand new) for $1599 last year from a well known headphone store when the price was $1999.

 

[dejusk]

Just noticed the HE1000 v2 Stealth was dropped to $1399 on headphones.com now to match hifimans price and marked as Final Sale. Seriously tempted to grab one as an upgrade to my Anandas considering I was debating paying around that much for Aryas last year

 

[Kevintj604]

Just noticed the HE1000 v2 Stealth was dropped to $1399 on headphones.com now to match hifimans price and marked as Final Sale. Seriously tempted to grab one as an upgrade to my Anandas considering I was debating paying around that much for Aryas last year

The HE1000 series (v2, v3 Stealth or SE) take your pick is the best value in HiFi right now. I’ll be surprised if a lot more people don’t buy one of the various models.

I can’t think of any other headphones that come anywhere close to the level of performance for the price.