[S Crowther]

In some earlier posts I made comments about how I thought the SE was too bright for me. I thought about EQ but after having some problems trying to download some stuff and not being savvy with that to begin with, I decided not to do it.

I then thought about my interconnects. I've been using silver plated copper going from the DAC to the amp. I recently replaced them with Audience OHNO balanced cables and the brightness smoothed out to the point where it's actually negligible. I still have all the tremendous amount of detail the SE is capable of producing but it's smoother. I'm very happy.
I hope someone who may be on the fence about the SE but maybe hesitant in pulling the trigger due to concerns of brightness, considers the option of playing with cables. It worked for me.

I’ve noticed the same going from Moon Audio Silver Dragon headphone cable to a full copper cable.

 

[LCMusicLover]

This has been asked and answered a bunch. Try searching for 'Susvara' and limit results to this thread only. You'll get seven pages of hits.

 

[shafat777]

Has anyone ever replaced the pads on their hekse? I have a set of lambskin fenestraded pads coming in the mail. I was wondering if the pads have adhesive or clip based mounting? I want to be able to put the stock ultra pads back on if the aftermarkets pads are no good.

 

[tjdub]

The original have a plastic ring with little tabs that clip to the headphone, somewhat easy to replace. If you got the ones from ebay they will come with double sided tape so all you would have to do if you want to go back to stock is clean the glue with some rubbing alcohol once you take the new pads off and clip on the old ones. I did this and it was pretty easy

 

[471724]

I thought I would briefly summarize the sorry history of my experience with the quality control of the HiFiMan HE1000se. Sonically they have been outstanding, a little bright, but this has been easily compensated by a little EQ. The problems are in the manufacturing quality control.

My first HEKse was back in 2019. It almost immediately developed an intermittent right channel. It was the connector. HiFiMan replaced it, and it worked correctly for about 2 years. Recently the intermittent connection problem again came up, in this replacement pair, this time in the left channel. The problem was even worse, with no sound most of the time. So HiFiMan replaced this pair.

But this new replacement pair had another kind of defect - both headband clamps were loose, so that the headphones would slip upward or downward out of their setting whenever I took the headphones off or on, requiring frequent resetting the clamps.

So now my new just replaced HE1000se's are on their way back to HiFiMan for yet another replacement. At least they have been courteous and prompt in granting and sending replacements. I don't know if I would have started the whole process if I had known how many defects their product would have.

 

[asarkhentamentiu]

Has anyone ever replaced the pads on their hekse? I have a set of lambskin fenestraded pads coming in the mail. I was wondering if the pads have adhesive or clip based mounting? I want to be able to put the stock ultra pads back on if the aftermarkets pads are no good.

Hello,

Kindly reveal source of pads?

Thank you

 

[shafat777]

Hello,

Kindly reveal source of pads?

Thank you

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002744906149.html

 

[asarkhentamentiu]

I've seen those

fenestrated = something like perforated (those don't look to be)

I've heard they enhance the bass but kill the treble, but that wasn't on an he1000se... (with the only documented weakness being the slight brightness in the treble, these might be a perfect match) please provide impressions...

pretty sure they use 3M adhesive

I think you might be able to take the bracket off the ultrapads and rig it on the new ones but I wasn't able to get much info on how..



also guys.. I have the Ananda but already have the bug and eyeing HEKse or Arya stealth.. also HEKv2?? any links to comparisons/reviews? thank you

 

[tjdub]

You can take the plastic ring out of the og pads but you have destroy them in the process, I don't recommend this especially if someone wants to pad swap

 

[Dr_Hibbert]

Fedex delivered my new HEKse yesterday. Lovely headphones. Will post some impressions (and comparisons to the Arya I just sold) after they're broken in.

 

[shafat777]

You can take the plastic ring out of the og pads but you have destroy them in the process, I don't recommend this especially if someone wants to pad swap

I just took the stock pads off. The new pads have adhesive so it placed perfectly on the outer rim of the cups. I ll post impressions later.

 

[asarkhentamentiu]

I just took the stock pads off. The new pads have adhesive so it placed perfectly on the outer rim of the cups. I ll post impressions later.

Awesome, congrats!!

Also pics would be cool! Can’t wait to read how they turned out!

 

[IZONE]

I thought I would briefly summarize the sorry history of my experience with the quality control of the HiFiMan HE1000se. Sonically they have been outstanding, a little bright, but this has been easily compensated by a little EQ. The problems are in the manufacturing quality control.

My first HEKse was back in 2019. It almost immediately developed an intermittent right channel. It was the connector. HiFiMan replaced it, and it worked correctly for about 2 years. Recently the intermittent connection problem again came up, in this replacement pair, this time in the left channel. The problem was even worse, with no sound most of the time. So HiFiMan replaced this pair.

But this new replacement pair had another kind of defect - both headband clamps were loose, so that the headphones would slip upward or downward out of their setting whenever I took the headphones off or on, requiring frequent resetting the clamps.

So now my new just replaced HE1000se's are on their way back to HiFiMan for yet another replacement. At least they have been courteous and prompt in granting and sending replacements. I don't know if I would have started the whole process if I had known how many defects their product would have.

Jebus that sounds like a horrible experience... I guess the silver lining is that they keep replacing them without much fuss. The Arya V3 is the first Hifiman I purchased since buying the HE-500 back in 2011, my first planar before I picked up the OG LCD-2.R2. The Arya is built well without any problems. I'm thinking about buying the HE1000SE or the Susvara... I actually like the HE1000 form factor (long cups) and like the idea of them being easier to drive (no speaker amps), but all this talk of brightness is scaring me cause I don't EQ. I can get thick copper cables for them if needed

 

[asarkhentamentiu]

Jebus that sounds like a horrible experience... I guess the silver lining is that they keep replacing them without much fuss. The Arya V3 is the first Hifiman I purchased since buying the HE-500 back in 2011, my first planar before I picked up the OG LCD-2.R2. The Arya is built well without any problems. I'm thinking about buying the HE1000SE or the Susvara... I actually like the HE1000 form factor (long cups) and like the idea of them being easier to drive (no speaker amps), but all this talk of brightness is scaring me cause I don't EQ. I can get thick copper cables for them if needed

Are you cool with changing the pads to the sheepskin leather? Could be the fix

 

[471724]

Jebus that sounds like a horrible experience... I guess the silver lining is that they keep replacing them without much fuss. The Arya V3 is the first Hifiman I purchased since buying the HE-500 back in 2011, my first planar before I picked up the OG LCD-2.R2. The Arya is built well without any problems. I'm thinking about buying the HE1000SE or the Susvara... I actually like the HE1000 form factor (long cups) and like the idea of them being easier to drive (no speaker amps), but all this talk of brightness is scaring me cause I don't EQ. I can get thick copper cables for them if needed

I found that Audio Art Cables' headphone cables using solid 28 AWG OCC copper (rather than Litz) tamed much of the overbrightness, at only a little cost in resolution. They are also reasonably priced - https://audioartcable.com/collections/headphone-cables . Being a perfectionist, I later graduated to inexpensive Ted Allen 22.5AWG OCC copper Litz cables with use of a Toneboosters 6-filter parametric EQ. This was only moderately better, but I have stuck with it. The combination is very very good.