[eugene2]

Absolutely, one may still greatly enjoy these headphones (an actually highly audible rattling issue or other would look truly horrific on those graphs), but even if this issue is specific to units produced/inspected in November, it leaves a sour taste seeing fresh, undamaged units exhibiting distortion characteristics similar to a unit that literally had a hole accidentally poked into its diaphragm. This is an unfortunate discovery enabled by my own mistake in handling the only good unit I've possessed, and not like that unit had sounded noticeably better.

While I'm not disputing the data or the test conclusions, as the author of the test report appears much more knowledgeable than me. I do have experience working with a manufacturer of drivers and speakers, though quite some time ago. I'm sure there are probably differences in the test models which indicates a quality control issue, I do find it hard to believe the reliability of test equipment that indicates a torn driver measures better than the same driver without damage. A puncture can create irregularities in the frequency response, especially at frequencies that correspond to the resonant frequency of the hole or tear. This might lead to certain frequencies being emphasized or attenuated, causing an imbalanced or unnatural sound. Furthermore, the puncture generally should disrupt the uniform movement of the diaphragm, potentially causing increased distortion. The severity of the distortion depends on the size and location of the puncture. It might introduce non-linearities in the sound wave production, leading to harmonic distortion or intermodulation distortion at a higher level than the standard undamaged driver. If I'm reading the report or the interpretation/conclusion incorrectly, I apoIogize. Though I would send these results to Dr Fang of HiFiman who should be very interested in these findings. Especially if there are no such findings or issues with the Arya which are coming from the same factory.
Who knows from a subjective point of view I listened to both and felt the SE was superior, though I'm more of a musician than an engineer...

 

[Daniel4IEM]

Has anyone found a quality hard shell case for travel?

 

[borkenarrou]

Has anyone found a quality hard shell case for travel?

I bought this one but haven't travelled with it yet, there is also a foam cutout version, but Geekria confirmed it doesn't work with HE1000 series even though the product title says it does.

https://www.amazon.com/Large-Sized-Headphones-Replacement-Protective-Compatible/dp/B082NJWZ4Z/

 

[MrHaelscheir]

While I'm not disputing the data or the test conclusions, as the author of the test report appears much more knowledgeable than me. I do have experience working with a manufacturer of drivers and speakers, though quite some time ago. I'm sure there are probably differences in the test models which indicates a quality control issue, I do find it hard to believe the reliability of test equipment that indicates a torn driver measures better than the same driver without damage. A puncture can create irregularities in the frequency response, especially at frequencies that correspond to the resonant frequency of the hole or tear. This might lead to certain frequencies being emphasized or attenuated, causing an imbalanced or unnatural sound. Furthermore, the puncture generally should disrupt the uniform movement of the diaphragm, potentially causing increased distortion. The severity of the distortion depends on the size and location of the puncture. It might introduce non-linearities in the sound wave production, leading to harmonic distortion or intermodulation distortion at a higher level than the standard undamaged driver. If I'm reading the report or the interpretation/conclusion incorrectly, I apoIogize. Though I would send these results to Dr Fang of HiFiman who should be very interested in these findings. Especially if there are no such findings or issues with the Arya which are coming from the same factory.
Who knows from a subjective point of view I listened to both and felt the SE was superior, though I'm more of a musician than an engineer...

Figure 1 of https://www.head-fi.org/threads/totl-disappointments.925164/page-63#post-17949397 was the measurement for the damaged driver with a puncture that looks like the below. I myself was surprised that there was barely any change in the FR, though this puncture is rather near the edge of the driver and thus mainly influences nonlinear behaviour:

Figures 2 and 3 showed the distortion performance prior to damage for that first "good" unit stamped/inspected in August, this being equivalent in performance to my Arya Stealth but for opposite drivers. For me, a "perfect" HE1000se would have both drivers' distortion looking like Figure 3 where the 4 kHz second and third order distortion spike is to me an acceptable engineering challenge and compromise for achieving such a large and thin diaphragm. Figure 6 showed the replacement unit I received exhibiting out of the box distortion performance worse than the above punctured driver, albeit in a different frequency band, and with no visible diaphragm defects, suggesting a more subtle flaw in the driver's installation or tensioning.

Those findings were not a generalization of all HE1000se units, but rather my observation of a seemingly declining quality control at least since November, unless it so happened that my unit from August was in truth "rare".

Customer support did say they would forward my findings regarding my encountering two units stamped/inspected in November exhibiting these distortion defects to the "technician" and product manager. Personally, best case is they identify these defects as being localized to a certain production run and can send me a good unit from an earlier run.

 

[eugene2]

Figure 1 of https://www.head-fi.org/threads/totl-disappointments.925164/page-63#post-17949397 was the measurement for the damaged driver with a puncture that looks like the below. I myself was surprised that there was barely any change in the FR, though this puncture is rather near the edge of the driver and thus mainly influences nonlinear behaviour:



Figures 2 and 3 showed the distortion performance prior to damage for that first "good" unit stamped/inspected in August, this being equivalent in performance to my Arya Stealth but for opposite drivers. For me, a "perfect" HE1000se would have both drivers' distortion looking like Figure 3 where the 4 kHz second and third order distortion spike is to me an acceptable engineering challenge and compromise for achieving such a large and thin diaphragm. Figure 6 showed the replacement unit I received exhibiting out of the box distortion performance worse than the above punctured driver, albeit in a different frequency band, and with no visible diaphragm defects, suggesting a more subtle flaw in the driver's installation or tensioning.

Those findings were not a generalization of all HE1000se units, but rather my observation of a seemingly declining quality control at least since November, unless it so happened that my unit from August was in truth "rare".

Customer support did say they would forward my findings regarding my encountering two units stamped/inspected in November exhibiting these distortion defects to the "technician" and product manager. Personally, best case is they identify these defects as being localized to a certain production run and can send me a good unit from an earlier run.

I agree with you 100% on tensioning creating the abnormality in production, that is where I would go to in production, because of how they design their drivers around a thin diaphragm which should be caught in testing.

 

[Daniel4IEM]

I bought this one but haven't travelled with it yet, there is also a foam cutout version, but Geekria confirmed it doesn't work with HE1000 series even though the product title says it does.

https://www.amazon.com/Large-Sized-Headphones-Replacement-Protective-Compatible/dp/B082NJWZ4Z/

Thanks!

 

[Daniel4IEM]

do folks find se or stealth brighter?
I’m sensitive to violins and horns especially

 

[Daniel4IEM]

do folks find se or stealth brighter?
I’m sensitive to violins and horns especially

And just read this review, which makes me curious about V2 which is still available in the market

https://www.headphoneer.com/hifiman-he1000v2-review-2023/

 

[andrewchoppa]

do folks find se or stealth brighter?
I’m sensitive to violins and horns especially

Stealths definitely brighter than se for me but I see so many people say the opposite. I actually bought the stealth over the se for the extra treble energy and the fact they were cheaper. But I do absolutely love the se too!!

 

[MrHaelscheir]

At least the below suggests that the HE1000se, HE1000 Stealth, and Arya Stealth (as well as my personal in-ear measurements for the HE1000se and Arya Stealth) should be identically bright (unless you think you would notice the small 3 kHz and 4 kHz differences), but that won't stop people from "hearing" otherwise. I think the Arya Organic is the only one that is measurably brighter than all of those, but only in the top octave.

And when A/Bing the headphones, any differences in seal or cup positioning could skew the results. Different ears may also exhibit different peaks from others.

 

[Daniel4IEM]

At least the below suggests that the HE1000se, HE1000 Stealth, and Arya Stealth (as well as my personal in-ear measurements for the HE1000se and Arya Stealth) should be identically bright (unless you think you would notice the small 3 kHz and 4 kHz differences), but that won't stop people from "hearing" otherwise. I think the Arya Organic is the only one that is measurably brighter than all of those, but only in the top octave.



And when A/Bing the headphones, any differences in seal or cup positioning could skew the results. Different ears may also exhibit different peaks from others.

So interesting!!
Thanks

 

[Daniel4IEM]

I bought the mojo 2 for portability and it may be some time before I purchase anything for desktop but curious what might be my best bets for warm pairing with good ability to control that problematic frequency range. Suggestions welcome.

Related, how do I pinpoint the frequencies? Assume I identify points on songs that bug me and run it through some online tool?

 

[MrHaelscheir]

I bought the mojo 2 for portability and it may be some time before I purchase anything for desktop but curious what might be my best bets for warm pairing with good ability to control that problematic frequency range. Suggestions welcome.

Related, how do I pinpoint the frequencies? Assume I identify points on songs that bug me and run it through some online tool?

To determine which frequencies sound too forward for your ears, I would recommend listening through a sine sweep like below at moderate loudness for frequencies that get louder at a greater rate than usual, which would suggest the presence of a peak.



An alternate and a bit more taxing method would be to listen to pink noise like can be generated from https://download.cnet.com/burninwavegenerator/3000-2169_4-10711592.html, but you would also need access to parametric EQ like with Equalizer APO (for Windows) to create a +10 dB peaking filter that you can sweep back and forth to match and identify any peaks you might hear, whereby you can then apply a negative-gain peaking filter to smooth out the perceived frequency response in that region. I personally haven't heard any degradation from Equalizer APO, mind its minimum-phase EQ can actually be used to correct phase distortions. https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mez...eadphone-official-thread.959445/post-17549413 (post #4,665) goes into more detail regarding how I EQ by ear. More accurate but involved would be to obtain a pair of in-ear mics like in https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mez...eadphone-official-thread.959445/post-17743502 (post #5,152) which will show you clearly where the peaks are for your own ears, and also reveals just how inaccurate making profiles from online measurements and adjusting them by ear can be.

If you want to find the forward parts specific to a song, you would need to download a spectrum analyzer that can read your PC or music player audio, and even then, some harshness may be inherent to the recording and not fixable with EQ or volume changes, though maybe DACs and amps can induce a psychological effect (until the day measurements come to say otherwise) smoothing out said harshness.

 

[joseph69]

Already posted in the 'HE1000 Thread.
In short: I just purchased the SE. Been wanting to hear it since it's introduction.

 

[Slim1970]

Already posted in the 'HE1000 Thread.
In short: I just purchased the SE. Been wanting to hear it since it's introduction.

You're going to enjoy it. I have both the HEK V2's and HEKse's and find they complement each other very well. The HEKse's are highly technical with great bass. The HEK V2's have technical ability, but are more musical with an expansive, airy sound in comparison. I love both headphones.