[Avean]

Oh god the audio bliss. I took the plunge after reading and watching reviews of almost every audiophile headphones out there and ended up gambling that the HE1000SE was the right pick. No shops had it for demo so i had to take a leap of faith basicly. I came from Sennheiser HD700 and previously owned the entire lineup of HD500, HD600, HD650, HD6XX + many others and have also tried the HD800S previously. I had a high pulse buying headphones in this price range and would i even hear a difference from HD700? Thoughts were racing.

Well i can definetely say these are on another level. First i didn't believe reviews saying this was more comfortable than HD800S which sounded crazy to me since they are ultra comfortable. Yet somehow this feels lighter on my head, the pads are amazing and is just a perfect fit. At first playing music on them i wasn't wowed but then i changed back to the HD700 and i was like .........uhm why does my HD700 sound horrible? HE1000SE have definetely ruined the sound quality of my other headphones.
Then i EQ'ed them a bit since i wanted tiny more bass. Then the HE1000SE really comes alive while the HD700 suddenly sounds like a muffled nightmare. (I previously loved them!?!)

I put on the latest Dune Part Two trailer and in the middle i almost got teary in my eyes, its just on another listening experience. It feels you are sitting watching this in a cinema on a big screen. The sound is massive, the bass punches you but the detail and all the treble goodness is still there side by side in perfect harmony. I was expecting to sell these as i didn't quite believe in audiophile headphones would be worth it in this price range but god damn! These will definetely be my main headphones now. I've seen people in reviews get emotional with headphones in this price range and now i get it....i truly get it!

 

[MrHaelscheir]

Oh god the audio bliss. I took the plunge after reading and watching reviews of almost every audiophile headphones out there and ended up gambling that the HE1000SE was the right pick. No shops had it for demo so i had to take a leap of faith basicly. I came from Sennheiser HD700 and previously owned the entire lineup of HD500, HD600, HD650, HD6XX + many others and have also tried the HD800S previously. I had a high pulse buying headphones in this price range and would i even hear a difference from HD700? Thoughts were racing.

Well i can definetely say these are on another level. First i didn't believe reviews saying this was more comfortable than HD800S which sounded crazy to me since they are ultra comfortable. Yet somehow this feels lighter on my head, the pads are amazing and is just a perfect fit. At first playing music on them i wasn't wowed but then i changed back to the HD700 and i was like .........uhm why does my HD700 sound horrible? HE1000SE have definetely ruined the sound quality of my other headphones.
Then i EQ'ed them a bit since i wanted tiny more bass. Then the HE1000SE really comes alive while the HD700 suddenly sounds like a muffled nightmare. (I previously loved them!?!)

I put on the latest Dune Part Two trailer and in the middle i almost got teary in my eyes, its just on another listening experience. It feels you are sitting watching this in a cinema on a big screen. The sound is massive, the bass punches you but the detail and all the treble goodness is still there side by side in perfect harmony. I was expecting to sell these as i didn't quite believe in audiophile headphones would be worth it in this price range but god damn! These will definetely be my main headphones now. I've seen people in reviews get emotional with headphones in this price range and now i get it....i truly get it!

The jump to large planar sound is definitely something you don't turn back from provided that the comfort and tonality work with you. Some folks including myself may claim that you can already get a very similar sound at the level of the Arya if not all the way down to the Edition XS, but I'd say at the current price of $2k instead of $3.5k, it is definitely worth not having to itch about whether you are missing out on anything, and the HE1000se might have the lightest clamp force out of the HiFiMan eggs (I only have the Arya Stealth for comparison). Then you have the fact that folks like Ntrax provide custom pads to give you even more space around your ears.

Now, this measurably comes with the disadvantage of a larger 2 kHz dip. I have five more variations on the way to measure to optimize this.

 

[eugene2]

Poor choice of words because by far--the Stealth is not a "poor man's" headphone.
$1399.00 is a lot of money for a headphone--and as I've mentioned before, you'd be hard pressed to find the Stealth sound quality at its price point. However--I do agree with your description of the v2 sound and do prefer my v2 to the Stealth.



Have you ever heard the v2? If not--are you just interested in hearing it in comparison to the SE, or is there something you don't like about it?



You also need to check under "About" in members profiles--not everyone lists their gear in their signature.



Purely subjective.
Just because X is more technical than Y doesn't;t mean it's a "better" headphone. I've said this a million times: I owned both--the Susvara and v2 at the same time and preferred my v2. I also preferred my v2 to the Stealth which has Stealth Magnets (hence the name) so it as well is more technical than my v2. I do have the SE coming in this week and I'll listen if I prefer it over my v2 regardless of the technology.


Per HiFiMAN: 100hrs

About is not always accurate mine is not…

 

[morpheus69]

Oh god the audio bliss. I took the plunge after reading and watching reviews of almost every audiophile headphones out there and ended up gambling that the HE1000SE was the right pick. No shops had it for demo so i had to take a leap of faith basicly. I came from Sennheiser HD700 and previously owned the entire lineup of HD500, HD600, HD650, HD6XX + many others and have also tried the HD800S previously. I had a high pulse buying headphones in this price range and would i even hear a difference from HD700? Thoughts were racing.

Well i can definetely say these are on another level. First i didn't believe reviews saying this was more comfortable than HD800S which sounded crazy to me since they are ultra comfortable. Yet somehow this feels lighter on my head, the pads are amazing and is just a perfect fit. At first playing music on them i wasn't wowed but then i changed back to the HD700 and i was like .........uhm why does my HD700 sound horrible? HE1000SE have definetely ruined the sound quality of my other headphones.
Then i EQ'ed them a bit since i wanted tiny more bass. Then the HE1000SE really comes alive while the HD700 suddenly sounds like a muffled nightmare. (I previously loved them!?!)

I put on the latest Dune Part Two trailer and in the middle i almost got teary in my eyes, its just on another listening experience. It feels you are sitting watching this in a cinema on a big screen. The sound is massive, the bass punches you but the detail and all the treble goodness is still there side by side in perfect harmony. I was expecting to sell these as i didn't quite believe in audiophile headphones would be worth it in this price range but god damn! These will definetely be my main headphones now. I've seen people in reviews get emotional with headphones in this price range and now i get it....i truly get it!

Just wait till they are fully broken in.

 

[markkr]

After falling in love with the SE, now I want to know what I'm missing from the Susvara.

 

[andrewchoppa]

After falling in love with the SE, now I want to know what I'm missing from the Susvara.

A nuclear power plant haha. I have it on good authority that your incoming mjolnir 3 will pair perfectly with the sus, as does the aune s17 pro. I have the crackatwoa too-love it!!

 

[joseph69]

About is not always accurate mine is not…

How could the "About" section of a members profile not be accurate when the members fills in this information themselves?
If you mean that sometimes members don't update this section--then they definitely should. I know I do this way I'm not misleading anyone who may be interested in what gear I'm using.

The same can be said for those who post their gear in their signature if they don't update it.
You can't expect members to continuously include their gear in their posts all of the time, unless specifically asked. Anyway--I was just giving you a heads up incase you weren't aware of the "About" section.

 

[Daniel4IEM]

I have not heard the V2 yet and am about a week into an 30 day window where allowed to return new SE.

I love the SE but do find some frequencies/ tones acoustically uncomfortable- violins, horns and some vocals make me cringe.

From what I’ve read the warmer V2 might be just right for me so I’m interested in hearing the comparison to inform which I stick with.

I found and ordered a pair of HEKV2 today and expect them by Thursday or Friday. Am I right they are harder to drive than SE? If I go with them and return the SE I'd potentially also return the Mojo 2 and step up in dac amp able to spend up to around $1K. Portable would be nice, and perhaps even a DAP to free up my phone. Heard this might work well- https://www.fiio.com/m15s

Any thoughts/suggestions?

 

[borkenarrou]

I found and ordered a pair of HEKV2 today and expect them by Thursday or Friday. Am I right they are harder to drive than SE? If I go with them and return the SE I'd potentially also return the Mojo 2 and step up in dac amp able to spend up to around $1K. Portable would be nice, and perhaps even a DAP to free up my phone. Heard this might work well- https://www.fiio.com/m15s

Any thoughts/suggestions?

R2R DAC + Class A or Tube amp if you would like a slight warm leaning tonality this matches well with HE1000 series, Mojo 2 is very good but can get sharp at times, cheapest I can think of is the Cayin RU7 which is a resistor dongle DAC with DSD upsampling, it should theoritically work well with the SE (using PC / Laptop as source), will not recommend it with V2, If going higher end Denafrips Ares 12-1 with either Mjolnir 3 or Cayin HA-3A comes to mind, I myself will get either the HA-3A (likely with upgraded tubes) or HA-300B in the near future to complement my V550.

 

[joseph69]

Am I right they are harder to drive than SE?

Yes--you're correct, the v2 is harder to drive.
The v2 is 90dB
The SE is 96dB

 

[davehutch]

Anybody running theirs from an Xduoo TA-22?

 

[yeboyi]

The jump to large planar sound is definitely something you don't turn back from provided that the comfort and tonality work with you. Some folks including myself may claim that you can already get a very similar sound at the level of the Arya if not all the way down to the Edition XS, but I'd say at the current price of $2k instead of $3.5k, it is definitely worth not having to itch about whether you are missing out on anything, and the HE1000se might have the lightest clamp force out of the HiFiMan eggs (I only have the Arya Stealth for comparison). Then you have the fact that folks like Ntrax provide custom pads to give you even more space around your ears.



Now, this measurably comes with the disadvantage of a larger 2 kHz dip. I have five more variations on the way to measure to optimize this.

I'm using cheap aliexpress earpads and i really like the sound. The pads have front seal i think. Sound is more tangible with it. Soundstage is slightly bigger and this more ''tangible'' sound makes the imaging easier. There is no hekse measurement but i found this hek stealth measurement with these pads: https://sai.squig.link/?share=Harma...th,HE1000_Stealth_with_Aliexpress_velour_pads Probably has the same effect on Hekse.

These headphones sound so flawless and good with great soundstage. My only gripe is that they lack a bit of excitement. Dramatic swings are soft and smooth compared to Arya Stealth which had more intense swings in crescendos. I miss those hype swings time to time.

 

[Daniel4IEM]

R2R DAC + Class A or Tube amp if you would like a slight warm leaning tonality this matches well with HE1000 series, Mojo 2 is very good but can get sharp at times, cheapest I can think of is the Cayin RU7 which is a resistor dongle DAC with DSD upsampling, it should theoritically work well with the SE (using PC / Laptop as source), will not recommend it with V2, If going higher end Denafrips Ares 12-1 with either Mjolnir 3 or Cayin HA-3A comes to mind, I myself will get either the HA-3A (likely with upgraded tubes) or HA-300B in the near future to complement my V550.

got any more suggestions for V2? Part of me really wants a DAP to free my phone up and still be portable. Other part of me is ok forgetting about portability entirely and going with most bang for buck in a desktop setup to get the most out of V2.

Budget is $1000, could go up to $1500.

 

[eugene2]

How could the "About" section of a members profile not be accurate when the members fills in this information themselves?
If you mean that sometimes members don't update this section--then they definitely should. I know I do this way I'm not misleading anyone who may be interested in what gear I'm using.

The same can be said for those who post their gear in their signature if they don't update it.
You can't expect members to continuously include their gear in their posts all of the time, unless specifically asked. Anyway--I was just giving you a heads up incase yous weren't aware of the "About" section.

What's with you? I'm not arguing I just said it's not always accurate for the same reason you're debating, I'm not, just stating facts. That's my last word on this...

 

[Thetaburn]

R2R DAC + Class A or Tube amp if you would like a slight warm leaning tonality this matches well with HE1000 series, Mojo 2 is very good but can get sharp at times, cheapest I can think of is the Cayin RU7 which is a resistor dongle DAC with DSD upsampling, it should theoritically work well with the SE (using PC / Laptop as source), will not recommend it with V2, If going higher end Denafrips Ares 12-1 with either Mjolnir 3 or Cayin HA-3A comes to mind, I myself will get either the HA-3A (likely with upgraded tubes) or HA-300B in the near future to complement my V550.

Cayin RU7 powered by a linear power supply / battery bank to the He1000se is quite good as a portable setup for the price, incredible value.
Not as good an independent Dac / amp setup but ~80 percent there.