Very good...right on. I used to buy/sell/upgrade like changing clothes - helps to sell high end gear... then the kids. I have some nice stuff these days but no more Maggie MG-20's, ML CLS IIz'a, and what kills me the most - Verity Parsifals.
Cool Jetsons reference BTW, I won $20 on a bet with that name once.
Okay so I've had some time for my ears to get accustomed to the way the HE4XX sounds and then I went ahead and switched back to my HD 650 and wow. I never realized how weak the HD650's upper end extension is until now. Also, the HE4XX blows the HD650 out of the water when it comes to transparency. The HE4XX is like sitting in a room filled with the music whereas the HD650, which I used to think the same of, now very obviously sounds like a pair of headphones on my head. It's like the HE4XX disappears once the music starts. You don't even notice they're there.
Okay so I've had some time for my ears to get accustomed to the way the HE4XX sounds and then I went ahead and switched back to my HD 650 and wow. I never realized how weak the HD650's upper end extension is until now. Also, the HE4XX blows the HD650 out of the water when it comes to transparency. The HE4XX is like sitting in a room filled with the music whereas the HD650, which I used to think the same of, now very obviously sounds like a pair of headphones on my head. It's like the HE4XX disappears once the music starts. You don't even notice they're there.
Wait - which V? Mids down or Mids up? I find with stock pads they start to dip from 65 Hz down and from 6K up - a few db at most - that's a bit over 3 octaves combined on the bottom and top where they lack, but certainly are not absent.
In the 6.5 octaves in the middle where 95% of the music is outside of a small dip in the upper mids they are about as flat as a pair of Senn HD-600 which is about as flat as there is. I don't see how that's a V. A broad plateau with gently sloped dips at less important ranges - I wouldn't call that a V. Maybe our samples are quite different....
The HFM's are clean and accurate (love the way they do decay of sustained instruments), but have a lush holistic liquid feel. When I say liquid I don't mean like Manley, CJ, Futterman or all tube ARC products, more like you get from Maggies being driven by a Pass amp with a tube hybrid pre amp, or a tubed DAC. It's seductive, it's not neutral, but, if you happen to like female vocals with any wood percussion or instruments you're in the wheelhouse. Cello's and acoustic bass are nice too BTW. Saturated bass like Dead Can Dance shows OK, but, there are clearly better bass cans out there if that's your thing.
Okay so I've had some time for my ears to get accustomed to the way the HE4XX sounds and then I went ahead and switched back to my HD 650 and wow. I never realized how weak the HD650's upper end extension is until now. Also, the HE4XX blows the HD650 out of the water when it comes to transparency. The HE4XX is like sitting in a room filled with the music whereas the HD650, which I used to think the same of, now very obviously sounds like a pair of headphones on my head. It's like the HE4XX disappears once the music starts. You don't even notice they're there.
I never liked the 650 much mostly for the treble as you say, I like the 600 better.
I used up a lot of my audiophile specials for careful listening so far, tonight I hit some 70's straight rock n' roll on first masterings (Mac's '75 smash, etc.) and the sound stage shrunk, and the treble started to bite with that steely digital thing that kept me on Moving Coil cartridges and a Souther tone arm until 1.5 years ago. It's what I've heard before so it's accurate. Good to know that they are not too colored.
I run the HE400 with focus pads now on the Valhalla 2 and it is amazing to me. Will be let you know what the 4xx sounds like in a few weeks. They are shipped but will be under the Xmas tree once they get here. I helped my wife by just buying them so she did not have to for me. I run the V2 with a Fiio X1 or my Zune depending on which player I have handy.
Well, I can only go so far here, since I haven't heard the 1060, and probably never will. Are the 1060's your standard? This review spooked me a bit: http://www.verumsonus.com/monoprice-m1060-review/
It shows a serious dip starting at 1k with a spike at 5k that made the reviewer basically throw up his hands.
I looked up the charts on the HE4xx, they support what I have described.
Perhaps our HE4xx's are radically different from each other?
Unoffical poll?
Are the HE-4xx's reasonably flat from 65 Hz - 6K, or is there a broad depression in the mids. Voting 1 - 1.
It's true that there is a portion of the bass where the Q is about .9-1.1 (slight womp), and the treble on crappy digital mastered disc can have some hardness, but in no way does that make the mids recessed (on mine).
That would be a nice world, but as an audio guy from the early 70's and sales guy for 7 years of that there is an almost never ending list of products with significant item to item variability.
My list of favorite speakers is full of midrange first items - Quad ESL, ML CLS, MG 3.7i, MG 20 - or early Stax headphones... if my pair had a major (or even mild) "V" I wouldn't care for them. I guess we'll just agree to disagree.
One good thing on Head-Fi is that we do not not have to agree or disagree, sharing experiences in listening prevails
I am burning the HEX400 and hope it can improve two things:
1. Make the V shape a littler flatter. It is not that bad as it is now, it is just a little more obvious when compared with other phones.
2. Make HEx400 easier to drive. On the amp I tried, I need to turn the volume beyond 10 o'clock or more for HEX400 to satisfy my usual way to listen. But for 1060, I need to keep volume below 9 o'clock; otherwise, it is too loud for me.
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once they get here. I helped my wife by just buying them so she did not have to for me. I run the V2 with a Fiio X1 or my Zune depending on which player I have handy.
