[ciber]

I compared he5se and hd600 on "Hans Zimmer The Dark Knight Medley : Why So Serious?". For me, hd600 has more bass and he5se is more bright on highs. Anyway, I don't have the feels that he5se is significantly better; sometimes I feel 5se is some kinds of noisy with bright highs. I will say they are at close class or grade with different flavors.

I listened HE1000 before. For me, HE1000 is significantly better than HD600. I heard some people said when you compare HD800 with HD600, it is similar to compare HD600 with Beats on the sound quality. So, when anyone compare this 5se with he400i or 4xx, are they close or 5se is significantly better than 400i?

 

[ciber]

I just hook up the HE5SE with the dock-1 connect to hm901s. Can't believe it, actually it opens up. The dock increases the line out to 3V, and it did work. The music is so much fuller than before. I guess the 5SE is very, very picky about DAC and Amp until you get it. Now I compared this with Sennheiser HD600 and it beats HD600 for me. Hifiman is horrible on the usability and marketing. However, they do have unique strength in R&D of the sound. (You need to get it, though.) Having fun to get it.

 

[Ithilstone]

Glad you like it. Just to be clear he5se is not picky about the DAC any decent one will let them shine. It is not picky about the amp as well it just needs one that can supply enough current to drive them. As i mentioned before good beefy headphone amp or almost any speaker amp. Generally any AB class with decent size transformer will do.
Tube amps can be tricky - OTL are no no for planars as those has very little current. Other construction can work

 

[bagwell359]

I compared he5se and hd600 on "Hans Zimmer The Dark Knight Medley : Why So Serious?". For me, hd600 has more bass and he5se is more bright on highs. Anyway, I don't have the feels that he5se is significantly better; sometimes I feel 5se is some kinds of noisy with bright highs. I will say they are at close class or grade with different flavors.

I listened HE1000 before. For me, HE1000 is significantly better than HD600. I heard some people said when you compare HD800 with HD600, it is similar to compare HD600 with Beats on the sound quality. So, when anyone compare this 5se with he400i or 4xx, are they close or 5se is significantly better than 400i?

The 5se IMO is not better than the 400i or 4XX - in fact those cans both sound fairly coherent, even though they have flaws. The 5se is nowhere near as good as its predecessor the HE-5LE.

As for the HD-600, please feel free to get any of those named HFM headphones to do solo piano nearly as well, or classical in general.

a modded he-500 and HEX v2 are the cheapest HFM man cans that can do justice to either of those two things. The HEK v2 and HEKse are both much more expensive and superior. The 800S is sort of in the same class except the bass is wan, and they are so definition happy, they sometimes ignore the cohesion and sweep that real music has.

 

[bagwell359]

I think the major problem of the HE5SE is that the 20-50hz area is much lower than HE500 and even HE400i. However, in 55hz-100hz, there is a ridge, HE5se intentionally emphasize there and 5se still has bass. ( I think the 5SE did not sound naturally as HE500 mainly due to this).

There are a lot of reasons the 5se is no match for the HE-500.

1. Bass reach, and timbre as you point out. 3 watts+ really gets the bass going. The 5se is fairly quick in the bass, but the timbre on acoustic bass seems weak to me.

2. The 500 radiates both sides, 5se one. 500 has far greater depth and side to side imaging. Often spoken of as having speaker like sound as well as a "magic midrange". Midrange is where the music lives, having a can with a midrange that is the weakest and more depressed of the 3 ranges isn't one I'm ever going to accept. The 5se mids are workman like w/ a bit of clipped off detail of the harmonics. But they never ever exceed the definition "headphone". My mods, described below also bring a huge amount of instrumental focus in the mids (400 hz +).

3. The treble of the 500 has that famous 3x long cymbal decay (aka ringing), they also reverberate more due to the distribution pattern - that's where changing pads, rear screen, and anti vibration treatments tame those issues. When done with those mods the definition, harmonics, and musicality lay utter waste to the 5se. The 5se has that bright silvery sound, but when the music goes to a whiter or even papery sound, they don't follow. They are also constrained dynamically - they won't get super loud and they won't get very soft, this runs all the way into the upper mids.

@SilverEars has a pair of stock HE-500's and he's heard my modified set. Ask him.

 

[SilverEars]

There are a lot of reasons the 5se is no match for the HE-500.

1. Bass reach, and timbre as you point out. 3 watts+ really gets the bass going. The 5se is fairly quick in the bass, but the timbre on acoustic bass seems weak to me.

2. The 500 radiates both sides, 5se one. 500 has far greater depth and side to side imaging. Often spoken of as having speaker like sound as well as a "magic midrange". Midrange is where the music lives, having a can with a midrange that is the weakest and more depressed of the 3 ranges isn't one I'm ever going to accept. The 5se mids are workman like w/ a bit of clipped off detail of the harmonics. But they never ever exceed the definition "headphone". My mods, described below also bring a huge amount of instrumental focus in the mids (400 hz +).

3. The treble of the 500 has that famous 3x long cymbal decay (aka ringing), they also reverberate more due to the distribution pattern - that's where changing pads, rear screen, and anti vibration treatments tame those issues. When done with those mods the definition, harmonics, and musicality lay utter waste to the 5se. The 5se has that bright silvery sound, but when the music goes to a whiter or even papery sound, they don't follow. They are also constrained dynamically - they won't get super loud and they won't get very soft, this runs all the way into the upper mids.

@SilverEars has a pair of stock HE-500's and he's heard my modified set. Ask him.

Bagwell's modded 500 reduces a bit of the warmth to increase clarity. Because 500 can sound a bit warm stock. The bass sounds tighter due to the reduced warmth.

 

[bagwell359]

Bagwell's modded 500 reduces a bit of the warmth to increase clarity. Because 500 can sound a bit warm stock. The bass sounds tighter due to the reduced warmth.

The bass is tighter due to application of Dynamat, "Cooling it" is a function of substituting the stock rear mesh, change in pads (restrict the sound from the outer edge of the driver which is somewhat out of phase to the center). instrument definition is much cleaner in the mids and highs from these changes. Changing from stock SPC cable (microphonic and super splash treble) to a solid copper cable also helped, as does being run by a Ragnarok/Gumby.

And of course the key mod for the HE-500 - fuzzor mod which is more important than any of the others. Removes reverb (cruft) in the mids and highs.