[TheAbyss2022]

If I were to compare this, it sounds pretty close to HE-1on high crossfeed settings with GSE having a slight increase in midbass and a little less treble presence for a slightly more laid back presentation than the HE-1

To me, the HE1 had a more natural instrumental/vocal timbre, a lot more bass impact, smoother and less fatiguing treble. Not sure how this new version improves on these aspects but I much preferred the HE1 compared to the OG.

 

[GoldenSound]

To me, the HE1 had a more natural instrumental/vocal timbre, a lot more bass impact, smoother and less fatiguing treble. Not sure how this new version improves on these aspects but I much preferred the HE1 compared to the OG.

The GSE has a very different tuning to the OG. New drivers, many changes to the base unit, it's pretty much an entirely new headphone

 

[sebiambrus]

i guess it wont beat the HD650 tuning vise and will be better 10% technical wise. at 2000x cost.

 

[Wexrilliams]

i guess it wont beat the HD650 tuning vise and will be better 10% technical wise. at 2000x cost.

Nothing beats anything when you don't care about it. Putting your head in a trashcan and banging it against a wall will sound the same to a deaf man.

 

[sebiambrus]

Nothing beats anything when you don't care about it. Putting your head in a trashcan and banging it against a wall will sound the same to a deaf man.

gues lot ppl would hang you if you call hd650 a tarshcan. lowkey

 

[draytonklammer]

If I were to compare this, it sounds pretty close to HE-1on high crossfeed settings with GSE having a slight increase in midbass and a little less treble presence for a slightly more laid back presentation than the HE-1

Thanks for linking to this.
Sounds like a win to me. I'll be excited to upgrade.

 

[TheDJHastings]

Very interested to hear this. It looks like it addresses most of the issues I had with the treble on the OG.

For reference, I though it would be interesting to make some comparison plots for this edition:

Aperio GSE (blue) compared with OG (source: Oratory1990 on GRAS 45BC-10, graph: AutoEQ)

Aperio GSE (blue) compared with HE-1 (source: Oratory1990 on GRAS 45BC-10, graph: AutoEQ)

Aperio GSE compensated to -1 dB/Oct Gras KB50xx diffuse field

 

[theveterans]

Wow thanks for the graphs overlay! It did confirm my crude approximations of the Aperio GSE with the HE-1 since I made sure to schedule my time to where I get to listen to both right after one another during CanJam with the same track

 

[MasonStorm]

If an owner were to take advantage of the trade-up program and send in their original Aperio, does Warwick literally take apart their old unit and change out the parts to turn it into a GSE edition, or do they accept the old unit as tribute (recycling the parts therein) and instead send out a brand new, fresh GSE unit to the owner?

 

[draytonklammer]

If an owner were to take advantage of the trade-up program and send in their original Aperio, does Warwick literally take apart their old unit and change out the parts to turn it into a GSE edition, or do they accept the old unit as tribute (recycling the parts therein) and instead send out a brand new, fresh GSE unit to the owner?

Your unit will have parts replaced (both in the headphones and main unit) to become (essentially) a GSE.

 

[GoldenSound]

If an owner were to take advantage of the trade-up program and send in their original Aperio, does Warwick literally take apart their old unit and change out the parts to turn it into a GSE edition, or do they accept the old unit as tribute (recycling the parts therein) and instead send out a brand new, fresh GSE unit to the owner?

Yep!

You keep your existing chassis and headphones themselves. But Warwick replaces the analog boards, updates firmware, replaces drivers and installs the gold venting/badge.

Someone at Canjam actually wanted to buy the GSE but in black. It's unfortunately not sold in black directly so they bought a black aperio and are getting it upgraded to have a black/gold aperio

 

[ThanatosVI]

Yep!

You keep your existing chassis and headphones themselves. But Warwick replaces the analog boards, updates firmware, replaces drivers and installs the gold venting/badge.

Someone at Canjam actually wanted to buy the GSE but in black. It's unfortunately not sold in black directly so they bought a black aperio and are getting it upgraded to have a black/gold aperio

Well, it's nice that there is a workaround, but this shouldn't be an issue to begin with, they should just offer the GSE in black as well.

 

[BTD1]

This is from a review by the Headphone Guru: "Giving the system a quick listen I noted that they had what I think of as a pop sound with a generous bump in the bottom end, not quite to my taste, but definitely interesting."
A. "pop"sound. Any comments on this by those lucky enough to have heard it?

 

[GoldenSound]

Btw we will have the Aperio GSE (with some slightly used pads this time too rather than brand new ones) and Aperio OG side by side at CanJam NYC 2025

Looking forward to it!