[Spent&Bent]

I just received my he60/hev70 combo.

Upon opening the package I was stunned.
This is a new unit, yes totally, like NOS
Upon first listening it sounds a lot like HD 600 / 650 to me, a bit different from my RS-1 it's much less upfront and sparkeling to me, also compared to the stax classic system.
I can listen to this all day long if I wanted, while rock songs are still very nice to listen to as well, yes it sounds very nice.

That said the unit was ice cold and I just gave it 15 minutes to acclimatise so much too short.

I will post decent impressions later, but boy am I happy that it was truly as described the bidding went high enough for it!!!.

 

[marios_mar]

please comment a bit more on how they compare with staxes. What about detail and comparison with HD600s and Staxes and whatever else you heard?

Are they fast? And bass? Can you feel the bass?

 

[Spent&Bent]

Quote:

Originally posted by marios_mar please comment a bit more on how they compare with staxes. What about detail and comparison with HD600s and Staxes and whatever else you heard? Are they fast? And bass? Can you feel the bass?

Detail is not more, it's hard to describe.
You get a sense of more detail because you hear the beginning and end of each note / sound so well and it really tears apart complex classical stuff like a stax can.
Bass is good, every bit as good as the Grado RS-1 at least.

Edit: Right now I am listening to Shakira - Objection tango afro V punk version, yep bass is solid awesome

What I do wonder about is the slight fatness in the bass on certain songs as if there's some cabinet resonance.
I will investigate all of this some more I have very little time right now.

I can "feel" bass so well I probably would not even realise I was listening to electrostat if I did not know, it's really good in that respect.
But like I said, more later after workies.

 

[bozebuttons]

Let them play for about an hour with a signal going through them, then put them on you will see a big improvement in their
sound. The he60s need a long time to fully charge.

 

[Spent&Bent]

Thanks bozebuttons, yes I will give it some time.. infact they have been running for about 6 hours now, with me listening almost all the time.
They are even less fatuiging for me as the stax because of the comfort and like the stax I forget volume cause I don't get those jets of air blast into my ears.
This may be good / bad depends on how you look at it...

Frequency extremes are getting better, the midrange of the HEV70 is still a bit too typical transistor like for my taste, I hope to hear some improvement in this, but I must say I have noticed the same with the stax amp regarding midrange.
It reminds me how wonderful that RA-1 can be.... It's truly something different when it's hooked up to the RS-1, so magical.
Like I said before the phones have a lot of bass, which is rendered a bit differently compared to the RS-1, but nice to listen to, most definately!
I have played some iron maiden and it sounded sensational, maybe not as vibrant and up-front as the RS-1, but very addictive because of the sheer speed of the phones, not too little impact either, just wonderful basically I get cought up in the tempo of the music very fast and I want to just headbang and dance there is no sitting still with these.

These headphones themselves obviously show great potential.... especially the speed at which complex music is dissected into more listenable "slices" is particulary impressive to me it's so different to dynamic phones where notes sometimes tend to "stick".
It most definately seems to topple even the stax classic system in this respect, although a direct comparison would be required to confirm this, and because I have read others have this same feeling that may influence my impression as well....

In conclusion the midrange (of the amp?) is the only thing that has some negative opinion from me right now, but I judge it at higher level, also I am a tube fan and this is solid state, so its unfair basically.
Compared to regular phones I bet these things leave a lot of them in the dust, ofcourse, even with this amp.

more later....

 

[Hirsch]

I've deen doing some A/B comparison between an SR-404/SRM-007t and the HE 60/HEV 70. That little solid state amp is holding its own (and I tend to gravitate toward tubes these days). I suspect that a regulated outboard power supply would improve the HEV 70 even more.

Next step is to hook both to the SRM-007t simultaneously, but I wanted to do the initial listening with each run by its native amp.

 

[Canman]

Quote:

Originally posted by Hirsch Next step is to hook both to the SRM-007t simultaneously, but I wanted to do the initial listening with each run by its native amp.

To make things more interesting, you will have to compare them with the Omega II as well!

 

[grinch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Canman To make things more interesting, you will have to compare them with the Omega II as well!

in my opinion, neither of those amps is worthy of the omega 2.

 

[scottder]

never mind how it sounds, where are the pictures!

Scott

 

[Spent&Bent]

Quote:

Originally posted by scottder never mind how it sounds, where are the pictures! Scott

Scott, unfortunately I do not have a digital camera, as a matter of fact not even a decent analogue

I do have a videocamera but the pictures are so low res it's no use for glam shots

I plan to go backpacking and travelling in indonesian jungle next summer before it's all gone so I am looking for a camera on ebay, maybe I'll find a nice one soon.

 

[scottder]

I picked up the Canon A80, great camera and very comact to boot. If you're looking for a bargain, look for an A70, same camera just slightly lower rez.

Scott

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by scottder never mind how it sounds, where are the pictures!

HE 60 and HEV 70

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Canman To make things more interesting, you will have to compare them with the Omega II as well!

Yep

The Feb. 7 meet is going to be fun!

 

[Edwood]

I was really let down by the HE60/HEV70. It was very hollow sounding compared to the Stax 303, 404, and especially the Omega II's. Baby Orpheus has some growing up to do, most noteably in the bass department. I did A/B comparisons to a couple HD600 cable combos. The Baby O sounds nothing like them.

I don't know if the amp is to blame, but the imaging was the worst part. Totally unacceptible. The LT and RT side had a very noticeable gap between them. They really emphasized the negative aspect of headphone sound, the separated LT and RT sound. I suppose it could be remedied with a crossfeed, but for expensive electrostatics, no thank you. Stax absolutely crushed them in imaging.

On a positive note, they are more comfortable than the HD600's. Especially the ear pads. I wish I could use the HE60's ear pads with the HD600's.

-Ed

 

[Hirsch]

Quote:

Originally posted by Edwood I was really let down by the HE60/HEV70. It was very hollow sounding compared to the Stax 303, 404, and especially the Omega II's. Baby Orpheus has some growing up to do, most noteably in the bass department. I did A/B comparisons to a couple HD600 cable combos. The Baby O sounds nothing like them. I don't know if the amp is to blame, but the imaging was the worst part. Totally unacceptible. The LT and RT side had a very noticeable gap between them. They really emphasized the negative aspect of headphone sound, the separated LT and RT sound. I suppose it could be remedied with a crossfeed, but for expensive electrostatics, no thank you. Stax absolutely crushed them in imaging. On a positive note, they are more comfortable than the HD600's. Especially the ear pads. I wish I could use the HE60's ear pads with the HD600's. -Ed

The stators on the HE 60 require a minimum of one hour of playing before they're properly charged. Further, the power supply on the HEV 70 is a joke, and a bad one. If you give it some help (a decent power conditioner), the amp is much better than it would appear. After adjusting to the HE 60, the SR-404 initially sounded sluggish and bloated, and took a while to get used to (I'm still not all the way there).