[Moxhel]

If such a comparison doesn't come before release, I'm getting the Ether in the first wave and will compare to my HE-6.

That would be awesome NZ, is the HE-6 your reference 'phone right now?

 

[NZtechfreak]

That would be awesome NZ, is the HE-6 your reference 'phone right now?

Definitely. Sold my T1, GS1000i, LCD 2.2c, and HD800 as they never got used once the HE-6 came. The 6 was also not threatened by a two week in-home audition of the LCD-X either. If the Ether can stack up I'll be thrilled.

 

[Moxhel]

Definitely. Sold my T1, GS1000i, LCD 2.2c, and HD800 as they never got used once the HE-6 came. The 6 was also not threatened by a two week in-home audition of the LCD-X either. If the Ether can stack up I'll be thrilled.

Great, can not wait to hear your impressions. If the Ether holds its own, I won't be sad that the HE-6 has been discontinued.

 

[DreamKing]

Great, can not wait to hear your impressions. If the Ether holds its own, I won't be sad that the HE-6 has been discontinued.

 
Well, in any case, don't be. They will eventually replace the HE-6 with a successor and I'll be really interested in that too...particularly its efficiency first.
 
But we are a while from that anyway. Ether comparisons with the HE-6 are interesting for sure, in the mean time.

 

[Moxhel]

Well, in any case, don't be. They will eventually replace the HE-6 with a successor and I'll be really interested in that too...particularly its efficiency first.

But we are a while from that anyway. Ether comparisons with the HE-6 are interesting for sure, in the mean time.

Spot on, I'm also excited for the successor from Hifiman but it won't be for a little bit.

Dream have you had the chance to listen to the Ether and compare it to anything? Living in Australia, I don't get many chances to hear products before they're released.

 

[DreamKing]

Spot on, I'm also excited for the successor from Hifiman but it won't be for a little bit.

Dream have you had the chance to listen to the Ether and compare it to anything? Living in Australia, I don't get many chances to hear products before they're released.

 
No, sorry. I don't get many chances either where I'm located in Canada.

 

[reddog]

I finally heard the HD800 in a good setting from a few good rigs today. I also heard Anax's modded pair. Anax's pair was my preference, as it tames the treble. I can finally understand what so many like about the HD800. That said, they still aren't for me. I also heard the Ether from several set ups, ranging from my HA-1 (horrible with the stock HD800 by the way) to the Cavalli liquid carbon, to a beautiful DIY balanced Dynalo Mk2, Cavalli liquid crimson and rag/Yggy. The Ether played nice with all of them. The ether suits my listening so much better than the HD800. If the HD800 is too much of a musical scalpel for you, the Ether might just be the musical carving knife that puts something really tasty on your plate.

I swear my analogies are almost always food or cars…

I'm working on getting an Ether into my home, without having to sell my Primes or a kidney…

+1. I like the way you describe the ether as a "magical carving knife" , that description helps me place the Ether into the plethora of headphones that I have read about.

 

[Rockcoon]

The Ether played nice with all of them

Here is the second big score for Ether. If they realy have great capability to fit and find synergy in various setups, where they plugget. So it can be good as well with 5k, or 500 bucks dac.

Did someone tryed Ether on nfb28, or something at that price point?

 

[RedBull]

I wasn't exactly to able compare them on the same exact setup at CanJam, but I would say the following:

I would say that the TH500RP is at most as good as the Mr. Speakers Alpha Prime. I think I remarked earlier in this thread (I have some impressions quite a bit back in this thread) that the Ether was quite a step up compared to the Alpha Prime. So yeah, I think the Ether is definitely better (and not better by a small margin) than the TH500RP in terms of pretty much everything - bigger and more coherent soundstage, better detail retrieval in both the mids and highs, and better bass quality.

I see, that's good. Because if this sounds similar to th500rp (judging from looks), it is quite dissapointing.

If I understand correctly, the ether driver is a totally new driver built from the ground up, and so it doesn't necessarily need to be compared to a fostex. Sounds like most are comparing to the hd800 and lcd3...and it's holding it's own

Thanks. I just realized that Ether is using entirely their own driver, i initially thought it's still using fostex driver.

 

[MattTCG]

Definitely. Sold my T1, GS1000i, LCD 2.2c, and HD800 as they never got used once the HE-6 came. The 6 was also not threatened by a two week in-home audition of the LCD-X either. If the Ether can stack up I'll be thrilled.

What are driving the he-6 with? 
 
I heard the he-6 and Ether at the Nashville meet, but I only spent about five minutes with the 6 and never got a chance to make any serious comparisons. 

 

[NZtechfreak]

What are driving the he-6 with? 

I heard the he-6 and Ether at the Nashville meet, but I only spent about five minutes with the 6 and never got a chance to make any serious comparisons. 

It's well worth the time for a good audition.

I've run it from a few things over time, but I've been without a desktop amp a little while since selling my Taurus (which does a respectable job with them, while falling short of the best). At the moment I'm waiting on a pair of CMA800R to run in monoblock mode, which sounded fabulous with them when I auditioned that setup previously. I will probably get a speaker amp to use in the same rig though, using the CMA800R as a preamp for that, since the best I've heard the 6 was indeed from speaker amps (the Luxman L507U, specifically). With the CMA800R though I won't be rushing to settle on a speaker amp anytime soon.

DAC wise it's currently the Auralic Vega, but I'm not sure that's where I'll settle in the long term, but again it's easily good enough that I'm not in any hurry to see if anything will suit my ears and setup slightly better.

Anyways, on both DAC and amp fronts I'll be pretty confident I'm hearing the Ether approaching it's best, even if other rigs might have a slightly better pairing with the Ether.

 

[olegausany]

I heard HE-6 briefly from the speakers taps of LIO after trying Ether from headphones amp since Ether are too efficient but heard nothing special so that get interested in more serious audition

 

[NZtechfreak]

I heard HE-6 briefly from the speakers taps of LIO after trying Ether from headphones amp since Ether are too efficient but heard nothing special so that get interested in more serious audition

I can't speak at all to that pairing, but to dismiss a headphone based on the briefest of auditions under meet conditions...

 

[olegausany]

I heard HE-6 briefly from the speakers taps of LIO after trying Ether from headphones amp since Ether are too efficient but heard nothing special so that get interested in more serious audition

I can't speak at all to that pairing, but to dismiss a headphone based on the briefest of auditions under meet conditions...

This isn't first time I've heard He-6 at the meets with different setups but they never impressed me unlike Ether

 

[NZtechfreak]

This isn't first time I've heard He-6 at the meets with different setups but they never impressed me unlike Ether

Perhaps not for you then. I'll be interested to get my Ether and see. It has its work cut out to earn a place at my table though.

Out of curiosity, did you like the Abyss the times you've heard it?