[brunk]

Which headphone do you guys think would be better for metal between the 5LE and the 500? my assumption would be the 5LE since ive read people say it has more treble energy than the 500 right? I have AKG K 702' and I am a little bit sensitive to treble but it doesnt really bother me on the 702's unless i really crank up the volume. i listen through a matrix m-stage and a bifrost.

The 5LE is the faster headphone, which IMO is more important or else u get a giant omelet of mixed sounds and not music. That said, the 5LE is not only the more technical, its more neutral which is good, but it still slams and has great highs. Its no Grado but rather a chameleon of all genres.

 

[IIMB]

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The 5LE is the faster headphone, which IMO is more important or else u get a giant omelet of mixed sounds and not music. That said, the 5LE is not only the more technical, its more neutral which is good, but it still slams and has great highs. Its no Grado but rather a chameleon of all genres.

 
Great, that's just what I wanted to hear , I also tend to listen to a lot of dubstep so the bass was one of the main things i was hoping to improve on over the K 702's
 

 

[Chris_Himself]

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Great, that's just what I wanted to hear , I also tend to listen to a lot of dubstep so the bass was one of the main things i was hoping to improve on over the K 702's
 

 
Hmm you're not going to get monstrously more bass, but it is sort of there.
 
It's a well-rounded headphone IMO.

 

[Clemmaster]

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Which headphone do you guys think would be better for metal between the 5LE and the 500? my assumption would be the 5LE since ive read people say it has more treble energy than the 500 right? I have AKG K 702' and I am a little bit sensitive to treble but it doesnt really bother me on the 702's unless i really crank up the volume. i listen through a matrix m-stage and a bifrost.

 
With the (very) warm M-Stage, I'd rather go for the HE-4 for metal.
 
Even on my SA-31 (which is less warm than the M-Stage) I feel the 5LEs are a bit soft with hard-rock/metal. They make wonder with classic rock, blues, vocal (the 500s are king here, IMO) and instrumental.
 
Think of the HE-4 as a more refined K-702 with much more bass impact (note: the bass is boosted in the lowest bass region for added impact but no bass bump like on the 500s) a fuller and warmer sound and no harshness.
It just fall short of the 702s in sound-stage but not many headphones can match them in that department .
I would need to listen to the 702s or 601s (own) again because when I switched from the 701s (sold) to the 4s, I noticed the latter had much better depth and layering than the AKG, yet more intimate (especially with the M-Stage which reaches its limit with the 4s but I listen at moderate volume. That was with the old velour pads though).

 

[IIMB]

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With the (very) warm M-Stage, I'd rather go for the HE-4 for metal.
 
Even on my SA-31 (which is less warm than the M-Stage) I feel the 5LEs are a bit soft with hard-rock/metal. They make wonder with classic rock, blues, vocal (the 500s are king here, IMO) and instrumental.
 
Think of the HE-4 as a more refined K-702 with much more bass impact (note: the bass is boosted in the lowest bass region for added impact but no bass bump like on the 500s) a fuller and warmer sound and no harshness.
It just fall short of the 702s in sound-stage but not many headphones can match them in that department .
I would need to listen to the 702s or 601s (own) again because when I switched from the 701s (sold) to the 4s, I noticed the latter had much better depth and layering than the AKG, yet more intimate (especially with the M-Stage which reaches its limit with the 4s but I listen at moderate volume. That was with the old velour pads though).

I plan on selling the M-stage so i can purchase an emotiva mini x and connecting through speaker taps so hopefully  that won't be a problem . I've read pretty good reviews about the pair and every time i read up on the big metal thread here a lot of them seem to use the he 500 which are supposed to be warmer than the 5le? Thanks for the input 

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Hmm you're not going to get monstrously more bass, but it is sort of there.
 
It's a well-rounded headphone IMO.

even the 702's aren't too bad for me in terms of bass quantity, so im guessing the 5le's will be enough, maybe i can do the jergpad stages 3 and 4 mods to quench any remaining desire I may have for some Audeze like lows. which are achievable according to Jerg

 

[Clemmaster]

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...
I plan on selling the M-stage so i can purchase an emotiva mini x and connecting through speaker taps so hopefully  that won't be a problem . I've read pretty good reviews about the pair and every time i read up on the big metal thread here a lot of them seem to use the he 500 which are supposed to be warmer than the 5le? Thanks for the input 

 
...
even the 702's aren't too bad for me in terms of bass quantity, so im guessing the 5le's will be enough, maybe i can do the jergpad stages 3 and 4 mods to quench any remaining desire I may have for some Audeze like lows. which are achievable according to Jerg

 
Well, in this case yeah, the 5LEs are (much) more suited to Metal 

 
The 5LEs are the most balanced Hifimans of the bunch (short of the 6s, which I didn't get the chance to listen to. I owned all the others).
 
Like Chris_Himself said ("said himself" sounds better... anyway ), the bass on the 5LEs are not as prominent as the others (again, short of the 6s).
I was actually wondering if this was due to the Alpha Pads I put on them or something else. It seems it's not the case and they are just not boosted like on all the other (sub-bass for the 4s, mid-bass for the 400s and 500s).

 

[IIMB]

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Well, in this case yeah, the 5LEs are (much) more suited to Metal 

 
The 5LEs are the most balanced Hifimans of the bunch (short of the 6s, which I didn't get the chance to listen to. I owned all the others).
 
Like Chris_Himself said ("said himself" sounds better... anyway ), the bass on the 5LEs are not as prominent as the others (again, short of the 6s).
I was actually wondering if this was due to the Alpha Pads I put on them or something else. It seems it's not the case and they are just not boosted like on all the other (sub-bass for the 4s, mid-bass for the 400s and 500s).

that's good to here to clarify do you mean they are much better in comparison the the he-500's or since i'll be using the emotiva amp? Yeah I've lurked the forums and I've found the consensus to be that the 5le's are the most neutral of the lower models and that its bass quantity isnt quite as expressed.

 

[Clemmaster]

They are not much better than the 500s, they are more balanced and less romantic than them. They seem to scale slightly further too.

The 500s are something special, good at everything but really shine at some genre (vocals, oh sweet vocals!), not so much at others (fast paced genre).

The 5LEs are more technically "right" but they don't particularly shine at one specific genre, like the 500s for vocals, the grado for rock, the beyers for... nothing (I'm kidding here :-D ). They are less euphonic but are the better all-rounder of the 2.

Also, the rest of the setup will be a deciding factor. I'd pair the 500s with a more neutral setup and the 5LEs with a colored/"musical" one (SA-31) for a similar result.

IMO, YMMV, of course.

 

[khaine1711]

Beyer 990 does metal/rock surprisingly well, despite their ... extreme brightness

.
 
I planned to have the 500 as my primary budget metal can; sadly they were not really stellar at this area (and not at the other type of music which I listen to - baroque) so they had to go =p. That said I think He500 + the emotiva is less than ideal for metal to say the least.
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The 5LEs are more technically "right" but they don't particularly shine at one specific genre, like the 500s for vocals, the grado for rock, the beyers for... nothing (I'm kidding here :-D ). They are less euphonic but are the better all-rounder of the 2.

 

[IIMB]

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Beyer 990 does metal/rock surprisingly well, despite their ... extreme brightness

.
 
I planned to have the 500 as my primary budget metal can; sadly they were not really stellar at this area (and not at the other type of music which I listen to - baroque) so they had to go =p. That said I think He500 + the emotiva is less than ideal for metal to say the least.

sadly I'm quite sensitive to treble , well I have the urge to try some planar magnetic headphones and the he 5le is the most balanced oneas far as i know in my budget plus it will be multitasking as a dubsteb/electronic headphone as well, is there a specific amp that you think may be better? It would have to be in the emotiva's price range as i don't have much money to spend
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They are not much better than the 500s, they are more balanced and less romantic than them. They seem to scale slightly further too.

The 500s are something special, good at everything but really shine at some genre (vocals, oh sweet vocals!), not so much at others (fast paced genre).

The 5LEs are more technically "right" but they don't particularly shine at one specific genre, like the 500s for vocals, the grado for rock, the beyers for... nothing (I'm kidding here :-D ). They are less euphonic but are the better all-rounder of the 2.

Also, the rest of the setup will be a deciding factor. I'd pair the 500s with a more neutral setup and the 5LEs with a colored/"musical" one (SA-31) for a similar result.

IMO, YMMV, of course.

so the emotiva would be good since it leans towards a bit of warmness

 

[khaine1711]

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sadly I'm quite sensitive to treble , well I have the urge to try some planar magnetic headphones and the he 5le is the most balanced oneas far as i know in my budget plus it will be multitasking as a dubsteb/electronic headphone as well, is there a specific amp that you think may be better? It would have to be in the emotiva's price range as i don't have much money to spend
so the emotiva would be good since it leans towards a bit of warmness

 
Well not that sensitive considering you're still can listen to metal and the 702

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Based on your profile I'd say the Emotiva would be safer since it's kinda warm; the bifrost is pretty neutral so you may need something warm to help with those shredding metal record. If you got a speaker system or a nearby hifi store, just grab the 5LE and plug it straight up some integrated amp and experiment

. I won't spoil the fun but there's plenty of favours in the speaker amp market =p (you can grab ex-demo/used stuff for really good price too).

 

[preproman]

Wouldn't the 500s be a better choice?  They have a warm sound sig.

 

[Roscoeiii]

Long thread at this point, and I thought I'd check in on the thoughts of folks who are driving the HE-5LEs from speaker taps of non-headphone amps. Any tips on amp matching? Tube vs. SS? Any great matches? Particularly poor matches?

I have a chance to get a demo HiFiMan 4-pin XLR to speaker tap box and am trying to decide whether to give it a go or remain content with my Little Dot VI.

 

[IIMB]

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Well not that sensitive considering you're still can listen to metal and the 702

.
 
Based on your profile I'd say the Emotiva would be safer since it's kinda warm; the bifrost is pretty neutral so you may need something warm to help with those shredding metal record. If you got a speaker system or a nearby hifi store, just grab the 5LE and plug it straight up some integrated amp and experiment

. I won't spoil the fun but there's plenty of favours in the speaker amp market =p (you can grab ex-demo/used stuff for really good price too).

good point 

 I think that's courtesy of the m-stage lol, plus a lot of time i find myself increasing the volume quite a bit so that the music feels more tangible/aggressive (I always feel like its too distant with the 702's) and after a few minutes of that i have to take extended breaks because my ears are worn out. sadly i dont know of any in the Miami area :\ but then again I haven't really tried  looking for them. 

 

[IIMB]

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Wouldn't the 500s be a better choice?  They have a warm sound sig.

they would be if my main priority was the electronic music but my first priority is metal and from what I've read the 500's arent exactly the best match for that.