[Jalo]

Boze, thanks for the input. Can you describe if the sound is in your head or does it feel out of your head in the room? What about immersion factor?

 

[avitron142]

  I spent sunday afternoon at the mini -meet &   I almost didn't go due the rain but I was glad I did.
 
The He1000 is on my Radar now, I was considering picking up a abyss at some point but it just got bumped by the HE1000.
 
The first song I listened (Dark side of the moon SACD) to the He1000 reminded me of the HE90s deep headstage middle hall & wide headstage.
 Listening to other songs the headstage changed with the recording,Wider, more upfront Headstage.
The He1000 had the ability to change its presentation with each recording,and it did it extremely well.
 
Top to bottom it was hard to hear any faults ,Very clean and fast with good dynamics.
 
The  he1000 driven straight out of HM901s  was very good as well ,lost some of the soundstage & dynamics of HEK1000 amp,but it shows that the HE1000 was able to driven by a lesser amp or player.
 
The He1000 looks better in person then the pics & is comfortable ,feels lighter then my HE500.
The amp & Headphone together are a end game setup.
 
These are meet impressions,so keep that in mind .But I must say I was very impressed.

Haha, good to see you here 

 Just wanted to confirm all that stuff with the Dark Side of the Moon album... "Time" was an especially good source reference for imaging, and really the whole album served as a testament to that too. Great to meet you btw 

 

 

[Chik0240]

Hi Guys,
 
I am aware that it's still under development stage, but since HiFiMan have decided to release a new beastly amp for it (at least size wise) to match the HE1000, are there anybody who've asked our well respected Dr. Fan about the suggested power needed for the HP? If it's more/ similarly power hungry compared to the HE-6 (i.e., even some great amps like the Bryston BHA-1, Auralic Taurus and Burson Conductor etc. can't bring it to justice), I doubt that selling one kidney wouldn't be enough

 

[bozebuttons]

Boze, thanks for the input. Can you describe if the sound is in your head or does it feel out of your head in the room? What about immersion factor?

Depending on the recording it was able to pull off both. On some of the songs I just closed my eyes & got pulled into the recording.

 

[Beagle]

You guys are funny!  

 Welcome to Head-Fi!!!!

What's so funny? If it's being compared against the HD800, that price range would be about right...

 

[bozebuttons]

  Haha, good to see you here 

 Just wanted to confirm all that stuff with the Dark Side of the Moon album... "Time" was an especially good source reference for imaging, and really the whole album served as a testament to that too. Great to meet you btw 

 

It was great to meet you as well!

 

[bozebuttons]

  Hi Guys,
 
I am aware that it's still under development stage, but since HiFiMan have decided to release a new beastly amp for it (at least size wise) to match the HE1000, are there anybody who've asked our well respected Dr. Fan about the suggested power needed for the HP? If it's more/ similarly power hungry compared to the HE-6 (i.e., even some great amps like the Bryston BHA-1, Auralic Taurus and Burson Conductor etc. can't bring it to justice), I doubt that selling one kidney wouldn't be enough

It worked well driven by the HM901s so I don't think it would be a problem with any of those amps.Much easier to drive then the HE6.
One member was listening directly out of his phone,not the ideal amp but it did drive the HE1000.

 

[rrahman]

  I don't get why everyone's hung up over the bass, lol. As someone who doesn't have the LCD's, I may be flawed in my opinion, but the bass texture was as perfect as I could hear... anything more and I'm afraid they could become a "bassy" headphone or unrealistic in its detail.
 
2 songs was really all I needed to test its capabilities, and I'm sure some other head-fi'ers could probably say the same. Realistic is the crowning piece in this flagship, and I'm unable to pinpoint any other headphone that was more organic and realistic than this one. It was also hella inviting, and more enjoyable than any other headphone I've tried while not losing any details. I didn't see the hd800's doing that on any near level. Mids and highs were pronounced to a level that was smack on target, and had the "wow" factor to them too... at least for me. 
 
Lastly, I'm more glad on the versatility of this headphone - not in terms of portable/home based, for obvious reason, but how unfussy these are about amping. Any owner of the hd800's knows that in addition to the headphone cost, you have to spend practically double that amount on equipment along the rest of the chain.  The HE1000's will bring the best out of any equipment you have at the moment - a serious factor to consider to those who may have $2000 for the new flagship but not $4500 on a McIntosh amp until later.    
 
This may be Hifiman's answer to the K812 pro.               

First, no one is hung up on bass.  2nd, Bass texture/detail and slam is different than bass quantity.  There can never be enough bass detail.  There is no such thing as unrealistic b/c too much detail, they mean opposite things. Too much bass detail doesn't make a headphone "bassy" which usually refers to bass quantity. 3rd, I was just saying I prefer the LCD bass, substantiating my point. 4thly and kind of unrelated, HD800s need synergistic components, not necessarily expensive components.  For ex the WA2, meier classic, and decware offerings sound fantastic with the hd800 and are all reasonably affordable, but this is another story fit for another thread.
 
How do you know the HE1000 will bring the best out of the equipment and sources all these random headfier's have?  This is another exaggerated statement that just can't be known until full release.
 
Lastly, a meet impression with 2 unfamiliar songs on unfamiliar upstream equipment with an unfinished headphone is probably the worst way to judge a headphone.  Moreover under these conditions to declare it so good that it shouldn't even be compared to any other TOTL. I mean come on... I'm just advocating for some sense of context with useful impressions rather than feeding the hype

 

[avitron142]

 
It worked well driven by the HM901s so I don't think it would be a problem with any of those amps.Much easier to drive then the HE6.
One member was listening directly out of his phone,not the ideal amp but it did drive the HE1000.

I listened to it straight out of the Shozy Alien as well - which has much less power than the iphone, actually. 
 
Idk, it seemed to have a very full sound, and had no indication of there being a lack of power anywhere in the sound to my ears.
 
I would guess the HE1000 will be rated somewhere along the 50 ohm mark if they keep it the way it is now... maybe even as low as the K812 pro's impedance of 36 ohms. Doesn't look that way at first glance of the headphones' size, but we'll see soon. 

 

[avitron142]

  First, no one is hung up on bass.  2nd, Bass texture/detail and slam is different than bass quantity.  There can never be enough bass detail.  There is no such thing as unrealistic b/c too much detail, they mean opposite things. Too much bass detail doesn't make a headphone "bassy" which usually refers to bass quantity. 3rd, I was just saying I prefer the LCD bass, substantiating my point. 4thly and kind of unrelated, HD800s need synergistic components, not necessarily expensive components.  For ex the WA2, meier classic, and decware offerings sound fantastic with the hd800 and are all reasonably affordable, but this is another story fit for another thread.
 
How do you know the HE1000 will bring the best out of the equipment and sources all these random headfier's have?  This is another exaggerated statement that just can't be known until full release.
 
Lastly, a meet impression with 2 unfamiliar songs on unfamiliar upstream equipment with an unfinished headphone is probably the worst way to judge a headphone.  Moreover under these conditions to declare it so good that it shouldn't even be compared to any other TOTL. I mean come on... I'm just advocating for some sense of context with useful impressions rather than feeding the hype

lol... hold your horses 

 Let's address things one by one.
 
1. I believe that there's been half this thread hung up over the bass and how it compares to the LCD's... that wasn't directed to you personally, but honestly no one even tried to compare mids, highs, acoustic or vocals to the LCD's... It was always "better bass texture on the HE1K's", "no my LCD's have better bass", etc. All I'm trying to do is have a more holistic thread. But we've moved on since then so I guess this is obsolete really 

 
2. Correct. But let's keep in mind that while detail there can never be enough of, "slam" is something I think we can all agree that too much = unrealistic and not really neutral. We don't say mid "slam" or high "slam" although there is mid "impact" and high "snaps". For some reason we're not doing any comparisons in that regard.
 
3. What? wvtr. I missed that; I guess I'm slow.
 
4. If you happen to have an amp with your other headphones that are known to have a good synergy with the HD800's, your in luck. But say you want to buy the HD800's, but you don't know whether your amps will be a good match with them. Now there's a dilemma for the buyer. Although he doesn't have to buy a McIntosh amp, he might have to buy a new one that will both have great synergy and bring out the best of the HD800's, which tends to get at least a bit expensive.
 
5. The versatility of the HE1000's being able to be driven from non-powerful amplifiers shows that it can take the best from the sources without being hindered by the lack of a powerful amp. My Shozy Alien was a very nice match to the HE1000's directly too, being that the Alien has a top tier sound, although its amp makes me cringe. Good results were found with the DX90 and even from iphones, I believe. This leads me to say that the new flagship can adjust (with reason) to whatever its hooked up to even without an amp - assuming that the DAC or soundcard itself is of decent quality.
 
6. Lol, I'm more worried about the fact that everyone was talking (considering how open these are) rather than the amount of songs 

 It helps though that these were Pink Floyd albums... not unfamiliar to me by any means - and a lot of great reference material so to speak. What I didn't say was that I kept on listening to my own songs afterwards, and was quite impressed how it handled those as well.
 
7. I hear your point, and maybe we should all hold our horses

. This is a prototype after all.

 

[YtseJamer]

 
If it's being compared against the HD800, that price range would be about right...

 
X2.  I think that $1500/$1700 would have been fair.
 
Anyway I'm happy to hear all the positive comments but I really hope that HiFiMAN will release a true 'affordable' successor of the HE-6 eventually.

 

[donkeanu]

any inputs on when will be the official release date of the HM-901s?

 

[Stillhart]

@money4me247 Thanks for posting those impressions.  I'm really amused to see that your impressions agreed with mine, on pretty much all the headphones you tested.  
 
I think you may have missed something on the LCD-3 though.  When I compared the LCD-3 to the LCD-X on the Meridian Prime with LPS, the LCD-3 was objectively superior.  I mean it was just obvious that it was so neutral and smooth it was crazy. The LCD-X was objectively more colored and not quite as smooth, but subjectively it sacrificed very little to achieve a lot more FUN.  It was an easy choice for me to make between the two.
 
I also agree that the HE-1000 is notably better than the HE-560.  I listened to the two back to back and the HE-560 just sounded more... artificial?  It was pretty capable but not nearly as natural sounding and, obviously, the soundstage wasn't there.
 
Anyhow, it's good to see another impression from someone who doesn't own gobs of flagships.  :-D

 

[FastAndClean]

How about Hifiman He-1000 vs Stax 009

 

[Claritas]

The HD800 was definitely more comfortable than Audeze after long listening sessions. Sound stage & imaging was not as impressive as I was expecting. Just maybe subtly better than my own HE-560 and the other Audezes I tried. However, I did just come from the HE1k which quite impressive sound stage & imaging capabilities, so I think my reference point was off. The HD800 were definitely a touch brighter in comparison to the Audeze, but their bass was quite capable and I did not find it lacking. There may have been a few parts of songs where the HD800 was just a bit too overly sharp or too resolving that you could pick up noise detracting from your music, but I felt like the fears of the HD800 requiring very specific other components to shine or being too "analytical/clinical" seems overblown to me.

Actually, I know it's true (that it's hard to mate HD800 well) from experience and I'm just not willing to bother. So try it with more set ups before you decide.

Thanks for the impressions. Glad you had a great time.