[jlbrach]

I have never heard anything remotely harsh from my HE1000,love the cans

 

[conquerator2]

I've heard the HEK through the Dave, Chord Hugo and Ifi idsd micro. They've been powered just fine when I've auditioned them.

On every occasion the harshness has doubled with volume increase. Try not to tell me what I did and didn't hear. It's been noted and raised by more than just me how the headphone breaks up and becomes harsh at higher volumes. You don't have to have them at ear bleeding levels to show this flaw, or anywhere near. I also had the owner of the shop confirm it as she was skeptical when I told her.

The HEX did not display this. At all.

Unfortunately, I have to agree to having the same ears.
I am not sure whether I wanna call it a high volume break up... The thing is, and it is something that also shows in every graph, there is a 5 - 8K emphasis and that means any hint of brightness or harshness is multiplied.
Not everyone has the same sensitivity in this range, just like they don't listen to an extremely wide range of music, but this emphasis was there, though again I won't necessarily call it high volume break-up.
The HEX that I heard likewise did not have it and it only made me bitter that what is essentially a 1/2 prize scaled down version doesn't have it [and to my ears competes favorably on many a levels].
That said, I still rank the HEK very high. I loved lots of the things it did. Ultimately though, this detracting factor made me get rid of it in the end. Which is also one of the reasons why I tonally prefer the Ether. Not technically mind you, but the sound characteristics are great IMO. 
Alas, I am moving on and trying more cans, looking for that perfect pick.
That's just me. I hate my audiophile nitpicky self 

 

[potkettleblack]

For sure the HEK is very special and a genius invention from Fang. It might not have been the most tasteful thing for me to do.. To storm the HEK thread and tell the world I preferred the HEX. It was maybe really for people on the fence to give both headphones a fair shake before making a decision.

 

[conquerator2]

Definitely recommend people to try both.
The pricier a headphone the more I recommend to try before you buy.
In fact I try to do that with most headphones now :3

 

[m8o]

I guess what some consider harshness I consider enjoyable bite.

 

[potkettleblack]

I guess what some consider harshness I consider enjoyable bite.

Lol. Listen to 'People Are Strange' by The Doors at an above medium listening level and look out for every time that he says the word 'strange'.

Regardless of the recording being poor - the HEK made me suffer more than my HD700, my previously owned HD800 and my dads Grado sr80e.

That isn't enjoyable bite mate.. That's harshness.

 

[m8o]

Redbook or HD? If Redbook, what is the year of the release? An original mix, re-release or remastering? I think I have one of the latter two.

I have experience with what you describe, in a different form. Bear with me...

When I stream optical from my DVR to my DacMagic Plus then to my MHA100, I get excellent quality. But if I feed HDMI from the DVR to my big Sony Bravo LED then optical out from that to the DAC noted (needed cuz the HDMI out disables the optical out from the DVR), while listenable at reasonable levels, jitter is responsible for a harshness i can't bear at high volume over the frequency range responsible for siblance/ess-ing. Can't listen to The Voice. Cant listen the Adel Live in Nyc, etc. For everything. What you describe sounds familiar.

As noted, Jitter was introduced to the signal passing the digital signal thru the TV, going from HDMI in to optical out. Going straight from the Dvr, to the DacMagic plus to the mha100, I can listen as loud as possible with no harshness added.

My curiosity is piqued. A crap music stream is crap, from jitter the engineer didn't realize was being introduced by the digital workflow, or compression / transient dynamics truncation . And that describes a lot of CDs and too many 'remastered' CDs. I won't fault the HE1K if it doesn't play well with a stream that was digitally crapped on. -lol

 

[jlbrach]

the HEX is a nice can but limited in its uses IMHO.....way too efficient to be used with a desk top amp and for me it was even tough to use it with my Mojo...I agree it is a great sounding can but i think it is way too expensive given its role as a can to be used with a phone......the HEK is a far better can IMHO

 

[john777]

For sure the HEK is very special and a genius invention from Fang. It might not have been the most tasteful thing for me to do.. To storm the HEK thread and tell the world I preferred the HEX. It was maybe really for people on the fence to give both headphones a fair shake before making a decision.

I'm a fence-sitter and was wondering about HEK v HEX, so this has helped me out.

 

[Benny-x]

  Unfortunately, I have to agree to having the same ears.
I am not sure whether I wanna call it a high volume break up... The thing is, and it is something that also shows in every graph, there is a 5 - 8K emphasis and that means any hint of brightness or harshness is multiplied.

 
I'm just getting into real EQ'ing now and I often wonder why it's so looked down on in high-end, home audio? It's absolutely used in high-end home theatre, concerts, other venues, and actual music production and mixing, so why not in home audio? 
 
I wonder if it gets unfortunately submarined by the standard, low quality preset EQs or simple slider EQs that are found in most music playing programs or DAPs? Those for the most part suck, and they're what people have access to. But ones that operate a very sophisticated EQ in their own application and require a VST plugin or other container so that they can be used with higher end music apps like Foobar or JRMC, those EQ programs can bring out some pretty amazing results. I'm only just getting into them and I'm finding that. 
 
Your headphone still keeps its character and still does what only it can do, but you get to remove treble peaks or mid dips.
 
Just crossed my mind.
 
On the topic of the HEX vs. HEK, hopefully I'll get a chance to listen to the HEX. I should have a new pair of HEK inbound within 3 weeks.

 

[Articnoise]

   
I'm just getting into real EQ'ing now and I often wonder why it's so looked down on in high-end, home audio? It's absolutely used in high-end home theatre, concerts, other venues, and actual music production and mixing, so why not in home audio? 
 
I wonder if it gets unfortunately submarined by the standard, low quality preset EQs or simple slider EQs that are found in most music playing programs or DAPs? Those for the most part suck, and they're what people have access to. But ones that operate a very sophisticated EQ in their own application and require a VST plugin or other container so that they can be used with higher end music apps like Foobar or JRMC, those EQ programs can bring out some pretty amazing results. I'm only just getting into them and I'm finding that. 
 
Your headphone still keeps its character and still does what only it can do, but you get to remove treble peaks or mid dips.
 
Just crossed my mind.
 
On the topic of the HEX vs. HEK, hopefully I'll get a chance to listen to the HEX. I should have a new pair of HEK inbound within 3 weeks.

 

EQ can only adjust more or less quantity of a signal in a given FR, never fix a problems which has to do with quality aspects like harshness, digits, too much bass bloom or resonance. What you can do is tone down the annoying signal in those FR, but toning down is not the same as fixing the problem and also often comes with some disadvantage IMO.

 

EQ is a filter and not everyone like to add an extra filter, if not really needed, as you break the bit perfect transmission. 

 

[conquerator2]

Redbook or HD? If Redbook, what is the year of the release? An original mix, re-release or remastering? I think I have one of the latter two.

I have experience with what you describe, in a different form. Bear with me...

When I stream optical from my DVR to my DacMagic Plus then to my MHA100, I get excellent quality. But if I feed HDMI from the DVR to my big Sony Bravo LED then optical out from that to the DAC noted (needed cuz the HDMI out disables the optical out from the DVR), while listenable at reasonable levels, jitter is responsible for a harshness i can't bear at high volume over the frequency range responsible for siblance/ess-ing. Can't listen to The Voice. Cant listen the Adel Live in Nyc, etc. For everything. What you describe sounds familiar.

As noted, Jitter was introduced to the signal passing the digital signal thru the TV, going from HDMI in to optical out. Going straight from the Dvr, to the DacMagic plus to the mha100, I can listen as loud as possible with no harshness added.

My curiosity is piqued. A crap music stream is crap, from jitter the engineer didn't realize was being introduced by the digital workflow, or compression / transient dynamics truncation . And that describes a lot of CDs and too many 'remastered' CDs. I won't fault the HE1K if it doesn't play well with a stream that was digitally crapped on. -lol

What I've gathered from your post is that the HEK only plays nice with (very) good mastered recordings.
But that's something I've said. Give it instrumental and it rocks. Give it audiophile music and it sings. But give you some of the ~80% of variously mastered music that a wide listening taste practically guarantees and it will be harsh. 5-8K is precisely the range where bright mastering and sibilance hits you and that's exactly where the HEK rises from a (probably not making matters better) 1-3K gentle downward slope.
Technical aspect wise, I had minimal qualms with. Tonality and FR is another matter.

 

[Oldfella]

I managed a few hours,with the HEX,before going back to my HEK.If owned the HEX, i would be quite happy,but for me, it didn't have the space between instruments,nor the depth to the soundstage,among other things. There wasn't much in it,but i certainly noticed it. I also feel the HEK, has a slightly larger soundstage, than my HD 800. As for a harshness at a certain frequency, my 76 year old hard don't detect it.

 

[Oldfella]

Lol. Listen to 'People Are Strange' by The Doors at an above medium listening level and look out for every time that he says the word 'strange'.

Regardless of the recording being poor - the HEK made me suffer more than my HD700, my previously owned HD800 and my dads Grado sr80e.

That isn't enjoyable bite mate.. That's harshness.

I for one,don't hear it, but my ears are 76 years old.I enjoy music,and perhaps are not critical enough, to listen to some songs,and pick out a few words, and call a headphone harsh, because of it.

 

[potkettleblack]

the HEX is a nice can but limited in its uses IMHO.....way too efficient to be used with a desk top amp and for me it was even tough to use it with my Mojo...I agree it is a great sounding can but i think it is way too expensive given its role as a can to be used with a phone......the HEK is a far better can IMHO

True points. I think it's over priced and awful build quality. But I do think certain genres can be enjoyed more with each. Classical, slow rock for example sounds better to me on the HEK. Reggae, hip hop and EDM clearly better on the HEX for me.