[ruthieandjohn]

 
Not really a fair comparison, but I have had the pleasure to be listening through a Wells Audio Headtrip which is rated at 25 wpc.
 
I'm also using my Eddie Current (Laconic) EC-01 which drives 300Ω at 1.2W. 

Thanks... I am trying to decode the mystery of good amps with the HE1000, and power into its 35 ohms seems to be the only available data sheet item to consider.
 
David McRell at CEntrance tells me that the HiFi M8 maintains 5 V rms output into loads > 42 ohms, and 4.6 Vrms for loads <42 ohms.  So he HiFi M8 is likely putting up to 4.6 V rms into the 35 ohms of the HE1000, or (4.6)**2 / 35 = 600 mW per channel. 
 
So far...
 
HiFi M8:  0.6 W
Lyr2:  6 W (into 32 ohms)
HiFiMAN EF-6  5 W (into 50 ohms)
HiFiMAN EF1000   8W - 15W (depends on HP impedance)
 
Fascinating... sounds like while given the stated 90dB @ 1 mW sensitivity of the HE-1000, then while 0.6W would give you rock-concert levels of roughly114 dB, you really want 10 x that (or 6 W) to make the HE1000 shine!

 

[musicman59]

  As I sat tonight, listening to some of my long time reference recordings, I came to the startling revelation, that:
 
I don't really need a headphone that makes music any better than the HE-1000. 

I was doing some listening last night with the new WireWorld Nano Platinum headphone cable (it is brand new so it needs sometime to settle and open up). I was listening to James Taylor and Carole King at the Troubadour. It was like I was there... the sound was so natural and detailed. The soundstage was wide and layered allowing me to identify where each musician in the band was on stage and the voice of JT and CK.. oh my... they were so natural and coherent. It was just beautiful!
 
I can't wait to put some more hours on this cable and then try the DHC Complement4 and Vero Reference when they get here....

 

[immtbiker]

  Fascinating... sounds like while given the stated 90dB @ 1 mW sensitivity of the HE-1000, then while 0.6W would give you rock-concert levels of roughly114 dB, you really want 10 x that (or 6 W) to make the HE1000 shine!

 
Thanks for your calculations.
 
While the HiFi M8 does drive the HE-1000 loud enough at 90% volume (around 4 o'clock), I don't believe any amp should be run at the highest end of it's output capabilities for long periods of time. Driving components without a stepped attenuator volume control, at or near their maximum potential, induces the most distortion that the amp develops. Plus there is no wiggle room on quieter recordings.
 
Can most cars do 100 mph? yes. But the smaller engines with lower horsepower are revving at constant redline. People ask why does a driver need a car with 300 hp that does 160 mph? Besides the answer that "boys need their toys"...The answer is that when you are doing 60 mph, the engine is performing more efficiently than a car with 140 hp, and can offer the performance that you need when passing or merging onto a highway.

 

[jamato8]

Does anyone have any guesses as to what type of wood this is? I have very little knowledge of what woods are what, apart from zebra wood (LCD-3), rosewood (LCD-2), and bamboo. XD

 

Looks like it could be some sort of birch. On many woods, even experts have a hard time and it requires a breakdown in the lab unless you are talking about some obvious woods. Quarter cut oak comes to mind, zebra wood and some others but others can be very difficult and I used to do it professionally. The veneer they used does look very fine. 
 
------
 
I am now listening with the Whiplash gold plated silver. I am letting the cable run in but after 24 hours all I can say is, is that no matter how good a cable, the headphones are the end point and with this cable the sound is - pure. It is as if you have total trust that you could step off a cliff and not fall and are floating with the moment suspended. The sound is that pure. 

 

[Canadian411]

  Looks like it could be some sort of birch. On many woods, even experts have a hard time and it requires a breakdown in the lab unless you are talking about some obvious woods. Quarter cut oak comes to mind, zebra wood and some others but others can be very difficult and I used to do it professionally. The veneer they used does look very fine. 
 
------
 
I am now listening with the Whiplash gold plated silver. I am letting the cable run in but after 24 hours all I can say is, is that no matter how good a cable, the headphones are the end point and with this cable the sound is - pure. It is as if you have total trust that you could step off a cliff and not fall and are floating with the moment suspended. The sound is that pure. 

 
Oh my ! is it really birch ? that's the cheapest wood you can buy. Bubinga and Rosewood cost way more than that.
Can someone confirm ?

 

[jamato8]

   
Oh my ! is it really birch ? that's the cheapest wood you can buy. Bubinga and Rosewood cost way more than that.
Can someone confirm ?

I don't know. I said it looks like and there are some types of birch that are beautiful, regardless of price and I have used all of the exotic woods. Who cares about price, we are looking at the grain and structure of the wood. But as stated, it looks like some I have used but it could be many different woods. And most all rosewood is farmed now, as it should be, and no where looks like it used to from the wild. Wild rosewood is totally different with more depth, it is harder and has more luster, color and hues. You need a tight grained wood for veneers or they don't come out well. 
 
Tiger maple would be nice as would curly maple. So many trees are cut down illegally destroying the wild trees. I would prefer plastic than to destroy the wild forests. I have friends from Brazil and other areas that have these beautiful trees and people don't know the extent that the forests are disappearing and frankly these huge trees should not be touched. 
 
-----------
 
Back to impressions. I am listening to Jackson Browne on Solo Acoustic 2nd album. The acoustical space is extremely well rendered. Jackson Browne's voice is full, textured and set back enough that you get a the full feeling of the event. I can actually hear height to the audience and to the hall, which is not easy to translate with headphones and often speakers. 

 

[miceblue]

Thanks for your calculations.

While the HiFi M8 does drive the HE-1000 loud enough at 90% volume (around 4 o'clock), I don't believe any amp should be run at the highest end of it's output capabilities for long periods of time. Driving components without a stepped attenuator volume control, at or near their maximum potential, induces the most distortion that the amp develops. Plus there is no wiggle room on quieter recordings.

Can most cars do 100 mph? yes. But the smaller engines with lower horsepower are revving at constant redline. People ask why does a driver need a car with 300 hp that does 160 mph? Besides the answer that "boys need their toys"...The answer is that when you are doing 60 mph, the engine is performing more efficiently than a car with 140 hp, and can offer the performance that you need when passing or merging onto a highway.

I agree about the distortion part, but most amps don't have very high distortion until the very end of the volume control. This is about analogue volume control though; digital volume control is likely far more accurate in terms of distortion since the digital attenuation is often being done before the actual digital-analogue-converter, and thus downstream amplifier (or pre-amp).

can offer the performance that you need when passing or merging onto a highway

Wouldn't that depend on the amp's slew rate rather than "using only a portion of the maximum power?" Most amps likely have a slew rate of more than than 1 V/μs, which is enough for Red Book audio. Many op-amps have a slew rate much higher than that.

The output power at a given gain setting is still limited by the amp's gain. If you have a quiet passage, you need more gain, not power since the input level itself is varied and at that particular moment, a quiet signal with a low gain is going to sound quiet and output a low-powered signal compared to a typical loud signal at low gain.

Looks like it could be some sort of birch. On many woods, even experts have a hard time and it requires a breakdown in the lab unless you are talking about some obvious woods. Quarter cut oak comes to mind, zebra wood and some others but others can be very difficult and I used to do it professionally. The veneer they used does look very fine. 

Ah, using a quick Google Image search, the pattern of the wood does kind of look like birch. Interesting.
Regardless of how expensive it is, I do think it looks pretty nice on the HE1000 since it almost matches the colour of the headband and I tend to like lighter woods without a really prominent grain.





[rule]If anyone cares to see what's inside the beta HE1000's box, I made an unboxing video yesterday.

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Das5_rYHLc[/video]


I've made some sonic impressions of the HE1000 out-of-the-box with about an hour's time of use, but I'll let them burn-in for a few days before listening to them again, and once more at around the 100-hour mark. Right now I have about 10 hours of burn-in done with a playlist of test tracks that I use, as well as pink noise tracks at various sampling rates to work the entire frequency range of the drivers (rated at 8-65,000 Hz).

 

[politbureau]

Well through some extremely good luck, I've managed to get an order placed for a pair of HE-1000s which should be here in 2-3 weeks. I was fortunate that funds have allowed me to hold onto my existing cans - for the (very) short term at least - so I should be able to do some comparative A/Bing with my existing sets. I am still not sure if the HE-1000 is going to replace my existing lineup, but it will be an interesting exercise. Can't wait!

 

[Decoy]

  Well through some extremely good luck, I've managed to get an order placed for a pair of HE-1000s which should be here in 2-3 weeks. I was fortunate that funds have allowed me to hold onto my existing cans - for the (very) short term at least - so I should be able to do some comparative A/Bing with my existing sets. I am still not sure if the HE-1000 is going to replace my existing lineup, but it will be an interesting exercise. Can't wait!

You made the right choice.

 

[jamato8]

I am listening to some DSD or DoP through the Hugo to my RM DIY amp to the Whiplash TWau cable to the HE1000, Bellezza Crudel doing Vivaldi. Geez, it is weird getting goose bumps all the time. Such an interplay of tonalities. This is like transcendent medication but put in music for meditation or use both transcendent musical meditation. I love the way the bass disappears into the depths, not truncated or assimilated into the sound spectrum but everything in its place and yet creating the whole of everything. 
 
Listening to some Peter Green now. I think this is how it was supposed to be heard. 

 

[politbureau]

  You made the right choice.

I hope so!
 
I will for sure be selling off either the HEs if they're not up to the task, or two sets of my existing TOTL cans if so. I'm already worried that if I like the HEs I'll have to decide between keeping the HD800s or the LCD-3Fs... that's gonna be a real tough one.

 

[DreamKing]

  Thanks... I am trying to decode the mystery of good amps with the HE1000, and power into its 35 ohms seems to be the only available data sheet item to consider.
 
David McRell at CEntrance tells me that the HiFi M8 maintains 5 V rms output into loads > 42 ohms, and 4.6 Vrms for loads <42 ohms.  So he HiFi M8 is likely putting up to 4.6 V rms into the 35 ohms of the HE1000, or (4.6)**2 / 35 = 600 mW per channel. 
 
So far...
 
HiFi M8:  0.6 W
Lyr2:  6 W (into 32 ohms)
HiFiMAN EF-6  5 W (into 50 ohms)
HiFiMAN EF1000   8W - 15W (depends on HP impedance)
 
Fascinating... sounds like while given the stated 90dB @ 1 mW sensitivity of the HE-1000, then while 0.6W would give you rock-concert levels of roughly114 dB, you really want 10 x that (or 6 W) to make the HE1000 shine!

 
This "shining" only at Xfold ear-damaging output thing is based on false hope or expectations. If it's enough to kill your hearing / deaf 10 times over, it's not a requirement to the headphone. You're going to be running a fraction of that high of an output in all cases. Best to just get a nicely designed amp to your standards, where you've got enough gain control headroom for your volume preference. 
 
And the Lyr2 could be that, not saying otherwise but needing 6W as a requirement is not based on reality.

 

[miceblue]

Shiny...

^ that's how I'm letting the HE1000's drivers burn-in XD
I don't have the pads touching one another such that the effect of pad break-in isn't a factor for any differences in sound I may or may not hear

 

[ruthieandjohn]

  And the Lyr2 could be that, not saying otherwise but needing 6W as a requirement is not based on reality.

I think the Lyr 2 is the choice... at least two early reviews on this thread (money4me247 and one other) use the Lyr2 to good effect, and MANY people (including Grado Labs) state its excellence for driving Grado headphones, of which I have over a dozen!

 

[DreamKing]

  I think the Lyr 2 is the choice... at least two early reviews on this thread (money4me247 and one other) use the Lyr2 to good effect, and MANY people (including Grado Labs) state its excellence for driving Grado headphones, of which I have over a dozen!

 
Yes, that's true but it doesn't mean it's because of 6 watts. There's more to the design.