[miceblue]

@miceblue
  Thanks for posting the first (well not counting Tyll's original post) frequency response of the HE1000.

You clearly have thought about headroom and average listening levels,  Thanks so much for your thoughts.  Sounds like you suggest a 25 dB headroom above whatever listening level you really use, which in your case is around 87 dB... right?  That starts to poke at this mysterious argument that says that even though a tiny FiiO amp can get the say 112 dB out of the HE1000, it is still the wrong amp because some other amp can get 25 dB more.

Again, thanks!

Sure thing, glad to help out a bit!

As always, your listening habits might be different than mine so you'll have to take into account how you listen. For comparing headphones or at local meets, I usually tend to listen on the louder side of things, but for everything but that, I listen at quieter volume levels. It always really scares me when people leave the volume knob at 12 o'clock at local meets and I have to turn it back down to 9 o'clock for my listening preferences.

My face when that happens:
: |
or
O_O


Anyway, for the HE1000, the E12 is just fine at driving it. Whether or not it sounds good is a different story. I personally don't like the E12's sound in general and I prefer the Objective 2.

 

[DreamKing]

Yeah, the E12 isn't transparent to my ears so it isn't about power in that case.

 

[maeveth]

My Lyr 2 just arrived today so now I'll start working on full impressions - its been hard to wait this past week without it.
 
Some very quick impressions over my NAD C352 Integrated Headphone Amp
 
The Lyr 2 is much more dynamic - it does bring a measure of life into the music that wasnt there with the NAD.  Overall the HEK's now have sublime bass to match the mid range.
 
Watch this channel for more detailed impressions in the next week or so.

 

[miceblue]

Yeah, the E12 isn't transparent to my ears so it isn't about power in that case.

I'm writing a review for the Aune B1. If you're looking for a portable headphone amplifier for the HE1000, the B1 is a pretty solid contender. As much as I like the JDS Labs C5 (or C5D), I think the B1 is a better pairing for the HE1000. The bright sound of the C5/C5D don't go very well with it even though I find them to sound a little more dynamic.

 

[miceblue]

I wonder if the uneven/bumpy frequency response is due to pad reflections. That or maybe the metal grilles, yokes, and headband arc cause some vibrations to go around to the wood earcups and/or resonate.

When using the HE1000, sometimes the adjustable parts of the headband assembly will randomly make a "twahng" sound when I move my head a little. Perhaps they can change those aspects too from these beta units.

Some of you may recall that older revisions/prototypes of the HE1000 had vertical bars on the grille instead of the current horizontal ones on these beta units.

 

[daltonlanny]

I wonder if the uneven/bumpy frequency response is due to pad reflections. That or maybe the metal grilles, yokes, and headband arc cause some vibrations to around the wood earcup and/or resonate.

When using the HE1000, sometimes the adjustable parts of the headband assembly will randomly make a "twahng" sound when I move my head a little. Perhaps they can change those aspects too from these beta units.

Some of you may recall that older revisions/prototypes of the HE1000 had vertical bars on the grille instead of the current horizontal ones on these beta units.

I wonder if any of the above may also cause the bump around 7khz?

 

[doctorjazz]

Think my HE 1k is coming today, got a MicorZOTL amp delivered for review yesterday as well, hoping it makes it...

 

[saidentary]

Think my HE 1k is coming today, got a MicorZOTL amp delivered for review yesterday as well, hoping it makes it...

How on earth did you manage to find a MicroZOTL??  That's my Berning question.  And, are there any MORE of them that you know of???

 

[doctorjazz]

They are just about to be re-released, upgraded with an external power supply (and a bit more expensive...). My friend, Dr Blue, is going to post a review on Head-Fi (probably very soon)

the information is below, copied from Blue's review.

see Urbanhifi.com and lineartubeaudio.com for pictures of the Zotl2 and more information on its availabilty, choice of colors of the faceplate and more

 

[doctorjazz]

http://www.urbanhifi.com/products/microzotl-brochure

here's a picture and the price ($1100)

haven't gotten a chance to listen much, need to leave it on for a while to do the burn in thing, nicely built and nice looking imo...
Getting the 1K, maybe today, curious how they match up.

 

[saidentary]

http://www.urbanhifi.com/products/microzotl-brochure

..........
..........
Getting the 1K, maybe today, curious how they match up.

This is significant news!  I thought the microzotl was gone forever.  One of the key questions is whether it'll have enough juice for the HE-1000s.  As for the Microzotl's sound signature, I've heard that it's great, from people I really trust in high end audio.  But I never had the privilege of hearing the original, much less the new version.  Please keep us (or at least ME, anyway) posted. 
 
Thanks,
 
-Bill

 

[doctorjazz]

I'm wondering if it will have enough juice for the 1K as well, just got it, used it with my HE-560 out of the box, was able to power it, but had to turn it up pretty high, and felt maybe it didn't quite have the muscle. But, I'm burning, checking out cables, and hoping the 1K is delivered today when I get home. Of course,that's supposed to be burned in as well...

 

[negura]

The distorsion/mid jaggies on Tyll's graph are very interesting. One open question is if those are the effect of something else.

 

[money4me247]

***PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE THE MEASUREMENTS FOR THE BETA HE-1000***
 
All my measurements displayed this 'jagged waves' phenomenon in the midrange. Do note that I could NOT hear the 'sawtooth-like waves' during a frequency response sweep. Originally thought it was some sort of error for my protocol/set-up, so I ended up running a TON of measurements on the HE-1k & spamming quite a few other members here for additional help. (special thanks to purrin & solderdude & bluemonkeyflyer & hans030390 for all their help throughout my learning process and answering a ton of specific questions)
 
***Also note that the dip in the 7khz region is an artifact that appears on all my headphone measurements due to my specific testing set-up!!!
***Also remember not to directly compare frequency response curves measured by different sources. You can check my reviews for some of the other measurements I've done using the same set-up (in spoiler tag).
***Will add the full HE-560 & LCD-X measurements that I took during the same trials and the impulse response/CSD plots when I have more time.
 

Spoiler: Usual Measurement Disclaimer

1. I wrote my sonic impressions prior to doing personal measurements.
2. Please note I am a relative amateur at measuring headphones. My personal measurements may not be as accurate as other sources. May update measurements as I run more trials. Any feedback or suggestions for improvement appreciated. Let me know if you spot any errors.
3. The dip in the 6-8 kHz region is an artifact from the interaction from the mic placement with the shape of the ear folds. This artifact appears in all my measured frequency response curves via my current personal measurement set-up.
4. You can NOT directly compare my personal measurements to other frequency response curves made by other people!!! There will be inherent discrepancies due to differences in measurement set-up, so comparing measurements from different sources is not reliable!! You can compare my measurements of the HE-1000 against measurements I made of other headphones.
5. Reference here for frequency response correlations to instruments and audiophile terms. http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm (credit: Independent Recording Network)

​

Spoiler: Measurement Set-Up

Measurement Chain:

1. [size=1em]For the [/size][size=1em]1st & 2nd Batch of Trials: Dell XPS m1530 with Windows 7 > ARTA Generates Sine Sweeps > Steinberg UR-22 USB Interface with Yamaha ASIO > Line Out > Oppo HA-2 Amplifier > HE-1k headphones placed upon my own head (left ear being measured) > Pannasonic WM61-A Microphone > Steinberg UR-22 > Laptop > ARTA analysis [/size][size=1em](demo version)[/size]
2. [size=1em]For the 3rd [/size][size=1em]Batch of Trials: Dell XPS m1530 with Windows 7 > ARTA Generates Sine Sweeps > Steinberg UR-22 USB Interface with Yamaha ASIO > Line Out > Oppo HA-1 Amplifier (demo unit) >> balanced out >> HE-1k headphones placed upon my own head (left ear being measured) > Pannasonic WM61-A Microphone > Steinberg UR-22 > Laptop > ARTA analysis (demo version)[/size]

 
Note: I used a Panasonic WM61-A microphone in my measurement set-up. The WM61-A does actually measure very flat until the upper treble range when calibrated. Its unequalized response should be flat within +/- 1.5 dB to 20 kHz. Frequency response curves are smoothed to 1/24 octave.
 
[size=1em]Total cost of measurement set-up not including laptop: custom-made measuring kit including modded Pannasonic WM61-A mic + phantom PSU from [/size][size=1em]@bluemonkeyflyer (contact him fo[/size][size=1em]r pricing - by far the least expensive thing) + microphone pre-amp ($140 Steinberg UR22 Audio Interface; recommended by BMF) + solid state amplifier with analog input of your choosing ($130 O2 works well here if you already own it; [/size][size=1em]recommended by purrin[/size][size=1em]). So really you can easily get started for <$300 of additional equipment if you don't currently own anything. If you already have gear you can use, the cost is much cheaper.[/size]

 

Spoiler: Two HE-1k trials from 5/24/15

 

 

Spoiler: Two HE-1k trials from 5/27/11

 

 

Spoiler: Six of my trials on 6/10/15

Note that for this set of measurement trials I used the Oppo HA-1 kindly loaned to me to test via balanced output.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 
@Decoy, updated this posting for you.

 

[LouisArmstrong]

Subbed by an LCD3 and SR-009 owner.