[matthewhypolite]

I never got the sense Tyll really ever loved the HEK.

really? , I thought he always loved it, and it took the HP of show at big sound 2016 by the majority of the guests. Which is quite shocking it was removed from the wall, he must really love those new cans.

 

[zeissiez]

Tyll has a tendency to focus in tonal balance only, after all he is specialized in measurements and FR, He doesn't care much about soundstage, transparency, separation, clarity, imaging, air and openness. That's why he loved the Momentum so much, which is to my ears, tonally great, but no soundstage, muddied and congested. The HE1000 is very euphonic and has a speaker-like soundstage like no others. Heck, why care about someone else's wall. The HE1000 stays up on my wall for sure.

 

[mtoc]

HE1000 kicked off the Wall of Fame by the Ether Flow.

 
who cares a wall?!

 

[Oldfella]

Removed from the wall!. Oh dear,what are we all going to do. Me?. Nothing. I like the large soundstage/imaging etc., and i see (For me) a more " In head" sound as a retrograde step, but thats just me.

 

[auricgoldfinger]

Head-Fi and all of the various industry participants and so-called expert reviewers exist primarily to encourage excessive consumerism.  If you can afford a $3000 pair of headphones that you enjoy, consider yourself among the fortunate few and be satisfied with what you have.
 
Let the hateful responses begin!
 
 

 

[MooMooMoooo]

I don't trust Tyll anymore. He raved about the HD800 so I got one and I didn't enjoy it.  I'm sick of the euphemisms such as 'bright' and 'sparkle'.  He kept going on about 'taming' the HD800.  I tried some of the mods but it wasn't enjoyable.  Without the euphemisms the HD800 is just a very revealing headphone with rubbish bass and ear piercing treble (the "6kHz peak").  I'm definitely not buying the HD800S.  When Tyll raved about the Momentums I got one of those and it was rubbish.  Good sounding but definitely not worth the price.  Tyll also raved about the Audeze LCD-3 with Fazor so I went and bought those too.  They were great but that whole 'bass extension' thing was overrated.  He then raved about the HE1000 so I got those and finally I found a satisfying pair of headphones.  The bass extension was just shockingly deep, the sound stage open, and the music was immensely enjoyable.  It appears that Tyll has cooled his admiration for Audeze after his rather blunt review of the LCD-4.  Also, I remember that in his review of the HE1000 he did state that he previously didn't like HIFIMAN headphones because he thought that they were too bright.  The HE1000 aren't too bright at all.
 
I'm over Tyll's Wall of Fame and his recommendations.  I followed his recommendations but I was better off just auditioning headphones until I found one that I liked.  I don't have much free time but I have the means to buy whatever headphones I like.  I think I just wasted money following Tyll's recommendations.  Moving forward I'll just have to audition headphones before I buy them and I'll take Tyll's rave reviews with a grain of salt because my faith in his opinions has not played out to result in a pleasurable listening experience.  The experience with headphones is a subjective one.  My view is that, underneath all those graphs and Tyll's technobabble, he is just giving a subjective opinion.  I've concluded that his his subjective opinion is different from mine.  What is telling is that I've given away all of my headphones and kept the HE1000.  I'm eagerly awaiting comments once the HE1000 v2 are out.  I'm also eagerly awaiting the HIFIMAN's Shang-gri-la but there's no news on when those might even come to market.
 
I'm looking forward to auditioning the new Focal Utopia headphones but I'm not going to buy them just because they are on the Wall of Fame.  I just don't trust Tyll's opinions anymore.  Tyll says that their bass is a tad light, and Jude from Head-Fi said something along the lines that they have amongst the best bass "for an electrodynmaic headphone".  What was Jude alluding to?  I think he was alluding to the fact that planar magnetics with their large diaphragm area can produce better bass.  Even with the large x-max of the Focal Utopia it is basic physics that a diaphragm of that area cannot move as much air as a diaphragm the area of a planar magnetic driver.  So I'm getting the distinct impression that the bass of the Focal Utopia isn't spectacular.  Of course it's not all about bass otherwise I'd just get a cheap pair of Beats headphones with distorted overemphasised bass with no other redeeming qualities.
 
In any event, my point is that the Wall of Fame is now just an interesting place for me to look for headphones to try out but I won't buy them simply because they are on the Wall of Fame.  So if Tyll's taken the HE1000 off the Wall of Fame then I note that is his opinion but it hasn't changed my enjoyment of the HE1000 in the slightest.

 

[MooMooMoooo]

Hey folks.  I discovered something earlier today that somewhat shocked me with the HE1000 headphones.  I was listening to "The Winds of Winter" on the Game of Thrones sound track.  I was also listening to Sia's "Chandelier", "Cheap Thrills", "Alive" and various remixes of those songs.  I lifted the earpads about 1" off my face where the cables go into the headphones to let out some heat.  I didn't liff the entire earpad off, I only lifted it off at where the cables are.  When I did that the bass suddenly got a lot deeper in a very satisfying way.  If you thought that the HE1000 bass extension was surreal then try lifting the headphones.  I experiemented with different distances to find a sweet spot and compared them to having the pads flat on my head.  I look forward to those with HE1000's giving it a go and sharing their experience.  I'm sure the sound engineers amongst us can enlighten us as to the physics involved but whatever the reason is with a fun track such as Sia's "Alive (Cahill Remix)" I was tapping my toes.

 

[Maxx134]

HE1000 kicked off the Wall of Fame by the Ether Flow.

who cares a wall?!

V1 is off the wall...

I must now go to the nearest bridge and jump off,
screaming why my $3k headphone not on the Tyll WOF wall...
All way down..
Why...why....


Wait , I forget the V2 is coming.
I must now drive over that same bridge to my nearest dealer to audition...
Wew..

 

[chowmein83]

  I'm looking forward to auditioning the new Focal Utopia headphones but I'm not going to buy them just because they are on the Wall of Fame.  I just don't trust Tyll's opinions anymore.  Tyll says that their bass is a tad light, and Jude from Head-Fi said something along the lines that they have amongst the best bass "for an electrodynmaic headphone".  What was Jude alluding to?  I think he was alluding to the fact that planar magnetics with their large diaphragm area can produce better bass.  Even with the large x-max of the Focal Utopia it is basic physics that a diaphragm of that area cannot move as much air as a diaphragm the area of a planar magnetic driver.  So I'm getting the distinct impression that the bass of the Focal Utopia isn't spectacular.  Of course it's not all about bass otherwise I'd just get a cheap pair of Beats headphones with distorted overemphasised bass with no other redeeming qualities.
 

 
Actually, I think the Utopia's bass is pretty good. This is coming from an HE1000 owner who has heard the Focal headphone. It's pretty comparable in quality to the HE1000, though I think the HE1000 still has the slightly more "solid" bass. The Utopia IMO also has a tiny bit more bass, though I don't think there is a huge difference between the Utopia and the HE1000 here.

 

[matthewhypolite]

   
Actually, I think the Utopia's bass is pretty good. This is coming from an HE1000 owner who has heard the Focal headphone. It's pretty comparable in quality to the HE1000, though I think the HE1000 still has the slightly more "solid" bass. The Utopia IMO also has a tiny bit more bass, though I don't think there is a huge difference between the Utopia and the HE1000 here.

Having heard the Utopia and owning an HEK, apart from bass, how do you compare both headphones?
 

 

[doctorjazz]

Boy, if Tyll wanted to get this thread hopping, he picked the way to do it!

Reviews, even with measurements, comparisons, etc, are, in the end, subjective.

 

[jlbrach]

I too find Tyll's reviews interesting but all over the lot...i did take his advice regarding the Moon 430 amp which I love but his changing his tune about headphones he raved about a couple of months ago gets a bit old quickly......

 

[m8o]

Hey folks.  I discovered something earlier today that somewhat shocked me with the HE1000 headphones.  I was listening to "The Winds of Winter" on the Game of Thrones sound track.  I was also listening to Sia's "Chandelier", "Cheap Thrills", "Alive" and various remixes of those songs.  I lifted the earpads about 1" off my face where the cables go into the headphones to let out some heat.  I didn't liff the entire earpad off, I only lifted it off at where the cables are.  When I did that the bass suddenly got a lot deeper in a very satisfying way.  If you thought that the HE1000 bass extension was surreal then try lifting the headphones.  I experiemented with different distances to find a sweet spot and compared them to having the pads flat on my head.  I look forward to those with HE1000's giving it a go and sharing their experience.  I'm sure the sound engineers amongst us can enlighten us as to the physics involved but whatever the reason is with a fun track such as Sia's "Alive (Cahill Remix)" I was tapping my toes.

Ya, you bet. Noticed the same several months ago, soon after I bought them.

The ultra light mass of the he1k diaphragm, which it should be noted has no rigidity on its own, is a double-edged-sword of sorts.

The decoupling of the earpad from the ear, thereby turning what amounts to a closed box speaker on the head side of the earphone into an open box, removes all the acoustical resistance of that 'closed system' on the inside of the earpads. That permits the diaphragm to move a whole lot more. Creating that ultra massive, very underdamped, bass.

I almost made a thread about it one day. Feeling the diaphragm that was much touted for its lightness, was perhaps -too- light, and unrigid. Just wasn't up for the fallout I suspected it would cause.

I should add, I always meant to play with straws of varying lengths and quantities slid between my head and earpad, under the earlobe. To turn that 'closed box' into a 'vented box', and see if I could change the texture of the bass somewhat. If successful, I was going to drill thru the earpad and slide the straw or straws thru it for a permanent mounting.

In regards to Tyll's retirement of our beloved HE1K, I would be embarrassed for anyone that let that change their opinion of this headphone we all love so deeply. Besides, is Babe Ruth going to get demoted from the baseball wall of fame to make room for other people who hit more home runs than him? No, once on the wall of fame, you should be there forever. The whole demotion thing doesn't make sense.

 

[zeissiez]

A designer take a pair of drivers, enlarge the soundstage, we have a thinner, less impactful, less detailed sound, and less accurate timbre. Shrink the soundstage, we get a fuller, more detailed, more impactful sound. It's physics. So we can't compare bass impact of the HE1000 with a LCD-X, because LCD-X's sound is much more in the head. The HD800 is spacious sounding, but bass light. What the HE1000 achieved was that, it has a big and holographic soundstage, at the same time giving the most speaker-like bass, good tonal balance, good detail, excellent timbral accuracy, decent impact. I think this is quite a feat. Some ppl said the He1000 is soft. If the impact is better with sacrifice in soundstage, I would take the sound as it is now.

 

[goldendarko]

What I don't get is why Tylls WOF seems to be just the newest available headphones for the most part. The hot thing at the moment. For example taking the HE1000 off and then replacing it with the Utopia while saying its bass light and has a small soundstage. Well the HE1000 has neither of those problems and its $1000 less! I feel like he gets on board the hype train a bit at times even though he clearly sees the headphones for what they are if he can find specific faults like that for example.

I've got the Utopia coming in a few weeks for a trial so I'll get to see how it compares with the HE1000 on my own setup I'm very familiar with (Yggy/Studio 6)