[ADUHF]

A couple impressions of Sennheiser's HE-1 electrostatic headphones.

At 60k $$ this is beyond the budget of most music listeners. And I haven't personally listened to the HE-1 myself. But this is a headphone I will sometimes use as a measurement reference... usually in conjunction with several others.

First measurement is from Oratory1990's GRAS rig...

https://www.dropbox.com/s/fk4qx1jjjjrl37n/Sennheiser HE1.pdf?dl=0

Next is Resolve with measurements on the HBK 5158, and on another GRAS rig which looks pretty similar to the above....

https://forum.headphones.com/t/sennheiser-he-1-official-thread/400/26



And last, but definitely not least, DMS with plots on the HBK 4128,... and some welling up...

 

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Resolve discusses some of the headphones and gear he uses as reference points for both reviews and his own listening needs.



I did not know the Focal Bathys was the only (over-ear?) headphone he currently owns btw. So that was sort of interesting. (I don't currently need an ANC headphone though.)

It would also be interesting to hear which headphone he'd choose as a general, all-purpose, music listening reference, if he could choose only one. And whether it would be one of the models discussed in the video above (such as the HE-6 with Sundara pads?), or maybe something else. I think he deserves some props though for doin this.

 

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Resolve briefly discusses the concept or definition of "reference" toward the end of the above video. So thought I'd take a sec to comment a little on that.

Frequency response would be a good chunk of it imo. But I agree with Resolve that there are others factors which could potentially be important as well, including things like driver symmetry and (stereo) imaging, distortion, impulse response, consistency, openness, and so forth. I generally try to steer clear of more subjective terms like "technicalities", "sound stage", etc. And prefer to keep my attention more on characateristics that can be measured and/or quantified in some way. But would also not necessarily rule some of those more subjective qualities out.

Comfort and ergonomics could also be factors, especially if they impact a headphone's sound quality or consistency between different listening sessions.

I'm leaving the specific definition of "reference" open (at least somewhat) to the posters here though, because I'm as interested in hearing what others think this could mean as the headphones they might pick... Maybe it's also the qualities or characteristics of a particular pair of headphones which defines what a reference sound is to you?

 

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Ora's graph of the Bathys, in case anyone was curious.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/od11y02z7c84d8g/Focal Bathys.pdf?dl=0

Based on the above, there appears to be some unevenness in the midrange on this headphone. Treble/HF also looks somewhat laid back in spots.

Some Resolve graphs for comparison....

https://forum.headphones.com/t/foca...fficial-discussion-thread/18861/276?u=resolve

 

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Initial impressions of the MM-100 by DMS sound pretty good! Hmm...

 

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This probably isn't reference. But Sony also recently released a new studio headphone called the MDR-MV1.

There is a review on the Headphone Show. And like the new Beyer DT 900 Pro X, Sony has also found a way to extend (and even boost) some of the bass a bit on this new open model. It has a fairly pronounced peak though in the low treble which would probably be a deal-breaker for me, for out-of-box listening...

https://forum.headphones.com/t/sony-mdr-mv1-official-thread/21984

(insert headslap here)

The fit and some of the subjective qualities sound fairly positive on this though, based on Resolve's review. This does not look like it would compete with some of the more neutral entries in the reference category though, because of the brightness in the low treble (and maybe some other tonal balance issues?).

Official Head-Fi topic: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-mdr-mv1.967749/

 

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This is probably a subject for a different topic, but the target frequency response curve that Resolve is currently using for his 5128 measurements is not correct imho. So I would take the compensated measurements made with both that target, and with his current diffuse field curve with a grain of salt. And focus more on the raw 5128 FR measurements instead.

 

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I have some trouble and disagreements with Headphonesdotcom's new approach to graphing. So take anything I say about the MM-100 FR with a grain of salt. It looks like there could be some imbalances in the MM-100's upper mids/low treble though. Hopefully they will post some raw graphs as well that are easier to interpret.

 

[ADUHF]

This probably isn't reference. But Sony also recently released a new studio headphone called the MDR-MV1.

There is a review on the Headphone Show. And like the new Beyer DT 900 Pro X, Sony has also found a way to extend (and even boost) some of the sub-bass a bit on this new open model. It has a fairly pronounced peak though in the low treble which would probably be a deal-breaker for me, for out-of-box listening...

https://forum.headphones.com/t/sony-mdr-mv1-official-thread/21984

(insert headslap here)

The fit and some of the subjective qualities sound fairly positive on this though, based on Resolve's review. This does not look like it would compete with some of the more neutral entries in the reference category though, because of the low treble peak.

Official Head-Fi topic: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/sony-mdr-mv1.967749/

Already mentioned this in the official topic linked above, but the MDR-MV1 appears to have a similar FR to the Beyer DT1990 Pro, based on the Rtings plots. These are for the left and right channels respectively...

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/g...mdr-mv1-vs-beyerdynamic-dt-1990-pro/39784/628
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/g...mdr-mv1-vs-beyerdynamic-dt-1990-pro/39784/628

It looks like Rtings also recently revised their graphs a bit to make FR comparisons of different headphones a litte easier. And as previously mentioned, the MDR-MV1 appears to have a fairly prominent bright spot somewhere in the low treble, much like the DT1990.

The MDR-MV1 is also similar in response to the Beyer DT990 Pro (as noted in Resolve's MDR-MV1 review). Especially in the bass and mids...

https://www.rtings.com/headphones/g...-mdr-mv1-vs-beyerdynamic-dt-990-pro/39784/329
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/g...-mdr-mv1-vs-beyerdynamic-dt-990-pro/39784/329