[pdrm360]

 
Thanks for the response! Would you consider a HD700 used for 550 still a pretty good proposition though? HE-500 is quite a bit expensive and from what I have seen, HE-500 needs a really go amp to with it too.

 
What is your amp?  What kind of music genre do you hear?

 

[SNSDluv]

   
What is your amp?  What kind of music genre do you hear?

I currently have Asus Essence STX and Fiio E12 for portable. Planning to get an amplifier few months after I get the headphones since I am a student, not really financially capable of getting everything at once!
And I will use these for mostly orchestral, sometimes chamber classical. and probably 15% of times for pop.

 

[Sonido]

  I currently have Asus Essence STX and Fiio E12 for portable. Planning to get an amplifier few months after I get the headphones since I am a student, not really financially capable of getting everything at once!
And I will use these for mostly orchestral, sometimes chamber classical. and probably 15% of times for pop.

HD700 is not bad for classical. It has decent soundstaging, and a lot of older classical music are poorly recorded or have background noise, so perfect transparency is not necessary. Another headphone within this price range you should consider is the Koss ESP950 or Lambda Stax. I have the Koss and got it on sale for $600 on Cyber Monday. It comes with an electrostatic amp so you don't need an amp, though it's not a great amp. Still the speed and airiness is unmatched, and it really shines in classical. With the Koss, it's normally priced at $1000, but you can get it are around $600 if you wait for sales. It's pretty much the only other headphones I will put down my HE-500 for at times.

 

[Ambien]

  I currently have Asus Essence STX and Fiio E12 for portable. Planning to get an amplifier few months after I get the headphones since I am a student, not really financially capable of getting everything at once!
And I will use these for mostly orchestral, sometimes chamber classical. and probably 15% of times for pop.

I'm basically in your boat, I'm a student and I have the HD 598 and HD 700 next to me atm and comparing the two. The 700 is definitely an upgrade from the 598, I guess you could say it's a more revealing version of the 598's. I have an Audio-gd nfb 15.32 dac/amp with me and honestly I can't really tell the difference between my Asus onboard sound card maybe that part could just be me.

 

[pdrm360]

  I currently have Asus Essence STX and Fiio E12 for portable. Planning to get an amplifier few months after I get the headphones since I am a student, not really financially capable of getting everything at once!
And I will use these for mostly orchestral, sometimes chamber classical. and probably 15% of times for pop.

 

  I currently have Asus Essence STX and Fiio E12 for portable. Planning to get an amplifier few months after I get the headphones since I am a student, not really financially capable of getting everything at once!
And I will use these for mostly orchestral, sometimes chamber classical. and probably 15% of times for pop.

 
I noticed that you own an HD650 too.
 
IMO, Fiio E12 doesn't have enough power to drive the HD650 or HE-500 efficiently, It's not bad for the HD700.  The HD700 is also good for orchestral and classical.
 
Just a suggestion, Buy a good amp for your HD650 instead of buying another headphones, I prefer the HD600 over HD650 for classical music though. 

 

[SNSDluv]

  I'm basically in your boat, I'm a student and I have the HD 598 and HD 700 next to me atm and comparing the two. The 700 is definitely an upgrade from the 598, I guess you could say it's a more revealing version of the 598's. I have an Audio-gd nfb 15.32 dac/amp with me and honestly I can't really tell the difference between my Asus onboard sound card maybe that part could just be me.

  HD700 is not bad for classical. It has decent soundstaging, and a lot of older classical music are poorly recorded or have background noise, so perfect transparency is not necessary. Another headphone within this price range you should consider is the Koss ESP950 or Lambda Stax. I have the Koss and got it on sale for $600 on Cyber Monday. It comes with an electrostatic amp so you don't need an amp, though it's not a great amp. Still the speed and airiness is unmatched, and it really shines in classical. With the Koss, it's normally priced at $1000, but you can get it are around $600 if you wait for sales. It's pretty much the only other headphones I will put down my HE-500 for at times.

Thank you guys for the fast response! I really appreciated. I might just go with the HD700 since I saved up money already and it seems like a really great deal for me
And Sonido, I know you dislike HD700, I might be like you, but I guess I'll have to find out myself.

 

[pdrm360]

 
Thank you guys for the fast response! I really appreciated. I might just go with the HD700 since I saved up money already and it seems like a really great deal for me
And Sonido, I know you dislike HD700, I might be like you, but I guess I'll have to find out myself.

 
Good luck and let us know your impression after you have listened to them. 

 

[Ambien]

Sonido has gotten me wanting to try the HE-500 though, lol. But right now I can't afford them unless I trade/sell my HD 700 which I'm not sure I want to do.

 

[Sonido]

 
Thank you guys for the fast response! I really appreciated. I might just go with the HD700 since I saved up money already and it seems like a really great deal for me
And Sonido, I know you dislike HD700, I might be like you, but I guess I'll have to find out myself.

I don't dislike it. Just the fact I was naive enough to jump in without knowing much on headphone and buy it at the full $1000 price at the time still stings, as I lost half the value selling it. The $650 price is more reasonable, but really it should be priced at $400-$500 imo. I actually liked the sound signature. Good level of bass, and never had any problems with the treble. My only thing against it is the lack of complete transparency and fine detail. I'm just trying to inform others about the pitfalls I made such as choosing it for the lower impedance.

 

[SNSDluv]

  I don't dislike it. Just the fact I was naive enough to jump in without knowing much on headphone and buy it at the full $1000 price at the time still stings, as I lost half the value selling it. The $650 price is more reasonable, but really it should be priced at $400-$500 imo. I actually liked the sound signature. Good level of bass, and never had any problems with the treble. My only thing against it is the lack of complete transparency and fine detail. I'm just trying to inform others about the pitfalls I made such as choosing it for the lower impedance.

Ahh I see. Sorry I am not that much of an expert in hi-fi and audiophile. Still working my way up
 

   
 
I noticed that you own an HD650 too.
 
IMO, Fiio E12 doesn't have enough power to drive the HD650 or HE-500 efficiently, It's not bad for the HD700.  The HD700 is also good for orchestral and classical.
 
Just a suggestion, Buy a good amp for your HD650 instead of buying another headphones, I prefer the HD600 over HD650 for classical music though. 

Yeah I know. That's why I left it at home. I only brought HD598 and ATH-PRO700MK2 and M200 out to my university
And I share the HD650 with my dad, he has a fancy set of headphone amps back at home

 

 

[Sonido]

  Sonido has gotten me wanting to try the HE-500 though, lol. But right now I can't afford them unless I trade/sell my HD 700 which I'm not sure I want to do.

Just make sure when you do get that chance, you have it driven properly. I think at least 2 watts. When I first got the HE-500, I had it paired with the WA7 a $1000 amp, and it didn't sound very good. A bit thin and vocals were off and piercing at times. Switched over to Emotiva, and there a huge difference. Bass much more impactful and mids became fluid.

 

[Sonido]

  Ahh I see. Sorry I am not that much of an expert in hi-fi and audiophile. Still working my way up

 

I'm sure the HD700 will sound great to you. You haven't spoiled your ears yet with even better sound.

 
Remember I mentioned I never noticed a veil until after listening to some other headphones.

 

[Ambien]

 
Just make sure when you do get that chance, you have it driven properly. I think at least 2 watts. When I first got the HE-500, I had it paired with the WA7 a $1000 amp, and it didn't sound very good. A bit thin and vocals were off and piercing at times. Switched over to Emotiva, and there a huge difference. Bass much more impactful and mids became fluid.

 
Power shouldn't be a problem at all, I saw the specs of the Emotiva, the only problem would be getting an HE-500, lol. I'm also not a big bass person so I always just skip the bass review for headphones, I only care about mids and trebles.

 

[BoombasticSloth]

Hi, I also have the 598 and the 700, and can definitely say to me, the 700 beats out the 598 in just about every way from sound point of view, comfort and looks, if that matters. I will just focus on the sound - much better extension from lows to the highs, bigger sound stage, and better imaging. I like the 598 but it is a quite a step up with the 700. Mind you, I am not as experienced as other head-fi's but I just wanted to share my thoughts between these 2 HPs. I love the HD700 with the DA8, and I am seriously tempted to put the Questyle CMA800R headphone amp into the mix. If I get a chance to, I would really like to try the HE-500.
 
all the best.

 

[Sonido]

   
Power shouldn't be a problem at all, I saw the specs of the Emotiva, the only problem would be getting an HE-500, lol. I'm also not a big bass person so I always just skip the bass review for headphones, I only care about mids and trebles.

I think a big thing the HE-500 has going for it is the bass and impact. Not necessarily just in the bass frequencies alone, but even in the mids, there's a sense of impact that adds body to the instruments. If you're not into bass, you should look into electrostatics. Those have great mids and treble. Especially treble. To me, I've not heard anything like it compared to my Koss. Because of the speed, you can hear a whole new level of detail in the trebles that I've not heard from any dynamic or orthodynamic headphones.
 
It all depends on your sound preferences. Do you prefer airy or syrupy? HE-500 I would definitely describe as fluid or syrupy, especially through my setup. The Koss is definitely considered airy. I do wish the Koss had the level of transparency my HE-500 has though. I've read that's due to the mediocre amp that it comes with, not the headphone itself. It'll be a while before I upgrade the electrostatic amp though. Those are expensive!
 
I find these two headphones to complement each other quite well.