Sennheiser Orpheus HE 90 vs. HE 1 - Impressions of a direct comparison

[eskamobob1]

Uhm, so the sus is better than He-1 ?

What? No. It's better than 6x0 series

 

[Mach3]

I mean, I love the tonality, but detail levels of stuff like sus have massively spoiled me and I can't go back Unfortunayely

You gotta listen to the OG Omega with DIY T2 if you're talking about absolute details.

 

[Googaliser]

After a 10 year search - I finally have an HE90/HEV90 in the house sitting next to the HE1. Am looking forward to comparing and contrasting. The missing piece is a DIY T2 - which should be here in the not too distant future. Last night was a late one - a good sign when a new piece of equipment hits the rack...

 

[purk]

Love to hear your impression of the two systems.

 

[Googaliser]

Love to hear your impression of the two systems.

I'm genuinely excited to be in such a fortunate position and looking forward to sharing impressions. Its early days, but I was struck immediately by:

1) How similar they both sound. Unbelievably, changing from the inbuilt HE1 DAC and an MSB Select - had a larger obvious difference to my ears than switching between the two headphones (which will complicate comparisons - incredible given the 30 year age discrepancy)
2) My use case for acquiring the HE90 was classical. Early impressions are that I do indeed prefer its rendering of strings and piano over the HE1 - but will need to get others to confirm this since it could just be expectation bias - and I have a large catalogue to test
3) The bass is far better than I was expecting. Seems to be as impactful as the HE1 - although definitely 'thinner'

There was a little bit of shipping damage to the HEV90 resulting in a damaged volume potentiometer and thankfully nothing else. It is worth noting that Sennheiser no longer service the HE90/HEV90 - so buyers are on their own. That said - it doesn't look that complicated or in any way custom inside. Probably the hardest thing to access is the volume pot (in the front foot). This turned out to be a lowly RK27 (!!). So after spending $40 and a lot of head scratching on how to get it out - the HEV90 was working like new again. So a bumpy start to this adventure....

 

[oneguy]

It is worth noting that Sennheiser no longer service the HE90/HEV90 - so buyers are on their own. That said - it doesn't look that complicated or in any way custom inside. Probably the hardest thing to access is the volume pot (in the front foot). This turned out to be a lowly RK27 (!!). So after spending $40 and a lot of head scratching on how to get it out - the HEV90 was working like new again.

That’s good to know

 

[eskamobob1]

After a 10 year search - I finally have an HE90/HEV90 in the house sitting next to the HE1. Am looking forward to comparing and contrasting. The missing piece is a DIY T2 - which should be here in the not too distant future. Last night was a late one - a good sign when a new piece of equipment hits the rack...

Ey! Gz! I also look forward to your impressions. Just fwiw, if you haven't ordered the T2 yet, I would also highly recomend you try the viva stx (specificaly with elrog 300bs if possible). 3es may also be worth a shot (haven't tried he90 on it) but given how he60 sounded on it I'm not guessing the synergy will be super high. Grand Cayman may also be an option, but inhavent heard the latest revision of it at all so can't realy comment.

 

[Googaliser]

I'm definitely preferring the HE90/HEV90 over the HE1 on acoustic tracks. Sayuri's Theme (John Williams) - feels light and airy on the Orpheus. On the HE1 - it feels thick and heavier by comparison. It's probably Me (Sting) - sounds like Sting is in my room on the Orpheus - singing to me - about 3 metres away. On the HE1 - it sounds more processed - like he is singing in a booth outside of the control room via an amazing mic - but with reverb added - still great - but slightly artificial and removed. American Beauty (Thomas Newman) - the HE1 has a noticeable drone throughout - interfering with the ambience and piano - resulting in a slightly congested sound. On the Orpheus - its is clean - natural, lean. Less information - but pure.
It seems to me that the bass extension on the HE1 - whilst providing a fuller bass - can contaminate acoustic music with unwanted drone (that perhaps the recording engineer couldn't hear?). Whilst there appears to be less information through the Orpheus - for orchestral / acoustic music - less is more. It allows the instruments to be the focus - with incredibly realistic timbre - but without the distraction of the HE1's bass extension.
I'm honestly surprised by my own findings - I didn't really expect this. When you have something as incredible sounding as the HE1 - it's easy to assume that is the reference. But for classical/acoustic - to my ears at least - the original Orpheus is more honest. Less flashy sounding - less information - less euphoric - but more authentic and subtle.

 

[Hifivoice]

For those who are interested:

 

[HugoFreire]

I'm definitely preferring the HE90/HEV90 over the HE1 on acoustic tracks. Sayuri's Theme (John Williams) - feels light and airy on the Orpheus. On the HE1 - it feels thick and heavier by comparison. It's probably Me (Sting) - sounds like Sting is in my room on the Orpheus - singing to me - about 3 metres away. On the HE1 - it sounds more processed - like he is singing in a booth outside of the control room via an amazing mic - but with reverb added - still great - but slightly artificial and removed. American Beauty (Thomas Newman) - the HE1 has a noticeable drone throughout - interfering with the ambience and piano - resulting in a slightly congested sound. On the Orpheus - its is clean - natural, lean. Less information - but pure.
It seems to me that the bass extension on the HE1 - whilst providing a fuller bass - can contaminate acoustic music with unwanted drone (that perhaps the recording engineer couldn't hear?). Whilst there appears to be less information through the Orpheus - for orchestral / acoustic music - less is more. It allows the instruments to be the focus - with incredibly realistic timbre - but without the distraction of the HE1's bass extension.
I'm honestly surprised by my own findings - I didn't really expect this. When you have something as incredible sounding as the HE1 - it's easy to assume that is the reference. But for classical/acoustic - to my ears at least - the original Orpheus is more honest. Less flashy sounding - less information - less euphoric - but more authentic and subtle.

Thanks for sharing. Your impressions pretty much summarizes my feelings. Overall, the HE90 sounds much more natural IMO.
If you have a chance, I would highly recommend you to try it with a T2. This amp sets the HE90 apart from the HE1 even further.

 

[Googaliser]

Thanks for sharing. Your impressions pretty much summarizes my feelings. Overall, the HE90 sounds much more natural IMO.
If you have a chance, I would highly recommend you to try it with a T2. This amp sets the HE90 apart from the HE1 even further.

Thank you, Hugo. After I wrote the above - I thought I should probably caveat it with - the differences are not night and day to my ears for acoustic/classical - they are subtle - but definitely present. Sometimes I literally had to check which headphones I was wearing. But good to see some consensus over these findings. My musical interests are quite polarised - with classical on the one end and EDM on the other. I haven't listened to modern music in a lot of detail yet through the Orpheus - but the difference did seem night and day with the HE1 - in the HE1's favour. (so subtle delta for classical - big delta for modern).
When the Orpheus arrived - I asked myself the natural question - if I had to keep one of them - which would it be? (first world problem, I know). My expectation then was the HE1. I still suspect that will be the right choice for my listening habits (70/30 Modern/Classical) - but I do have a full-fat DIY T2 being built and will certainly postpone judgement until it has plenty of hours on it.
Another thing I noticed was that the HEV90 does take longer than the HE1 to get up to working temp. I can listen to the HE1 almost immediately (once it has gone through its silly start-up routine) and it sounds fine - but the Orpheus doesn't fully equilibrate for maybe 20mins or longer (left channel is initially quieter - but balances out perfectly when warm - which obviously freaked me out when I first listened!).

 

[purk]

One thing you can do is to try tube rolling on the HEV90 or getting the Aristaes from Headamp to compliment the HE90. Then, again the T2 is an ultimate amplifier for the HE90 for me.

 

[Whazzzup]

So how does one buy he1 seems sold out, not that Im flush right now

 

[Googaliser]

I purchased mine secondhand - they come up from time to time. Believe they are still being produced new - although the North American sites indeed say "Not Available". I see Asia and Germany still offer the webform (fill it out, and pay a 10K deposit). Anecdotally, I have heard that the order process is a bit of a crap-show since the Sonova takeover. They are also now assembled in Ireland and there has been a steep price-hike in the past year.

 

[Mystel]

I got my he-1 secondhand too .
I wanted to buy a new one, but sennheiser has been ghosting my emails for like months.

Have been trying to get a new set of pads and headband from them but……same result.

Hope they sort their he-1 support team soon enough.