Hello my AB-1266 friends, as an owner of this fantastic headphone, I thought it would be nice to compare to another TOTL headphone setup, Sennheiser HE-1. I spent today 4 hours with this headphone, which consists of a DAC+AMP+Headphone combo. I had heard it in London 2016, but back then it was just 30 minutes and mandatory "Hotel California" song, so I was not as fine tuned to high end audio as I am today (dCS Bartók driving AB-1266).
Some of you may know me and my sonic preferences - I listen to 70% vocal-less EDM, 25% vocal EDM and the rest is random nu metal, indie rock, synth-pop. Accurate music presentation is not one of my priorities, music enjoyment is. I never listen to classical music, so I have no clue how a real music is supposed so sound like. I am a kid who used to go to loud techno/trance parties, so my hearing is no where close to what other audiophiles have. This being said, I trained myself to pick up on differences between copper and silver cables, so experimentation runs in my blood. For some unknown reason to me, I gravitate towards "one piece all-in-one systems", like dCS Bartok, or Chord Hugo TT2, both of which I owned personally.
You may ask, why am I writing my impressions of HE-1 to AB-1266 forum? Because as an AB-1266 owner, I wanted to know how far off is a 60k headphone system, compared to 20k headphone system. Some of you will think that I am underpowering AB-1266 with Bartok, but worry not, I have Viva Egoista 845 SET tube amplifier on its way (should be here in a week or two), which I will review shortly thereafter. As many of you, I may not be able to afford to purchase HE1 today, or in a near future, that's why I was so intrigued when my dealer told me he will have HE1 for a couple of days and invited me to come over if I have time. I took this opportunity, refreshed myself on critical listening on AB-1266+Bartok, slept 10 hours, all in preparation to do HE-1 the justice it deserves.
Even though I listened to HE-1 before, I did not remember much. So I was going to it today with a couple of expectations. Since AB-1266 is the bass monster, and HE-1 is an electrostat, I thought I would not like its bass, and that I would find it weak. I love AB-1266 for its snappy/punchy/not-bloomy bass, especially useful on EDM songs I like listening to (like Eric Prydz - Moody Mondays). Another thing I expected to happen was electrostat's soundstage, I expected it to be spacious / grandious / very open and airy. And lastly, mids - I expected them to be life like.
Now, what did I get? How does HE-1 sound on MY music, to MY ears, compared to MY current setup? There were a couple of surprises, not going to lie to you.
Surprise number 1: HE-1 bass is as good as AB-1266, very fast, punchy, detailed and layered. If I had an unlimited budget, I would happily own HE-1 over AB-1266. Mind you, I still haven't tried AB-1266 on Viva Egoista 845, only tried on Hugo TT2 (having less bass) and dCS Bartok (having more bass). I tried Bartok with 3 different cables, stock, DHC copper and Lavricables silver, for bass, DHC copper is the best.
Surprise number 2: HE-1 is less detailed than AB-1266, I did not expect this, I thought nothing can touch electrostats. Mind you, this is on MY music, which is not high quality recorded classical pieces, rather synth-pop and EDM. If I was optimising for resolution only, I would choose AB-1266, especially on silver cable.
Surprise number 3: HE-1 soundstage is much, much, I mean, MUCH smaller. The presentation is very intimate, and not grandiose at all. This is a bad thing for most EDM songs, BUT a blessing for vocal heavy synth-pop. Depending on what you listen to, you want HE-1 over AB-1266 and vice versa. Adding a holographic amp like Viva Egoista 845 is likely to change this even further, let's see in a week or so.
Surprise number 4: Lastly, HE-1 mids are just gorgeous. Let me explain, I chose AB-1266 over Susvara, and I did not (on purpose) get Superconductor cable. Many feel that AB-1266 are a bit recessed, and that Susvara does a better job here. Many go and improve mids further with Superconductor cable, or elevate it a bit with a silver cable. I actually do not mind AB-1266 mids, for my cold EDM songs it just works perfect. HOWEVER, this was the biggest surprise to me - HE-1 mids are just so luxurious, so much so that I fell in love with mids now. It made me listen to songs from The Weeknd, which to me on AB-1266 do not sound that great (mids part, not bass or treble). I really thought I do not care for mids, I know that with Susvara, my choice was to choose AB-1266's resolution, bass and soundstage, over having "better mids", but HE-1's mids are top notch, better than Susvara to my ears, and the rest of HE-1's qualities (that I gave more points to AB-1266) are not as far behind, as Susvara in my personal opinion. I would like to illustrate the feeling I had with HE-1's mids - try and remember the first date you had with your significant other, how you went out, what ever it was, and how that led to a romantic dinner, and one day for to a "sleep over". What feeling did you just get? An intimate rush of endorphins? That is how I felt with HE-1's mids. I never understood people of optimised for mids (over bass/resolution/soundstage), but I think I do now, we are wired a bit differently, but since HE-1's other qualities are so close to AB-1266, being "almost equal", the mids just take it over the top.
So what is there to write about a pair of headphones? Well, AB-1266 feel much sturdier, like they will last your whole life, which is a big plus. Comfort wise, to me AB-1266 are perfect, HE-1 was comfortable (surprisingly heavy), but the issue I had was that HE-1's cups are an amplifier, so they run quite hot and after maybe 1 hour, my ears were sweating a bit. No, it was not the room, the basement was quite cold (I kept my jacket on). Also the seude headband, even though comfortable, I don't think would last forever. Lastly, the ear cup is alluminium, but feels a bit plasticky and cheap. The rest of the unit (marble and tubes) are of very nice quality.Fantastic
So in summary, what do I think of 60k system, vs 20k system? What do I think of Sennheiser HE-1, vs Bartok with AB-1266? Bass is surprisingly equal, couldn't make a decision solely basing it on the lower end register. AB-1266 wins with resolution/detail retrieval/holographic soundstage, as well as build quality and to me, comfort. What HE-1 shines at, is mids and vocal, so much so, that it does a better job than Susvara (from my memory), while lacking less compared to AB-1266.
All in all, this proves again how amazing AB-1266 is. Longer you listen to it, you hear its raw power. Sometimes this power needs to be tamed, but for that you have other components to play with, as well as headphone cables and interconnects. Do I think HE-1 is a good fit for an audiophile? I honestly don't think so. We want to play, tailor music representation to our liking/expectations. For that, raw powered AB-1266 is a better choice. But what headphone "system" would I recommend to my rich friends and colleagues, who have cars in excess of a million or speaker systems for half a grand? Just get HE-1, it is beautifully put together system, which also sounds good.
(I was going to post a screenshot of you with the Raal, but I spared you...
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