[Dsnuts]

1. 

1. Marximus
2. 
3.  
4. online

1. 819 Posts. Joined 2/2007
2. Location: Vancouver, WA

Why are you not here now, Wednesday???!1  (Un?)fortunately, I've also got a pair of HE-300s coming in tomorrow.  The battle will not be pretty, methinks.

Quote:

"What equipment are you using upstream? I ask because I tried the NuForce Icon HD (and later returned it) and was surprised at how much it brightened up my headphones compared to all the other amps I tried.It wasn't until i visited and spent several hours at 32 Ohm / ALO Audio listening to a bunch of headphones and amps that I found a good match."
 
I've got a uDAC 2 coming from my computer, and that's running to my Denon AVR-1000 receiver.  I've heard that the uDACs are bright, and that may be true.  It sounds good to me, so I haven't really messed around with my equipment (apart from headphones, of course) too much.
 
Well, I received two different headphones today:  the HiFiMan HE-300s and the Panasonic RP-HTF600s.  Guess which one is being returned?  The HE-300s.  Are they technically and materially superior?  I think so.  Are they more faithful to the original recording?  Probably.  But do I enjoy music out of them as much as I do the Panasonics?  Nope.  And the fact that the Panasonics cost a tenth of the price of the HE-300s may have been a factor.  I prefer my FA-003s to the HE-300s, anyway, so that helped things as well.  Should this be taken to mean that a pair of $30 headphones are better than a pair of $300 headphones?  I suppose that depends on your definition of better.  For my purposes, I prefer the Panasonics.  And I think that's a testament to how well the RP-HTF600s perform.

The HTF600-S.  S for Step. proper no? The HE-300 got the Step . Wow..I had no idea... 
 

 
Quote:

After a bit of burn-in overnight at lower volumes (so I'm not kept awake by the leaked sound), I gave some of my acquaintances a chance to audition the HTF600s.
 
The first person was wearing some cheap Logitech headset at the time. I saw him have Spotify open and decided to ask if he wanted to listen to my headphones. He complied. The first thing I noticed after he put them on and started some music was his head movement, a subtle headbanging of sorts. Immediately, he told me he was thrilled with the dynamics and actually passed them on to someone else to audition, who then made a positive note about the bass and handed them back to the guy I asked to audition them. He also noted that they looked really nice.
 
Then I asked him how much he thought they cost. He said $100-150. Imagine his reaction when I told him the REAL price...
 
Another person I asked to audition them (who was playing a rhythm game of some sort) also complied. He was wearing some sort of Panasonic clip-on set. His reactions weren't as...thrilled, but he did compliment the bass. (Notice a pattern here?) His price estimate was $50, still overshooting a bit (but it would be right on if I had the velour pads).
 
While they still haven't had a solid 24 hours of burn-in yet, it's still quite impressive that these things can deliver the bass they do and still not compromise the rest of the spectrum horridly. There's still the sense of a balanced, full sound with nothing missing...well, you might miss some subtle details in the mids and treble, but this is only $30 we're talking about here!

Ya the bottom line..Do any of you guys remember having anything like these for the money?? These make port a pros seem like not such a good deal. Lol!!

 

[Assimilator702]

Quote:

MalVeaux - thanks for the review and pics of the mod. Very informative and articulate.
Gelocks - I'm an Emotiva fan too. I was on the list last year for their UMC-1 when I was updating my home theater. It was still buggy back then so I went with a Pioneer Elite AVR instead. Their subs are a crazy good value.
Marx - I got my HTF-600's today and I must admit my first impression is very different than yours. Right out of the box, they sound bloated and muddy, with very little true deep bass compensated by exaggerated mid bass that has poor definition and bleeds into the mids. They do resemble the HD 650 in that they are rather dark, with recessed treble. To their credit, the mids are nice and forward, but not too forward, and the overall sound, while smeared and lacking detail, is non-fatiguing - rare in a cheap headphone. There is no sense of air around instruments, and the soundstage sounds very crammed together to me. I think the HTF600 has a nice appearance, but they do feel somewhat fragile, with some key stress points (size adjust slider and pivot points) made of lightweight, thin plastic that could break. The ear cushions look decent for pleather, but are actually a little plasticky feeling - not really soft or compliant enough. Velour would be a definite inexpensive and effective upgrade.
Bottom line for me - they do seem to play above their class. Build quality and sound out of the box I feel like they are a steal for $30 though I don't agree they beat $150 headphones. At lower volumes with jazz and rock, they have a laid back, easy going sound that's non-fatiguing and easy to listen to. Louder and punchier music just turns flabby and smeared to my ears. Also, I'm not a fan of dark headphones (I ditched the Sennheiser HD 650 in favor of the HD 600), so I admit my opinion may be slanted towards the negative on these. If they break in like some have said (brighten and tighten up), then I think they do have a chance to sound nice. I'll report back after 50 hours.

 
These cans cannot be judged out of the box.
 
They have to cook for at least 50+ hours.
 
Me and DsNuts have stressed this many times......they are a different can after some oven time.
 
Don't mean to sound loud but burn-in truely transforms this can.
 
I had the same observation...but rather than comment on how bad or un spectacular they sounded I just say they need to be burned in before being judged.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Yea these still benefit from a longer burn-in I think. I may have used them for around 40 hrs or so perhaps and I still think they have improved, at least my satisfaction just keeps growing but then again I keep fiddling with EQ settings but now I'm pretty much done with that anyway.
 
I wasn't nearly as satisfied out of box either especially with the lows and mids, I've been switching between 2 different headphones too so it's not like it's just my brain getting acustomished to the sound either... so yea I think that 50hrs use for max potential is quite accurate.

 

[Dsnuts]

Quote:

 
These cans cannot be judged out of the box.
 
They have to cook for at least 50+ hours.
 
Me and DsNuts have stressed this many times......they are a different can after some oven time.
 
Don't mean to sound loud but burn-in truely transforms this can.
 
I had the same observation...but rather than comment on how bad or un spectacular they sounded I just say they need to be burned in before being judged.
 

Says Assimilator702!! Or else ....What you looking at.!
 
@RPGWizard. I have no idea if it is time just spent with the cans or if indeed they ever so get better but mine sound very smooth now. All aspects of the sound spectrum even more so with the velours. Butter just butter.
 
@Marximus..Get the velours..Now that you know you are gonna add these to your collection. Get the Uber HTF600s. Everyone try n get them if you don't have them.. I honestly think Panasonic should just make them with their own version to these.  They make what is already an exceptional cans even better.. I am so happy with just the way it sounds with velours.
 
It is hard for me to even think about opening them. Or if I need to open them.
 

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Does anyone know a way to contact HeadRoom and suggest them to stock these headphones? I know I've already purchased them, but they test the frequency response and other technical information that would prove useful for me, and just by showing them this thread they may think it isn't a bad marketing choice.

I support this idea... The best way to get their attention on this would be sending an email to marketing@headphone.com 
 
I suggest Dsnuts doing it as he's such a crazy marketing guy himself and yea you just need to link to this thread and I bet they'll get interested. I for sure would like to see a frequency response graph of these!! Maybe contact Tyll too from innerfidelity, he's awesome at reviews and provides nice graphs too and I bet he'd be suprised by these! (he's not a big fan of emphasized highs, that I know so these would probably have the sweet balanced signature he likes)
 

 

[Dsnuts]

Quote:

I support this idea... The best way to get their attention on this would be sending an email to marketing@headphone.com 
 
I suggest Dsnuts doing it as he's such a crazy marketing guy himself and yea you just need to link to this thread and I bet they'll get interested. I for sure would like to see a frequency response graph of these!! Maybe contact Tyll too from innerfidelity, he's awesome at reviews and provides nice graphs too and I bet he'd be suprised by these! (he's not a big fan of emphasized highs, that I know so these would probably have the sweet balanced signature he likes)
 

Even bigger exposure.??.Hmm.Do we want to tell the world about these? Make them sell out in a hurry?  Or hoard them for all of us first. Let it brood for a bit longer.?? What say you guys...

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

Says Assimilator702!! Or else ....What you looking at.!
@RPGWizard. I have no idea if it is time just spent with the cans or if indeed they ever so get better but mine sound very smooth now. All aspects of the sound spectrum even more so with the velours. Butter just butter.
 
@Marximus..Get the velours..Now that you know you are gonna add these to your collection. Get the Uber HTF600s. Everyone try n get them if you don't have them.. I honestly think Panasonic should just make them with their own version to these.  They make what is already an exceptional cans even better.. I am so happy with just the way it sounds with velours.
 
It is hard for me to even think about opening them. Or if I need to open them.
 

I believe in burn in about as much as I believe in cable lifters, silver contact paint, and pixie dust. But OK, I'm doing it. I won't listen to them again until they have 50 hours!
 
By the way, I tried to order velour pads when I ordered the phones and they are nowhere to be found right now. If anyone finds them somewhere, speak up!

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Quote:

Even bigger exposure.??.Hmm.Do we want to tell the world about these? Make them sell out in a hurry?  Or hoard them for all of us first. Let it brood for a bit longer.?? What say you guys...

Yea I agree. But at some point I'd more than love to see a frequency graph for these. Want to know what my preferred FR curve looks like.
 

 

[Dsnuts]

Quote:

I believe in burn in about as much as I believe in cable lifters, silver contact paint, and pixie dust. But OK, I'm doing it. I won't listen to them again until they have 50 hours!
 
By the way, I tried to order velour pads when I ordered the phones and they are nowhere to be found right now. If anyone finds them somewhere, speak up!

There are some phones that burn in does nothing for.. These however change..They fill out like crazy..They start to open after a day of burn. I have had several guys that was in the process of listening to them only to have them start to open up even within a few hours.. Most of the drivers open up within the 24hours but the extra 20hours are just extra to get the remainder out on them. That saying how some phones improve with time. This is very evident with these..
 
When I got 2nd HTF600 and I heard them compared to my broken in one that was when I found out that the Bass is actually bass shy and seem somewhat normal sounding on a new pair.
I remember the first time on my main pair I was not even close to being impressed with the bass..Burned in and the Bass dynamics started to show the command the energy. Threw a huge smile on my face.. That is when I found out these are indeed something to write about.
 
Do the burn over night and hear them in the morning. You might just be surprised... I bet Beyer is wondering why their pads all off a sudden are selling out every where..

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

Oh well time to go sleep, it's 4:20 AM here but I just couldn't stop listening (and I slept during the day for a while too)... luckily I'm currently unemployed...

 

[Dsnuts]

Quote:

Yea I agree. But at some point I'd more than love to see a frequency graph for these. Want to know what my preferred FR curve looks like.
 

All in due time my friend all in due time..If any of you guys send a link for others in the industry to check out. That is fine with me and RPGWiz here. I might start doing that but headfiers that look at this thread an skip it because they think this is a joke.. This is no joke..Everyone should try one.

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

"What equipment are you using upstream? I ask because I tried the NuForce Icon HD (and later returned it) and was surprised at how much it brightened up my headphones compared to all the other amps I tried.It wasn't until i visited and spent several hours at 32 Ohm / ALO Audio listening to a bunch of headphones and amps that I found a good match."
 
I've got a uDAC 2 coming from my computer, and that's running to my Denon AVR-1000 receiver.  I've heard that the uDACs are bright, and that may be true.  It sounds good to me, so I haven't really messed around with my equipment (apart from headphones, of course) too much.
 
Well, I received two different headphones today:  the HiFiMan HE-300s and the Panasonic RP-HTF600s.  Guess which one is being returned?  The HE-300s.  Are they technically and materially superior?  I think so.  Are they more faithful to the original recording?  Probably.  But do I enjoy music out of them as much as I do the Panasonics?  Nope.  And the fact that the Panasonics cost a tenth of the price of the HE-300s may have been a factor.  I prefer my FA-003s to the HE-300s, anyway, so that helped things as well.  Should this be taken to mean that a pair of $30 headphones are better than a pair of $300 headphones?  I suppose that depends on your definition of better.  For my purposes, I prefer the Panasonics.  And I think that's a testament to how well the RP-HTF600s perform.  They're just too much fun!

Is your AVR-1000 about 10 years old? It looks a lot like the AVR-1800 I had as my first home theater 5.1 receiver at about that time.
 
You know they cram a lot of boards in those AVR's and the headphone stages are not known for their quality. Not even discrete. I have listened to all of my headphones through my current Pioneer AVR (Class D 140W/ch) and while there is ample power to drive them, music sounds dry and lifeless. One dimensional I'd say. I wonder if that's what you're hearing from your Denon? I'll bring my Peachtree Nova and HD600's next time I'm working down that way...

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Screw it, I'm so impressed with the HTF600 especially with the velours that I just picked up an HTF890. If these are as impressive as the HTF600 I'll be happy. I'll compromise a bit of bass for a wider soundstage for gaming. 

 

[Dsnuts]

Quote:

Screw it, I'm so impressed with the HTF600 especially with the velours that I just picked up an HTF890. If these are as impressive as the HTF600 I'll be happy. I'll compromise a bit of bass for a wider soundstage for gaming. 

Oh nice...I will tell you right off the bat that the HTF890 is not going to be at the same level as the HTF600s. But you are right. They are another great find for people who want an open can..Undiscovered. Let us know how you like them as they have a complete different sound altogether.. That being said. Have you tried gaming using the HTF600s?
 
 

 

[BababooeyHTJ]

Yeah, I'm not expecting them to be great all around cans or as good for music. 
 
The HTF600 works well enough for gaming. Let me start out by saying I have never used a can with a notoriously large sound stage so I have no real point of reference but to me in game with the HTF600 most of the sounds feel pretty close. I definitely didn't have the type of experience that some people describe with the AD700 as far as sound stage goes. I'm not some huge competitive gamer so its really not a huge deal but I kind of just wanted to play around with a fully open can too.