So, taken a bit longer than planned to get this blog out ....... quite honestly, i've been spending too much time listening to music and living life to get the fingers to the key board!
I'll try and keep this one short(ish) and simple as I'm sure most of you are really only interested in how the might HE-1's sounded!
Firstly, I was absolutely stunned and thrilled to have been selected by the kind folks at Sennheiser to win this experience ...... in all honesty I was waiting to board a ferry with my amazing wife for a weeks holiday to celebrate a birthday( with an "0" in it) when i found out i'd won. It was like a birthday present come early!
Fast forward 6 or 7 weeks after finding out the good news, and boom, I found myself landing in a cool, crisp and chilly Dublin early November to meet the Sonovoa team and the other 5 lucky winners.
Without going in to too much detail, the warm welcome, hospitality and organisation from the Sonova / Sennhesier team was great - great hotel, great meals out, an amazing little whiskey distillery tour and lots of laughs along the way.
I'm pretty sure in this community I don't have to detail what the conversations on the buses and over dinners were like when you plonk a load of music and headphone lovers in a room / pub together and give them a beer or two! Some epic, educational, enlightening and entertaining conversations ensued!
But, what was the factory tour and the mighty HE-1's like?
Lets start on the factory floor - in all honesty, as amazing as the HE-1's were, I think I left the tour more impressed with the entire Sennheiser team’s absolute commitment to precision, perfection, improvement and utmost drive for customer satisfaction. The factory is mind blowing, almost a work of industrial art!
Sadly it was a highly commercially sensitive environment, so photos were very limited, but hopefully the professionally shot images from Sennheiser are on the way soon, but in the interim, here’s my favourite photo from the trip. It sums up everything to me - fun, friendship and good music.
And so on to the HE-1's .......... where you are ushed in to a tastefully decorated room and two James Bond style comfy chairs alongside the HE-1's.
Maybe I hadn't done my full research on the 'phones, so was totally blown away with the theatrics of the tubes rising up from the machined marble and the mirrored lid opening to reveal the phones themselves. A very impressive introduction to the HE-1's for a newbie!
First up was Guru's Jazzmataz, a stalwart album in my collection and one of my testbed albums.
What struck me first was the stunning sense of precision and placement of instruments in the sound stage - have never heard anything like it before - absolutely mind blowing. They painted the most beautiful soundscape i've ever heard.
I'm not too sure how the HE-1's do this, but they also seem to slow time down - the music seemed to flow out of the drivers at a slower pace than usual and delivered a very relaxing, rewarding listen.
Without going in to too much detail, I personally found the bass to be a little over bearing - don't get me wrong - it was sharp, tight, precise, there was just a lot of it! I wonder if it is possible to tweak the sonic character during the production phase to your personal preference?
The mid's were silky smooth and refined, startling clarity on the vocals, and again the precise positioning was awe inspiring. To my ears, I would have appreciated just a shade more through the mids, but i'm probably getting a nit-picky now!
The treble was outstanding: clean, clear, crisp, but not hint of edginess or harshness .... undoubtedly one of the finest I have ever heard.
My takeaway memory from our time with the HE-1's, wasn't so much the sound ..... it was after popping on a record - Gare du Nords Rendezvous 8:02 - the album that won me the position on this tour.
You listen in pairs, so my poor listening buddy was subjected to my choice of music for a bit. The opening track of this album is a kaleidoscope of husky jazz trumpets, vocals and vibes of back street jazz clubs ........ my listening partner didn't seem to know what hit him ..... his face was a mix of surprise, shock and pleasure all at the same time ..... in fairness, he nearly fell out of his chair in sonic delight! It was a pleasure to be a part of!
After what felt like 10 minutes, but was actually closer to an hour, our time with the HE-1's was all over. I did say they could slow down time!
And of course, there's that soundstage and imaging ....... I will never unhear that!
So, without rambling on too much more, it was an awesome few days away. Met many amazing people, made life long friends on the back of the tour, and have memories i'll talk about for years to come.
I can't finish this review without referencing how the Sonova team arranged to put us to hard work on the factory floor - building headphones!
We thought we were just disrupting the production crews and living the Sennheiser life ....... little did we know we were in fact building our very set of HD650's as a reminder of the tour from Sennheiser. These were dutifully presented to a very surprised group of audio enthusiasts at the end of the factory tour .... these were a God send on my way home where weather delayed my flights by 2 days, so I had some great tunes to listen to while I was waiting out the wind!
Massive thanks go to all the Sonova / Sennheiser team for making this happen - Nicole, Arne, Trent, Eric - thank you so much. If I ever get a chance to visit again, i'll be there in heartbeat!
I'll try and keep this one short(ish) and simple as I'm sure most of you are really only interested in how the might HE-1's sounded!
Firstly, I was absolutely stunned and thrilled to have been selected by the kind folks at Sennheiser to win this experience ...... in all honesty I was waiting to board a ferry with my amazing wife for a weeks holiday to celebrate a birthday( with an "0" in it) when i found out i'd won. It was like a birthday present come early!
Fast forward 6 or 7 weeks after finding out the good news, and boom, I found myself landing in a cool, crisp and chilly Dublin early November to meet the Sonovoa team and the other 5 lucky winners.
Without going in to too much detail, the warm welcome, hospitality and organisation from the Sonova / Sennhesier team was great - great hotel, great meals out, an amazing little whiskey distillery tour and lots of laughs along the way.
I'm pretty sure in this community I don't have to detail what the conversations on the buses and over dinners were like when you plonk a load of music and headphone lovers in a room / pub together and give them a beer or two! Some epic, educational, enlightening and entertaining conversations ensued!
But, what was the factory tour and the mighty HE-1's like?
Lets start on the factory floor - in all honesty, as amazing as the HE-1's were, I think I left the tour more impressed with the entire Sennheiser team’s absolute commitment to precision, perfection, improvement and utmost drive for customer satisfaction. The factory is mind blowing, almost a work of industrial art!
Sadly it was a highly commercially sensitive environment, so photos were very limited, but hopefully the professionally shot images from Sennheiser are on the way soon, but in the interim, here’s my favourite photo from the trip. It sums up everything to me - fun, friendship and good music.

And so on to the HE-1's .......... where you are ushed in to a tastefully decorated room and two James Bond style comfy chairs alongside the HE-1's.
Maybe I hadn't done my full research on the 'phones, so was totally blown away with the theatrics of the tubes rising up from the machined marble and the mirrored lid opening to reveal the phones themselves. A very impressive introduction to the HE-1's for a newbie!
First up was Guru's Jazzmataz, a stalwart album in my collection and one of my testbed albums.
What struck me first was the stunning sense of precision and placement of instruments in the sound stage - have never heard anything like it before - absolutely mind blowing. They painted the most beautiful soundscape i've ever heard.
I'm not too sure how the HE-1's do this, but they also seem to slow time down - the music seemed to flow out of the drivers at a slower pace than usual and delivered a very relaxing, rewarding listen.
Without going in to too much detail, I personally found the bass to be a little over bearing - don't get me wrong - it was sharp, tight, precise, there was just a lot of it! I wonder if it is possible to tweak the sonic character during the production phase to your personal preference?
The mid's were silky smooth and refined, startling clarity on the vocals, and again the precise positioning was awe inspiring. To my ears, I would have appreciated just a shade more through the mids, but i'm probably getting a nit-picky now!
The treble was outstanding: clean, clear, crisp, but not hint of edginess or harshness .... undoubtedly one of the finest I have ever heard.
My takeaway memory from our time with the HE-1's, wasn't so much the sound ..... it was after popping on a record - Gare du Nords Rendezvous 8:02 - the album that won me the position on this tour.
You listen in pairs, so my poor listening buddy was subjected to my choice of music for a bit. The opening track of this album is a kaleidoscope of husky jazz trumpets, vocals and vibes of back street jazz clubs ........ my listening partner didn't seem to know what hit him ..... his face was a mix of surprise, shock and pleasure all at the same time ..... in fairness, he nearly fell out of his chair in sonic delight! It was a pleasure to be a part of!
After what felt like 10 minutes, but was actually closer to an hour, our time with the HE-1's was all over. I did say they could slow down time!
And of course, there's that soundstage and imaging ....... I will never unhear that!
So, without rambling on too much more, it was an awesome few days away. Met many amazing people, made life long friends on the back of the tour, and have memories i'll talk about for years to come.
I can't finish this review without referencing how the Sonova team arranged to put us to hard work on the factory floor - building headphones!
We thought we were just disrupting the production crews and living the Sennheiser life ....... little did we know we were in fact building our very set of HD650's as a reminder of the tour from Sennheiser. These were dutifully presented to a very surprised group of audio enthusiasts at the end of the factory tour .... these were a God send on my way home where weather delayed my flights by 2 days, so I had some great tunes to listen to while I was waiting out the wind!
Massive thanks go to all the Sonova / Sennheiser team for making this happen - Nicole, Arne, Trent, Eric - thank you so much. If I ever get a chance to visit again, i'll be there in heartbeat!
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