[432789]

I don`t have any problem with Sennheiser charging 60 000.- for the HE1, because it is an outstanding product for sure. And I am wondering, why they don`t sell the set of tubes for 3 or 5 times the price. 999.- is too cheap to keep up the mystic.
But what I don`t like is the way, to sell your customer as an idiot by telling him to put each tube in exactly the same position as described, otherwise you will be stroked by thunderbolt.

By the way: It would be interesting how the HE1 would sound with good old NOS tubes. (There should be a difference if they are amplifying the inputsignal. Maybe no difference, if they just make the high voltage for the electrostatic headphone.

I am pretty sure once you are a HE1 customer they will be very attentive to you and deal with you at your level and will probably do custom modifications and controlled experiments together with you for a fee. and who knows why they say what they say. maybe they have a legitimate reason behind it. maybe the tubes are matched in pairs?
but I don't think they will give out all their secret sauce to just everyone window shopping. but you can try to ask them.

 

[mammal]

I had a chance to audition HE-1 and compare it to my beloved AB-1266, if anyone is interested, I posted my impressions and pictures here.

 

[xxx1313]

I had a chance to audition HE-1 and compare it to my beloved AB-1266, if anyone is interested, I posted my impressions and pictures here.

Sorry to say, mate, I can hardly agree with most of your impressions. I am a lucky owner of an HE 1 (after a long odyssey of trying and owning many flagship headphones) and have listened to different versions of the AB-1266 on several different occasions, mostly with XIAUDIO Forumula S with Powerman and Sagra DAC, but also in other setups.

You state that you listen to 95% EDM and that accurate music presentation is not one of our priorities, only music enjoyment is. I also listen to EDM (although much less than 95%) and I strive for both accurate music presentation and music enjoyment. With the best headphone setup on earth, the HE 1, there is no conflict of these goals, imo.

I agree with you that the Abyss Phi TC (and its predecessors to a lesser degree) can make listening to EDM and metal very enjoyable. On the other hand, imo, it is a tonally flawed headphone with quite high distortion, especially for a true flagship headphone. I would even prefer the Susvara and the Utopia over the Phi TC for sure. Both are at least as good in terms of their technical capabilities and they offer a much more correct tonal balance imo (at least compared to the Harman target curve).

Coming back to HE 1 vs AB-1266 both have large soundstages, but the HE 1 has much better instrument placement and seperation. What surprised me most, is your impression on the better resolution capability of the AB-1266. I can only suspect that you confuse detail with distortion and/or digital artefacts, sorry to say. Imho, the HE 1 is more transparent, lets the listener dive deeper into the music and its finest details, whereas mids and treble alway sound a bit artificial with the AB-1266.

It is fine that the AB-1266 works so well for you and your listening preferences. But it is definitely not an audiophile headphone in terms of the literal meaning of "high fidelity" and it will not work well for many music genres. As I said earlier, to my ears Susvara and Utopia are much better in this regard. But if one wants to own the (by far) best headphone on the planet in terms of BOTH true reproduction of music AND music enjoyment, the HE 1 is the one and only option.

Cheers,
Bernie

 

[mammal]

Sorry to say, mate, I can hardly agree with most of your impressions. I am a lucky owner of an HE 1 (after a long odyssey of trying and owning many flagship headphones) and have listened to different versions of the AB-1266 on several different occasions, mostly with XIAUDIO Forumula S with Powerman and Sagra DAC, but also in other setups.

Oh this is excellent, thank you for taking the time to write your experience with HE-1. That's what I was hoping would happen with posting my impressions, that some owner of a HE-1 would reply and share what they hear! So thank you very much.

I agree with you that the Abyss Phi TC (and its predecessors to a lesser degree) can make listening to EDM and metal very enjoyable. On the other hand, imo, it is a tonally flawed headphone with quite high distortion, especially for a true flagship headphone. I would even prefer the Susvara and the Utopia over the Phi TC for sure. Both are at least as good in terms of their technical capabilities and they offer a much more correct tonal balance imo (at least compared to the Harman target curve).

I hope to get my hands on both headphones, to compare them side by side. I have only heard them in less than optimal settings, on unfamiliar gear, also hard to judge from memory.

What surprised me most, is your impression on the better resolution capability of the AB-1266. I can only suspect that you confuse detail with distortion and/or digital artefacts, sorry to say. Imho, the HE 1 is more transparent, lets the listener dive deeper into the music and its finest details, whereas mids and treble alway sound a bit artificial with the AB-1266.

This is very possible. Others have called out in my Bartok's review, that what I am hearing/preferring is distortion, when I compared it to TT2, which readers pointed to me that measures better. I do agree that AB-1266 sounds to my ears a bit metallic in mids, which for sure is a bit artificial compared to HE-1.

 

[xxx1313]

009 is a technically competent headphone, but sounding a bit weird in the treble and a too lean for my liking. No headphone amp (BHSE included) can completely eliminate this shortfall entirely, but the Chord TT2 with crossfeed on preamp output does a good job with the 009. However nothing comes close to the HE 1. It has the perfect Harman tuning and is perfect in every regard to my ears. You simply get what you pay for. It will take millions of R&D for a competitor to come close to the HE 1 and I see no company who will be able and willing to pour millions into a project rivalling the HE 1, so I am sure that it will stay the world's best headphone for at least 10+ years.

Cheers,
Bernie

P.S. Btw, Crinacle has done a great job measuring and reviewing the HE 1:
https://crinacle.com/2020/11/19/sennheiser-he-1-review-59000-summit/

 

[wrathofkhan]

009 is a technically competent headphone, but sounding a bit weird in the treble and a too lean for my liking. No headphone amp (BHSE included) can completely eliminate this shortfall entirely, but the Chord TT2 with crossfeed on preamp output does a good job with the 009. However nothing comes close to the HE 1. It has the perfect Harman tuning and is perfect in every regard to my ears. You simply get what you pay for. It will take millions of R&D for a competitor to come close to the HE 1 and I see no company who will be able and willing to pour millions into a project rivalling the HE 1, so I am sure that it will stay the world's best headphone for at least 10+ years.

Cheers,
Bernie

Well my experience with the HE 1 is not even close to what yours are.
I was always very keen in purchasing the HE 1 but really needed to hear it first which was impossible living in Perth WA. When unbelievably a second hand one came available so with the memory of what my Stax SR009S & BHSE sounded like I took the same recordings with me and the very first thing was how heavy they were when on my head in comparison to the 009S and in a very short time they grew uncomfortable. I was also shocked to hear they were not as musically involving as mine. The bass was on a par but the soundstage was much diminished & I was certain that some form of edginess - distortion was apparent and the overall feeling was one of "Glad I did not buy this new without listening", because that was the only option available to me. My set up cost $16,000 and the HE 1 was about $60,000 second hand and I still cannot understand or appreciate the sheer cost of it and my underwhelmed feeling of what that brought.

Cheers
John

 

[432789]

Well my experience with the HE 1 is not even close to what yours are.
I was always very keen in purchasing the HE 1 but really needed to hear it first which was impossible living in Perth WA. When unbelievably a second hand one came available so with the memory of what my Stax SR009S & BHSE sounded like I took the same recordings with me and the very first thing was how heavy they were when on my head in comparison to the 009S and in a very short time they grew uncomfortable. I was also shocked to hear they were not as musically involving as mine. The bass was on a par but the soundstage was much diminished & I was certain that some form of edginess - distortion was apparent and the overall feeling was one of "Glad I did not buy this new without listening", because that was the only option available to me. My set up cost $16,000 and the HE 1 was about $60,000 second hand and I still cannot understand or appreciate the sheer cost of it and my underwhelmed feeling of what that brought.

Cheers
John

If distortion was the problem with HE1, then you will hate a headphone like abyss. they are literally Lofi not Hifi.

 

[onlychild]

The HE-1 sounds very different depending on which power cable and source is feeding it. It sounds like two different systems to me when fed by a Sablon King power cord vs a High Fidelity Cables Pro power cord.

This is an excellent way to tune the HE-1 system to your liking.

If the dealer is using the $2 power cord that comes with the system, you are not hearing it to its true potential.

When we start reaching systems in the $20k+ level, bass mids and highs should all be good, just tuned differently.

At this level the things I personally look for are #1 = engagement factor (where I don’t want to stop listening to music), and #2 = how close instruments sound to the real thing (this can be achieved by a very low noise and low distortion system).

I have yet to hear a system/headphones that beats the HE-1 in these two factors.

 

[protoss]

@onlychild

Did you say that the HE1 powercable makes a difference with a third party one? Will a 60 thousand dollar powercable help?

 

[onlychild]

I am saying the HE-1 system is very transparent.

Garbage in = Garbage Out

 

[protoss]

I am saying the HE-1 system is very transparent.

Garbage in = Garbage Out

Why can't people just accept what sennheiser created without modding it? Without changing any of the components? If not? It seems like sennheiser dosnt know what their doing?

 

[mammal]

Why can't people just accept what sennheiser created without modding it? Without changing any of the components? If not? It seems like sennheiser dosnt know what their doing?

People like to tinker and when they do, they may hear differences they prefer. Like most of us do with aftermarket cables, as most of the stock ones have bad ergonomics.

 

[432789]

People like to tinker and when they do, they may hear differences they prefer. Like most of us do with aftermarket cables, as most of the stock ones have bad ergonomics.

Science points to psychological differences in human perception not physical.

 

[Ciggavelli]

Different cables sound different. That’s a fact. If there are differences in the sound, then one could logically favor one cable over the other.

Trying to determine if the change in sound is “better,” is where subjectivity comes into play.

 

[wrathofkhan]

If distortion was the problem with HE1, then you will hate a headphone like abyss. they are literally Lofi not Hifi.

The HE-1 sounds very different depending on which power cable and source is feeding it. It sounds like two different systems to me when fed by a Sablon King power cord vs a High Fidelity Cables Pro power cord.

This is an excellent way to tune the HE-1 system to your liking.

If the dealer is using the $2 power cord that comes with the system, you are not hearing it to its true potential.

When we start reaching systems in the $20k+ level, bass mids and highs should all be good, just tuned differently.

At this level the things I personally look for are #1 = engagement factor (where I don’t want to stop listening to music), and #2 = how close instruments sound to the real thing (this can be achieved by a very low noise and low distortion system).

I have yet to hear a system/headphones that beats the HE-1 in these two factors.

So you are saying that the HE 1 power cable is of poor sounding quality, WOW Sennheiser have made a big bloomer there then with their 75K HE 1 & a mediocre power cable,,, I don't think so. My experiences with many different power cables borrowed over the years from Hi Fi Dealer are just that, experiences with no real justification & some costing many thousands of $.
I suggest you too listen to the Stax SR009S + BHSE and only then you will understand why I know that Beats hand down the HE 1.