ThanatosVI
Headphoneus Supremus
Not to forget raw materials...
The Sennheiser Orpheus 2? A First Look At The Sennheiser HE-1 (The New Orpheus)
- Thread starter jude
- Start date
FritzS
1000+ Head-Fier
The raw material for an rechargeable battery driven e-car is much more!
You are not factoring in the cost of R&D into the making the HE1.
ThanatosVI
Headphoneus Supremus
I doubt that it's more than the R&D going into a car
Yes but car sales are in a completely different league.
A car model will sell in the hundreds of thousands in most cases versus a couple of hundred HE1's that will ever get produced so I doubt Sennheiser are even going to make a return on this investment.
bfreedma
The Hornet!
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2012
- Posts
- 3,253
- Likes
- 2,645
Exactly, Halo Products are almost never profitable - they largely exist for brand building.
Since we're doing car analogies, Ford isn't expecting to make a profit on their halo car, the GT (GT40) but they do expect that the Ford logo on car magazines featuring the GT will make up the gap.
edit - grammar fix
Last edited:
My 2-weeks affair with the Sennheiser HE 1
Introduction, Premise and Bias
Being ready to make the next big upgrade of my setup, I am evaluating several directions, with the aim of an objective overall improvement rather than a simple change of flavor. Having spent several years in developing my rig around my personal preferences and my favorite genres (classical and jazz), I am very happy with the sound signature I have achieved, so my quest is to make a further advancement along the lines of what I have.
I only have limited time for serious listening, so I am not attracted by expanding my actual complementary pair of headphones (Valkyria and AB-1266 TC). Therefore, a change on the transducer would ideally be towards something that replaces both without making me miss the respective strengths of my current cans. And, yes, the bar is set very high.
I have owned or tried most of the current flagships (including Aperio, and except Shangri-La SR and X9000), while I haven’t experienced any of the vintage myths (e.g. Sony R10, HE90, Omega) which I fear due to repairability, consistency after aging or S/N to S/N variance etc.. So far, nothing has convinced me to give up my combo, and especially the Valkyria – to which I seem to be attached in a peculiar way.
However, before I revert to keep investing upstream on my chain, I thought I owed it to myself to try the HE 1, and when my dealer agreed to allow me the luxury of a prolonged home demo I was as grateful as excited as you can imagine.
What should have been a long weekend turned into a two-week evaluation, allowing me plenty of time to put the HE 1 to a quite extensive testing schedule.
Setup and Reference Points
My setup is described in my signature. It is composed on a fully upgraded Taiko Extreme server / network switch, the dCS Rossini APEX DAC and Clock, the Riviera AIC-10 (G73-R tube). Headphones are the Spirit Torino Valkyria – my daily driver – and the AB-1266 Phi TC.
As anticipated, most of my listening (say 80%) is classical – all sub-genres, with special focus on piano – and jazz – mainly instrumental, some vocal – being the rest spread among rock, blues, singer-songwriter, electronica. As such, the vast majority of my musical time is spent with acoustic instruments and the human voice. This, in addition to my regular attendance to live concerts, defines my reference points when evaluating hi-fi gear: timbre authenticity, dynamics realism, spatial cues reconstruction.
Non-Sonics Related Impressions
When approaching a statement piece like the HE 1, one must acknowledge that part of the deal is represented by the appearance and build of the system. Well, the HE 1 downright exudes a unique combination of craftsmanship, luxury, integration engineering, all of which casts a very powerful spell.
Just the start-up ceremony, beginning with the knobs protruding from the marble base, followed by the tubes glowingly exiting their sockets in slow-motion and completed by the dark glass headphones cover panel opening makes one chuckle with pleasure and pride of ownership.
The build and finishing quality are top notch, the remote – another beautiful piece on its own – is pleasing to the touch, very effective to use and allows to operate all the features of the system (including crossfeed) very conveniently.
The headset itself is very comfortable, graciously sitting around the ears with its soft cushions caressing my skull and jaws so gently that I could forget I was wearing it during my several-hours long listening sessions.
Overall Sound Signature and Highlights
The general impression I had from the sound signature of the HE 1 is of a system tuned eminently to produce the purest form of aural pleasure.
The balance between technicalities (such as detail retrieval, instrument separation, transient response, even frequency response) and euphony is on its own a most brilliant achievement.
Nothing stands out to attract special attention, the whole of the sound presentation is organically connected by a liquid, open yet substantial sonic picture, where a satisfying bass sustain provides the right amount of warmth to the mix.
The scene is displayed, again, with a masterful equilibrium between close and remote objects, neither too forward, nor overly expanded or distant, blended by a top-class layering capability.
Both tonal balance and imaging invite to immerse, enjoy the music emotionally rather than to delve into it with analytical approach.
Within this miracle of equilibrium, the highlights of my time with the HE 1 were its bass, and vocals.
Bass was a big surprise, both because of its extension (almost challenging the AB-1266) and heft.
Vocals magic relies on a mix between timbre realism, physical presence, and exposure of nuances of the slightest inflection of the voice, the breathing, that stop you on your tracks and totally and directly strike the emotional cord.
The other major highlight was that whatever genre I tried - and in the attempt of challenging the HE 1 I went well outside the boundaries of what I normally listen to, including metal (my younger self passion), hip-hop, pop – the Sennheiser system responded with the highest level of engagement I could recall.
Tonality
I would describe the tonality of the HE 1 (at least in my system) as neutral with more than a touch of warmth. Being an electrostatic system, I was expecting a more sparkling treble, a cooler palette, whereas I was pleasingly surprised by the silkiness of the top end and by the golden, almost amber-scented accents of the lower midrange.
String instruments and vocals acquire a living aura, a sense of weight which I find necessary to recollect the real thing, instead of being its abstract idealization.
Frequency response is fully competent, from the lowest lows – conveyed with some plushness – to treble notes well beyond my middle-aged hearing capabilities, with no bumps or peaks that I could identify in between.
Dynamics and Timing
The HE 1 is capable of a very fast and controlled response, and it resolves micro and macro-dynamics very well. The bass is – as I mentioned – more on the plush / oomph side than in the punch camp, so big percussion thwacks come out a bit more gentle than what is heard in the concert hall.
The timing and pulse are excellent, although also in this case a certain degree of aristocratic poise is always maintained.
Attack and decay of piano notes, for example, are less transcendental than in live experience, but still, they convey a more than adequate level of energy and crispness, featuring a nice, rich harmonic overtones complexity.
Spatial Presentation
I have read online several accounts of HE 1 impressions mentioning a somewhat narrow soundstage.
This was not my experience at all in my setup. The HE 1 presented a nice out-of-the-head soundstage, so much so that symphonic genres, and especially concertos with solo and orchestra, were my overall favorite.
The airiness of the soundscape is well connected into a cohesive sound picture (just as in reality), with consistent ease of localization of the main sections of an orchestra – or single musicians in smaller ensembles – and a very effective depth scanning capability.
Laser-like instrument localization and plankton-level detail retrieval are not what the HE 1 was designed for, and there are better options for hyper-analytical head-fiers. I personally find it artificial / fatiguing when a system or component emphasizes these features to their very limit (e.g. Aperio, SR1a).
Variants
The two main variants I wanted to experiment with where the effect of crossfeed and the use of the HE 1 internal DAC vs. my dCS stack.
I am a fan of crossfeed, and although I still haven’t found an implementation as good as the Chord DAVE I used to own (where I was using x-feed on by default), I still enjoy x-feed via the Rossini or Roon on a case-by-case basis.
The HE 1 implementation of x-feed is fairly good, and I see it as a great value feature on its own. However, I noticed a slightly drier sound, narrower soundstage with some diminishing of the bass quantity, all these being typical downsides of the x-feed, but a bit more apparent than what given by the Rossini.
As for comparing the HE 1 DAC to the dCS stack, I was really hoping that the difference was a minor one (which would have helped significantly the acquisition of the HE 1, financially speaking), but, alas, that was not the case.
If tried in isolation, the HE 1 directly driven by my server was still exceptionally good, but when doing A/B tests the reduction in gravitas, soundstage 3D reach and tonal density was too large to be ignored.
The HE 1 is often presented like an all-in-one system for the ultra-rich who don’t want to mess with separates, lots of cables etc. and just want something gorgeous and great sounding in their living room. Indeed, they are all this, but for the relentless audiophile / mélomane it would be a pity not to deploy all its potential, which unfortunately implies matching the HE 1 with a similarly proficient source and DAC.
Comparisons
When I had the HE 1 at home, I had the chance of comparing them directly to my own Valkyria and AB-1266 TC (driven by the Riviera AIC-10), and to the SR1a and CA-1a (driven by the VM-1a) carried by a friend.
Other comparisons I could make are based on memory and / or different setups so I’ll not go into them too seriously.
To make things clear, the HE 1 overall performance surpasses – to my ears – the overall performance of any other headphone system I have experienced so far, namely when “performance” is translated as “pleasure of listening”, which is – for me – the whole point of this hobby. In turn, “pleasure of listening” for me is a combination of sensorial, emotional, and intellectual aspects where the emotional takes the lion’s share.
That said, there are specific areas where other headphones can be considered objectively better than the HE 1.
For example, the TC bass is superior in terms of extension to subsonic levels, and crispness / articulation, not to mention pure slam. Also, the cavernous, expansive staging the Abyss can deliver is more compelling with some recordings, especially those taken in very large venues or very reverberant ones (e.g. churches), although it may make the performance sound a bit too distant in other situations.
As anticipated, superior detail investigation or musical objects separation can be achieved with the Aperio or RAAL ribbon headphones, or even an SR009/S.
The Valkyria provides more punch, energy density and visceral dynamics, making percussions - for instance - sound way more incarnated.
Also, the Spirit Torino provides a meatier, darker tonality that, while being less linear than the HE 1, I like immensely as it makes piano and some stringed instruments (cello, double bass) more engaging to my ears.
Conclusion
Having the HE 1 on my rack for two weeks has been one of the most rewarding audiophile experiences I have had. I spent the first week mainly to get acquainted with its sound and doing comparisons or revisiting my reference tracks. However, in the second week I unwound and went more in a pure hedonistic, relaxed abandon to the music and that was pure joy.
The obvious caveat in acquiring a unit like the HE 1, economics aside, is about committing to a closed system, and I am still debating about this myself.
With that said, the HE 1 revealed itself as an almost infallible pleasure generating machine, and I tend to believe that it would produce a pretty satisfying monogamy even in the long term
Introduction, Premise and Bias
Being ready to make the next big upgrade of my setup, I am evaluating several directions, with the aim of an objective overall improvement rather than a simple change of flavor. Having spent several years in developing my rig around my personal preferences and my favorite genres (classical and jazz), I am very happy with the sound signature I have achieved, so my quest is to make a further advancement along the lines of what I have.
I only have limited time for serious listening, so I am not attracted by expanding my actual complementary pair of headphones (Valkyria and AB-1266 TC). Therefore, a change on the transducer would ideally be towards something that replaces both without making me miss the respective strengths of my current cans. And, yes, the bar is set very high.
I have owned or tried most of the current flagships (including Aperio, and except Shangri-La SR and X9000), while I haven’t experienced any of the vintage myths (e.g. Sony R10, HE90, Omega) which I fear due to repairability, consistency after aging or S/N to S/N variance etc.. So far, nothing has convinced me to give up my combo, and especially the Valkyria – to which I seem to be attached in a peculiar way.
However, before I revert to keep investing upstream on my chain, I thought I owed it to myself to try the HE 1, and when my dealer agreed to allow me the luxury of a prolonged home demo I was as grateful as excited as you can imagine.
What should have been a long weekend turned into a two-week evaluation, allowing me plenty of time to put the HE 1 to a quite extensive testing schedule.
Setup and Reference Points
My setup is described in my signature. It is composed on a fully upgraded Taiko Extreme server / network switch, the dCS Rossini APEX DAC and Clock, the Riviera AIC-10 (G73-R tube). Headphones are the Spirit Torino Valkyria – my daily driver – and the AB-1266 Phi TC.
As anticipated, most of my listening (say 80%) is classical – all sub-genres, with special focus on piano – and jazz – mainly instrumental, some vocal – being the rest spread among rock, blues, singer-songwriter, electronica. As such, the vast majority of my musical time is spent with acoustic instruments and the human voice. This, in addition to my regular attendance to live concerts, defines my reference points when evaluating hi-fi gear: timbre authenticity, dynamics realism, spatial cues reconstruction.
Non-Sonics Related Impressions
When approaching a statement piece like the HE 1, one must acknowledge that part of the deal is represented by the appearance and build of the system. Well, the HE 1 downright exudes a unique combination of craftsmanship, luxury, integration engineering, all of which casts a very powerful spell.
Just the start-up ceremony, beginning with the knobs protruding from the marble base, followed by the tubes glowingly exiting their sockets in slow-motion and completed by the dark glass headphones cover panel opening makes one chuckle with pleasure and pride of ownership.
The build and finishing quality are top notch, the remote – another beautiful piece on its own – is pleasing to the touch, very effective to use and allows to operate all the features of the system (including crossfeed) very conveniently.
The headset itself is very comfortable, graciously sitting around the ears with its soft cushions caressing my skull and jaws so gently that I could forget I was wearing it during my several-hours long listening sessions.
Overall Sound Signature and Highlights
The general impression I had from the sound signature of the HE 1 is of a system tuned eminently to produce the purest form of aural pleasure.
The balance between technicalities (such as detail retrieval, instrument separation, transient response, even frequency response) and euphony is on its own a most brilliant achievement.
Nothing stands out to attract special attention, the whole of the sound presentation is organically connected by a liquid, open yet substantial sonic picture, where a satisfying bass sustain provides the right amount of warmth to the mix.
The scene is displayed, again, with a masterful equilibrium between close and remote objects, neither too forward, nor overly expanded or distant, blended by a top-class layering capability.
Both tonal balance and imaging invite to immerse, enjoy the music emotionally rather than to delve into it with analytical approach.
Within this miracle of equilibrium, the highlights of my time with the HE 1 were its bass, and vocals.
Bass was a big surprise, both because of its extension (almost challenging the AB-1266) and heft.
Vocals magic relies on a mix between timbre realism, physical presence, and exposure of nuances of the slightest inflection of the voice, the breathing, that stop you on your tracks and totally and directly strike the emotional cord.
The other major highlight was that whatever genre I tried - and in the attempt of challenging the HE 1 I went well outside the boundaries of what I normally listen to, including metal (my younger self passion), hip-hop, pop – the Sennheiser system responded with the highest level of engagement I could recall.
Tonality
I would describe the tonality of the HE 1 (at least in my system) as neutral with more than a touch of warmth. Being an electrostatic system, I was expecting a more sparkling treble, a cooler palette, whereas I was pleasingly surprised by the silkiness of the top end and by the golden, almost amber-scented accents of the lower midrange.
String instruments and vocals acquire a living aura, a sense of weight which I find necessary to recollect the real thing, instead of being its abstract idealization.
Frequency response is fully competent, from the lowest lows – conveyed with some plushness – to treble notes well beyond my middle-aged hearing capabilities, with no bumps or peaks that I could identify in between.
Dynamics and Timing
The HE 1 is capable of a very fast and controlled response, and it resolves micro and macro-dynamics very well. The bass is – as I mentioned – more on the plush / oomph side than in the punch camp, so big percussion thwacks come out a bit more gentle than what is heard in the concert hall.
The timing and pulse are excellent, although also in this case a certain degree of aristocratic poise is always maintained.
Attack and decay of piano notes, for example, are less transcendental than in live experience, but still, they convey a more than adequate level of energy and crispness, featuring a nice, rich harmonic overtones complexity.
Spatial Presentation
I have read online several accounts of HE 1 impressions mentioning a somewhat narrow soundstage.
This was not my experience at all in my setup. The HE 1 presented a nice out-of-the-head soundstage, so much so that symphonic genres, and especially concertos with solo and orchestra, were my overall favorite.
The airiness of the soundscape is well connected into a cohesive sound picture (just as in reality), with consistent ease of localization of the main sections of an orchestra – or single musicians in smaller ensembles – and a very effective depth scanning capability.
Laser-like instrument localization and plankton-level detail retrieval are not what the HE 1 was designed for, and there are better options for hyper-analytical head-fiers. I personally find it artificial / fatiguing when a system or component emphasizes these features to their very limit (e.g. Aperio, SR1a).
Variants
The two main variants I wanted to experiment with where the effect of crossfeed and the use of the HE 1 internal DAC vs. my dCS stack.
I am a fan of crossfeed, and although I still haven’t found an implementation as good as the Chord DAVE I used to own (where I was using x-feed on by default), I still enjoy x-feed via the Rossini or Roon on a case-by-case basis.
The HE 1 implementation of x-feed is fairly good, and I see it as a great value feature on its own. However, I noticed a slightly drier sound, narrower soundstage with some diminishing of the bass quantity, all these being typical downsides of the x-feed, but a bit more apparent than what given by the Rossini.
As for comparing the HE 1 DAC to the dCS stack, I was really hoping that the difference was a minor one (which would have helped significantly the acquisition of the HE 1, financially speaking), but, alas, that was not the case.
If tried in isolation, the HE 1 directly driven by my server was still exceptionally good, but when doing A/B tests the reduction in gravitas, soundstage 3D reach and tonal density was too large to be ignored.
The HE 1 is often presented like an all-in-one system for the ultra-rich who don’t want to mess with separates, lots of cables etc. and just want something gorgeous and great sounding in their living room. Indeed, they are all this, but for the relentless audiophile / mélomane it would be a pity not to deploy all its potential, which unfortunately implies matching the HE 1 with a similarly proficient source and DAC.
Comparisons
When I had the HE 1 at home, I had the chance of comparing them directly to my own Valkyria and AB-1266 TC (driven by the Riviera AIC-10), and to the SR1a and CA-1a (driven by the VM-1a) carried by a friend.
Other comparisons I could make are based on memory and / or different setups so I’ll not go into them too seriously.
To make things clear, the HE 1 overall performance surpasses – to my ears – the overall performance of any other headphone system I have experienced so far, namely when “performance” is translated as “pleasure of listening”, which is – for me – the whole point of this hobby. In turn, “pleasure of listening” for me is a combination of sensorial, emotional, and intellectual aspects where the emotional takes the lion’s share.
That said, there are specific areas where other headphones can be considered objectively better than the HE 1.
For example, the TC bass is superior in terms of extension to subsonic levels, and crispness / articulation, not to mention pure slam. Also, the cavernous, expansive staging the Abyss can deliver is more compelling with some recordings, especially those taken in very large venues or very reverberant ones (e.g. churches), although it may make the performance sound a bit too distant in other situations.
As anticipated, superior detail investigation or musical objects separation can be achieved with the Aperio or RAAL ribbon headphones, or even an SR009/S.
The Valkyria provides more punch, energy density and visceral dynamics, making percussions - for instance - sound way more incarnated.
Also, the Spirit Torino provides a meatier, darker tonality that, while being less linear than the HE 1, I like immensely as it makes piano and some stringed instruments (cello, double bass) more engaging to my ears.
Conclusion
Having the HE 1 on my rack for two weeks has been one of the most rewarding audiophile experiences I have had. I spent the first week mainly to get acquainted with its sound and doing comparisons or revisiting my reference tracks. However, in the second week I unwound and went more in a pure hedonistic, relaxed abandon to the music and that was pure joy.
The obvious caveat in acquiring a unit like the HE 1, economics aside, is about committing to a closed system, and I am still debating about this myself.
With that said, the HE 1 revealed itself as an almost infallible pleasure generating machine, and I tend to believe that it would produce a pretty satisfying monogamy even in the long term
Last edited:
FritzS
1000+ Head-Fier
OffTopic
Music for you
.
Download ->>
Playground von David Helbock & Camille Bertault
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/22912535-Camille-Bertault-David-Helbock-Playground
Music for you
https://oe1.orf.at/player/20231229/743658
.
Download ->>
Playground von David Helbock & Camille Bertault
https://www.discogs.com/de/release/22912535-Camille-Bertault-David-Helbock-Playground
Last edited:
If you have funds, go for it.My 2-weeks affair with the Sennheiser HE 1
Introduction, Premise and Bias
Being ready to make the next big upgrade of my setup, I am evaluating several directions, with the aim of an objective overall improvement rather than a simple change of flavor. Having spent several years in developing my rig around my personal preferences and my favorite genres (classical and jazz), I am very happy with the sound signature I have achieved, so my quest is to make a further advancement along the lines of what I have.
I only have limited time for serious listening, so I am not attracted by expanding my actual complementary pair of headphones (Valkyria and AB-1266 TC). Therefore, a change on the transducer would ideally be towards something that replaces both without making me miss the respective strengths of my current cans. And, yes, the bar is very high.
I owned or tried most of the current flagships (including Aperio, and except Shangri-La SR and X9000), while I haven’t experienced any of the vintage myths (e.g. Sony R10, HE90) which I fear due to repairability, consistency after aging or S/N to S/N variance etc.. So far, nothing has convinced me to give up my combo, and especially the Valkyria – to which I seem to be attached in a peculiar way.
However, before I revert to keep investing upstream on my chain, I thought I owed it to myself to try the HE 1, and when my dealer agreed to allow me the luxury of a prolonged home demo I was as grateful as excited as you can imagine.
What should have been a long weekend turned into a two-week evaluation, allowing me plenty of time to put the HE 1 to a quite extensive testing schedule.
Setup and Reference Points
My setup is described in my signature. It is composed on a fully upgraded Taiko Extreme server / network switch, the dCS Rossini APEX DAC and Clock, the Riviera AIC-10 (G73-R tube). Headphones are the Spirit Torino Valkyria – my daily driver – and the AB-1266 Phi TC.
As anticipated, most of my listening (say 80%) is classical – all sub-genres, with special focus on piano – and jazz – mainly instrumental, some vocal – being the rest spread among rock, blues, singer-songwriter, electronica. As such, the vast majority of my musical time is spent with acoustic instruments and the human voice. This, in addition to my regular attendance to live concerts, defines my reference points when evaluating hi-fi gear: timbre authenticity, dynamics realism, spatial cues reconstruction.
Non-Sonics Related Impressions
When dealing with a statement piece like the HE 1, one must acknowledge that part of the deal is represented by the appearance and build of the system. Well, the HE 1 downright exudes a unique combination of craftmanship, luxury, integration engineering, which casts a very powerful spell.
Just the start-up ceremony, starting with the knobs protruding from the marble base, followed by the tubes glowingly exiting their sockets in slow-motion and completed by the dark glass headphones cover panel opening makes one chuckle with pleasure and pride of ownership.
The build and finishing quality are top notch, the remote – another beautiful piece on its own – is pleasing to the touch, very effective to use and allows to operate all the features of the system (including crossfeed) very conveniently.
The headset itself is very comfortable, graciously sitting around the ears with its soft cushions caressing my skull and jaws so gently that I could forget I was wearing it during my several-hours long listening sessions.
Overall Sound Signature and Highlights
The general impression I had from the sound signature of the HE 1 is of a system tuned eminently to produce the purest form of aural pleasure.
The balance between technicalities (such as detail retrieval, instrument separation, transient response, even frequency response) and euphony is on its own a most brilliant achievement.
Nothing stands out to attract a special attention, the whole of the sound presentation is organically connected by a liquid, open yet substantial sonic picture, where a satisfying bass sustain provides the right amount of warmth to the mix.
The scene is displayed, again, with a masterful equilibrium between close and remote objects, neither too forward, nor overly expanded or distant, blended by top-class layering capability.
Both tonal balance and imaging invite to immerse, enjoy the music emotionally rather than to delve into it with analytical approach.
Within this miracle of equilibrium, the highlights of my time with the HE 1 were its bass, and vocals.
Bass was a big surprise, both because of its extension (almost challenging the AB-1266) and heft.
Vocals magic relies on a mix between timbre realism, physical presence, and exposure of nuances of the slightest inflection of the voice, the breathing, that stop you on your track and totally and directly strike the emotional chord.
The other major highlight was that whatever genre I tried - and in the attempt of challenging the HE 1 I went well outside the boundaries of what I normally listen to, including metal (my younger self passion), hip-hop, pop – the Sennheiser system responded with the highest level of engagement I could recall.
Tonality
I would describe the tonality of the HE 1 (at least in my system) as neutral with more than a touch of warmth. Being an electrostatic system, I was expecting a more sparkling treble, a cooler palette, whereas I was pleasingly surprised by the silkiness of the top end and by the golden, almost amber-scented accents of the lower midrange.
String instruments and vocals acquire a living aura, a sense of weight which I find necessary to recollect the real thing, instead of being their abstract idealization.
Frequency response is fully competent, from the lowest lows – conveyed with some plushness – to treble notes well beyond my middle-aged hearing capabilities, with no bumps or peaks that I could identify in between.
Dynamics and Timing
The HE 1 is capable of a very fast and controlled response, and it resolves micro and macro-dynamics very well. The bass is – as I mentioned – more on the plush / oomph side than in the punch camp, so big percussion thwacks come out a bit more gentle than what is heard in the concert hall.
The timing and pulse are excellent, although also in this case a certain degree of aristocratic poise is always maintained.
Attack and decay of piano notes, for example, are less transcendental than in live recordings, but still, they convey a more than adequate level of energy and crispness, featuring a nice, rich harmonic overtones complexity.
Spatial Presentation
I have read online several accounts of HE 1 impressions mentioning a somewhat narrow soundstage.
This was not my experience at all in my setup. The HE 1 presented a nice out-of-the-head soundstage, so much so that symphonic genres, and especially concertos with solo and orchestra, were my overall favorite.
The airiness of the soundscape is well connected into a cohesive sound picture (just as in reality), with adequate ease of localization of the main sections of an orchestra – or single musicians in smaller ensembles – and a very effective depth scanning capability.
Laser-like instrument localization and plankton-level detail retrieval are not what the HE 1 was designed for, and there are better options for hyper-analytical head-fiers. I personally find it artificial / fatiguing when a system or component emphasizes these features to their very limit (e.g. Aperio, SR1a).
Variants
The two main variants I wanted to experiment with where the effect of crossfeed and the use of the HE 1 internal DAC vs. my dCS stack.
I am a fan of crossfeed, and although I still haven’t found an implementation as good as the Chord DAVE I used to own (where I was using x-feed on by default), I still enjoy using x-feed via the Rossini or Roon on a case-by-case basis.
The HE 1 implementation of x-feed is competent enough, and I see it as a great value feature on its own. However, I noticed a slightly drier sound, narrower soundstage with some diminishing of the bass quantity, all these being typical downsides of the x-feed, but a bit more apparent than what given by the Rossini.
As for comparing the HE 1 DAC to the dCS stack, I was really hoping that the difference was a minor one (which would have helped significantly the acquisition of the HE 1, financially speaking), but, alas, that was not the case.
If tried in isolation, the HE 1 directly driven by my server was still exceptionally good, but when doing A/B tests the reduction in gravitas, soundstage 3D reach and tonal density was too large to be ignored.
The HE 1 is often presented like an all-in-one system for the ultra-rich who don’t want to mess with separates, cables and just want something beautiful and great sounding in their living room. Indeed, they are all this, but for the relentless audiophile / mélomane it would be a pity not to deploy all its potential, which unfortunately implies matching the HE 1 with a similarly proficient source and DAC.
Comparisons
When I had the HE 1 at home, I had the chance of comparing them directly to my own Valkyria and AB-1266 TC (driven by the Riviera AIC-10), and to the SR1a and CA-1a (driven by the VM-1a) carried by a friend.
Other comparisons I could carry on are based on memory and / or different setups so I’ll not go into them too seriously.
To make things clear, the HE 1 overall performance surpasses – to my ears – the overall performance of any other headphone system I have experienced so far, namely when “performance” is translated as “pleasure of listening”, which is – for me – the whole point of this hobby. In turn, “pleasure of listening” for me is a combination of sensorial, emotional, and intellectual aspects where the emotional takes the lion’s share.
That said, there are specific areas where other headphones can be considered objectively better than the HE 1.
For example, the TC bass is superior in terms of extension to subsonic levels, and crispness / articulation, not to mention pure slam. Also, the cavernous, expansive staging the Abyss can deliver is more compelling with some recordings, especially those taken in very large venues or very reverberant ones (e.g. churches), although it may make the performance sound a bit too distant in other situations.
As anticipated, superior detail investigation or musical objects separation can be achieved with the Aperio or RAAL ribbon headphones, or even a SR009/S.
The Valkyria provides more punch, energy density and transcendental dynamics, making percussions sound way more incarnated.
Also, the Spirit Torino provides a meatier, darker tonality that, while being less linear than the HE 1, I like immensely as it makes piano and some stringed instruments (cello, double bass) more engaging to my ears.
Conclusion
Having the HE 1 on my rack for two weeks has been one of the most rewarding audiophile experiences I have had. I spent the first week mainly to get acquainted with its sound and doing comparisons or revisiting my reference tracks. However, in the second week I unwound and went more in a pure hedonistic, relaxed abandon to the music and that was pure joy.
The obvious caveat in acquiring a unit like the HE 1, economics aside, is about committing to a closed system, and I am still debating about this myself.
With that said, the HE 1 revealed itself as an almost infallible pleasure generating machine, and I tend to believe that it would produce a pretty satisfying monogamy even in the long term
Don't think about "closed" system. Just enjoy the music, no more hassling no more thinking
I wonder what will happen to the sound if the tubes are changed from the stock Sennheiser's to some NOS Sylvanias etc.My 2-weeks affair with the Sennheiser HE 1
Introduction, Premise and Bias
Being ready to make the next big upgrade of my setup, I am evaluating several directions, with the aim of an objective overall improvement rather than a simple change of flavor. Having spent several years in developing my rig around my personal preferences and my favorite genres (classical and jazz), I am very happy with the sound signature I have achieved, so my quest is to make a further advancement along the lines of what I have.
I only have limited time for serious listening, so I am not attracted by expanding my actual complementary pair of headphones (Valkyria and AB-1266 TC). Therefore, a change on the transducer would ideally be towards something that replaces both without making me miss the respective strengths of my current cans. And, yes, the bar is very high.
I owned or tried most of the current flagships (including Aperio, and except Shangri-La SR and X9000), while I haven’t experienced any of the vintage myths (e.g. Sony R10, HE90) which I fear due to repairability, consistency after aging or S/N to S/N variance etc.. So far, nothing has convinced me to give up my combo, and especially the Valkyria – to which I seem to be attached in a peculiar way.
However, before I revert to keep investing upstream on my chain, I thought I owed it to myself to try the HE 1, and when my dealer agreed to allow me the luxury of a prolonged home demo I was as grateful as excited as you can imagine.
What should have been a long weekend turned into a two-week evaluation, allowing me plenty of time to put the HE 1 to a quite extensive testing schedule.
Setup and Reference Points
My setup is described in my signature. It is composed on a fully upgraded Taiko Extreme server / network switch, the dCS Rossini APEX DAC and Clock, the Riviera AIC-10 (G73-R tube). Headphones are the Spirit Torino Valkyria – my daily driver – and the AB-1266 Phi TC.
As anticipated, most of my listening (say 80%) is classical – all sub-genres, with special focus on piano – and jazz – mainly instrumental, some vocal – being the rest spread among rock, blues, singer-songwriter, electronica. As such, the vast majority of my musical time is spent with acoustic instruments and the human voice. This, in addition to my regular attendance to live concerts, defines my reference points when evaluating hi-fi gear: timbre authenticity, dynamics realism, spatial cues reconstruction.
Non-Sonics Related Impressions
When dealing with a statement piece like the HE 1, one must acknowledge that part of the deal is represented by the appearance and build of the system. Well, the HE 1 downright exudes a unique combination of craftmanship, luxury, integration engineering, which casts a very powerful spell.
Just the start-up ceremony, starting with the knobs protruding from the marble base, followed by the tubes glowingly exiting their sockets in slow-motion and completed by the dark glass headphones cover panel opening makes one chuckle with pleasure and pride of ownership.
The build and finishing quality are top notch, the remote – another beautiful piece on its own – is pleasing to the touch, very effective to use and allows to operate all the features of the system (including crossfeed) very conveniently.
The headset itself is very comfortable, graciously sitting around the ears with its soft cushions caressing my skull and jaws so gently that I could forget I was wearing it during my several-hours long listening sessions.
Overall Sound Signature and Highlights
The general impression I had from the sound signature of the HE 1 is of a system tuned eminently to produce the purest form of aural pleasure.
The balance between technicalities (such as detail retrieval, instrument separation, transient response, even frequency response) and euphony is on its own a most brilliant achievement.
Nothing stands out to attract a special attention, the whole of the sound presentation is organically connected by a liquid, open yet substantial sonic picture, where a satisfying bass sustain provides the right amount of warmth to the mix.
The scene is displayed, again, with a masterful equilibrium between close and remote objects, neither too forward, nor overly expanded or distant, blended by top-class layering capability.
Both tonal balance and imaging invite to immerse, enjoy the music emotionally rather than to delve into it with analytical approach.
Within this miracle of equilibrium, the highlights of my time with the HE 1 were its bass, and vocals.
Bass was a big surprise, both because of its extension (almost challenging the AB-1266) and heft.
Vocals magic relies on a mix between timbre realism, physical presence, and exposure of nuances of the slightest inflection of the voice, the breathing, that stop you on your track and totally and directly strike the emotional chord.
The other major highlight was that whatever genre I tried - and in the attempt of challenging the HE 1 I went well outside the boundaries of what I normally listen to, including metal (my younger self passion), hip-hop, pop – the Sennheiser system responded with the highest level of engagement I could recall.
Tonality
I would describe the tonality of the HE 1 (at least in my system) as neutral with more than a touch of warmth. Being an electrostatic system, I was expecting a more sparkling treble, a cooler palette, whereas I was pleasingly surprised by the silkiness of the top end and by the golden, almost amber-scented accents of the lower midrange.
String instruments and vocals acquire a living aura, a sense of weight which I find necessary to recollect the real thing, instead of being their abstract idealization.
Frequency response is fully competent, from the lowest lows – conveyed with some plushness – to treble notes well beyond my middle-aged hearing capabilities, with no bumps or peaks that I could identify in between.
Dynamics and Timing
The HE 1 is capable of a very fast and controlled response, and it resolves micro and macro-dynamics very well. The bass is – as I mentioned – more on the plush / oomph side than in the punch camp, so big percussion thwacks come out a bit more gentle than what is heard in the concert hall.
The timing and pulse are excellent, although also in this case a certain degree of aristocratic poise is always maintained.
Attack and decay of piano notes, for example, are less transcendental than in live recordings, but still, they convey a more than adequate level of energy and crispness, featuring a nice, rich harmonic overtones complexity.
Spatial Presentation
I have read online several accounts of HE 1 impressions mentioning a somewhat narrow soundstage.
This was not my experience at all in my setup. The HE 1 presented a nice out-of-the-head soundstage, so much so that symphonic genres, and especially concertos with solo and orchestra, were my overall favorite.
The airiness of the soundscape is well connected into a cohesive sound picture (just as in reality), with adequate ease of localization of the main sections of an orchestra – or single musicians in smaller ensembles – and a very effective depth scanning capability.
Laser-like instrument localization and plankton-level detail retrieval are not what the HE 1 was designed for, and there are better options for hyper-analytical head-fiers. I personally find it artificial / fatiguing when a system or component emphasizes these features to their very limit (e.g. Aperio, SR1a).
Variants
The two main variants I wanted to experiment with where the effect of crossfeed and the use of the HE 1 internal DAC vs. my dCS stack.
I am a fan of crossfeed, and although I still haven’t found an implementation as good as the Chord DAVE I used to own (where I was using x-feed on by default), I still enjoy using x-feed via the Rossini or Roon on a case-by-case basis.
The HE 1 implementation of x-feed is competent enough, and I see it as a great value feature on its own. However, I noticed a slightly drier sound, narrower soundstage with some diminishing of the bass quantity, all these being typical downsides of the x-feed, but a bit more apparent than what given by the Rossini.
As for comparing the HE 1 DAC to the dCS stack, I was really hoping that the difference was a minor one (which would have helped significantly the acquisition of the HE 1, financially speaking), but, alas, that was not the case.
If tried in isolation, the HE 1 directly driven by my server was still exceptionally good, but when doing A/B tests the reduction in gravitas, soundstage 3D reach and tonal density was too large to be ignored.
The HE 1 is often presented like an all-in-one system for the ultra-rich who don’t want to mess with separates, cables and just want something beautiful and great sounding in their living room. Indeed, they are all this, but for the relentless audiophile / mélomane it would be a pity not to deploy all its potential, which unfortunately implies matching the HE 1 with a similarly proficient source and DAC.
Comparisons
When I had the HE 1 at home, I had the chance of comparing them directly to my own Valkyria and AB-1266 TC (driven by the Riviera AIC-10), and to the SR1a and CA-1a (driven by the VM-1a) carried by a friend.
Other comparisons I could carry on are based on memory and / or different setups so I’ll not go into them too seriously.
To make things clear, the HE 1 overall performance surpasses – to my ears – the overall performance of any other headphone system I have experienced so far, namely when “performance” is translated as “pleasure of listening”, which is – for me – the whole point of this hobby. In turn, “pleasure of listening” for me is a combination of sensorial, emotional, and intellectual aspects where the emotional takes the lion’s share.
That said, there are specific areas where other headphones can be considered objectively better than the HE 1.
For example, the TC bass is superior in terms of extension to subsonic levels, and crispness / articulation, not to mention pure slam. Also, the cavernous, expansive staging the Abyss can deliver is more compelling with some recordings, especially those taken in very large venues or very reverberant ones (e.g. churches), although it may make the performance sound a bit too distant in other situations.
As anticipated, superior detail investigation or musical objects separation can be achieved with the Aperio or RAAL ribbon headphones, or even a SR009/S.
The Valkyria provides more punch, energy density and transcendental dynamics, making percussions sound way more incarnated.
Also, the Spirit Torino provides a meatier, darker tonality that, while being less linear than the HE 1, I like immensely as it makes piano and some stringed instruments (cello, double bass) more engaging to my ears.
Conclusion
Having the HE 1 on my rack for two weeks has been one of the most rewarding audiophile experiences I have had. I spent the first week mainly to get acquainted with its sound and doing comparisons or revisiting my reference tracks. However, in the second week I unwound and went more in a pure hedonistic, relaxed abandon to the music and that was pure joy.
The obvious caveat in acquiring a unit like the HE 1, economics aside, is about committing to a closed system, and I am still debating about this myself.
With that said, the HE 1 revealed itself as an almost infallible pleasure generating machine, and I tend to believe that it would produce a pretty satisfying monogamy even in the long term
number1sixerfan
Headphoneus Supremus
My 2-weeks affair with the Sennheiser HE 1
Introduction, Premise and Bias
Being ready to make the next big upgrade of my setup, I am evaluating several directions, with the aim of an objective overall improvement rather than a simple change of flavor. Having spent several years in developing my rig around my personal preferences and my favorite genres (classical and jazz), I am very happy with the sound signature I have achieved, so my quest is to make a further advancement along the lines of what I have.
I only have limited time for serious listening, so I am not attracted by expanding my actual complementary pair of headphones (Valkyria and AB-1266 TC). Therefore, a change on the transducer would ideally be towards something that replaces both without making me miss the respective strengths of my current cans. And, yes, the bar is very high.
I have owned or tried most of the current flagships (including Aperio, and except Shangri-La SR and X9000), while I haven’t experienced any of the vintage myths (e.g. Sony R10, HE90) which I fear due to repairability, consistency after aging or S/N to S/N variance etc.. So far, nothing has convinced me to give up my combo, and especially the Valkyria – to which I seem to be attached in a peculiar way.
However, before I revert to keep investing upstream on my chain, I thought I owed it to myself to try the HE 1, and when my dealer agreed to allow me the luxury of a prolonged home demo I was as grateful as excited as you can imagine.
What should have been a long weekend turned into a two-week evaluation, allowing me plenty of time to put the HE 1 to a quite extensive testing schedule.
Setup and Reference Points
My setup is described in my signature. It is composed on a fully upgraded Taiko Extreme server / network switch, the dCS Rossini APEX DAC and Clock, the Riviera AIC-10 (G73-R tube). Headphones are the Spirit Torino Valkyria – my daily driver – and the AB-1266 Phi TC.
As anticipated, most of my listening (say 80%) is classical – all sub-genres, with special focus on piano – and jazz – mainly instrumental, some vocal – being the rest spread among rock, blues, singer-songwriter, electronica. As such, the vast majority of my musical time is spent with acoustic instruments and the human voice. This, in addition to my regular attendance to live concerts, defines my reference points when evaluating hi-fi gear: timbre authenticity, dynamics realism, spatial cues reconstruction.
Non-Sonics Related Impressions
When dealing with a statement piece like the HE 1, one must acknowledge that part of the deal is represented by the appearance and build of the system. Well, the HE 1 downright exudes a unique combination of craftsmanship, luxury, integration engineering, which casts a very powerful spell.
Just the start-up ceremony, beginning with the knobs protruding from the marble base, followed by the tubes glowingly exiting their sockets in slow-motion and completed by the dark glass headphones cover panel opening makes one chuckle with pleasure and pride of ownership.
The build and finishing quality are top notch, the remote – another beautiful piece on its own – is pleasing to the touch, very effective to use and allows to operate all the features of the system (including crossfeed) very conveniently.
The headset itself is very comfortable, graciously sitting around the ears with its soft cushions caressing my skull and jaws so gently that I could forget I was wearing it during my several-hours long listening sessions.
Overall Sound Signature and Highlights
The general impression I had from the sound signature of the HE 1 is of a system tuned eminently to produce the purest form of aural pleasure.
The balance between technicalities (such as detail retrieval, instrument separation, transient response, even frequency response) and euphony is on its own a most brilliant achievement.
Nothing stands out to attract special attention, the whole of the sound presentation is organically connected by a liquid, open yet substantial sonic picture, where a satisfying bass sustain provides the right amount of warmth to the mix.
The scene is displayed, again, with a masterful equilibrium between close and remote objects, neither too forward, nor overly expanded or distant, blended by top-class layering capability.
Both tonal balance and imaging invite to immerse, enjoy the music emotionally rather than to delve into it with analytical approach.
Within this miracle of equilibrium, the highlights of my time with the HE 1 were its bass, and vocals.
Bass was a big surprise, both because of its extension (almost challenging the AB-1266) and heft.
Vocals magic relies on a mix between timbre realism, physical presence, and exposure of nuances of the slightest inflection of the voice, the breathing, that stop you on your track and totally and directly strike the emotional chord.
The other major highlight was that whatever genre I tried - and in the attempt of challenging the HE 1 I went well outside the boundaries of what I normally listen to, including metal (my younger self passion), hip-hop, pop – the Sennheiser system responded with the highest level of engagement I could recall.
Tonality
I would describe the tonality of the HE 1 (at least in my system) as neutral with more than a touch of warmth. Being an electrostatic system, I was expecting a more sparkling treble, a cooler palette, whereas I was pleasingly surprised by the silkiness of the top end and by the golden, almost amber-scented accents of the lower midrange.
String instruments and vocals acquire a living aura, a sense of weight which I find necessary to recollect the real thing, instead of being its abstract idealization.
Frequency response is fully competent, from the lowest lows – conveyed with some plushness – to treble notes well beyond my middle-aged hearing capabilities, with no bumps or peaks that I could identify in between.
Dynamics and Timing
The HE 1 is capable of a very fast and controlled response, and it resolves micro and macro-dynamics very well. The bass is – as I mentioned – more on the plush / oomph side than in the punch camp, so big percussion thwacks come out a bit more gentle than what is heard in the concert hall.
The timing and pulse are excellent, although also in this case a certain degree of aristocratic poise is always maintained.
Attack and decay of piano notes, for example, are less transcendental than in live recordings, but still, they convey a more than adequate level of energy and crispness, featuring a nice, rich harmonic overtones complexity.
Spatial Presentation
I have read online several accounts of HE 1 impressions mentioning a somewhat narrow soundstage.
This was not my experience at all in my setup. The HE 1 presented a nice out-of-the-head soundstage, so much so that symphonic genres, and especially concertos with solo and orchestra, were my overall favorite.
The airiness of the soundscape is well connected into a cohesive sound picture (just as in reality), with consistent ease of localization of the main sections of an orchestra – or single musicians in smaller ensembles – and a very effective depth scanning capability.
Laser-like instrument localization and plankton-level detail retrieval are not what the HE 1 was designed for, and there are better options for hyper-analytical head-fiers. I personally find it artificial / fatiguing when a system or component emphasizes these features to their very limit (e.g. Aperio, SR1a).
Variants
The two main variants I wanted to experiment with where the effect of crossfeed and the use of the HE 1 internal DAC vs. my dCS stack.
I am a fan of crossfeed, and although I still haven’t found an implementation as good as the Chord DAVE I used to own (where I was using x-feed on by default), I still enjoy using x-feed via the Rossini or Roon on a case-by-case basis.
The HE 1 implementation of x-feed is fairly good, and I see it as a great value feature on its own. However, I noticed a slightly drier sound, narrower soundstage with some diminishing of the bass quantity, all these being typical downsides of the x-feed, but a bit more apparent than what given by the Rossini.
As for comparing the HE 1 DAC to the dCS stack, I was really hoping that the difference was a minor one (which would have helped significantly the acquisition of the HE 1, financially speaking), but, alas, that was not the case.
If tried in isolation, the HE 1 directly driven by my server was still exceptionally good, but when doing A/B tests the reduction in gravitas, soundstage 3D reach and tonal density was too large to be ignored.
The HE 1 is often presented like an all-in-one system for the ultra-rich who don’t want to mess with separates, cables and just want something beautiful and great sounding in their living room. Indeed, they are all this, but for the relentless audiophile / mélomane it would be a pity not to deploy all its potential, which unfortunately implies matching the HE 1 with a similarly proficient source and DAC.
Comparisons
When I had the HE 1 at home, I had the chance of comparing them directly to my own Valkyria and AB-1266 TC (driven by the Riviera AIC-10), and to the SR1a and CA-1a (driven by the VM-1a) carried by a friend.
Other comparisons I could make are based on memory and / or different setups so I’ll not go into them too seriously.
To make things clear, the HE 1 overall performance surpasses – to my ears – the overall performance of any other headphone system I have experienced so far, namely when “performance” is translated as “pleasure of listening”, which is – for me – the whole point of this hobby. In turn, “pleasure of listening” for me is a combination of sensorial, emotional, and intellectual aspects where the emotional takes the lion’s share.
That said, there are specific areas where other headphones can be considered objectively better than the HE 1.
For example, the TC bass is superior in terms of extension to subsonic levels, and crispness / articulation, not to mention pure slam. Also, the cavernous, expansive staging the Abyss can deliver is more compelling with some recordings, especially those taken in very large venues or very reverberant ones (e.g. churches), although it may make the performance sound a bit too distant in other situations.
As anticipated, superior detail investigation or musical objects separation can be achieved with the Aperio or RAAL ribbon headphones, or even an SR009/S.
The Valkyria provides more punch, energy density and transcendental dynamics, making percussions sound way more incarnated.
Also, the Spirit Torino provides a meatier, darker tonality that, while being less linear than the HE 1, I like immensely as it makes piano and some stringed instruments (cello, double bass) more engaging to my ears.
Conclusion
Having the HE 1 on my rack for two weeks has been one of the most rewarding audiophile experiences I have had. I spent the first week mainly to get acquainted with its sound and doing comparisons or revisiting my reference tracks. However, in the second week I unwound and went more in a pure hedonistic, relaxed abandon to the music and that was pure joy.
The obvious caveat in acquiring a unit like the HE 1, economics aside, is about committing to a closed system, and I am still debating about this myself.
With that said, the HE 1 revealed itself as an almost infallible pleasure generating machine, and I tend to believe that it would produce a pretty satisfying monogamy even in the long term
As always, you provide really amazing and detailed write-ups. And the gorgeous pics are always a bonus.
Of the many conversations I've had with people about the HE-1, it seems the improved bass over the HE90 and other stats seems to stick out really consistently. Really interesting to continue to see and am looking forward to hearing it one day. Much else of what you mention strikes me as pretty similar to the HE90 (although I would assume possibly improved upon as well), particularly the tonality and its balance between technical capability and euphony. I mention this because I think it's extremely rare in the market today, and if that was truly seemed like a potentially long-lasting wow factor for you, you should consider acquiring it if you have the funds. That said, having heard the TC and the Valkyria (which I actually and trying to figure out how I can acquire lol) are both really unique in it of themselves, although a bit less complete than the Sennheiser stat flagships (inferred guess as far as the HE-1 on my end, but would absolutely say so of the HE90). This is always a bit of a conundrum in this hobby. There never seems to be just one headphone that absolutely eliminates the enjoyment/need for one or two others. Although with the impressions of the bass (given the typical limitations of stat bass, kind of becomes a bigger deal), in addition to the other factors, it seems like the HE-1 could be really, really close to that.
Again, really great read. Thanks for sharing.
onlychild
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 24, 2008
- Posts
- 811
- Likes
- 263
I've done this when the Sennheiser tubes were over a year wait during covid. Found 6 matched pair of Mullard (or maybe a different brand) that I listened to for a good 6 months. The system definitely did not sound the same. I actually heard distortion that I never heard from the stock tubes. The stock tubes sound so much cleaner. Almost like comparing a dirty tube amp vs a clean solid state (but with the tube magic/goodness).
The stock tubes are the only way to go with this system.
Also, great review by simoarg. What a fun read!
FritzS
1000+ Head-Fier
Sennheiser don't make tubes, from which manufacturer get Sennheiser them?
I think they get a lot more of them and select them.
I think they get a lot more of them and select them.
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Seriously thinking of parting with my system/headphones to move to the HE-1 exclusively, though I am worried about longevity/repair…any experience on that front from current users?
eskamobob1
Headphoneus Supremus
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2011
- Posts
- 1,587
- Likes
- 2,219
Sennheiser has easily the worst cs I've ever experienced. Took 4 months to even get a return email after my he1 broke
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