That’s a decent deal, I liked my HD800S. Some of the comfiest I owned.
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Yes I just bought a pair for exactly that reason, well that and I hadn’t actually heard the S version.
plugged into my computer via DAC/Amp, so I can use them when I’m not streaming music.
Was discussing them with @M0N last night, pretty much exactly what I expected, technically better than the price point, but there are compromises to get there. If I were just buying a pair of headphones @ $1000 to listen to music, I personally would still prefer to have the OG Clears, but I could see other people preferring the HD800s.
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Comfort and the fact they are so slim to a point where you can actually wear them on a zoom call and not have everyone think you’re an alien are major pluses lol
If I was open to larger headphones collections here and not trying to keep it to a minimum they would definitely be part of mine. They also respond surprisingly well to EQ so you can squeeze a little more out of them if you’d like but I used them mainly without EQ and for classical music.
I hated the Clears personally, mostly because of comfort. In the $1K price category it’s Hifiman Arya for me. Now that you can get a HEKv2 for $1500 though makes that entire category kind of problematic tbh
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Yes they certainly aren’t as comfortable as some, but I wear MySphere’s and Utopias for hours a day, so what I’ll tolerate in terms of comfort is probably skewed.
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Unless I trim down at some point, I am definitely going down the collection route and with my amps, it just makes sense to have the HD800S and Utopia from synergy point of view so figured might as well complete the pair. If nothing than to just experience that infamous stage that everyone talks about.
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For me personally it’s not more than 3 headphones.
If more than one amp it’s probably one solid state one tube.
For DACs it’s ideally one but I can see how it becomes two (biggest blocker currently is money lol).
Source is one digital one turntable.
I want to say that saves me money but that’s a lie. More money to each component instead of spreading out so still adds up unfortunately lol
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One of the best decisions I ever made was going to a single system in my Office, and getting rid of the plethora of DAC’s and Amp’s that used to be in here.
It let me focus on a single system and invest all those $1000 here and $1000 there items in to something more focused, and it removed which combination do I want to use today, which meant I listened to more music.
I have one system in my Office, one in my Living Room, and a way to many headphones, of which I really only use probably 4 sets on a regular basis, and I’ll be thinning that herd this year.
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Looking normal is the primary reason I’ve given Dianas so many chances tbh. Seriously wished more cans just looked somewhat normal…
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Will be curious what you think lol. What is the source for the he90 (looks like the wavelight but just curious)? And is the he1 using it’s built in dac then
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Trying wavelight first with he90, will try internal DAC later.
And for he1 yes they used the internal DAC.
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Extremely jealous. Ill live vicariously through your impressions for now.
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Video of He1 tube replacement. Anyone recognize the monitors in the background?
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Rofl. I thought they were kef but just kinda assumed I was wrong
I had the amazing opportunity to listen to HE-1 at my house for about an hour, with my source and music and with no pressure of a show… quite an experience!
As for some impressions:
- Tuning is surprisingly consumerish, was warmer than I expected
- Internal DAC is not great, improved significantly with the Wavedream
- Single ended and balanced sounded similar when tested with the same cables, afterwards Danacable was much nicer than Prion4S
- Bass is very fun with plenty detail all over the FR
- Stage isn’t huge but accurate
- Separation wasn’t great or competitive with its competitors (thinking Shang Sr on good energizers)
- HE-1 worked better with modern music or smaller classical ensembles / more intimate jazz
I don’t believe it’s worth the money and probably not even its used pricing considering I would definitely have a DAC feeding it and then we’re comparing full systems. For its cost I see little reason to own it compared to what you can get with other options like Shang Sr, Susvara and X9000 to name a few if we’re thinking about one chain alone, but for the cost I would probably prefer owning a few options anyway and that’s easily achievable at this price.
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Nice, that is the best experience I have seen so far since it’s with your own audio chain. Interesting that the HE-1 works with modern music. I was going to listen to it in the audio show with a Jazz trio and classical orchestra. When you say modern music, is it a specific genre or just this era of music?
Edit In: Also if it’s not too much to ask, can I see the back of the HE-1 DAC/Amp? I want to try to figure out to plug my Cayin N7 DAP into it. There is an audio show that will be having the HE-1 demo next weekend and it said that plugging in my own source still counts on time, so I want to make sure I bring the right gear. If it’s great on modern music, I have one specific soundtrack I do listen to it at the audio show since it have been stuck in my head for over a month, but it’s not in Tidal, so I will have to use my own source to listen to it.
It means I enjoyed it more with stuff like The Weeknd, Stevie ray Vaughan, Lorde, Beck, Eagles over classical and big band jazz. So I guess not necessarily modern but more popular stuff over what you’d think hifi systems are best at. Not to say it wasn’t good with those, it definitely was but most noticable was with large orchestra that the separation wasn’t as good as it could be.
Unfortunately I don’t have it with me anymore, your message from yesterday reminded me I never posted my impressions from a few weeks ago so I copied them from a private message I shared them at.
You can see the back here:
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Thanks for the impression. Definitely got my brain running at full speed again. I think I will change up my song list for my demo session. May switch up my song list and take out Beethoven and maybe add some songs with Pipe Organ or some Mozart.
I don’t what to expect anymore lol, I think I will just listen to the vendor’s advice and just listen to my favorite song and call it a day.
Still really cool that you were able to get the HE-1 at your house. I know you said it wasn’t worth the asking price, but was the experience at least unique and otherworldly?
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Absolutely unique situation and I’m super happy I had the chance to do it. It was definitely on the bucket list. It’s a truly special piece of gear and has a lot going for it. For instance it was the easiest it’s ever been for me to notice changes in Interconnects. It really sounds amazing with electronic music and the bass is just wow.
Will I now think constantly of that single hour and dream of owning one in the future? Nope.
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