Comments on Profile Post by Woland

Could be due to the rest of the chain?

No worries, we all hear things differently.

v1 and v2 appear to have slightly different drivers and the price gulf has become huge ($1800 to $400) so expectations are different. I prefer HE500 only because it sounds smoother (non-fatiguing). I had to padroll HE6se to make it resemble smooth and non-fatiguing. I think it can be improved still… Loaned out so havent messed with in awhile.

Divergent takes are productive. Sometimes the group has it wrong.

I feel like I'm setting myself up for major pushback. For example, while I find the HE6se's are insensitive (you need to turn the volume way up vs any other headphone) and respond well to amp upgrades, I am not finding they reward more powerful (higher current) amplifiers. Post after post in threads on Head-Fi, Headphones.com and here tell me they do. But that's not what I hear.

@Woland I wouldn't take other's impressions too seriously. I didn't perceive a difference going from Vali2+ to Jot2 ... I dont have great ears and didnt attempt to reliably test so I would not claim there is or isn't a difference. I only uprated amps because of others' opinions about HE6se and T50RP so wanted to be safe.

@Woland which amps are we talking about?

That ten thousand people on Head-fi all agree is a sign of groupthink. "I don't hear a difference" is an acceptable answer. If anyone gets mad, your response is "sorry, I don't hear a difference."

Agree with @roshambo123 . People can fool themselves easily. Shills and fanboys run amok as well. Thorough attempts to try and confirm perceptions (such as dbx) is very rare because its tedious and difficult which is the opposite goal of a hobby generally speaking... So to keep things fun I dont usually mess with stuff unless its easy to hear an obvious difference and improvement because Im lazy.

Also, if you're not familiar with with the self-reinforcing stupidity of crowds, google the Asch conformity study.

@roshambo123 Googled summary conclusions from Asch conformity study. "Apparently, people conform for two main reasons: because they want to fit in with the group (normative influence) and because they believe the group is better informed than they are (informational influence)." https://simplypsychology.org/asch-conformity.html

Believing the group is better informed can also be spelled "pluralistic ignorance." Meaning, you might have 100 ppl swearing new tube amp is better than all tube amps, until you get one person that says "Um, maybe not?" And then people who had misgivings suddenly feel verified and turns out only 30% or something were really independently confident of their opinion. Grand scale example: Covid mandates