HiFiMan HE-1000

My complaint about the HEK is that voices are too much in the background and the instruments to forward. I had to up the volume to hear the voices clearly but then the rest of the instruments were too loud.

 

That was with everything I have tried Stratus,Project Ember,Moon 600i driven by Yggdrasil. I do prefer the LCD-3 over them just because of how the mids are presented. Might be I just have weird tastes in headphones but that was my complaint. Technically they are brilliant but just not my cup of tea.

 

HE1000SE at home on audition. Impressive, if curious HP. Soft on the whole, though will slam on some tracks. Softness leads to a slightly blunted/blurred feeling. But it is detailed. Sometimes, seemingly, more detailed than the Utopia. Or it digs out other details. Anyway, on certain tracks, I've heard things no other headphone has dug out.

This could be down to a pretty good stage width (not quite as wide as HD800 but still quite good) and some excellent layering.

Its lack of slam or characteristic politeness means there's rarely bass bloat or bleed, so you can follow bass lines while still tracking fine detail in the treble. It's not a pinpoint imaging sort of experience, however. HD800 and Utopia do placement better.

It's a touch bright, as many have reported, but not as peaky as the HD800. I don't have measurements, but I hear some midrange suckout or overall U shape. To my ears, anyway. The overall tonality is a weakness, as it maybe sounds a little unnatural or hollow. I don't mind this terribly much, but it's not the most organic tuning. I don't find it fatiguing so far, but it is a touch glassy.

Don't know if the softness is being emphasized by my chain. iFi Neo Stream internal DAC into a Phonitor SE. I think the Neo Stream internal DAC is pretty soft itself, but I don't have another DAC here to compare.

Build quality is fine but not lux. Comfort is excellent.

It's, weirdly, a track by track headphone. Some albums are strikingly well rendered. Some kinda lie flat. The Utopia seems to suit everything. The HE1000SE feels a bit variable somehow or another.

I'd be curious to compare to the HE1000v2: supposedly better tonality and stage width but slightly poorer detail retrieval. I know, from a brief audition, that the Susvara is better all around. But I don't know if I want to cough up the extra dough and get a separate, dedicated amp for it. It's slightly unappealing to know that the amps I have already won't work well with the Sus. Whereas the HE1000SE would seem to be okay on the DNA, EC, and BHA-1 (when I eventually get them out of storage).

I'd really like to hear the Caldera, but it's pricey on import here in the UK, and there seems to be nowhere to trial it. Need to go audition the LCD-5 again. A brief listen told me I didn't like love the comfort, which can tend to be a dealbreaker with me. Still, I want to get ears on again.