With many sets I find the Vivids to be a little too much and that they can sometimes even add a bit of a fatiguing edge, but when they suit a set well like they did with my HE1KSEs it can be pretty perfect.
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I actually use my euforia for basically everything but hard to drive planars so if I need to take the edge off that definitely does it lol.
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So how are they treating your so far? What are your impressions? I also have the Edition XS, what are the differences?
Iâm enjoying them a lot. Bass is more punchy to me than the XS, way more resolving and have a much smoother top end. Please take this with a grain of salt as I havenât listened to the XS for a couple of months.
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HE1000 Stealth Magnet
Like :
Bass - Good Rumble, Very Deep Bass, Omnipresent Bass, Adequate Punch. Great Bass Texture.
Mids - Best Vocals Male/Female, full bodied and weight. Natural Timbre and Super Clean.
Mids Never too forward or too laid-back.
Treble - Sparkly, Very Airy, Extremely and Superb Fine Details. Cymbals and High Hats are well extended. Never Sibilant. Crystal Clear.
Soundstage - This is the widest, Hifiman. Great Depth and Height. Absolutely Stunning Presentation.
Imaging - Pin Point. Holographic. Easy Discernment.
May Not Like : May sound Bright for younger ears. Not for Bass Heads or Audeze Bass Lovers.
Overall : Extremely pleased with this headphone. Just another level from Arya or anything below, easier to drive and pair. By far the best headphones i have tested and own.
Pairing Gear: Naim Uniti Atom Headphone Edition
Best Test Track :
-Hallelujah by Michael McDonald (Soul Speak)
-Orion by Metallica (Through The Never)
-Semalam by Sean Ghazi
-Nothing is Everything by Richard Cheese (Big Cheese Energy)
-Bokuga Shinouto Omottanowa by Mika Nakashima (Message-Piano-Voice)
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Which of your pads do you like the best so far?
Currently using my stock pads. The most recent custom pads is not pairing as good as my Arya V2. So will make a new one for it again.
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As you may know, I finally pulled the trigger on a (for me) next level headphone, and it turned out to be the HE1000 V2 Stealth. Well⊠They are here.
They are here! A day early, too. It just so happened I was at home working when the doorbell rang. We were expecting bird food! When the postman approached with the box, I just knew it was the HEKs. Dude was probably wondering why I was smiling so big!
The unboxing was pretty uneventful. The packaging is pretty simplistic. Sort of a screw top wine opening experience as opposed to the pomp and circumstance of the cork. But all that is forgotten when they come out of the box. These are extremely good-looking headphones in my opinion. The wood accents are beautiful, and the build is excellent. They have a quality feel when you hold them. Where the XS feels like itâs going to come apart when you hold it, the moving parts on the HE1000 V2 Stealth do so in a precise and perfect manner, there are no wobbles, squeaks or rattles as you manipulate them. Itâs a beautiful and solid piece. Then you put them on.
Along with next-level looks, you get next-level comfort as well. My ears easily go into the cups and do not touch anything once in there. They are very light and feel wonderful on the head. Clamp force to me is just right.
The stock cables are actually not bad. They are the black cables with the rubberized jacket. I really like the fact that they gave me a balanced cable along with the 1/4" single ended cable. I might even try it one day. But not today! I grabbed a Tripowin cable and fired up the Liquid PlatinumâŠ
I am not one that is ever at a loss for words. But when I played the first track, âMaster James of St. Georgeâ by Big Big Train, I couldnât believe it. My gut reaction was almost emotional. This truly is next-level sound. The way you can hear drums and percussion is incredible. The intro to Big Big Trainâs âKingmakerâ is a triumph by Nick DâVirgilio on the drums, and you can hear every nuance. Once again, I am hearing things in songs that I had not heard before. This is HUGE for me, given the state of my hearing. As for the overall sound signature, I think this overview by @NtraXMod is spot on:
" Like :
Bass - Good Rumble, Very Deep Bass, Omnipresent Bass, Adequate Punch. Great Bass Texture.
Mids - Best Vocals Male/Female, full bodied and weight. Natural Timbre and Super Clean. The
mids are never too forward or too laid-back.
Treble - Sparkly, Very Airy, Extremely and Superb Fine Details. Cymbals and High Hats are well extended. Never Sibilant. Crystal Clear.
Soundstage - This is the widest Hifiman. Great Depth and Height. Absolutely Stunning Presentation.
Imaging - Pin Point. Holographic. Easy Discernment.
May Not Like : May sound Bright for younger ears. Not for Bass Heads or Audeze Bass Lovers.
Overall : Extremely pleased with this headphone. Just another level from Arya or anything below, easier to drive and pair. By far the best headphones i have tested and own."
I get it now. I was always skeptical about these higher end headphones. Not anymore. I donât know how they get so much more resolution and fidelity than the XS, I donât. And the XS is a really, really good set of cans sound-wise. But they have. All things added up, what you have here is simply a superior listening experience. Iâm very happy to be able to own these.
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Wow. Congratulations to you. Great stuff! Even better at the price range now.
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Congrats, but please try the HiFiman cable balanced out of your LP. The LP, balanced out is amazing. 1/4" is good, but the balanced is better.
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Get about 50hrs on them and that brightness just kinda goes away. Glad the clamp is good for you, it gave me a headache so thatâs why I suggest dekoni pads.
Glad youâre loving them man!!!
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Yessir, you are correct. Balanced is the only way I roll with the LP! To date I havenât even tried the SE output on that amp.
I am excited to hear how these will settle in over time. But geez, if they are this good out of the boxâŠ
And I will definitely look into the Dekoni pads. The stock pads are working well so far, but I do enjoy Dekoni products and will probably pick up a pair in the near future.
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Welcome to the club, love my HEK v2 OG.
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Thank you, Joe, It is great to be here. I never thought it would happen.
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Itâs been 32 hours since these cans arrived. They have been on my head 12 of those 31 hours, so I feel like I have a good general impression of them now. I want to be careful and not fall into the trap of confirmation bias or âHoly shit I spent this much money, they better be goodâ bias, or any other for that matter. And so, the HEK experience begins.
Straightaway, these cans are off the hook amazing. And itâs not all about the sound, either. Headphones are a physical interface to your music, so how you interact with them (and they you) is a big part of the overall experience in my opinion. Using and interacting with these cans is a joy. They have such a wonderful look to them; I appreciate the design. Unlike the XS, the build on these cans is excellent. They have a premium and solid feel to them, and they make no noise when I manipulate them. So picking them up and having them in your hands feels really nice. To me these feel very light, and when I put them on, they wrap around my head nicely, making them extremely comfortable. Overall, the user experience in this regard is excellent. In fact, here is a shot of them in action!
Of course, I had to get a few things sorted, such as signal path and which cable to use. Critical considerations for me to be sure, but going through the process was enjoyable, and you get to build your knowledgebase. I have decided on the DDC - S/PDIF path to the Frost over the Unison USB. I know that may be contrary to popular logic as it pertains to this DAC, but to my ear Iâm enjoying the S/PDIF input more. And after a lot of back and forth, I chose the periapt cable. Happily, the stock cable wasnât bad at all. In fact, I put it on the XS. The Tripowin was really great and a slightly warmer cable than the Periapt, which surprised me a little. I thought it would go the other way. But the Periapt got the nod by a nose, so the Tripowin went over to the Radiance, which is a striking look for that already sexy set!
Which leads us to the sound portion. Itâs still very early days, man, so Iâm still learning about them. But oh my God. Itâs absolutely mind-blowing how fast and detailed these things are. The stage is huge and very holographic. Imaging is razor-sharp. Itâs like nothing I have experienced before. As an example, When I hear a xylophone, I can hear the hit of the percussion stick AND the note it produces! Vocals, guitars and acoustic work in general is sublime on these. You can get a sense of the soundbox on a piano and hear the hammer as it strikes the string. Cymbal work from a master drummer is enthralling. I can hear every little roll and fill. I was a little concerned about the extra energy up top, but itâs not an issue at all for me. In fact, I embrace it. Turns out if there is a recording that is a little too spicy up top, I can take that edge right out with just a small EQ adjustment. Amazingly, these donât need much adjustment at all, even for my compromised ears. Itâs absolutely incredible. Bass is wonderful. They wonât appease the Bass Gods, but there is a good amount of beautiful, impactful and well controlled bass that does punch well and can even rumble.
So these are the things I have learned so far. The overall music experience has elevated to a new level. The world melts away when you have them on. Much more to come, I am sure, and I am looking forward to it. What a headphone!
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Thatâs a Hek of a post!
Iâm glad youâre enjoying them. $1400 for that set is bonkers. HiFiMan just outright flexed on the whole open-back market this summer by slashing Arya se to $999, the Hekv2(se) to $1400 and Hekse to $2000. Iâve not heard anyone else on the market offer total packages that can come close to those at those prices.*
Iâm not surprised you didnât go for the warmer cable on that headphone. Itâs already warm and sometimes you can get too much of a good thing. There are some cables out there that will help with that treble presence without the need to monkey with EQ as well.
I will make sure NOT to say that the Hekv2 series scales up really well with source gear. Which means I wonât mention that as good as they sound on your current setup you can squeeze WAY more out of them as you up your chain game. Planting that seed in your head would be really rude to your wallet so I wonât do that. So this is me, definitely NOT saying that the Hekv2 is a great centerpiece to use as you climb the latter on source gear.
Happy listening, my friend.
*the obligatory disclaimer that no one is required to like HiFiManâs products as much as I do. However, after listening to LOTS of stuff out there this is my honest take: HiFiManâs open-backs lead the market right now in all-around performance at several different price points. Youâll find invidual models that do individual things better (some ZMFs have better mid timbre, Audeze, Focal, and Fostex all slam harder, etc.), but when you consider EVERYTHING, tuning, tonality, timbre, resolution, staging, imaging/separation, physical comfort, HiFiMan open backs set the standard right now. Until further notice, the battle is really for second place.
If youâre worried about me being a HiFiMan shill, watch this.
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You wonât?!? What kind of friend are you? Youâre supposed to help everyone see whatâs possible! 
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LOL!! That was actually in the plan. I figured these will scale well. Looking down range my perceived next move will be the amp. It will be a while before I can do that, but I am no hurry, as I am pretty happy with my current amps, and Iâm sure I will have the internal âAmp or DAC nextâ argument a thousand times between now and then! It does give me something to look forward to, though.
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I feel bad for even mentioning this⊠but, if you dig the way they sound now hang on man, just wait until youâve put 150-200 hours or so behind you - they get nothing but better with some time, itâs not in incrementally dramatic bumps but more an over-all added richness to tone, smoothing and opening up of the top end to be a little more airy and less reactive to that hifiman treble peak.
Very much on board with this - the HEKv2 is one of, if not the most comfortable headphones Iâve had.
Epiphany
a sudden, intuitive perception of or insight into the reality or essential meaning of something
It happens to the best of usâŠ
Glad you are digging the HEKv2 - I do have a strong personal bias to that headphone FWIW - But, it really is a very special piece and potential end-game for many.