A Little More on the HE-5 vs HD800

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I have been doing more listening on the Hifiman HE-5, partly because I’m doing a review on the Audio Technica W1000X and I want to see how it compares with the HE-5 orthodynamic. During this time, I’ve felt that my HD800 vs HE-5 comparison focuses too much on the technical superiority of the HD800. Although I did mention that the technical superiority of the HD800 may be a double edged sword when fed a bad recording and from a bad source. I feel that there are more things to say about the HE-5 versus HD800 discussion.

Even listening to one album, it’s very obvious, through the HD800, that the quality of the recording and mixing varies a lot between the tracks. The HD800 is very revealing what’s being fed into it. On the other side of the equation, perhaps being “less true” to the source, I find the HE-5 to be more consistent in its presentation than the HD800. Thus, recording quality becomes less of an issue with the HE-5. (from the HD800 vs HE5 comparison)

When I first listened to the HE-5 out of the box, it sounded very harsh and bright, but most of those piercing aspects of the sound has been gone within the first 50 hours, and the HE-5 takes a more neutral stance. And though moving from the HD800 to the HE-5 makes the HE-5 sounds significantly more two dimensional and less resolving, the HE5 is still very engaging to listen to. Recently, I find myself craving more for the HE-5 than the HD800. This is a very excellent case of when technical superiority may not be what we always want in Hi-Fi.

Whenever I listen to the HE-5, the sound is significantly flatter than the HD800. I am not talking about flat as in the frequency response, but flat as in the soundstage and the layering of the instruments. The three dimensionality factor. With the HE-5, most of the music sounds like they lie on a flat wall, where the HD800 has instruments nicely layered with a good distance between each of them. Everytime I move to the HD800 from the HE5, I can immediately feel a more three dimensional music. The same impression remains whether I use the MacPro > Grace m902 system, or the CEC TL51XZ > Balanced Beta22 system. What I cannot explain is how the HE-5 still sounds very addictive despite its significantly less three dimensional rendering.

With the HE-5, the music are all presented in the same, moderately forward manner. With the HD800, you can have instruments that lay way in the back, and you can have the singer very forward in front of you. While this is an advantage with the HD800, in that it is more resolving of the source, often the singer gets too forward and too in your face, and it becomes an annoyance. Yes, the fault is probably in the mixing, since they probably intended it to give a more intimate and a more live experience when played using loudspeakers, where the transducers don’t sit so close to your ears. This is one of the many case where the flatter and less resolving HE-5 gives you enough intimacy without being too close to you.

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