Hifiman HE-5 vs Sennheiser HD800

I’ve been going back and forth on the HE-5 and the HD800. This time I am listening purely on the CEC TL51xz and the Balanced Beta22. Both the HE-5 and the HD800 is in balanced configuration. I did not want to wait to source out for another cable, and so I made a balanced cable for the HE-5, using a Canare L-2T2S cable, terminated with two 3-pin Neutrik XLRs. The HD800, on the other hand, is equipped with fancy APureSound cable with the nice super nylon covering and the same two 3-pin Neutriks. A little unfair? Yes, but the world is also not perfect.

Initially, the fitment on the HE-5 is really bad, as I wrote on the first impression article. But I’ve found that pressing the cups to your head forms the pads to follow your head contour better. After doing it a few times, the pads sort of remembers the contour and stays in that form. And now, the fitment on the HE-5 is just nice, and the pads, maybe broken in, doesn’t feel as itchy as it did brand new. Though it still couldn’t compete with the glove-like fit of the HD800 with its microfiber pads, at least now I can feel comfortable wearing the HE-5 for longer periods of time.

The HE-5 needs a lot of current to drive, and while for most headphones, a higher impedance cans is harder to drive than a lower impedance one, this is not the case with the HE-5. Both the HE-5 and the HD800 requires roughly similar turns on the Beta22’s volume knob, with the HE-5 needing perhaps 1 or 2 clicks more on the DACT Attenuator. However, where portable amplifiers like the LISA 3 can drive the HD800 just fine, I find it to distort with the HE-5. The Hifiman EF-5 amplifier is reputedly to be a good match for the HE-5, giving a good performance out of a fairly low-budget amplifier.

I have been burning the HE-5 everyday with pure music. Most of the improvements are done within the first 50 hours, or roughly the first two days. Whatever shrillness in the treble that I noticed earlier is gone by now. Further improvement on the HE-5 is achieved by driving it balanced. Comparing between single ended HE-5 and balanced in the Beta22, the balanced drive improves the soundstage as well as the bottom end in the HE-5. The HD800 actually also gets the same improvement from single ended to balanced — on the soundstage and the bottom end.

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