Full-sized headphones: Hifiman HE1000SE, Susvara, Arya, Audeze LCD-4, Kennerton Wodan, Magni, Gjallarhorn, Vali, M12S, Erzetich Phobos, Mania, Fostex TH909, Quad ERA-1, Ollo S4X Reference With this design, Hifiman claims reflections are minimized in such a way that you should in theory get a much cleaner, true-to-life sound free of the usual problems associated with planar magnet designs. The Window Shade Design If I needed a better amp I better get one otherwise I would have this nagging feeling I may not have done any justice on a running commentary of the HE1000’s performance. All in all, with Audivina I need to force my mind to find music immersive and musical while the HE1000 Stealth embrace me in right away and make me close to my fav singer, pianist or saxophonist. It's more colored and less neutral and technical than Audivina but unless you want to monitor your music, I don't think anybody will say Audivina is superior in tonality cohesion and musicality presentation. I had been using the HD800S for a few years and had to part with it and wanted a definite upgrade. (I gave it to someone, I did not get rid of it because I did not like it or anything, even with all the flaws it had, I loved it.) My review will mostly be a comparison against it.

As expected with a low sensitivity of 93DB, the HE1K will scale up with amping power greatly. Yet, 1W@32ohm is a good begining and my pairing with Xduoo XD05plus was very pleasant, sure it wasn't as open and multi layered as with Hifiman EF600 that deliver crazy 5.2W@32ohm at high gain, but bass didn't distort or struggle to extend and macroi dynamic was lively. As well, it was interesting to use bass boost with these and transform them in near end game basshead planar, again, without distortion. The new HE1000SE [Special Edition] is the third version of HiFiMan’s distinguished HE1000, featuring increased sensitivity for superior performance when paired with every imaginable source, from audiophile-grade source components to high-resolution digital audio players -- even tablets and smartphones. Take a look at their RAW measurement without any smoothing applied. I’m quite impressed by the driver matching, there is just a small deviation between 7.5 and 8.5 kHz of less than 2 dB and it is almost unbelievable how close both drivers are matched anywhere else. As for FR, just take a look at that beautiful clean straight line from 20 Hz to around 1 kHz. As you can see, HE1000SE is very impressive in terms of bass and midrange, it’s as good as it can get. WIDE AND TALL i what i will use here, it has excellent depth and definition here. It is precise so you are able to pin point where everything is coming from. The soundstage is also one of the best i heard, it is just really amazing- world class right thereI've tested a couple of TOTL headphone including Sennheiser HD820, Grado GS1000e, Arya Organic and Audivina, but never I've been as much impress by the musicality they deliver than with this HE1000 Stealth.

They have a lower impedance of 35 Ohms and a higher sensitivity of 96 dB per 1mW of power and I am really curious how they would perform with desktop and portable gear alike, so what are we waiting for? Let’s hit some eardrums! Even the small, portable class PM-3 from Oppo, the lightest yet, is still a hefty 320g which is much heavier than the Sennheiser HD600 and HD650 by almost 100g and they are classed as full-size dynamic cans. Switching to the German Niimbus US4+ solid state amplifier from the Violectric/LakePeople group, the Stealth sounds close to when connected to the Envy.When it comes to imaging and soundstage, LCD-4 always impressed me with their depth, with pin point location of the notes (imaging) and less so with a left to right soundstage size. HE1000SE on the other hand, is always big sounding, it is taller sounding, it is wider sounding and it is exactly as deep and pin point accurate, easily winning another round.

You want light, that video pretty much captures how light the diaphragm actually is (regardless of what you think of Queen). Not only light and low in mass but apparently tight, really durable, and designed to produce a very high quality fast-sounding dynamic response compared to regular planar diaphragms. A New Magnet design But Hifiman is a touch everything, and my personal story begin with their DAP in fact, the HM601 to be precise. It was a warm, bassy and very powerful sounding DAP with an construction that will make us laugh today. While DAP was an important part of their offering and R&D in the past, it seem nowadays they give greater focus to Headphones and DAC-AMP making. As well as some IEM like the very pleasant Svanar and even TWS IEMs like Svanar Wireless that push sound bundaries further with their implementation of R2R DAC-AMP in TWS shell. To my surprise, entry level DAC/Amps could drive them decently, even thumb like gizmos like Shanling UP2 and Audioquest Dragonfly had enough headroom with my punchy electronica. Audiobyte HydraVox also worked extremely well and honestly this is how I’ve tested them for 90% of the time. Its warmer tonality and its super liquid and easy-going nature worked as Ying to the HE1000SE’s Yang, complementing each other’s faults, while making sweet love with my ears.The Chord Mojo 2 is another very popular DAC/AMP and rightfully so. From this unit the Stealth has more overall presence with a bigger bass delivery. Bass also is better controlled than on the Angel. The ;ids are spacious, clean and airy, but where it differs most to the EarMen is in the vocals. The softness here is not present and you can tighter, livelier vocals. In this section we will be painting the HE1000 Stealth with a series of tube and solid state desktop amplifiers. Unless specifically mentioned, we’re using balanced setup with the Aquarius as DAC.