Bill-P's HE-5 (Modded)

Discussion in 'Headphone Measurements' started by ultrabike, Nov 18, 2016.

  1. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    @Bill-P sent these, and arrived today. Thanks man!

    These are modded HE-5s. Perhaps hard to find this days. Out of HiFiMan's offerings, these are the ones I like the most in appearance. Random picture from somewheres in the webz:

    [​IMG]

    The pads are not stock though. They seem pleather fat pads. These are not as heavy as some other playnars I've seen and heard.

    Sonics, I'd say they are a bit splashy, with great mids, and awesome bass. These are not bassy cans at all though. I'm guessing the tuning is neutral. I personally like a little more of a tilted response. There is no sibilant issues, the sizzle IMO happens higher in frequency. Perhaps 10 kHz. But these do work well with a lot of the material I like.

    There might be a little distortion towards the upper mids and lower treble. It is good to hear a headphone that is not wonky, or as wonky as the average can.

    Anywho... Measurements. Cuz you know you want to see them.

    Frequency Response

    HE5_Bill_fr.png

    Distortion Right

    HE5_Bill_dist_right.png

    Distortion Left

    HE5_Bill_dist_left.png

    CSD Right

    HE5_Bill_csd_right.png

    CSD Left

    HE5_Bill_csd_left.png

    Impulse Response Right


    HE5_Bill_ir_right.png

    Impulse Response Left

    HE5_Bill_ir_left.png
     
  2. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    Is this a Code-X or modded by Bill?

    It's odd that there appears to be a movement in the hump of distortion energy from left to right. Driver response appears to be very well matched, so could it be that maybe the unmodded pair were slightly different and the mods applied to each side were just a smidge different to match things up?
     
  3. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Possible. Only @Bill-P would know... These AFAIK are HE-5s tamed by @Bill-P's super powars.

    Here is a measurement comparo with the Codex though:

    VS_Codex.png

    These do share some things in common with the Codex IMO and going by memory.
     
  4. Armaegis

    Armaegis Friend

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    What's happening with that thicker squiggly 400-800Hz region on the Code-X? Almost looks like a buzzing.
     
  5. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    That's proly due to background noise. I measured the Codex at a Sandy Ego meet.
     
  6. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Thanks, Ultra! You're da best!! :punk:

    Left side is a bit less bright and a bit more tamed than right side IMO (so that 8KHz razor CSD thingie may actually be audible). But other than that, my modding skills are not that good at reducing distortions yet. I gotta learn from Luis and Alex.

    Haha, I have leveled up quite a bit, but nowhere nearly enough.

    On that note, can you please do an FR overlay between this one and the measurement made at the last awesomesauce can'tjam meet? I used different pads back then, so it would be cool to know the differences. :)

    And it's interesting to see that Code-X seems brighter from FR. I kept thinking Code-X sounded a bit warmer from my memories. Did you use the same/any compensations for both graphs?
     
  7. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Could be that I used a leaky baffle with the Code-X. It's been a while. There are some similarities IMO.

    Here are the comparo with the measurements from Can'tJam:

    Can'tJam = Yellow
    Now: Red

    VS_LACantJam.png

    |{
     
  8. brencho

    brencho Friend

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    nicely done @Bill-P! does that 4-5 khz dip compare to the dip seen on the elear that folks love to comment on? just curious if dips here lead to the same sort of phenomenon regardless of headphone.
     
  9. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Oh man, sorry for the late response on this. I've been quite hammered the past few weeks.

    Anyway, the 4-5KHz dip on this headphone is a peak in disguise IMO. "Reducing" the dip actually has the same effect as reducing a peak there. To me, this version is a bit less peaky than the one at Can'tJam already.

    Overall, the HE-5 at stock is still a bright-ish headphone. It also doesn't help that the stock cable is silver (pure silver, me thinks, not silver-plated). Regardless of what they say about cables not having much of an audible effect, I feel like cables do affect the sound of this headphone in some ways.

    I think doing it the way Luis does it (notice how the dip at 4-5KHz is gone and that there's a bit more between 500-1KHz) is actually the correct way to do it. And honestly, I think Code-X is the ultimate version of the HE-5.

    I only asked for a comparison to see how far I've gotten in "studying" the headphone is all. This one still serves more as a backup for when I get my own Code-X. :)

    But anyway, back to the original question: yeah, I think the 4-5KHz "dip" is actually also a peak in disguise on the Elear. Maybe we can do something about it with a pad swap, which was what I did to the HE-5, and also why I suggested to Hands that he should try some other pads. I may look into this more closely next time.
     
  10. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    @Bill-P what pads did you use on these?
     
  11. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Dekoni Fostex TH-X00 lambskin pads. I missed out on the last drop that just happened like a week or so ago because I was too busy to go online to commit to the Drop.

    Will definitely join the next one.
     
  12. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Cool. I tried the pads that come with the TH-X00 on the HE-6 and they definitely tamed the treble and bass making them more mid centric. Dekoni pads might be better. Do they have the hard backing like the stock pads?
     
  13. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Oh nope. They are soft leather, very very comfy. Honestly, I've almost completely switched to using Dekoni pads exclusively on all of my headphones due to how comfy they are.
     
  14. cskippy

    cskippy Creamy warmpoo

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    Sweet! I'll have to pick up a pair. I was trying to find some J$ pads but those are really hard to find. These look like they might be even better, plus their angled.
     
  15. philipmorgan

    philipmorgan Member of the month

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    Another big thumbs up here for the Dekoni TH-X00 lambskin pads. They're super comfortable for all-day wear. Massdrop seems to be the only source for them (they're not listed on Dekoni's website).
     
  16. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Got a new iteration of @Bill-P's HE-5 (modded). They sound similar to how they sounded to me before. I actually like this cans. This time I measured using balanced connections all through out, using the Neurotic HP-1.

    Some measurements

    Frequency Response

    HE5_fr.png

    Distortion Right

    HE5_dist_rightt.png

    Distortion Left

    HE5_dist_left.png

    CSD Right

    HE5_csd_right.png

    CSD Left

    HE5_csd_leftt.png
     
  17. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    Oh, cool! Thanks, ultra! :)

    Sorry for making you do this over and over again. I wanted to make sure I got it right.

    Looks like distortion dropped compared to last time, and is now more even across the board. Coolio!

    If it's not too much trouble, can you please show some overlaid graphs?
     
  18. ultrabike

    ultrabike Measurbator - Admin

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    Sure Bill. No problem.

    Blue is current
    Green is previous

    comparo_1_2.png
     
  19. Bill-P

    Bill-P Level 42 Mad Wizard

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    When I get these back, I'll post some photos and mod directions in case people would like to try to mod their own.

    Since you like them, that's enough confirmation for me that I've made them sound better than stock. :) Stock is like... uber bright.
     
  20. zerodeefex

    zerodeefex SBAF's Imelda Marcos

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    This thread makes me miss my code-x.

    Good progress, though, Bill. I'm excited to see you kept up with these.
     

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