Noob's TOTL Comparo - HD800S vs HE-1000 vs LCD-4

Hi Guys,

First of all I want to say that this is not going to help experienced members, this post is intended as a rough guide of what to expect for relative (cash rich) noobs to our hobby who are thinking of going TOTL and jumping over mid fi purgatory.

I spent some time at Custom Cable in London today comparing 3 cans (The HD800S is mine) out of a Questyle CMA800 Dac/amp with Tidal as the source. Here are my brief takeaways:


Hifiman HE-1000:

Sounds nice and smooth. A fatigue free listening experience but lacks balls. Music is not very engaging out of this headphone, especially genres which require balls like rock. The comfort level is good, it felt lighter on the head than I expected.

Build quality: It feels ‘home made’ instead of ‘hand made’ if you know what I mean.... Compared to my HD800S it’s pretty obvious which company is 7 years old. I would be willing to forgive this but at $3000 I expect a Mercedes S Class for my money. No excuses.

Audeze LCD-4:

I’ve never given Audeze much thought as I’ve read too much negative stuff about the weight, driver issues and dark, muffled sound signature.

I was pleasantly surprised by the sound quality which was thick and meaty with hard hitting bass. Comfort was also ok but then again I didn’t have it on my head for hours. Build wise it looks a step above the HE-1000s and it actually looks expensive unlike the HE-1000 which has the feel and aesthetics of a cheap car with bling rims.

Is it worth $4000 to me? Hell no. The headphones quite clearly add a bassy, warm, slightly muffled flavour to everything. Now this may be engaging at first but I suspect that it will get tiresome after a while unless you’re a hard core bass head. You are most definitely not hearing the music as the artist intended.

HD800S:

This is the one I ended up buying. To my ears it has the highest amount of details. It hits harder than the HE-1000s and the build quality and 10 year warranty inspire confidence. I’m not a millionaire so resale value and reliability are important to me as it enables the upgrade path that is inevitable for 99% of people in the hobby.

It has a pretty balanced sound signature to my ears with the treble standing out the most but not as much as the bass does in the LCD-4.

Criticisms:

Even the new HD800 S makes some of my music sound like crap. I wish it had a bit more of the meatiness of the Audezes. I have no clue why a company with Sennheiser’s resources took 7 years to make a tweak. I hope it doesn’t take them another seven years to release a slightly more musical successor.

Final thoughts:

Compared to all other obscenely priced flagship offerings the HD800S is excellent value. I can afford it, but I refuse to give Hifiman or Audeze $3000 to $4000 for what they’re offering. My advice to fellow SBAFs is get a good deal on the HD800S ( I got mine for $1415 new) and use the rest of the cash on a good source and amp.

If you love a laid back or bassy & thick sound signature then please disregard the above.

Cheers!

 

I'm relatively new to TOTL headphones also. Your thoughts on the HE1000 are almost exactly how I felt when I heard it briefly at a meet.

Good choice on the HD800S. You may find there's nothing to upgrade to though. Even the SR-009 didn't seem like a real upgrade to me (just different).