[.Sup]

Very interesting post Panos, especially the part where you say that manufacturing and quality of components affect the headphones' presentation. Head Direct did revise the HE-500 which brought its price down so the differences between HE-500s must exist.

 

[plin]

Quote:

Very interesting post Panos, especially the part where you say that manufacturing and quality of components affect the headphones' presentation. Head Direct did revise the HE-500 which brought its price down so the differences between HE-500s must exist.

 
Good point Peter. Maybe the recent batches of HE-500 have different impedances? I bought mine (with 48 Ohm impedance) on November 2011, it has the intermediate cable, the HE-6 type (copper, but not Canare).
I invite other forum members to share with us date of purchase and respective impedances.
 
Has anyone noticed any serial numbers on HE-500? 

 

[Subsequence]

Quote:

HE-works really well from the ipod actually It needs a bit more power than HD800

Haha i bet that would cause some looks^^

 

[takezo]

i purchased my he500 in july of 2011 and the impedance measured is 62/62 ohms.
sound quality seems fine but i haven't compared it to others, hence uncertain if mine
is presenting its full potential in terms of sound quality.
 

 

[.Sup]

I got mine in March this year I think with the silver 6.3mm cable.

 

[Terja]

I got mine in December 2011 and it came with a black canare cable terminated 3.5mm. It's not the thick canare that some complained about not being flexible. This one is quite flexible. I have since obtained the silver cable and I prefer it to the canare. The silver is a little brighter and more detailed (my preference). Haven't measured impedance on the phones yet.
 

 

[plin]

Quote:

I got mine in December 2011 and it came with a black canare cable terminated 3.5mm. It's not the thick canare that some complained about not being flexible. This one is quite flexible. I have since obtained the silver cable and I prefer it to the canare. The silver is a little brighter and more detailed (my preference). Haven't measured impedance on the phones yet.
 

I didn't know that such a version of the cable existed!

 

[plin]

Quote:

i purchased my he500 in july of 2011 and the impedance measured is 62/62 ohms.
sound quality seems fine but i haven't compared it to others, hence uncertain if mine
is presenting its full potential in terms of sound quality.
 

July 2011, must be one of the very first batches, canare cable and no pleather pads, isn't it?

 

[Rebel975]

Here are my measurements: HE-500: L: 56.5Ω  R: 61Ω
 
I haven't ever noticed any channel imbalance, so I guess I'm going to ignore the results.
 
Mine came with a thick and inflexible canare cable terminated with a 3.5mm connector. I've since replaced it with the HE-6 copper cable that has a 6.3mm connector.

 

[plin]

Quote:

Here are my measurements: HE-500: L: 56.5Ω  R: 61Ω
 
I haven't ever noticed any channel imbalance, so I guess I'm going to ignore the results.
 
Mine came with a thick and inflexible canare cable terminated with a 3.5mm connector. I've since replaced it with the HE-6 copper cable.

This will lead to only 0.33dB of channel imbalance, so it is indeed not noticeable - in fact, most volume pots exhibit a much greater one.
When did you buy your HE-500?

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Here are my measurements: HE-500: L: 56.5Ω  R: 61Ω
 
I haven't ever noticed any channel imbalance, so I guess I'm going to ignore the results.
 
Mine came with a thick and inflexible canare cable terminated with a 3.5mm connector. I've since replaced it with the HE-6 copper cable that has a 6.3mm connector.

 
Easy 2-minute way to check the channel balance would be to download a sinewave generator software e.g. SineGen, and then just do a slow sweep across from 20-20k, while having your eyes closed and pay attention to the tone horizontal positioning.
 
But then you might not want to do that, if you think your pair of drivers is terrifically well-matched and don't want any pointless disappointment, big or small 

 

[Rebel975]

@plin: I got them in August of 2011. 
 
@jerg: I don't detect an imbalance naturally, so I'd rather not go looking for it. 
 
Just for laughs, here's a shot of the original cable. It was pretty much a deal breaker. There was nothing wrong with it sonically, but it's ergonomics were unbearable. 
 

 
 
 
 
That's a 1/4" speaker cable with a 3.5mm connector (pictured with a 6.3mm adapter). It's serious business. The construction was pretty shoddy too. The adapter wouldn't sit flush with the 3.5mm connector. Oh well.

 

[plin]

Quote:

@plin: I got them in August of 2011. 
 
Just for laughs, here's a shot of the original cable. It was pretty much a deal breaker. There was nothing wrong with it sonically, but it's ergonomics were unbearable. 
 
That's a 1/4" speaker cable with a 3.5mm connector (pictured with a 6.3mm adapter). It's serious business. The construction was pretty shoddy too. The adapter wouldn't sit flush with the 3.5mm connector. Oh well.

LOL, HE-500 doesn't cease to amaze me, so there were two versions of the Canare cable, one stiff with 1⁄4' connector and one flexible with 3.5mm connector. 

 

[Ultrainferno]

Are you all measuring correctly? I noticed that you have to be really precise with the multimeter probes to get the correct results
 

 

[plin]

It is much easier to measure the 1⁄4' connector than the 3.5mm one. If you touch any erroneous parts you will get zero or double the correct value. You need to have steady hands for the reading to be stable.