[PinkyPowers]

I was spending the day today walking the streets of NYC with my son, who is now graduating high school. I got him into the hobby a couple of years ago with a pair of Focal Elex and an iFi neo streamer/dac; he has developed a keen appreciation for good music and a good ear.. As it happened, we were around the corner from @Audio46 so I decided to pop in and say high to Tony K. and @Terco . It was a quiet moment in between the ebbs and flows of weekend visitors, so we dived into an improptu listening session coupled and some fun personal chatter.

Our highlight today was listening to the Hifiman HE1000SE with the Woo Audio Tube Mini, a portable tube DAC/Amp (which was in turn connected to my iPhone as streaming source).

I was prejudiced to finding the HEKSE fast but lean in its presentation, but within a few mintues I made a 180. Simply put, the synergy of these two components is fantastic. These HEKSE are really easy to drive (95 dB/mW @ 35Ω), and the Tube Mini adds wonderful warmths, body, and heft, resulting in bass that was outright rich and textured, while the heddphones retained their excellent speed and resolution. Both my son and I were very impressed and had a great time listening to this setup.

I learned that Hifiman just dropped their price for these headphones to $1.7k, making them an amazing value (in my opinion). Now, anyone who's followed Hifiman over time, knows that they release new versions at a pretty high clip, and these types of discounts come just about that time of year when they get ready to do these model refreshes. So I wouldn't be surprised if Monday's announcement from them carries more updated models down their product lines. Putting new release anxieties aside though, this was a really and fun excellent listen.

We also did some cable rolling. Rodrigo specifically recommended the Final Audio C093 cable for these headphones. The C093 is a silver-plated OFC cable (pictured to the left below). One might expect demo-ing cables in this environment would yield little, but the difference between this and the prior cable we tried with the HEKSE (a very nice and ergonomic cable, I believe the brand was Strauss & Wagner; pictured to the right below) was instantly notable. Speficially, treble resolution was notably improved and (perhaps as a result) sound stage was expanded. With these sensitive headphones, and in this chain, this cable complemented the setup just beautifully.

Thanks guys, was great to see you! Until the next time...

I was stupefied by how good the HE1000 Stealth is. If your signal chain is devoid of harshness, these headphones are heavenly. On the other hand, if any of your gear is prone to harshness, the HE1K is all too willing to highlight that.