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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: November 1st, 2023

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  • For a long time I was completely happy with my HiFiMAN HE560 -but only after equipping it with an Artisan Silver Cables upgrade cable. That was the biggest and best acoustic upgrade from a cable that I’ve ever experienced, and I have done a ton of experimenting with cables of all kinds over the years, with many other great sonic improvements.

    However, I always lusted after a pair of HE1000 and finally got the Stealth Magnet version recently. They are the closest to perfection I’ve ever heard, and my trusty old Astell&Kern AK240SS can drive them nicely! Next step is a couple of custom cables… I sent the 2.5mm balanced cable for my HE560 back to Artisan Silver for re-terminating with 3.5mm plugs and am discussing with Alister (head honcho at Artisan Silver and a real nice guy, always happy to help with my unusual cable requests) a new cable to drive the HE1000 Stealth with my big Plinius SA100 mk3 power amp, since I know the HEK appreciates serious amplification! So, in terms of source and power, in bed it’ll be very simple with just the AK240SS (can’t wait to hear them together with the pure silver balanced cable, considering the vast improvements it made to my HE560!) and in the main HiFi listening room when it gets too late for my Martin Logan hybrid electrostats (I have neighbours!), I’ll just unplug the speakers and plug in the HE1000 Stealth -careful to turn the volume down first! Can’t wait to hear what that sounds like!

    I’ve been a part time headphone listener (just at night when I frequently can’t sleep) since getting my ML’s 9 years ago and building the best system possible for them. They’re only the old Aerius i but they’ve kept up with every single upgrade and I love them: so clear, detailed and dynamic, with the legendary Martin Logan soundstage and imaging, but these headphones are so much better that they’re forcing me to upgrade my speakers (to ML Masterpiece range Classic 9)! Sorry to go off onto speakers but I had to put the performance of these headphones in context and this is the only way I personally can do that. Btw, I have no relationship with Artisan Silver Cables other than as a very happy customer - I do not benefit in any way from saying good things about them.