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HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Headphone Review

Rate this headphone:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 265 97.8%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 3 1.1%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 3 1.1%

  • Total voters
    271

amirm

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This is a review, listening test, EQ and detailed measurements of the HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth closed back headphone. It is on kind loan from a member and costs US $5,499.
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone planar review.jpg

The HE-R10P has a whimsical look which I quite like. Surprisingly, it is quite light and combined with its large cups, very comfortable to wear. The included headphone cord oddly like other Hifiman cables, has 90 degree bend to it. Why? Are most folks using these with portable players out in the wild?

Fitment on the GRAS 45CA fixture was very easy, requiring almost no work.

HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Measurements
As usual we start with our frequency response measurement and comparison with our target:
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone frequency response Measurement.png

My jaw fell down after seeing this! So much so that I measured again and got the same results. And it more or less correlated with the few other measurements on the net. I mean I like the bass but what is up with a major hump from 500 Hz to 2 kHz? There is deficiency in the 2K to 4K range but seems like that was intentional to try to copy the response of the Sony MDR-RP10. I expect highly colored response in listening tests.

Exact correction using EQ manually is going to be hard but here is what needs doing:
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone relative target frequency response Meas...png


We have whopping 11 dB variation from our target!

If that is all that was wrong with it, maybe designers could sleep easy but not when you look at the copious amount of distortion this thing is generating:
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone relative THD distortion Measurement.png

HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone THD distortion Measurement.png


We have to pull down some of the response which should help. But then again we also need to boost some.

Group delay shows copious resonances and other reflections creating a true "phase soup!"
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone planar group delay Measurement.png


Impedance is flat and low per spec but even that shows a kink, indicative of some resonance:
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone Impedance Measurement.png


Sensitivity is very good especially for class:
Best high-end headphone review.png


HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Listening Tests
You can have no doubt that this headphone is highly colored the moment you listen to it. Some voices of forward while producing a muffled overall response. But you won't get the full scope of that variation until you create EQ and turn that on and off:
HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Closed Back High-end Headphone Equalization PEQ.png

The improvement was massive. There was now good balance and the forwardness was gone. I actually started to enjoy them listening to my reference tracks!

Spatial qualities are good but not exceptional. Same with deep bass.

Conclusions
We have one heck of a broken (design) headphone here. With modicum of attention to audio science it could have been so much better.

Needless to say, I can't recommend HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth.
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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
 

Attachments

  • HiFiMan HE-R10P Stealth Frequency Response.zip
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It's not often I laugh out loud at reviews - I'm just glad that this wasn't published 1st April!

*Edit*
As ever with this kind of thing - massive thanks to the person that submitted these for review.
 
Ouch, what a mess...
 
Now THIS is actually a scam!
This time you will get no argument from me.

I mean wow. The FR is one thing, maybe you could look past it if you wanted to... but the distortion is unforgivable and the group delay is the worst I think I've seen on here.

Oddly enough you get the opposite of normal performance - bass looks pretty clean and treble is a mess. I suppose this would tend to mitigate the impact, since music tends to have less SPL in treble than bass. But still, yuck.

Having seen this, I wouldn't trade my MDR-7506 cans for this, at least to listen to. Maybe to flip on eBay before people see this review.
 
Ouch. Could buy 40+ KH371 for that amount of money. :facepalm:
Or 500+ Sony MDR ZX-110! (Sounds still better…)
 
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At least the cups look like they're made from the exact same variety of wood that would be used to panel the walls of one of those contemporary takes on the traditional steakhouse. So well done there. Now they just need to put some light sconces at the flat part of the cup to complete the effect.

Thank you for the review, Amir.
 
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