Ive heard HE-1000 with Sim Audio Moon 430HA. I own LCD-3F and just got HE-6, cause HE-1000 doesnt have that bass impact, and to me they sound kinda distant, which is probably ok if ur used to HD800.
Personally I dont enjoy that.

But I think everyone can agree that they are definitly not worth 3k.

I blame astell and kern honestly and their inflation bullshit

I feel companys are just price gouging now to see what they can get away with

I've had the HE560 for over a year and now the HE1000. If you like the HE560 the HE1000 is that on steroids. It has soundstage closer to the HD800 and is much more open than the HE560. The treble is slightly more laid back and smoother than the HE560 and the bass is more extended. It made the HE560 redundant for me as the HE1000 is better in every way so I sold it.

Compared to the HE6, the HE1000 has better imaging, much larger soundstage, more laid back treble, better bass extension, better layering and is also less visceral with a tad less impact to the sound. Comfort is miles better.

Is it worth 3k? That's tough. All of the flagship headphones are overpriced IMO. And this one especially. But it does have a ton of attributes in one headphone that you can't get anywhere else. The very open 3D soundstage and imaging coupled with the best ortho bass makes it hard to go back to other headphones. I kept mine, I really like it.

Buy them from a place that offers returns and try them out for a week or so. It took me that long to figure out its strengths and you'll have a good idea if it's worth the price to you.

What's your opinion now that you've had it for a while? Do you consider it your reference headphone?

Personally week one for me was a tossup and I was tempted to return it, but after some more (brain) burn-in I do see why they can charge what they do for it (not to mention all the R&D and manufacturing that thin of a driver). I go through and try a lot of headphones but like to keep just one. And the HE1000 is the best jack of all trades I've found for the music I like (with the HE6 a close second for sound, but a very long distance away for comfort).

I heard a couple pairs. Much, MUCH more enjoyable to me than the HE560. Tone was overall fairly good, if a touch warm in the lower half, but with good impact. Really nice bass and mids. Treble was almost there but had a bit of a rough quality to it. Didn't get a chance to try the toilet paper mod. It's not so much that the treble was hard to listen to, like the HE560 (oh god, the pain), but just didn't sound particularly refined or coherent to my ears. Made it hard for me to really dig deep into the music. One pair sounded better than the other in this regard but lacked some of the low-end impact in comparison.

I dunno, I thought they were vastly overpriced and sounded more competitive with headphones below the $1k price point. A stock HD800 from the modded Super 7, even if still a bit bright for me, just sounded like it was in a whole different league.