looking forward for your comparison.
well ..i received the HE-5s a couple of days ago and so far I am unimpressed.
I prefer the Wharfedale Isodynamic (ID1) over the HE5. The HE5 is more refined, better extension and details, but it misses to hit the mark. The bass feels flat. The Wharfie just sounds right to my ears music involvement wise.
Compared to the thunderpants,
the HE5 have more forward vocals,like the artist is right next to you,
there is more treble energy than even the TP, sibilance is still present but not to the extent that it was in the previous pair,
the music feels thin on account of being an open design. Just feels like it lacks the weight in the music.
The bottom end has a hint of bloat and can get annoyingly flat/monotonic. It doesn't hit as low as the thunderpants naturally.
The one area the He5 outshines the thunderpants is instrument separation. Being open in design, they have better instrument placement.
The exaggerated highs really gets on my nerves, gives a false sense of greater details when in fact it seems to cloud the top end of the freq spectrum(for instance when the hi-hat and/or top cymbals come on, the tone lacks distinction between beats, the fading shimmer effect is lost).
I am really impressed with the Thunderpants..and even more impressed with the wharfedale. For a 40 year old pair of headphones, the first ever commercial ortho, they totally rock and now have me contemplating pulling my ebay ad and keeping them while sending the HE-5 on its way.
:Correction: the HE5s will definitely be sold.