I would wager that the increased low-end frequency range and decreased low-end drop off in dB's is why you preferred the HS7's.I play at home and bought the HS5. They sounded good but were just missing a little something at lower volumes.Returned them and bought the HS7 and the little something I was missing is there and sound fuller to me. I downloaded some presets in the exchange and they sound great with very minor tweaking.