Hifiman HE-4 Impressions Thread
Nov 26, 2014 at 4:09 AM Post #3,211 of 4,142
  I've read the HE-500 is warmer sounding than the HE-5LE so I doubt the HE-5LE would do it for me either. 

 
http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/hifiman-he-5-he-5le-he-6-and-he500-planar-magnetic-headphones
 
You can shoot a MP to Clemmaster or Preproman . Both know perfectly the whole Hifiman Range :wink: 
 
Nov 26, 2014 at 4:58 AM Post #3,212 of 4,142
The RCA BH7 is a great tube that is mid centric, a nice balancing act for the slight V he4. It has nice decay and good slam while keeping great clarity.

The Sylvania BH7 with red lettering keeps the he4 sound sig but add a nice decay and sweetness to the sound. The slam and bass extension is good, better than the RCA I'd say. The highs also extend better than the RCA.

The Sylvania is more rare so it costs around $40-50. The RCA is more common at around $25-$30. Both are from the 70s and early 80s iirc. Both were recommended by sometime at the ember rolling guide, he has a Swedish flag as an avatar
Thujone and soundsgoodtome need to step in! One of the ones thujone has that I heard sounded real nice with the ember. Hell have to chime in to tell you make/model



Anyone have any suggestions on tubes for the Project Ember that pair well with the HE-4?  I'm not really feeling the ones I have right now.  The best is an Aperex 6DJ8.  It smooths out the sound and tames the highs a bit, but it does weird stuff to the bass... it loses a lot of that awesome planar detail.
 
Nov 26, 2014 at 5:01 AM Post #3,213 of 4,142
bassboysam you can reduce the treble from that borderline strong treble by removing the outer felt on the driver. You can take it even further by getting a more open grill.

Look for star felt mod on this thread and search the forum for the Hifiman grill mod if you're unfamiliar with the mods. Both are easily done by someone willing to take the headphone apart.
 
Nov 26, 2014 at 5:09 AM Post #3,214 of 4,142
Thanks Sorrodje, I think I read that a while back which narrowed my choice down to the HE-500 out of those. I didn't want to spend the extra for the HE-500 over the HE-4 though. I'm glad I didn't because my local headphone store has them for $100 cheaper now than I would have paid back then from head-direct.
 
^ I'm trying to find a particular pair of driver tubes for my amp. Not worrying about the power tubes for now as it is a few hundred dollars for a decent set. I wonder if I will be able to notice a bigger difference between the tubes than the headphones 
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 My ears seem sensitive and also defective 
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 RCA's in general seem to be described as warm and more 'tubey' than most others which is what I'm looking for. 
 
Nov 26, 2014 at 7:49 AM Post #3,215 of 4,142
bassboysam you can reduce the treble from that borderline strong treble by removing the outer felt on the driver. You can take it even further by getting a more open grill.

Look for star felt mod on this thread and search the forum for the Hifiman grill mod if you're unfamiliar with the mods. Both are easily done by someone willing to take the headphone apart.


I've heard of both mods, just not sure I want to take them apart.
 
Nov 26, 2014 at 10:07 AM Post #3,216 of 4,142
Alright. Went down to the headphone store today and listened to my HE-4, some HE-500, HE-400i and also some Alpha Dogs. 

First of all, I listened to the Alpha Dogs right before I packed up as I didn't think closed headphones would do it for me. But wow are they impressive, bigger soundstage than the HE-400i I think! Roughly the same mid-high treble level to me as my HE-4 but it definitely has more bass and smoother and more body to the mids (though I wouldn't say they are any more forward than on the HE-4). They are very comfortable and when listening I really didn't think I was listening to closed headphones. 

Anyway, onto the Hifimans. First off, the differences between the HE-4, HE-400i and HE-500 are far from night and day to my ears. 

Summary

HE-4: Large soundstage, great imaging, great attack, quite a lot of life to higher notes on guitars and drums sound fantastic
HE-500: Relatively large soundstage (smaller than the HE-4 but I feel instruments blend in well together whereas HE-4 leaves large gaps between each), very smooth and relaxing mids (especially male vocals; can sometimes be boring), highs aren't overwhelming like HE-4 can be but are still prominent
HE-400i: Small soundstage, good amount of bass but strange low to mid-bass which can be fatiguing, vocals sit behind instruments, great impact, fatiguing highs

Overall, the HE-400i definitely are not what I want. They sounded the best out of the lot with poorly mastered recordings which lacked life and detail, but that was it. I found them engaging, however quite fatiguing like some Grado's (to my ears). They also sounded quite congested with some tracks and it's like it failed to play all the bass notes from the bass guitar smoothly and clearly. 

The HE-500 weren't as good as I was expecting. For some reason I really enjoyed the LCD-2 but not the HE-500. The vocals on some tracks truly sounded great but not amazing like some describe (could be poor synergy with my amp but regardless I'm not going to get another/different amp). The highs were nice and smooth but I think it's the upper mids which are still too sharp for my liking like the HE-4. They just seem too smooth and relaxed in the mids/lower mids and too edgy later on until we get to the cymbals (from the drum kit). 

As for the HE-4, which I of course own, they sound by far the worst with the poorly recorded/mastered songs. The large soundstage made them sound even worse due to the fact all the instruments and even the vocals lacked life completely (probably due to prominence of treble and lack of lower frequencies) which made the sound very flat and lifeless with little engagement. On some tracks it also sounded like there was no sound coming from the centre and only from left and right. 

Also worth mentioning that on a scale of 0-100 on my amplifier's volume control, the HE-4 needed to be about 20 higher than the other HifiMAN's. 

Overall the HE-400i aren't what I am looking for and the HE-500 weren't exactly what I am after either and thus I don't think it is worth while to go through the hassle of selling the HE-4 and purchasing HE-500 to just be content and not happy/excited about new headphones. 

I might go back next week to try out some more headphones. 

Stang, have you tried pad rolling at all with your HE-4? You can sweeten up the mids, just a touch, with different pads. Just a thought
 
Nov 26, 2014 at 11:02 AM Post #3,218 of 4,142
Mad dogs, also modded t50s in general are great companions to the he4.
 
Nov 27, 2014 at 12:51 AM Post #3,219 of 4,142
Just made this EQ for my HE-4 with Gamma1 and M^3 amp (my gaming/general use computer) using the album Master of Puppets (24k Gold edition). I tried the Megadeth remaster of Countdown to Extinction and vocals were very strange, so this obviously isn't an all rounder EQ setting for me.
 
 
 

 
Note: The M^3 doesn't have the bass presence of my MKVI+ nor the smoothness, albeit not much different. Also, I listen to music at relatively loud volumes and low to medium volumes for youtube and gaming etc. 
 
Nov 27, 2014 at 12:53 AM Post #3,220 of 4,142
 
 

Stang, have you tried pad rolling at all with your HE-4? You can sweeten up the mids, just a touch, with different pads. Just a thought

Strange, everyone's posts have only just showed up for me after all these hours gone.
 
Yeah I've tried that. I posted impressions a while ago though. I definitely prefer the pleather pads as of now, especially for their comfort. 
 
I think my main issue is that the majority of the songs/albums I listen to are poorly recorded and/or mastered (most of my vinyl is decent, however) and completely lack the low end I was used to with the LCD-2. Thus, I enjoy perhaps 10% of the music I listen to and the rest annoy me due to overemphasised treble. I think I will definitely need to get a warm and smooth sounding tube for my vinyl rig and then when I use the HE-4 at the computer, just EQ. They definitely have the attack I love (HE-500 lacked this) but don't have the body I am after (properly EQ'ing solved most of this for me, surprisingly). 
 
Nov 28, 2014 at 10:02 PM Post #3,221 of 4,142
@bassboysam you can reduce the treble from that borderline strong treble by removing the outer felt on the driver. You can take it even further by getting a more open grill.

Look for star felt mod on this thread and search the forum for the Hifiman grill mod if you're unfamiliar with the mods. Both are easily done by someone willing to take the headphone apart.

 
 
Tried it today, mine are a very early model, no star felt, just a solid circular piece of felt that covered the entire driver..  removed them but I hear no difference at all...
 
Nov 28, 2014 at 10:19 PM Post #3,222 of 4,142
   
 
Tried it today, mine are a very early model, no star felt, just a solid circular piece of felt that covered the entire driver..  removed them but I hear no difference at all...

Wow, well that's odd. Did you turn the volume up? J/k must be those early drivers
 
Nov 28, 2014 at 11:01 PM Post #3,224 of 4,142
It's not a drastic difference to me. It's subtle but definitely there. I think soundsgoodtome has what they call "golden ears". Wish I did but at the same time I like not noticing subtleties the same as some folks here.
 
Nov 28, 2014 at 11:02 PM Post #3,225 of 4,142
The early drivers may well have been tuned slightly different as well hence the different felt
 

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