New Hifiman Headphone HE-400 is out - Page 154

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

 

Can a man not delve into both enjoyment and knowledge (however limited that may be) in this hobby?

You sure can, but measurements can be way deceiving. So I'll cover my eyes. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by paradoxper 

You sure can, but measurements can be way deceiving. So I'll cover my eyes. 

I'm a sucker for confirmation bias, so I gladly look at all seemingly credible measurements, heh.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

 

I'm a sucker for confirmation bias, so I gladly look at all seemingly credible measurements, heh.

Well said.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

 

Can a man not delve into both enjoyment and knowledge (however limited that may be) in this hobby?

Oh wow, for this weird moment in time, my headphone forum sounds exactly like my Soto Zen forum/sangha.

x2 on that.  judge the phones on the SQ and your level of enjoyment.  If it gets your toes tapping and into the music, that's what counts.  If you already have the headphones, take a look at th measurements after your listening conslusions. they may confirm or deny what you hear.

And remeber that your source components play a big part.. dac/amp/(tubes)/source and software/cables. Plus if you own mutiple heaqdphones, where they sit relative to the others also plays a part.  When I had my HD650s, the HE400 sounded darher.. now that I have the HD700 (an anomoly unto its own.. though a good one), the HE400 sound brigher that I remeber.  All in all, the HE400 are an amazing headphone and I don't try to over-analyze them.

In the end, do you love them or not

Quote:

Originally Posted by paradoxper 

Measurements shmeasurements. Enjoy the phones. 

Hmmm looking at a graph of the HE400 frequency response it looks like they have a HUGE recession from about 2-6khz and then a massive peak at 6-10khz....

Is this reflected in the real world sound of the headphones? eg. do they have a recessed midrange and a massive treble spike making them sound distant and harsh? Or do they sound ok ?

Yes and no.  Its upper midrange are definitely present and clearly represented compared to something like a Denon D2000, whose upper midrange is less recessed according to the graph.  Its treble spike isn't very annoying either, but it definitely shows through on some recordings with lots of upper treble information.

Quote:

Originally Posted by stevenlongs 

Thank you IEMcrazy & jerg

 

From that curve it looks like this would sound alot like some IEMs i'm currently using: http://en.goldenears.net/8861 , although there is a more pronounced peak at 10k.  What frequency is occupied by the highs of a violin? What about that 4k-5k dip we see on the FR of the HE-400s?

FWIW, HE-400 is my favorite headphone for classical.  Though I happen to like D5k for SOLO violin, I prefer HE-400 for virtually all other classical including violin trios and violin + piano.  This is contrary to the tastes of most audiophiles that would say a dark, weighty headphone is for rock and a bright, airy, tinkly headphone is for classical.  I'm convinced those audiophiles have never been to a concert hall or ballroom recital   Bright and tinkly, to me, sounds like sitting in the middle of a bunch of musicians in the middle of a parking garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by wje 

Ah, the "Darkness" talk resurfaces about the HE-400.

Despite the dichotomy of HE-400 they are simply dark.  They present themselves more darkly than HD650 which has long been considered dark.  I can't really think of anything darker, except maybe LCD-2 which I know only by reputation as dark, and that HE-400 isn't entirely dissimilar to them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

 

Well, at least for me, that talk has concluded, since the measurements seem to explain everything.

 

Its simply a recessed lower treble, moderate mid-treble, and elevated upper treble.

 

This is rare in headphones (another notably similar treble is Stax SR007), so it conveniently explains why people are ambiguous and puzzled about explaining how the treble is in subjective terms.

Very interesting description!

Quote:

Originally Posted by nicholars 

Hmmm looking at a graph of the HE400 frequency response it looks like they have a HUGE recession from about 2-6khz and then a massive peak at 6-10khz....

 

Is this reflected in the real world sound of the headphones? eg. do they have a recessed midrange and a massive treble spike making them sound distant and harsh? Or do they sound ok ?

I've never seen them sound too recessed in the mids except out of the box.  Something sounded "off" somehow.  Whether my brain burned in or the cans burned in within two weeks they sounded fine.  And after the velour pad change there was no hint of an issue.  And they've never been harsh to my ears...and I'm treble sensitive!

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattTCG 

Wayne, thanks for the heads up on the free album. When you get tired of the nfb12 pm me.

Let me just say this ... that will happen when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.   

To imply that it is excellent, is probably a large understatement.  The piece is actually quite meaty and solid.  The volume control is beautiful and smooth and the switches (3-position switches) work wonderfully.  I still need to try the optical and coax inputs, too.  However, when using the USB input (which has ferrite protectors) at each end of the cable, my music never experienced a "glitch" when loading up Web pages and running applications on my laptop last evening.

Could this be the final one for me?  That's hard to tell.  However, at the price it falls into, it can easily compete (price-wise) with the O2 and ODAC combination (as I have yet to hear that combo).  Yet, I think what's offered from Audio-GD is more substantial and having the option for chaning the filters is just the icing on the cake.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

The bass wouldn't satisfy me.

True that...

Quote:

Originally Posted by wje 

Ah, the "Darkness" talk resurfaces about the HE-400.

 

As an update, the Audio-GD NFB-12 was at home for me yesterday when I arrived.  It pairs beautifully well with the HE-400s.  I'm trying to flip back and forth between the NFB-12 and the Little Dot I+ / Music Streamer combinations.  I feel as though I'm stuck as to what to do.  However, on some Patricia Barber, I did detect a small bit of sibilence trying to appear with the NFB-12, where it wasn't with the Little Dot I+ / Music Streamer combination.  However, I also have to note that I have not lifted the lid on the NFB-12 yet to "adjust" any of the filters.

 

Just a few short weeks ago, I realize that I was pretty solid in my standing behind the offerings from Yamaha regarding the stereo receivers and integrated amplifiers.  However, the recent dedicated headphone amps and DACs that I've been working with along with the laptop, Foobar and the Wasapi plug-in, has brought another dimension into my listening.  I still love the Yamaha gear when it comes to using speaker taps.  But, I am showing love for the headphone amps and DACs as I sit in the study with the laptop and my comfortable listening chair.

 

Yesterday evening was odd, though.  When I got home, there were two boxes.  One had me scratching my head, so I had to open it and see what was in there.  Somewhere along the line, I purchased a Nuforce uDAC 2, to pair with the Little Dot I+.  Jeez, things are getting crazy and just enjoy the music.

 

For those of you that enjoy "The Civil Wars" duo, they have a free live album on their Web site that you can download.  The songs covered consist of about 80% from their studio album.  However, they also have a couple others - one of which, is a Leonard Cohen cover song.  Well worth the free download.

This live album is damn good!!  If you don't have it, go get it!!