**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread** - Page 127

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madmollusk 
 I'm more convinced than ever: the pads just need to get out of the way.

Exactly, i've found this too and that is why the velours work so well, they separate and intrude as little as possible.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Madmollusk 

 

I think it's best to avoid the angle pads; I can confirm though that the pads fit perfectly onto the stock ring and that they feel super comfortable to boot; I can also confirm that they tame the treble a bit and mitigate the upper mid-range recession too, which all sounds great on paper, but let me tell you, after three days of using those pads, I couldn't wait to get back to the velours. The angle pads, as nice as they are, seemed to make the mid-range sound a little boxed in and just a tad congested; also the sub-bass didn't sound quite as deep or clean to me, and not half as exciting as they did with the velours. I can only speak for myself, but I think angled pads  do not work well on the he400; really, they create as many problems as they solve. I'm more convinced than ever: the pads just need to get out of the way. If the velours were more comfortable I wouldn't even think of upgrading, but unfortunately they do cause considerable discomfort when used for prolonged periods, and so an upgrade is a must.  

Ooph, if it hurts the exceptional "openness" of the HE400 mids then that's definitely a no-go, even if it tunes the voicing a bit for the better. It seems like the only theoretical pad upgrade for these then would be velour non-angled pads that are deeper, wider, and made with better foam/velour fabric.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

Ooph, if it hurts the exceptional "openness" of the HE400 mids then that's definitely a no-go, even if it tunes the voicing a bit for the better. It seems like the only theoretical pad upgrade for these then would be velour non-angled pads that are deeper, wider, and made with better foam/velour fabric.

You know, interestingly, when I had the HE-400, I found that lifting the cups just slightly away from my ears (half an inch to an inch) created a more enveloping, airy, life-like sound. And a tad better balanced, too. I didn't do it a lot, but every time I slightly lifted the cups away, I thought I liked the sound better... It made me curious how they'd sound with deeper cups...

That said, I am going to try the HE-400 one more time. I had the rev3 last time, and an amp that put about 300mw into them, which technically would be enough. But this time I will hopefully get a proper HE-400, and I also now have the NFB15.1 which will give it ~2.5W. Not sure if I should expect any realistically noticeable improvement from amp to amp, but we'll see. I'm excited to hear that awesome instrument separation again, though! It was my favorite thing about the HE-400.

Oh, and I'll also be comparing them to a Wood Magnum V4 Build, HE-500, and maybe the HD600. Not sure if I'll need to try the HD600, as I bought the HD598 at one time, but returned them because their sound sig did not suit me. Not enough treble energy for me. Not sure if HD600 will be more of the same or not. My current amp is also much better than the one I used with the HD598 for what it's worth.

Will post impressions on the headphone match-up when I get through with it - may not be for a few weeks!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Biscuitz 

You know, interestingly, when I had the HE-400, I found that lifting the cups just slightly away from my ears (half an inch to an inch) created a more enveloping, airy, life-like sound. And a tad better balanced, too. I didn't do it a lot, but every time I slightly lifted the cups away, I thought I liked the sound better... It made me curious how they'd sound with deeper cups...

That said, I am going to try the HE-400 one more time. I had the rev3 last time, and an amp that put about 300mw into them, which technically would be enough. But this time I will hopefully get a proper HE-400, and I also now have the NFB15.1 which will give it ~2.5W. Not sure if I should expect any realistically noticeable improvement from amp to amp, but we'll see. I'm excited to hear that awesome instrument separation again, though! It was my favorite thing about the HE-400.

Oh, and I'll also be comparing them to a Wood Magnum V4 Build, HE-500, and maybe the HD600. Not sure if I'll need to try the HD600, as I bought the HD598 at one time, but returned them because their sound sig did not suit me. Not enough treble energy for me. Not sure if HD600 will be more of the same or not. My current amp is also much better than the one I used with the HD598 for what it's worth.

Will post impressions on the headphone match-up when I get through with it - may not be for a few weeks!

How does your NFB15 synergize with HE500s? That should be somewhat of an indication of what you might expect with regular HE400s. But yeah looking forward to the pairing impressions - audioGD gear is on my radar as well.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

Ooph, if it hurts the exceptional "openness" of the HE400 mids then that's definitely a no-go, even if it tunes the voicing a bit for the better. It seems like the only theoretical pad upgrade for these then would be velour non-angled pads that are deeper, wider, and made with better foam/velour fabric.

I agree with you 100 percent! I think some high quality pads reminiscent of the hd800's pads, only a little deeper, would be perfect. I would definitely pay extra for pads like that.  

Originally Posted by jerg 

How does your NFB15 synergize with HE500s? That should be somewhat of an indication of what you might expect with regular HE400s. But yeah looking forward to the pairing impressions - audioGD gear is on my radar as well.

I don't own the HE500's yet. I just ordered the Magnum build, so it's on the way. The HE500 I am going to borrow through TheCableCompany's loaner program. We will see how the NFB15.1 does. I think it's the best value there is right now in terms of a DAC / Amp combo that has the power to take on some of the planar magnetics. On paper, anyway.

I've been listening to the HE-400 for the past two hours, or three? I can't stop... the comfort is not an issue for now, the cable is too hard, I swapped the pleather pads after the first 20 minutes... with the velours the sound is definitely more pleasing! My M-stage is with a-class opa627bp and caps shunt mod, I'm using its internal dac now, the volume knob is on 12-1 o'clock (10 gain), it sounds pretty good. Some other day I'll try the Yulong A100/D100 pair with the cans, and listen to the K550 and K701 to compare. The bass really kicks, especially with electronic/computer generated bass - lower freq bass. Right now I'm listening to Wrong by Depeche Mode and the song sounds somewhat fuller than usual, the Daft Punk songs sound awesome! Listened to some metal and rock and was also amazed how these headphones can play many genres without being wrong at something in particular. Bad/old recordings sound awful of course, but listening to wind instruments made me wonder why I don't have more classical music on my computer... The highs can be piercing sometimes, but rarely for now/for me. Listening to Mad Season - Long Gone Day, 00:47 here, over and out.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

 

I'm a bit disappointed that over a week ago everyone in this thread is like "YEAH LETS ALL GET GARBAGE BINS AND MOD OUT THE GRILLS" but barely anyone delivered.

Wait, am I the only ones to fall for buying the garbage bin grills? Well, they sound phenomenal, so guess you guys are just missing out . Never have my HE-400s sounded better. Bump the treble with some EQ, and BAM, reference quality cans. I've also been trying to attach some LCD-2 pads to the HE-400 rings, and yeah...not the best idea. 

Got my Emotiva mini-X here! I'm planning on ordering a Sunset cable from BTG with banana plugs later, but I'll just use my cousin's cables for the meantime. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Norway 

 

 

Can one of you please point me in the direction of the "mod your grills" method, if it is on here?

Nice write up by jerg.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/619447/hifiman-he400-he500-re-grilling-mod-56k-dial-up-users-beware

Quote:

Originally Posted by TwinQY 

 

 

Wait, am I the only ones to fall for buying the garbage bin grills? Well, they sound phenomenal, so guess you guys are just missing out . Never have my HE-400s sounded better. Bump the treble with some EQ, and BAM, reference quality cans. I've also been trying to attach some LCD-2 pads to the HE-400 rings, and yeah...not the best idea. 

 

Got my Emotiva mini-X here! I'm planning on ordering a Sunset cable from BTG with banana plugs later, but I'll just use my cousin's cables for the meantime. 

I would be interested to know how they pair. I don't think the HE400 needs a speaker amp but the only ones I would use them on is the HE6 or K1000 unless you had resistors. I'll have the same amp next week and I still have the HE400.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fearless1 

They do fit, increased bass but dulled the highs enough to make me remove them. The Beyers gels fit as well, even more bass, muted the highs.

I felt the bass was only a little more present with the beyer gels, but they also lost a lot of tightness and accuracy.  I think part of it is the increased distance of the driver, as the gel pads are quite fat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Errymoose 

I felt the bass was only a little more present with the beyer gels, but they also lost a lot of tightness and accuracy.  I think part of it is the increased distance of the driver, as the gel pads are quite fat.

I've been thinking about this actually. Increased distance from the driver should make the he-400s shine quite a bit more, at least in theory. I wonder if anyone has played around with this.

Quote:

Originally Posted by rawrster 

I would be interested to know how they pair. I don't think the HE400 needs a speaker amp but the only ones I would use them on is the HE6 or K1000 unless you had resistors. I'll have the same amp next week and I still have the HE400.

They definitely don't need all that power, but as long as the volume is down, it shouldn't hurt too much as well. I actually bought them for a upcoming HE-6 rig as well, but it's nice to see how they do with the HE-400. For me, they get huge volumes even when the knob is down pretty low. I would not recommend anything over 1-2 o'clock with these, ever.

Sound-wise, it's akin to a M^3 but with vastly more power. Sort of warm, but not really. Somewhere between the M^3 and the Asgard in terms of warmth. Pretty level everywhere else. The bass really enjoys all that power and the kick is phenomenal. Treble rolls off slightly at the very top, but its pretty benign, and in some cases, preferable for the HE-400s as the upper treble can be a bit too sparkly. I think they sound a bit better than the Lyr, and in some cases comparable with the Mjolnir from what I remember (I've only heard it with the LCD-2, so now I'm going by what I hear off those). Bass is slightly more authoritative and textured, but the midrange is definitely less clean and refined. At $249 though, the fact that they beat out the Lyr and get this close to the Mjolnir is laughable.

These are just some impressions yesterday along with my cousin's Lyr and Mjolnir. I only got around 3-4 hours of listening time though, so take that as you may. We had the HD800 around, but no speaker taps for it, so couldn't listen to the Emotiva with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by RushNerd 

I've been thinking about this actually. Increased distance from the driver should make the he-400s shine quite a bit more, at least in theory. I wonder if anyone has played around with this.

Well, I don't think there was a lack of seal with the gels... and my impression is there was more bass but it lost it's tightness, and everything else just felt a little thin and distant.  I know the material makes some difference too.  Maybe it's the hardness of the velours compared to the gels/leather pads that gives them such a nice sound...

I've decided to return my HE400s. The comfort just doesn't do it for me and the HD650/HD600s provide a much more immediately pleasing sound. Head-Direct is trying to pull some crap, telling me I'm out of the return period (I ordered Sept. 29th) but I had them for a week before sending them in for replacement which took 2 weeks. They do sound good at some things, but the good just doesn't outweigh the bad for me. Hopefully they don't fight this return policy thing.