[jerg]

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I haven't really fully bought into the whole cable debate but I will admit that I am not a fan of the stock HE500 cable. It sounds fantastic but I got one terminated with 1/8" and a crappy 1/4" adapter and just don't like it so I took the plunge and preordered the Norse Norn V2, I figured while I was at it I'd future proof it and ordered it terminated in a mini xlr (male) and bought a 2 foot adapter (mini xlr female to 1/4") that way if I move to a balanced amp I can just buy another adapter to balanced termination. I don't honestly know if it sounds better but I know it is absolutely bloody beautiful and is a cable worthy of a high end headphone. The cotton, the braiding, the wood splitter it all just screams artisan craftsmanship and I can't get over how much I love it. If pressed I would say I've noticed a more lush sound if anything but my HE500 really makes me a happy camper. 
 
That being said if anyone really wants to try the silver cable on their HE400 I'll let it go for 25 bucks plus shipping (I'll just buy a record...) and you can check it out yourself....

Were your HE500 silver cables with the old flimsy connectors? I heard in another thread that they started shipping with silver cables that have sturdy connectors similar to those used on the HE400 Canare cables.

 

[detoxguy]

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Were your HE500 silver cables with the old flimsy connectors? I heard in another thread that they started shipping with silver cables that have sturdy connectors similar to those used on the HE400 Canare cables.

yeah I got mine as one of the first when they switched from the Canare and went with the travel box instead of the old one. The connectors look flimsy but I've never had a problem with them. 

 

[wje]

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yeah I got mine as one of the first when they switched from the Canare and went with the travel box instead of the old one. The connectors look flimsy but I've never had a problem with them. 

 
If I had the silver cable with the crappy plastic strain reliefs, I'd install some heat shrink tube over them and use it for additional reinforcement.  I'm sure one would no longer have an issue with their cables breaking apart, if this mod was applied.

 

[willmax]

I was quite certain on getting the HE-400 until I started reading about the Denons particularly the D5K, what is appealing to me is the fact that they are 'closed' back and in a similar price range. All my headphones are open back so I thought it would be good to complement my colection with a closed back. 
Any thoughts? Do any of you guys have both headphones and would be able to draw some comparisons? 
 
My current collection is based around Grados mainly, although I do enjoy listening to HD600 which I find very tamed and polite in comparison.

 

[Chris_Himself]

Quote:

Were your HE500 silver cables with the old flimsy connectors? I heard in another thread that they started shipping with silver cables that have sturdy connectors similar to those used on the HE400 Canare cables.

 
Quote:

yeah I got mine as one of the first when they switched from the Canare and went with the travel box instead of the old one. The connectors look flimsy but I've never had a problem with them. 

 
Quote:

 
If I had the silver cable with the crappy plastic strain reliefs, I'd install some heat shrink tube over them and use it for additional reinforcement.  I'm sure one would no longer have an issue with their cables breaking apart, if this mod was applied.

 
 
Heatshrink + SMC connectors = God-tier cable connections
 
I just wish they came out at an angle like the LCD-2 but that can also be arranged easily now that I think about it...
 
Dammit why'd I sell the HE-500.. -___-

 

[option12]

Quote:

 
 
I commented in TMRaven's thread before a little on the two, and I've only had my D5ks for a few days so far, but I think they're extremely different headphones.   I think, if I had to pick just one, I'd pick the HE-400, I think they're slightly more versatile and easier to listen to.   But the Denons make for a very different presentation.   Although the Denons have bass extension like no other, I'd consider them a fairly bright headphone.  The comparison I used in the other thread is that it's bright in a warm wooden way like a nice guitar or violin with a bright sound.  It's not K702 or HD800 bright, but it's a warm-bright but with deep, flat bass extension and a fair bit of sparkle in the treble, and somewhat forward mids without being aggressive in the Grado sense.
 
By contrast, HE-400 is dark or dark-neutral with a sort of syrupy texture (if that makes any sense.)  It's balanced across, kind to the ears, and just smooth (by smooth I don't mean "smoothed over" or lacking detail, just smooth in the presentation.    HE-400 has weight (not bass bloat, just weight to the sound.)  D5k is a bit more light despite the deep bass.  It picks up a lot of the wood sound you'd expect wood to provide which makes it kind of organic for recordings that are warm or bright.  The HE-400 gives that lushness and that open air and reverberation for recordings that you'd expect to be played in a large space. 
 
Both are lively, in contrast to HD650 or presumably HE-500 which should be more laid back.  Neither is fatiguing compared to K702, though the Denons are a bit more tiring over time than the HE-400.
 
They're both very different, but I like them almost equally.   Certain recordings would do very well with the Denons (or for that matter, AT W-series closed wood cans.)

 
Quote:

I was quite certain on getting the HE-400 until I started reading about the Denons particularly the D5K, what is appealing to me is the fact that they are 'closed' back and in a similar price range. All my headphones are open back so I thought it would be good to complement my colection with a closed back. 
Any thoughts? Do any of you guys have both headphones and would be able to draw some comparisons? 
 
My current collection is based around Grados mainly, although I do enjoy listening to HD600 which I find very tamed and polite in comparison.

 
 
See IEMcrazy's post about the D5K vs. HE-400. I had the D5K's ordered but EE keeps canceling my order. Since my HE-400's are getting here on Friday, I figure I'll give them a listen before deciding a try of the D5k.

 

[wje]

Quote:

I was quite certain on getting the HE-400 until I started reading about the Denons particularly the D5K, what is appealing to me is the fact that they are 'closed' back and in a similar price range. All my headphones are open back so I thought it would be good to complement my colection with a closed back. 
Any thoughts? Do any of you guys have both headphones and would be able to draw some comparisons? 
 
My current collection is based around Grados mainly, although I do enjoy listening to HD600 which I find very tamed and polite in comparison.

 
Based on the information I've read, the Denon D2K and D5K feature the same driver, etc.  The D5K features the wooden cups, though.  One has to move up to the D7K to get a different (better?) driver and a better quality of wiring.

 

[Phos]

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Based on the information I've read, the Denon D2K and D5K feature the same driver, etc.  The D5K features the wooden cups, though.  One has to move up to the D7K to get a different (better?) driver and a better quality of wiring.

The magnet is stronger but I don't know that the diaphragm or coil is different, though I don't know that they're the same either, TBH.  Tyll claims to hear a slight difference between them but they measured very similarly so it could be expectation bias.  If it has the same diaphragm the stronger magnet is kinda pointless, from my understanding the point to making a stronger magnet is to use fewer windings or thinner wire to make the bobbin as light as possible.  I'm pretty sure that D5K has the same wire as the 7K, the 7K just has a thicker jacket, though when you're talking about the difference between the conductors themselves, there are only a few nines on the tail end of a decimal point that differentiate the two.  
 
Tyll's new measurements seems to show the D7000 as slightly lower impedance than the D5000 which could be caused by fewer windings but it could also be caused by manufacturing variance.  

 

[Grado77]

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[jerg]

From Tyll's latest blog post it looks like he received his pair of review HE-400 samples. His preliminary impressions are that they are a little too bright. Interesting how the major reviewers seem to have wildly different perceptions of their treble.

 

[TMRaven]

I can agree with that perception.  I'd consider them a little u-shaped as well, enough to give Denons a run for their money in treble energy-- thankfully not as strident though.

 

[wje]

Quote:

From Tyll's latest blog post it looks like he received his pair of review HE-400 samples. His preliminary impressions are that they are a little too bright. Interesting how the major reviewers seem to have wildly different perceptions of their treble.

 
That's interesting.  Hmm ...  I'll have to see how my pair that I purchased from HeadRoom - which was recently shipped to them from HifiMAN (according to the delivery information on the box) compare to the pair that HifiMAN sent to me as replacements today.  I wouldn't want the HE-400 sound signature to change from what I've been used to.  I really couldn't tell any really obvious differences between the pair that I had to send in and the pair from HeadRoom.  I wonder which cable Tyll was using?  I'll have to check his blog entry out.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

From Tyll's latest blog post it looks like he received his pair of review HE-400 samples. His preliminary impressions are that they are a little too bright. Interesting how the major reviewers seem to have wildly different perceptions of their treble.

 
Uhh, bright? What would it take for him to consider a headphone dark?  Even neutral?  Compared to HE-400, HD650 is a treble-head's dream.  They have plenty of balanced treble to spare, but there's nothing bright about HE-400.  Are you sure Fang didn't paint some HE-6's blue or something?

 
 
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I can agree with that perception.  I'd consider them a little u-shaped as well, enough to give Denons a run for their money in treble energy-- thankfully not as strident though.

 
HE-400 may have a slight u-shape, but not enough of one for me to call it  a "u" or "v" shape, really.  It's pretty flat, with specific spikes/dips along the way.  HE-400 has no shortage of treble detail, but assuming your D2k's have similar treble to my D5ks (and I have no reason not to believe so), I wouldn't call HE-400 anywhere in range of the treble energy of Denons which are pretty extreme.  D2k supposedly does have that u-shape going, which probably keeps them from feeling overly bright, but D5k with the bumped mids, I'd say in the absence of that famous deep bass, would be widely regarded as an honest-to-goodness bright headphone. 
 
On the Objective 2 the Denons are bright, very sparkly, while their raw UHF extension isn't as severe as K702, I'd say their brightness, overall, exceeds that of K702.  The only thing that saves it is the warmed over timbre of the sparkle versus the usual "cold sparkle" associated with bright headphones.  On the same O2, the HE-400 brightens up considerably, and arguably I could agree with Tyll in that they no longer sound "dark", but to call them bright, especially when placed next to Denons is a stretch!

 
HE-400 reacts remarkably differently on a neutral SS amp versus a hybrid/tube amp.  They get brighter, more detailed, from a measurement perspective, probably "superior" on an SS, and the SS brings out their pure technical ability that I didn't realize existed, but I think, personally, they sound better in their "dark mode" when given some tube warmth.  It makes me wonder what Tyll was driving it with.  Right out of a DAP or something I could see it sounding bright.  Despite the impedance I think they still need serious voltage swing for the low end to come out. 

 

[TMRaven]

It's not really a stretch to say so.  My comparison between the two proves that very fact to me anyways.  The Denon might have more lower treble presence, but I still get a feeling of a decent treble spike in the upper treble range on the HE-400.  I just compared the two again for reference using Normalize by Flux Pavilion and Stayin' Alive.
 
I wouldn't call the Denon D2000 too extreme.  It's edgy yes, but nothing's extreme once you've heard a DT990.  Soft and resolved as the Beyer treble is, it's still a solar flare in comparison.

 

[Boss429]

What would you guys recommend driving these HE-400's with? 
 
I currently have a Little Dot MK II. Someday I hope to upgrade to a Schiit Lyr, but I am afraid thats not going to be anytime soon.