**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread** - Page 194

Quote:

Originally Posted by torresfelipe 

What's up guys. I'll probably buy my HE-400 today. A friend of mine is in Orlando right now and agreed to bring the headphone for me. Unfortunately, she'll have to get rid of the original box, so I'll buy a case to protect the headphone in her bag. The thing is: there's only one US dealer that sells the Hifiman travel case. It's Audio Advisor. Do you guys recommend this store? I could get the HP from HeadRoom, but the only carrying case they sell is a cordura bag that doesn't offer much impact protection. Do you guys recommend any other hard cases for the HE-400?

 

Also, is there any way to spot a Rev. 2 apart from Rev. 1? Is there anything written on the box that tells that? I sent an email do Audio Advisor asking about that, but you never know.

Audio Advisor is a reputable store that has been around for years.  I purchased my DAC from them.

So, head-direct.com (the HiFiMan store) will not ship the headphones direct to you ?

I doubt that that coloration is intentional.  Fang said that the pronounced bass emphasis - as opposed to a flat FR - was intentional.

I'm sure that if there was some easy way in the design to flatten that little valley in the FR around 3khz, they would have done it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstuart 

I doubt that that coloration is intentional.  Fang said that the pronounced bass emphasis - as opposed to a flat FR - was intentional.

 

I'm sure that if there was some easy way in the design to flatten that little valley in the FR around 3khz, they would have done it.

That valley is what causes the bass emphasis and warm tone. If it wasn't there the whole FR would just be flat.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstuart 

I doubt that that coloration is intentional.  Fang said that the pronounced bass emphasis - as opposed to a flat FR - was intentional.

 

I'm sure that if there was some easy way in the design to flatten that little valley in the FR around 3khz, they would have done it.

Dude, Fang himself said it, right here on Head-Fi:

http://www.head-fi.org/t/586885/new-hifiman-headphone-he-400-is-out/165#post_8022919

He tuned HE-400 himself, its colouration is reminiscent of JBL speakers. Withdrawn upper midrange, pronounced upper treble. "detailed and laid-back".

Hey guys,

Still haven't tried the felt in the cups yet, but I have tried the thin paper. It just doesn't quite do it for me. This song in particular is one that gets fatiguing quite quickly:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reAZiJlEuL8

I don't know if it's the recording itself, or the HE-400s. I know that when I play it through my desktop speakers it sounds pretty darn good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yekrut 

Hey guys,

 

Still haven't tried the felt in the cups yet, but I have tried the thin paper. It just doesn't quite do it for me. This song in particular is one that gets fatiguing quite quickly:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reAZiJlEuL8

 

I don't know if it's the recording itself, or the HE-400s. I know that when I play it through my desktop speakers it sounds pretty darn good.

Again, HE-400 have emphasized upper treble, which that track as well as most other EDMs have oodles of. This means it'll sound fatiguing to some like you, it also means it'll sound detailed and exciting to others who aren't as susceptible to treble fatigue.

Rough^^

My ears are slowly getting used to the emphasized treble though. I'm finding myself able to enjoy most of my music, with the exceptions of certain tracks like the one I linked above. Overall this is still an amazing headphone, and there have been a number of tracks where I truly feel like I'm re-discovering my music, and thats a feeling that is truly priceless. :)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yekrut 

Rough^^

 

My ears are slowly getting used to the emphasized treble though. I'm finding myself able to enjoy most of my music, with the exceptions of certain tracks like the one I linked above. Overall this is still an amazing headphone, and there have been a number of tracks where I truly feel like I'm re-discovering my music, and thats a feeling that is truly priceless. :)

It's kinda ironic, because earlier this year when HE400 was just released, it had a much darker tonality, whereas not only was the upper mids dip present, the upper treble was also much less emphasized. Reviewers described HE400 as extremely dark, darker than Audezes, HD650, etc etc.

Kind of a shame Hifiman didn't keep that tonality.

I guess they'd rather have a few customers complain about treble fatigue, than tons of people complaining about muffled treble.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstuart 

I doubt that that coloration is intentional.  Fang said that the pronounced bass emphasis - as opposed to a flat FR - was intentional.

 

I'm sure that if there was some easy way in the design to flatten that little valley in the FR around 3khz, they would have done it.

 

Dude, Fang himself said it, right here on Head-Fi:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/586885/new-hifiman-headphone-he-400-is-out/165#post_8022919

 

He tuned HE-400 himself, its colouration is reminiscent of JBL speakers. Withdrawn upper midrange, pronounced upper treble. "detailed and laid-back".

You are projecting an amazing amount into a much more limited statement by Fang:

Nowhere did he say either "withdrawn upper midrange" "pronounced upper treble" or "laid-back" were intentional design targets.

He said "many people believe thiel or JBL have more detail or more neutral than those UK speakers".

In fact, JBL have been used in many studios used to record and master those recordings.

How about JBL midranges used solely for vocals and piano?:

Also JBL woofers and McIntosh 2300 amplifiers.  For technical details, see:

http://www.dozin.com/wallofsound/index.html

And this is exactly my experience as well:

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattTCG 

AFAIK...there are no r3 left out there. HIfiman was quite good about pulling off that stock from all the vendors. The only likelihood that you pick one up is if you bought used from someone who didn't send them back during the recall. 

Nice to know about that. I closed an order about two hours ago on HeadRoom. In 10 days I'll be back here to share my thoughts about the newest addition to my headphone database. Thanks Matt!

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstuart 

 

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

 

You are projecting an amazing amount into a much more limited statement by Fang:

Nowhere did he say either "withdrawn upper midrange" "pronounced upper treble" or "laid-back" were intentional design targets.

 

He said "many people believe thiel or JBL have more detail or more neutral than those UK speakers".

 

In fact, JBL have been used in many studios used to record and master those recordings.

 

How about JBL midranges used solely for vocals and piano?:

Also JBL woofers and McIntosh 2300 amplifiers.  For technical details, see:

http://www.dozin.com/wallofsound/index.html

 

And this is exactly my experience as well:

 

 

Of course there's going to be huge variance in tonality between different speaker types in a brand as big as JBL, Nankai's statement was a generalization of JBL voicing of particular speakers that he or his research team was familiar with, and it translated to how HE400s were voiced. Sure they could be off their target by a bit since translating a speaker sound signature into a headphone is not a simple EQ transplant, but it turned out the way it did and I don't see what's wrong with that.

Edit: heck, if you want you could try getting in touch with Fang and discussing HE400 retuning possibilities with him even. I had some conversation about this matter with Matt a little bit earlier actually.

If I knew that ealier, I'd have bought it from you!  

Quote:

Originally Posted by kstuart 

Audio Advisor is a reputable store that has been around for years.  I purchased my DAC from them.

 

So, head-direct.com (the HiFiMan store) will not ship the headphones direct to you ?

Unfortunately, Audio Advisor don't ship do addresses different than the billing one, but they seemed very attentious guys and answered me promptly. Also, they told me that even though their website shows HE-400 in stock, they are actually not.

Forgot to mention that yes, Head-Direct would ship it direct to me. The problem with that is custom taxes. They are way too high in Brazil. To avoid it, we try to use cheaper shipping methods, like First Class, but them we have to wait about a month to get our hands on the product. Sucks, right?

How about the Thiel part ?

From Stereophile review of the classic Thiel model:

see:

http://www.stereophile.com/floorloudspeakers/220

oh, and in the conclusion of the review is:

Let's just say that Fang's experience of speakers is extremely limited, but his experience of headphones is not.  Since he doesn't sell speakers, that's not a problem.

Also, many people's association of "American" as an adjective meaning "stupid and unsophisticated" has some small basis in reality, but it has absolutely no basis in the world of audio, particularly when you are talking professional and high-end equipment like JBL and Thiel.