**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread** - Page 257

Quote:

Originally Posted by justin w. 

 

What equipment did you use for this?

No extra equipment, just the setup in my signature and this program.

Next up, my HifiMAN HE-400 headband renovation.  But, first ...

I have to finish up another project by completing a sleeve for my Iconia tablet.  This picture shows essentially the same tools that I'll be using to rework the HifiMAN leather headband by opening up one side, then installing a sufficient amount of cotton batting to fill in the air spact and make for a much more comfortable fit - yet, keep the same appearance as stock, but with much, much better padding.

No, that's not a shank as they might use in prison.  It is, however, a hand-made sewing awl for the purpose of using a single strand of thread to make stitches in pleather and leather that are of machine sewn quality.

I've just recently purchased the HiFiMan HE-400 after much time looking for a suitable headphone, this is my first step into the head-fi arena. Then spent a considerable amount of time getting through 3,849 posts and with so many posts - figured this model must be very popular by the head-fi community. Note to self, when doing research for a product on head-fi, look for a thread that has lots of posts as it indicates some popularity with the community.

I've got the HE-400 being driven by an unknown Chinese made DAC/amp called the HA-INFO DA1. Before buying this, I should have looked into the FiiO E17 or JDS Labs O2 amp + Objective DAC. The only consolation is that the HA-INFO DA1 uses the same DAC as the E17, the Wolfson chip does make the music sound more pleasant.

There's a lot of useful information in this thread for newbies such as myself. The inexpensive way to improve sound quality seems to be getting the velours and the mod to the standard grill. Will have to try these out after enjoying some listening time with the current set-up.

Steve

I am considering whether to return my unit because of the imbalance or not, contacted justin and still waiting for a response. 

@MLE: How much imbalance is acceptable to you? 

Yeah I wont even bother testing with that.  If I can't detect imbalance issues during practical usage, then I don't know why I'd even begin to worry myself over such things as that.

For what it's worth, I've followed the HE-400 threads closely since they first came out.  Other than the very first rev of the he-400 where one driver would go out or have problems over time, I don't remember anybody else reporting imbalance issues on their pair.

I certainly don't want reports such as that to sway anybody against a purchase, because it obviously drove enough of a stir to get even Justin of Headamp to question it a little.

All FR measurements of HE-400 I've seen have shown have shown the response of both drivers to be relatively even with each other, I don't see any legitimate cause for concern here like the cases we had with the DT1350, Pro900 etc.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MattTCG 

^^ With all due respect to MLE, this is getting a bit carried away. ALL headphones that I've measured have some imbalance. By his own admission, the he400 imbalance is not detectable during normal use. If there is a discernible issue while using them that you can actually hear, then contact your retailer. 

 

I'd feel bad for the retailers who are good guys suddenly having to take a lose on returned hp's because they did not measure perfectly. 

So true.  My thoughts exactly.

Also, when Ninja James and MLE were intensely in a debate, I was going to suggest that they get a room, but I bit my tongue and held back at the time.

I feel bad for Hifiman, for having to replace a crap load of HE400s for free recently due to people finding out that they could find subtle channel FR differences (whether it be phase shifts or actual imbalances) with SineGen. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by TMRaven 

Yeah I wont even bother testing with that.  If I can't detect imbalance issues during practical usage, then I don't know why I'd even begin to worry myself over such things as that.

 

For what it's worth, I've followed the HE-400 threads closely since they first came out.  Other than the very first rev of the he-400 where one driver would go out or have problems over time, I don't remember anybody else reporting imbalance issues on their pair.

 

I certainly don't want reports such as that to sway anybody against a purchase, because it obviously drove enough of a stir to get even Justin of Headamp to question it a little.

 

All FR measurements of HE-400 I've seen have shown have shown the response of both drivers to be relatively even with each other, I don't see any legitimate cause for concern here like the cases we had with the DT1350, Pro900 etc.

No please! Dont mention these... I was thinking there could be an imblance of some sort between the drivers...

Well my HE-6 just told me I shouldnt care about that and so I wont :)

My HE-6 impedance measures somewhere around 62,2 ohms in one and 62.8 ohms in the other so roughly within 0.5 ohms. It is still higher than the supposed 50 ohms thou :D

Could that pose a problem or will these measurements lower with use (measured on the day they arrived, without any headtime orburn in, right off the box

Thanks! Luke