**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread** - Page 384

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozarkcdn 



You all are so fancy.. $2.49 FOR 2 Oil rubbed bronze door stoppers from wally world. One for my home office and one for my real office. Hey, MacGyver was my hero.

PS - what do you guys use for your gain setting on the e17?
And... What does the e9 dock do for performance? Cleaner sound or just louder?

Before I put the wider piece of foam on my stand I hung them for a few minutes on the small piece and it left a noticeable dent in the headband after just a few minutes. I wouldn't want to hang them like that all the time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mad Lust Envy 

I always thought the Lyr was a bit V-shaped. The mids were quite recessed compared to all SS amps I have used. That was with two sets of tubes. That's probably why I didn't care for it at all. I liked V-shaped headphones, and paired with a V-shaped amp, it exaggerated what I like of the headphones.

I'm sure there are tubes to offset that, but I didn't care to hunt for some magical tubes. Gladly stay away from that headache.

I remeber reading your journey with the Lyr in the tube rolling thread and honestly you had two of the worst sounding pairs of tubes (to my ears). If you look at it as a headache to tube roll then for sure that was a bad choice in amps for you, but I look at it like an adventure. One thing though, when you get that "right for you" set of tubes it sure does sound like gold.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jabse 

SIGH!!!!!!!!!

 

I've got the worst luck... so im listening to music on my he-400s e9+e17 as usual, i go to turn up the volume a bit on a bassy song.. then all of a sudden the left driver loses sound completely sounded like someone just unplugged it........ i switched the wires etc, seemed like the drivers dead? no small no nothing, the connection can't be dead either as it looks fine
 

have to send them back to the US all the way from australia.. no headphones for over a month i presume....... sigh, i havent even had these for a week

 

on second thoughts it probably is a connection issue since I've heard the same static "disconnection" sound before in the left driver.. the driver should be fine, nothing DIY solvable though, could anyone suggest how turning the volume up can somehow mess up the connection?

 

headamp "The customer is responsible for shipping charges if an item is sent in for service.  Products from other manufacturers have their own warranties."

 

so i probably will lose like $50 and 2 months without headphones just because the pair i got decides to be faulty, nice.

That happened to me a couple says ago and it turned out to be a problem with this crappy amp I was using.

Quote:

Originally Posted by wje 

 

Don't ya think you should have determined if you like the HifiMAN headphones before selecting the name that you did for the site here?  

My name makes sense anyways... I mean... okay, I'm taking a simple joke too far. Nevermind. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidsh 

It can be because you have got bad recordings. Like 128 kbit/s. But the HE-400 tend to be slightly sibilant IMO.

I have been using 320 kbs tracks streaming from MOG.  This seems to me more than slight; however, there are tracks when it is very minimal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidsh 

It can be because you have got bad recordings. Like 128 kbit/s. But the HE-400 tend to be slightly sibilant IMO.

While I agree that sibilant songs tend to be bad recordings, the bitrate doesn't have much if anything to do with it. I have many flac songs that are very sibilant on the HE-400s. That would be imo this headphone's biggest flaw (along with slightly recessed female vocals). Quite disappointing considering Im in love with these headphones.

If you want to reduce the sibilance a little, try the jergpads. I finished the mod yesterday and it fleshes out female vocals slightly and trims some of the edge off sibilant sounds, but only some. The mod is awesome, but not for me since pleathers + my naturally oily skin = bad experience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by beaver316 

 

While I agree that sibilant songs tend to be bad recordings, the bitrate doesn't have much if anything to do with it. I have many flac songs that are very sibilant on the HE-400s. That would be imo this headphone's biggest flaw (along with slightly recessed female vocals). Quite disappointing considering Im in love with these headphones.

 

If you want to reduce the sibilance a little, try the jergpads. I finished the mod yesterday and it fleshes out female vocals slightly and trims some of the edge off sibilant sounds, but only some. The mod is awesome, but not for me since pleathers + my naturally oily skin = bad experience.

Agreed! The treble is the only thing with the HE-400 I see as a major flaw

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidsh 

Agreed! The treble is the only thing with the HE-400 I see as a major flaw

As to it being a "major flaw" I think that's debatable.  I don't believe it is major, but some people might have an issue with sibilants due to the type of music they listen to (e.g. female vocals), their equipment driving the HE-400s, as well as their own personal hearing capabilities.  With that said, I don't think a blanket statement can be applied to any headphone product because what one might dis-like, another may love.

All too many people start to be quite critical on a product, yet many simply refuse to use a bit of EQ.  Those people will state that they'll keep on swapping headphones in and out, quite possibly for the rest of their life.  The situation may have been remedied on pair #2, with a small bit of EQ adjustment - to limit some certain frequency points, as opposed to boosting others.  Boosting is OK, in moderation.  Cutting, or taking down a frequency is a bit easier.

Enjoy!

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidsh 

Agreed! The treble is the only thing with the HE-400 I see as a major flaw

Actually I wouldn't say the treble is flawed, it just doesn't play nice with bad recordings such as modern pop music and the like. But with good recordings you'd never think there was a flaw.

Quote:

Originally Posted by merkil 

I am curious about this sibilance that you guys are talking about as I have never experienced it with these headphones. Does listening volume play a large roll in this?

Maybe so, or maybe you don't like pop music. It's largely recording dependent.

Yes, most of the times I experience sibilance on the HE-400 is with pop music and over-processed vocals.  Usually those tend to be bad recordings too.  The spike is still something I rather not have though.