**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread** - Page 391

Quote:

Originally Posted by merkil 

these headphones are just fantastic with electronic music. wow.

Agreed!  What are some notable artists/albums/tracks you've come across?

Quote:

Originally Posted by modulor 

Agreed!  What are some notable artists/albums/tracks you've come across?

Decided to look at my old trance collection (2000-2005) and these songs sound amazing on these cans. This is the first time I am listening to this collection in a very long time.

right now I'm grooving to

Signum - Push Through

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

ok ok I had to post this one. Its a classic from 2000

M.I.K.E - Sunrise at Palamos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiNf-lM2Pqw

Yeah, I love how well these sound with electronic music. I just got done with Ochre's new album and it sounded amazing.

Listening to some Casino Versus Japan right now...

Here's my foobar setup: 

Back on topic, my HE-400's will be arriving this week. So excited! I am going to pair them with a Schiit stack (modi and magni) and I'm wondering if that's a solid setup or should I move to tubes? 

Thanks! 

I thought I should share the news that I just got my HE-400 today. Only appropriate after a few months of searching, reading head-fi, I finally got my first set of quality headphones.. besides my other short-lived sennheisers years ago.  Cheers.

Congrats!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ninjames 

This is what I do on Foobar ... very minimal, mostly because I have over a terabyte of music and I need quick access to all of it. Always make sure I set my folder hiearchy to be artist > album > songs. I always rename every file in my collection to fit a proper scheme (track number track title), etc.

 

I really, truly hate the skinning process for Foobar. Trying to install one can be a headache, switching to another is even more of a headache, making your own is a nightmare and finding one that isn't totally counter-intuitive in ever way is a chore. That being said, it handles a ton of music well (WMP can't), has tons of plugins and doesn't lock you into its own user environment like a certain company (Apple/iTunes), doesn't force you to use idiotic file types (ALAC) and has stood the test of time. Have nothing against Winamp or most of the others, though.

 

 

Nice! Just how I like it.. Download?

A peak into my world:

I'm also happy owner of HE-400 and I'm loving them!

I would like to second a question about Dragonfly, especially if it's gonna sound better than E17.

Here is my current situation:

Currently in the office I have Ultrasone dj1 headphones with E17 and I will be using HE-400 at home. Can't spend a lot of money at the moment so I figured out that I could get dragonfly and use it at home with HE-400 (and take it when travelling with IEM). I heard that DAC is really good so when I save more money I could use some nice amp and use dragonfly as DAC only with HE-400.

So I would like to know if dragonfly will sound better on it's own with HE-400 than E17 (i'm worried about amp power).

Is DAC on dragonfly good enough to be used with some better amp or will I have to buy standalone DAC anyway?

Thanks :)

Since everyone is sharing interfaces / screen shots, here is mine.  It is Squeezebox Server, and is distributing high-quality streaming media to 3 players in my home.  

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidsh 

Nice! Just how I like it.. Download?

http://slowboyfast.deviantart.com/art/Placebo-Monolithic-331527679

Quote:

Originally Posted by Marleybob217 

Oh god, soul meets body is the reason i sold my dt770 pro. Those songs are just plain sibilant, but you can trim down the frequencies in the 10 khz region with an eq. 

The He-400 actually isn't a very sibilant headphone, it actually shows a drop in the main sibilance frequencies. But around 10 khz there is a peak, and it can still cause some sibilance, but it is very managable with some eq magic.

 

Have you owned or own actual sibilant headphones? Such as the dt770 pro? Because I wouldn't call the he-400 sibilant, just tizzy.

If this is true, this is part of my concern about my pair possibly being defective, because there is certainly sibilance in nearly all tracks.  Unless what you call tizziness = my sibilance.  What I'm describing can be heard all through the vocal tracks it is several decibals above the rest of the music and is sharp and can be harsh.  Some songs its fairly tame others it can make make downright unlistenable.  It is not restricted to 's' sounds, it can be 'f', 'h', 'b', 'ch' ect.  I just tried to listen to tracks from three different albums from last night to this morning.  All three albums presented this issue to various degrees.  Oasis' Whats the Story Morning Glory, I could not even get past the first song 'Hello'.  On both Noel Gallager's High Flying Birds and Queens of the Stoneage Songs for the Deaf the problem was very pronounced. 

Regarding equalizers are any of these media players capable of performing system wide eq.  I do not have an extensive collection of music and was really banking on using the MOG for my music library and I need whatever equalization solution to work with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cuba_guy 

I'm also happy owner of HE-400 and I'm loving them!

I would like to second a question about Dragonfly, especially if it's gonna sound better than E17.

 

Here is my current situation:

Currently in the office I have Ultrasone dj1 headphones with E17 and I will be using HE-400 at home. Can't spend a lot of money at the moment so I figured out that I could get dragonfly and use it at home with HE-400 (and take it when travelling with IEM). I heard that DAC is really good so when I save more money I could use some nice amp and use dragonfly as DAC only with HE-400.

 

So I would like to know if dragonfly will sound better on it's own with HE-400 than E17 (i'm worried about amp power).

Is DAC on dragonfly good enough to be used with some better amp or will I have to buy standalone DAC anyway?

 

Thanks :)

I cannot answer your question about the HE-400 and Dragonfly pairing but I can tell you it is considerably better than the Fiio. I tried the Fiio as a direct comparison to my Dragonfly and it wasn't close. The DF is much quieter with a black background the Fiio couldn't match. Also the DF is more true to the music to my ears. The Fiio is warmer with more rolloff at both ends whereas I found the DF to be ruler flat in comparison. I am not saying the DF is the end all in dacs but it is really good. My son has the $200 Schiit combo and I even prefer the DF to that by a good margin. The Schiit stack is dryer and thinner sounding to me. Its amazing what they were able to cram into this small of a package. The portability and form factor will not allow me to give it up. As you state, adding an amp later to the DF could not hurt and then you still have it for on the go action.

To answer this question.  I only own two iems hf5 and re0.  I felt the re0s could be sibilant at times, most likely the recording because those things are cold and analytical.  The hf5 can hardly do wrong in my book.  I have heard my friends hd25 1-ii, and I did experience some sibilance, but nothing to this extent.