**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread** - Page 410

One last time I promise......the J-money pads are just fantastic, I have experimented with almost every pad i could think off. I really like the way the velour's sound, but i just hated the comfort level.

 

This is a partial look into the vicious cycle they ended:

 

 

 

Thank you Jerg, I am sorry for doubting.........

Haha wow that's a lot of pads!

 

I just have velour and some gutted pleathers a la Jergpads (haven't done bass mod or installed the nylon just yet)

I am enjoying the velour sound once again I must admit, but I do like having improved pleathers now.

Fearless - do you use your J$ with nylon screen?

I'm still seriously contemplating getting these. And how's head clamp or lack thereof been?

I do not think that HiFiMan will make changes this dramatic. Those "cheap plastic clips" are only cheap because the pads are sold for $10 a pair or $5 for one pad. Once you get the hang of it, switching pads are a breeze and it's quite hard to get the pads off unintentionally. Me personally, I think it's a nice design, although they have the same thing with the earpad clips on B**ts. 

That is my failed attempts I have more lol.I use the screen from a pair of DT770 pads, after the install I tucked it in under the pads.

 

Mine never clamped hard enough for me however much I bent the metal parts inward and I have a larger head .My friend has a newer pair and they clamp much tighter then mine, I got mine right after they fixed the first batch. The comfort is very good with these,  I am shocked as I usually prefer velour (Beyer's style).

Edited by Fearless1 - 1/24/13 at 10:34pm

Got my He-400's about 5 days ago. Liking them, for the most part.

 

Comfort-wise, they don't hold a candle to my Senn HD590's (or DT770's, or HD448's), but that was to be expected from their weight. I feel I'm sensitive to uncomfortable headphones (had to return my Grados, hate all on-ears, etc.), so I'm actually impressed by their comfort considering my expectations were low. Oddly, I find the pleathers to be more comfortable than the velours. Perhaps the velours can be massaged to soften them, but I also noticed more sibilance with them, so I went back to the pleathers. I'm definitely going to give them another shot though, since I didn't pick a track to AB. The biggest comfort issue to me now is the headband. Bending it to fit the curvature of my head helped, but I think I'm going to have to buy some extra padding.

 

Sound-wise, the first thing I noticed compared to my HD590's was the treble presence. Considering how much time I've spent with the 590's (which I adore, btw), it's a bit jarring. I'm finding myself unable to listen to poor-quality recordings/masters which was never a problem with the 590's. Obviously, I'm not faulting the HE-400's for revealing what was there all along, it just never occurred to me that it'd be such an issue with so many of my albums. As someone who listens to the DT770's everyday at work, I was a little afraid I'd find the bass lacking. Not in the slightest, I actually much prefer it to the DT770. However, I do find the mid-bass lacking, making the low-end guitar crunch in 80's-00's indie rock less impactful and fun than the HD590's. The HE-400 is aces though with electronic music and jazz. The Knife & Mingus on repeat.  Not quite sure how I feel about it with classical yet.

 

The soundstage is similar to the 590--which is to say, I'm quite pleased with it. The imaging seems superior, perhaps aided by treble-emphasis (that is, relative to my status quo).

 

For anyone interested in an Apogee Duet (Firewire) + HE-400 combo, I have zero complaints and no desire to upgrade the DAC/amp. FYI "really loud" is about 80% on the Duet for me.

 

Thanks to the community here for turning me on to the HE-400...never would've heard of them otherwise! The law of diminishing returns is in full effect, but I'm quite happy so far and looking forward to spending more time with these chubby cans. It was between these and the HD650's. Because I had no plans of getting rid of my HD590's, I figured I'd get more variety switching to HiFiMan. I suppose I'll never truly know until I try the HD650's. 

I look in the mirror with my he-400's on and it looks so oversized compared to my head.  Almost foolishly, clownishly oversized.. anyone else feel the same way? lol

Hey I love the look of the HE-400's and their feel. I am 100% sure I will buy them and I was thinking which amp/dac combo I could get with this. Since I'm on a budget and dont want to spend a lot of money now I was thinking which AMP/DAC combo I could get for these. I dont want to pay more than 200$ for this if it doesnt help extremely. I was thinking about Schiit Mangi/Modi.

 

I am planning to use this with my computer and dont have a fancy sound card in it unfortunately. (Its a laptop) Do you maybe have any recommendations to which amp/dac combo i could get for these headphones? :)

Still pondering the sexy as hell Lyr, I love the look of that amp... just calling my name all the time now. I wan't it so much...

 

EDIT: Living in Canada drives the price up a fair bit, $535 total from Headphone Bar, $551 from Schiit if I get charged duty...

Edited by YGuyG - 1/25/13 at 12:50am

You can consider the Aune T1 ;) .. works perfectly fine with he400 and tube rolling will allow you to adjust the sound flavor to you tastes .

Edited by Sorrodje - 1/25/13 at 12:51am

Looks damn funny on my moms head

Can anyone comment on how the HE-400 rolls with the Aune T1 (and possibly in comparison to the Magni/Modi stack)?

 

Subjective really, if you want ample bass.. you will need more than the E17 imo.

I have used some truly powerful amps, and nothing short of hardware EQ can give the HE400 as much bass as the E17 can. Nothing beats bass controls. The HE400 with bass +4 on the E17 is something quite special.

So what's the ultimate sounding mod at this stage? Jergpads and regrilling? Or are they not complementary?

 

In my opinion - yes, I have an opinion you are essentially correct on what you've stated.  However, I have (3) of the newer Yamaha 2-channel pieces of hardware (amps, receivers, etc.)  Each of them have a subwoofer output, so I can enjoy my SVS sub in my 2-channel rig.  However, there is an additional feature on the Yamaha 2-channel amps and receivers which is: variable loudness.  This knob is a godsend, I tell you.  It allows one to move the knob so that the proper mix of bass and treble ... and even more bass can be achieved at lower listening levels.  As one increases the volume, these affects that are applied then to lessen some as the natural increase in volume, makes such controls fade towards the back a bit and the better bass response from naturally higher volumes starts to take over.

 

Being that this "variable loudness" button is used, one can enjoy true bliss at lower listening levels, but it scales beautifully.  Only Yamaha, and Denon to a degree - on their older 2-channel gear has offered such a great control.  Yamaha still offers it on their 2-channel gear that is still produced today.  The regular Bass and Treble controls are still present, but the variable loudness control is such more effective, I keep the regular Bass and Treble set to flat.