It's great for all rock music, where the imaging / instrument separation of these cans REALLY shines. You get a stunningly realistic 3D sense of how the band is physically set up and playing in-studio or live, and in well-mastered / recorded tracks, you could even distinguish where individual drums / different plucks of guitar strings are individually coming from. The vocals are dead-center and nicely forward, and with all the instruments going off all around, it's quite an experience.
Listening to Moonchild - King Crimson, right now. The cymbal hits are just so nice and real, gives me goosebumps.
For modern pop, it's very good also, especially with that tight deep bass. Mids aren't too lush so pop songs have great clarity, and treble is just smooth/dark enough that vocals aren't sibilant (pop music tends to be more sibilant due to poorer mastering) but aren't dull either.
In fact, there's not a genre that these do poorly on (edit: the only songs I don't quite enjoy these on are those of certain female Jpop singers...Hikaru Utada for example, something off about their vocals out of HE400's). Great all-rounder cans IMO.
I'm wondering if you guys can help me...I have a pair of Grado 225i's and I'm thinking of either adding the HE 400 or 500. I have a Asgard 2 amp.
I live in the Washington/Baltimore area and I cannot find a place to audition.
Would you say that the 400 is better for rock music?
I listen to a lot of heavy/psychedelic rock and metal. The Grados are great for these genres.
But I also enjoy laid back folk, blues, indie, new age/ambient electronic, and some jazz and classical. I like symphonic soundtracks.
So, I'm looking for something different...ideally something that reproduces guitar oriented rock but also that I will use for everything else.
Or, I might go all out and get an upper end Grado....but, for the 25% of the time that I'm not rocking out hard and heavy, I'm looking for something for my more reflective moods.
Much Thanks!
