The NEW JVC HA-S400. Affordable Carbon Nanotube cans for the masses. - Page 47

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghostfit 

 

If you've read my comments in the earlier post, I prefer the S400 for music and the S500 for watching videos. But that is not to say the S500 is no good for music, it all depends on your sound preferances, for me the S500 has a just a tad too much Bass over the Mids for me to enjoy certain genre of my music, and when I'm in Basshead mood, the XB90ex IEM does it ! 

 

Get the S500 for the 'WOW' factor then get the S400 because they so affordable and compare the both for yourself. IMO, they really complement each other more then anything else.

 I have a friend in a Spanish forum that considers that highs in the S400 are nonexistent. Another one thinks that out of the box these same highs are one of the best he has heard in any portable headphone. I myself believe that the S400 lacks a bit of high energy for my liking.  

My first friend is older than me, the second younger.

I believe that the S400 will be better for you than the s500 depending on the sensibility your hearing has to high frequencies.

Myself I prefer the S500, but I sense that their highs are just in the frontier of being overly too aggressive (50 hours of burning).  I feel that bass has more thump in the S500, but both reach very well into the sub-bass region (amazingly so). In the mids is where I find S500 is a little bit better. Even after 150+ hours of burn in I find the mids in the S400 lacking depth and detail. Even more so when I compare the S400 to the S500 or the V-Moda 80.  With my source (Iriver H140+Arrow 4G) the S500 suits my taste better... and for me that is what's important.

From what i have heard i think i might go with the s500s but could i get the outer shell changed cause i want to have a red ring like in the japan import s400s but its not really to important because i could careless about the looks all for the sound :) 

Just trying again, is someone kind enough to post a pic of how they look from the front? Since I can't stand hp's that look like half  a circle on the head. I prefer it snug, tight along the head. Haha. Would be awesome. Totally blur out your face or do whatever, I just care about the shape of the hp!

I have some news for u buddy.

Its doesn't go alongside your skull, but it also isn't a crazy circle around your head.

Its like in between you know? No pic cuz i prefer being anonymous.

After some serious listening sessions I've come to some conclusions about my s400's.  First let me say I'm a novice when it comes to head-fi so these are certainly my personal preferences and not some highly experienced and analytical review.

I definitely enjoy these headphones.  Their isolation is good.  I found an extremely comfortable position, but then learned it's not the best acoustic position so I'd say with sound quality in mind they are about a 6/10.  They have nice detailed highs, sometimes a touch strong but easily EQ'ed and I'm sure better after a burn-in.  Lows are solid, but I don't have the experience, let alone the words to describe their qualities.  For me they provide the punch I want and reasonable deep tones (wording?) and once again respond really well to EQ.  The mids are, in my opinion what needed the most work.  It seemed to me that right around 1K they were overly strong, giving lower register vocals too much power and making them sound muddy.  Then immediately following there seemed to be a big drop, making mid register vocals sound distanced and weak.  I gave a 1 db drop to the 500Hz freq range, 3 db drop to the 1KHz range, then a 3 db increase to the 2KHz range and a 1 db increase to the 4KHz range (all in poweramp on my phone).  To me that gave a sound signature I really enjoyed, and after a lot of experimenting decided it worked for all of the genres I listen to.

I put these through the entire Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, Doobie Brothers Best Of, Eagles Best Of, 90's Underground Hip  Hop, and various country, pop and electronic music I've collected, all in FLAC format directly connected to my phone.

I also have the KSC75's with a cmoy amp using the RA1 JR4556 opamp and since someone asked earlier I'll quickly mention that with the above adjustments (these phones don't seem to benefit from the "warm" sound that the amp provides) have close to the micro detail the amp/hp combination provide.  I still prefer the open design for rock and natural instruments, but I am SO pleased with the combination of isolation, bass, treble detail, and cost these things provide.  For 45 dollars I have a great rock/quiet environment combo, then for 27 dollars I have a great pair of travel phones that do so many things well.  If that isn't budget-fi I don't know what is.  I plan on grabbing a couple opamps that are supposed to be better for soundstage and mid/high detail to test with the s400's to see if I can amp them successfully to my liking.

Anyways thank you to Ghost and everyone in this thread.  So glad I made this purchase.

I can't wait till mine fully burn in :)

EDIT: If anyone was wondering how black pads look on the white version, I added a picture above to show what it looks like. Sorry that the color is washed out, I have a pretty bad camera haha.

Quote:

Originally Posted by radicaldesignz 


that looks really good, i was worried that the black pads wouldnt match the white :P

 

Yea, I was  bit worried as well haha. When I put the pads on though, I was quite surprised!

Just my $0.02 worth on S400 SQ and other ramblings. To start off with the S400 was the best headphones from JVC headphone without burn-in I'd heard. a little mid-centric but otherwise fairly balanced sound.

After over 100 hrs. burn-in the mids have recessed quite a bit.  The bass has become more forward, and so the mids and bass are quite balanced. The highs are rolled off with very little sparkle and sheen which is really not to much of a bad thing with some modern recordings. The main problem with the S400 is that they make all kinds of music and recordings for that matter sound very pleasant. These are not the most accurate of headphones but I still think they very good headphones with a slightly warm pleasant SQ that is very intoxicating. The SQ reminds me quite a bit a my Denon AH-1001's, so if anyone has these and wants a similar SQ on the cheap the S400 is a very good even more portable alternative. The S400 has great mid-bass slam but not much in the way of sub-bass, the soundstage is not very wide but fairly deep to my ears.

I also did the headphone earpad replacement mod with the ATH pleather earpads. But I wanted to do something different as far as the paper roll-up mod inside the earpads. I wanted to try a fabric roll-up mod or something similar; so I found some 4" X 4" surgical gauze and cut then into a single layer and then just rolled them up and stuffed them into the earpads the same as paper mod (2 per each earpad). These were a little tight on the ears for a couple of days and then they started to flatten out after about two days of use. The above listening impressions are done with this mod except of course the initial non burn-in impressions.

The next thing that JVC headphone needs to produce is to make a full sized closed or semi-closed headphone in the RX or DX series; by hopefully using or 50mm carbon nanotube diaphram or even maybe the established 40 mm diaphram. I would hope they can make it very balance and more accurate headphone with better highs and great sub-bass.  If JVC does these items on a new headphone than all other dynamic diaphrams will be "boat anchors".

Is it possible that I am the only one not loving the S400's? They sound ok, but are too dark and warm for my liking. Is the S500 worth the little bit extra?

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacrifice13 

Is it possible that I am the only one not loving the S400's? They sound ok, but are too dark and warm for my liking. Is the S500 worth the little bit extra?

I don't know about the S400's. But you just caught me at a time when I'm listening to my S500's. I can't say whether or not their sig is for you, but wow, they sound friggin' good to me. I'll go back to my corner now and let someone who has both cans help you out..

Edit: you might like the ksc75's. Inexpensive. No isolation. Wonderful mids. Beautiful sound. But put them on a parts-express headband..

Quote:

Originally Posted by sacrifice13 

Is it possible that I am the only one not loving the S400's? They sound ok, but are too dark and warm for my liking. Is the S500 worth the little bit extra?

Get some different pads on these..The sound didn't open up for me until I got the ATH pleathers or the AKG 518Le pads on them. Different pads will be worth your trouble.

Pad mod will help, but don't expect them to compare to the S500.....S500 are worth the extra $!