[Happy Camper]

6s

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
Heya,

First gen (rev 1) HE400's. Even had the driver issue that had to be fixed. Bleh. Still a great headphone. I read about the latest revision HE400 having weird treble issues that was recalled/fixed. My pair are one of the first batches that went out, so definitely not the case here.
 
I find the HE-400 slightly dark actually, but that's just my ears maybe. It's not a bright headphone so it doesn't sound emphasized to me (treble wise). The mids and mid-bass however are more forward sounding in volume compared to treble & sub-bass. The overall listen is a very smooth listen to me though, not quite as dull and boring as the HD650, but not as bright as the HE500 (or several headphones much brighter like Beyers, Ultrasones & Denons).
 
I'm actually surprised your Fiio's are not rolling the treble down enough for you (assuming that's your goal? Maybe I misunderstood). I found Fiio's (E11 & E10 at least) to drop treble faster, made my Denons sound way less bright for example. And the HE400 on a Fiio E10 was a pretty dark mixture actually. Definitely not a bright setup.
 

 
 
Very best,

 
HE400s even the recently-made units have always been dark in sound signature, but the twist is that it also has a very emphasized upper treble (between 10kHz and 15kHz). Do you not notice that with your pair?

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

 
HE400s even the recently-made units have always been dark in sound signature, but the twist is that it also has a very emphasized upper treble (between 10kHz and 15kHz). Do you not notice that with your pair?

 
Heya,
 
Didn't really notice it being overly bright in the upper treble. It still sounded darker than my Beyers, Denons, Ultrasones, etc. Maybe my pair was like that, or maybe it's a synergy thing, or perhaps just the music library I listen to (though it's variable from classical to dub, so I can't imagine it's that). Or maybe my hearing. But definitely doesn't sound as bright to me. Maybe I'm not as sensitive to upper treble as much as the lower and mid treble (which I am actually sensitive to, but I can tolerate it).
 
Used it with Fiios (which definitely roll treble down, so probably why I didn't notice there), Asgard (kind of bright to me), Lyr (warm, but otherwise didn't really change treble it seemed), NFB12 (kind of bright to me) and some AVR's just to test it out.
 
More Emotiva mini-X A-100 Impressions/Information/Observation(s):
 
So I've been running the amp for hours all day today. This thing is cool to the touch, and making zero noise. Fan has yet to make noise, and again, cool to the touch. Very different compared to the Asgard, Lyr, NFB12, etc, which all can cook eggs. I like that. Last thing you want is a heat radiator added to a room in Florida. Now I need a comparatively cool running DAC and then I'm golden for a non-heat generating Hifiman station. That would be nice.
 
Plowing through some electronic music to see how the bass and mids interact with lots of complex beats, drops, texture of bass, etc. Eating through some of my favorite dub, some house/EDM and some "other" that I don't even know how to describe really. Sub-bass is excellent, very sturdy, authoritative, but not over bearing and doesn't cover up melody, and has a nice impact to it, it's not just a hum, it's got attack. Mid-bass is more apparent on the HE-500, but only slightly, it's not overly emphasized, but I think it's noticeable for most that the mid-bass has more volume than the sub-bass does (gives it that warm edge). Mid-bass does not feel bloated or blurry or bleeding into other ranges. It's actually quite nice, great texture, big impact, controlled and recovers so fast that there's plenty of black space and separation still, so it doesn't sound boomy, it just has that nice tone and impact you'd expect from a fast speaker that can drop a bass tone. The treble definitely comes out to play in my particular library of music, lots of bass lines, but also of course a lot of play with synth/sampled treble stuff where the upper range starts to be emphasized and stick out above the melody and bass lines. It's not overly bright, but it's bright. I like that though, I don't like dull/relaxed treble for most things unless I'm just in a mood or have a headache or something (but then I don't use headphones during that anyways...).
 
Very best,

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Mal,
Thanks for this post, man.  I'm finally about to take the leap to the 500's at the end of the year.  I have been looking at amps and was becoming straight jaded at the outrageous price you have to pay for power.  I finally decided on a speaker amp yesterday--$500+ for a headphone amp that will power these things is just obnoxious.  This thread is perfect.  Everything I was looking for.  Now I just gotta decide on a DAC--probably the Calyx Coffee--$200 for a modern chip is pretty boss.

If you don't mind, how much was the recable?
 
--Will

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Mal,
Thanks for this post, man.  I'm finally about to take the leap to the 500's at the end of the year.  I have been looking at amps and was becoming straight jaded at the outrageous price you have to pay for power.  I finally decided on a speaker amp yesterday--$500+ for a headphone amp that will power these things is just obnoxious.  This thread is perfect.  Everything I was looking for.  Now I just gotta decide on a DAC--probably the Calyx Coffee--$200 for a modern DAC is pretty boss.

If you don't mind, how much was the recable?
 
--Will

 
Heya,
 
The cable was expensive, but that's because I went with a lot of different options that were not necessary. You could easily have a cable or adapter made for much less than I did. All you really need is a 6.3mm female to banana plugs adapter. Or a 6.3mm female to XLR and then XLR to banana plugs. You don't have to pay for a full re-cable of 6 feet which is expensive like I did. Just talk to Brian over at BTG Audio. Contact via email. He will work with you and find the most cost effective way to achieve your goal. He's honest and very friendly/fast to work with. My cable was about $190 with shipping. But that's because I got new hifiman terminals, a 6 foot midnight sheathed cable that's braided, and two adapters, and the neutrik XLR adapters were expensive per adapter. Again, you don't have to go my route. I wanted a lighter, shorter cable than the stock Hifiman cable. My cable is much, much lighter. And I wanted it shorter and more flexible and I like sheath instead of just rubber. So I paid more for all that. And again, I had two adapters made, and I went with XLR to do the connections (which was not necessary) largely just because I wanted to keep as universal as possible. I can adapt this cable to anything due to terminating in XLR. I can have an XLR to whatever I want adapter made, and I never have to swap my cable or take it off my Hifiman headphone. And of course, it goes onto any Hifiman headphone. This allows me to go from headphone amps to speaker amps in seconds. Anyhow, again, just talk to Brian, he'll figure out the cheapest way to get an adapter made with speaker taps that will work for you.
 
Very best,

 

[mikek200]

" So I've been running the amp for hours all day today. This thing is cool to the touch, and making zero noise. Fan has yet to make noise, and again, cool to the touch. Very different compared to the Asgard, Lyr, NFB12, etc, which all can cook eggs. I like that. Last thing you want is a heat radiator added to a room in Florida. Now I need a comparatively cool running DAC and then I'm golden for a non-heat generating Hifiman station. That would be nice."
 
I've had my emo ,on for the last 9 days,& it is cool as a moose on a mountain
Fan has never gone on since I bought it 2 months ago.
 
For the price an excellent small,yet powerful amp,that drive my he-6's well
 
 

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Mal,
Do you have Brian's email address?  His website's blocked out here.

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

Mal,
Do you have Brian's email address?  His website's blocked out here.

 
brian.goto.audio@gmail.com
 
Very best,

 

[benzoylmethyl]

Fantastic.  Thanks for both, my friend.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

Heya,
 
Upon further inspection the HE-400 headband (first gen), and my HE-500 headband (first gen) are virtually the same in width. Maybe it was another revision or something, I could have sworn one was less wide. I guess it was my imagination.

 

 
Very best,

 
The material on the HE-400 headband is different from the HE-6, and I'm betting the HE-500 as well.  While HE-6 has a very nice grade of leather that's well polished, glossy, and flexible, the HE-400 has possibly the cheapest grade of leather I've ever seen, and is very dull looking and kind of thick/stiff.  It's not a complaint, for the price of HE-400 I can't believe they used real leather at all!  But the point is I'm betting HE-500 shares the nice quality of HE-6's band and the difference in appearance does tend to make the sizes look different. 
 
I hate to shroud it in cheap pleather with the wrap, but I'm looking forward to trying the wrap....I don't find the HFMs horribly uncomfortable but an improvement is still welcome.  I hate to mutilate the nice leather, but if it works, it works.  And if you find a nicer quality real leather one, let me know!

 
 
By the way, I'm pretty sure you misunderstood the meaning of "Red Wine Audio".....

 
Quote:

 
Heya,

First gen (rev 1) HE400's. Even had the driver issue that had to be fixed. Bleh. Still a great headphone. I read about the latest revision HE400 having weird treble issues that was recalled/fixed. My pair are one of the first batches that went out, so definitely not the case here.

 
 
Very best,

 
It looks like you're using the Pleather pads for the HE-400 which could explain some of how you're hearing the sound compared to jerg.  Many of us use the velour pads and the sound, particularly the mids, changes significantly with them (which is true of HE-500 & HE-6 as well of course.)  I may actually through the pleather pads back on my 400's just to make them stand out a bit from my HE-6 though.  They become much less "dark" without the pleather underdamping them...but the "dark" sound is kind of addictive if you already have 500/5/6 around!

 

[MalVeauX]

Quote:

 
It looks like you're using the Pleather pads for the HE-400 which could explain some of how you're hearing the sound compared to jerg.  Many of us use the velour pads and the sound, particularly the mids, changes significantly with them (which is true of HE-500 & HE-6 as well of course.)  I may actually through the pleather pads back on my 400's just to make them stand out a bit from my HE-6 though.  They become much less "dark" without the pleather underdamping them...but the "dark" sound is kind of addictive if you already have 500/5/6 around!

 
Heya,
 
Oh the leather pads are just there in that photo, I have both of course, and I generally use velour pads. I got leather to test (and of course my HE400 came with leather not velour like the later revisions... how nice of Fang). I definitely noticed the difference in both the HE400 and HE500 with the leather pads versus the velour pads. Velour is the only way to go to my ears on this one. My impressions were based on velour pads.
 
Very best,

 

[SoundFreaq]

Quote:

 
Plowing through some electronic music to see how the bass and mids interact with lots of complex beats, drops, texture of bass, etc. Eating through some of my favorite dub, some house/EDM and some "other" that I don't even know how to describe really. Sub-bass is excellent, very sturdy, authoritative, but not over bearing and doesn't cover up melody, and has a nice impact to it, it's not just a hum, it's got attack. Mid-bass is more apparent on the HE-500, but only slightly, it's not overly emphasized, but I think it's noticeable for most that the mid-bass has more volume than the sub-bass does (gives it that warm edge). Mid-bass does not feel bloated or blurry or bleeding into other ranges. It's actually quite nice, great texture, big impact, controlled and recovers so fast that there's plenty of black space and separation still, so it doesn't sound boomy, it just has that nice tone and impact you'd expect from a fast speaker that can drop a bass tone. The treble definitely comes out to play in my particular library of music, lots of bass lines, but also of course a lot of play with synth/sampled treble stuff where the upper range starts to be emphasized and stick out above the melody and bass lines. It's not overly bright, but it's bright. I like that though, I don't like dull/relaxed treble for most things unless I'm just in a mood or have a headache or something (but then I don't use headphones during that anyways...).
 
Very best,

 
As always, you know I'm looking for that extra edge in electronic music reproduction. Any insights on your preference between D5000 and your HE500? What are the big differences? I'd expect the HE500 to be a bit tighter in the bass, but less of it. 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
Heya,
 
Oh the leather pads are just there in that photo, I have both of course, and I generally use velour pads. I got leather to test (and of course my HE400 came with leather not velour like the later revisions... how nice of Fang). I definitely noticed the difference in both the HE400 and HE500 with the leather pads versus the velour pads. Velour is the only way to go to my ears on this one. My impressions were based on velour pads.
 
Very best,

Mal, I think you are one of the very few in the world who still owns a revision 1 HE400 (that works, haha). It'd be interesting if you can get a hold of a newer production unit and compare, since the myth here is that rev1 units are actually dark all the way across to the upper treble, rather than a dip followed by a curve-ball.

 

[MalVeauX]

Heya,
 
Quote:

 
As always, you know I'm looking for that extra edge in electronic music reproduction. Any insights on your preference between D5000 and your HE500? What are the big differences? I'd expect the HE500 to be a bit tighter in the bass, but less of it. 

 
I suppose it depends on what you seek in electronic music. Some people just want the sub-bass with a little melody. Some people don't want a ton of bass, but rather like the speed, attack, melody and treble with some vocals and prefer a more neutral approach that is simply really fast. Depends on what kind of electronic music you're listening to, since there's nearly endless sub-genres of it. The beauty of the D5000 is that it has amazing sub-bass, without too much mid-bass to shadow it, and still retains wonderful mids and a sparkly treble. I love it for electronic music. But it's definitely a loose bass, slower than an ortho, and has way more volume in bass, so even at low volume listening it's very bassy. The HE-500 (and HE-400) are faster, much faster, and both have excellent bass response. My HE-500 (and the HE-400) have no problems dropping 30hz tones, just like my Denons, but the Hifimans can do it while being open back and fast, with basically no recovery time. The Denon is going to take longer to recover from low bass tones like that, so it sounds less tight, less controlled, less crisp, and more boomy/muddy (but to me, that's a good thing in some genres!). The HE-500 doesn't have less bass (nor does the HE-400), it's simply presented at a different volume, but it's still very much present, these are not shy on bass, they're just not basshead presented, the way the Denons really favor sub-bass being forward. I still crave slightly forward sub-bass even on the orthos, but it's just an equalizer tick away from being true. I'm really enjoying everything from dub to trance to house on the HE-500 right now. Drops are impactful, synth is magical sounding, and the detail in the treble effects are just tantalizing.
Quote:

Mal, I think you are one of the very few in the world who still owns a revision 1 HE400 (that works, haha). It'd be interesting if you can get a hold of a newer production unit and compare, since the myth here is that rev1 units are actually dark all the way across to the upper treble, rather than a dip followed by a curve-ball.

 
Haha, maybe. I guess I'll have to see if I can borrow someone's recent HE-400 revision to see.
 
Very best,

 

[LugBug1]

Yeah I love the HE500's with electronic music. The liquidy midrange is perfect for distorted electronic effects and acts like Koan Sound- sound breathtaking! Just the right amount of peak in the treble to add that sparkle on the little clicks, pops and other sugar sprinkled on quality dubstep. I like the LCD2's also with electronic music but the HE500's just do it a little better with the slight more air and sharpness they have at the top. Yeah the Audeze are more resolving and controlled, but electronic music for me; is fun music! And the HE500 reproduce the fun... in a more fun way