[tuna47]

I have had the 600 650 k702 and the HE 400 are by far my favorites
The sound stage is not as large as the k702 but much deeper and realistic
The sound seems to come from the air
Lots of fun

 

[Madmollusk]

Quote:

 
I feel the senns "laid back" presentation was always a bit of a letdown on rock sessions. "Thicker", "meatier", "comfortable", or "vieled", "flat", "blending" were words that came out of the Senns in a lot of comparisons. They were not truly demolished, in my opinion, because there is a lot to like. They are not known for being "bassy", but in comparison to the HE-400, they present a consistently stronger "thumpiness" and have enough texture and separation to seem detailed. The senns had me following bass grooves far more often than the HE-400, which I though placed the vocals first. They also do have very good extension in their own right, but did not reach some notes that the HE-400 could. Female vocals could be grainy, and live music clapping sounded more like static. The 3-dimensionality and resolution just didn't really compete, and overall they seem to keep you at arms length. I still, after many years, contest that these are probably among a small group of headphones that I promise you can wear about all day and find little real fault with. They are very good and I won't throw them away!

 
Great write up! I think with more voltage and power, and maybe some burn-in too, you'll see that the he400 can be quite "thumpy." I was using the Little Dot MKiii with some sweet mullard tubes to drive these cans, and the bass was great in almost every way--I had no complaints whatsoever. But when I started to use an old kenwood receiver to power the he400s instead, my jaw dropped: now the bass sounds positively  extraordinary! I said something to this effect earlier, but I think I should say it again: properly powered, the he400 has as much bass presence and thump as my Denon D2000s (which are widely reputed to be great headphones for bass)--only the he400's bass is way cleaner, with zero mid-bass bloat. Who knows? Maybe my he400's just have good synergy with this crazy receiver of mine. With that in mind, I'm not saying the difference between my various setups is not night and day, but now that they have real power, I would say that my He400 has crossed a threshold, so to speak, and in doing so, I think I have realized their full potential. 

 

[chewy4]

More power will at the very least give more headroom so that you can do some EQing on the bass if it isn't sufficient.
 
The bass can get to extremely loud levels without distortion. I was messing with it before and I ended up with a severe ringing in my ears the next day.

Haven't really paid too much mind to the thumpy aspect of it though... I really like my headphones to have more of a rumbling sub and mid bass.

 

[Madmollusk]

Quote:

More power will at the very least give more headroom so that you can do some EQing on the bass if it isn't sufficient.
 
The bass can get to extremely loud levels without distortion. I was messing with it before and I ended up with a severe ringing in my ears the next day.

Haven't really paid too much mind to the thumpy aspect of it though... I really like my headphones to have more of a rumbling sub and mid bass.

 
Effing scary! You're the second person to report something like this!  I sure hope that planar headphones, or Hififman headphones in particular, don't have a tendency to cause tinnitus! No headphone is worth my hearing. I need to buy a spl meter pronto!

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

 
Effing scary! You're the second person to report something like this!  I sure hope that planar headphones, or Hififman headphones in particular, don't have a tendency to cause tinnitus! No headphone is worth my hearing. I need to buy a spl meter pronto!

Oh don't get me wrong it was totally my fault, I just pushed it a little too far. That much rumbling right in your eardrums can cause some problems you know.

I also have tinnitus normally and it's occassionally gotten to severe levels for days at a time without reason.

 

[Madmollusk]

Quote:

Oh don't get me wrong it was totally my fault, I just pushed it a little too far. That much rumbling right in your eardrums can cause some problems you know.

I also have tinnitus normally and it's occassionally gotten to severe levels for days at a time without reason.

 
I'm really sorry to hear that.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Oh don't get me wrong it was totally my fault, I just pushed it a little too far. That much rumbling right in your eardrums can cause some problems you know.

I also have tinnitus normally and it's occassionally gotten to severe levels for days at a time without reason.

Rule of thumb is, if you turn the volume to a comfortable listening volume with the headphones on, you should then turn the knob down a few (~5 dB or so) extra clicks.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

 
I'm really sorry to hear that.

 
It's really no biggie, minor annoyance at most. Small price to pay for standing right next to the speakers at dozens of concerts

 
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by jerg /img/forum/go_quote.gif

Rule of thumb is, if you turn the volume to a comfortable listening volume with the headphones on, you should then turn the knob down a few (~5 dB or so) extra clicks.

Yeah I normally don't listen all that loud, I was just testing how loud the bass could get before.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
It's really no biggie, minor annoyance at most. Small price to pay for standing right next to the speakers at dozens of concerts

 
 
Yeah I normally don't listen all that loud, I was just testing how loud the bass could get before.

That's equivalent to staring at the sun, or chugging boiling water; not sure why people do it.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

That's equivalent to staring at the sun, or chugging boiling water; not sure why people do it.

Because it's an easy way to get close to the stage and still have breathing room since nobody else is stupid enough to do it

 
I keep my distance nowadays though.

 

[MrMateoHead]

Quote:

 
I've read a lot of comments on HE400s from people who own lots of higher end headphones and owned/auditioned these, and the consensus seems to be that its only flaw (might be minor~nonexistent to some ears, severe to other ears) is that its mid treble is a bit "tizzy", and that's with the fixed non-rev3 versions of the HE400s. I tend to agree with that observation, this tizziness is mostly only noticeable in certain vocals, but it is definitely there and is the one thing that's making the treble not 100% smooth. 
 
For some weird reason, I can't recall having any of this tizziness with my older HE400s that I had earlier this year which I sent back for replacement (due to driver damage); I'm not sure if it's because I wasn't listening as analytically with regards to the treble, or if older units were indeed free of this tizziness. 
 
If somehow this tizziness can be reined under control, via some sort of damping or amp pairing, then I wouldn't see any real flaw with the sound at all and technically it'd be close to perfect for my taste. So far that is the only minor gripe I have with its sound.

Interesting description - "tizziness". On the Norah Jones recording, I am used to an odd "ringing" (not in my ears) noise or sort of flapping that seems just behind some of the bass hits, which are strong in the recording. It is a Danger Mouse production, which seems to mean "aggressive". I catch this noise (or sensation) through the HD 595 and swear I got it from the HE400, suggesting it is in the recording. I really should be selective about describing her voice as "harsh", because I didn't mean "uneven frequency response". Literally the HE-400 are bar-of-soap-smooth and controlled. I think Norah's voice or the recording may have been reaching into the upper midrange, treble area, where we know the HE400 start to emphasize. It was the only sense of "won't be listening to this one at high volume over and over" that I found so far. The overall recording quality, like I said, is aggressive and sort of gritty.

 

[MrMateoHead]

Quote:

Well I feel like a fool, but also very optimistic.
 
I tried driving them directly from the Clip+, and it turns out a Sansa Clip+ can pump vastly more juice than an iBasso D-Zero, which I've now realised is only good as a cheap portable DAC.
 
Higher volume straight out of the Clip at a given volume setting as opposed to through the D-Zero maxed out, and the sibilance is gone, replaced with a comfortable serving of bass.  I'm enjoying them as much as my UM3Xs, which is saying a lot compared with their previous unlistenable status..  Battery life takes a huge hit straight to the face though - I'd estimate 3hrs rather than the usual 10+
 
Really looking forward to running them through an ODAC/O2.

Lol. Read my review. The Sansa Clip+ demolished my phone in a back to back music comparo. I cheated, because I left EQ tweaks that have been there for OTHER headphones as they were, and started playing rock. The resolution wasn't really there, but the sound was big and powerful, very surprising. The bass of the HE-400s thumped and so on. It was cool. The Clip uses the DAC found in their higher-end products, which is likely why they are an overachiever in sound quality for what they are.

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

 
Great write up! I think with more voltage and power, and maybe some burn-in too, you'll see that the he400 can be quite "thumpy." I was using the Little Dot MKiii with some sweet mullard tubes to drive these cans, and the bass was great in almost every way--I had no complaints whatsoever. But when I started to use an old kenwood receiver to power the he400s instead, my jaw dropped: now the bass sounds positively  extraordinary! I said something to this effect earlier, but I think I should say it again: properly powered, the he400 has as much bass presence and thump as my Denon D2000s (which are widely reputed to be great headphones for bass)--only the he400's bass is way cleaner, with zero mid-bass bloat. Who knows? Maybe my he400's just have good synergy with this crazy receiver of mine. With that in mind, I'm not saying the difference between my various setups is not night and day, but now that they have real power, I would say that my He400 has crossed a threshold, so to speak, and in doing so, I think I have realized their full potential. 

I would agree with that and you could say something very similar going from the he400 to lcd2r2.

 

[Fearless1]

Quote:

 
Great write up! I think with more voltage and power, and maybe some burn-in too, you'll see that the he400 can be quite "thumpy." I was using the Little Dot MKiii with some sweet mullard tubes to drive these cans, and the bass was great in almost every way--I had no complaints whatsoever. But when I started to use an old kenwood receiver to power the he400s instead, my jaw dropped: now the bass sounds positively  extraordinary! I said something to this effect earlier, but I think I should say it again: properly powered, the he400 has as much bass presence and thump as my Denon D2000s (which are widely reputed to be great headphones for bass)--only the he400's bass is way cleaner, with zero mid-bass bloat. Who knows? Maybe my he400's just have good synergy with this crazy receiver of mine. With that in mind, I'm not saying the difference between my various setups is not night and day, but now that they have real power, I would say that my He400 has crossed a threshold, so to speak, and in doing so, I think I have realized their full potential. 

I got a lecture on tube coloration when I said the HE-400 comes alive off of the Lyr's power, but in fact they do sound better the more power you give them. I also own a couple of vintage receivers and they sound great out of them as well. By using amps such as the Fiio and O2s folks do not know the potential of these cans. They scale with power, it gives them body and mid-range.

 

[TMRaven]

I bet the Fiio and O2 gives them more power than the headphone out of most receivers.