**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread**
Dec 31, 2012 at 7:15 PM Post #3,976 of 22,120
If you do have the velour pads guys, just try them with the pleather on top of them (or vice versa) and increase the volume, it really makes the HE-400 sound much better to me, I know I already said this but it shows how much of an improvement bigger pads would be! 
 
Also, I wish you all a happy new year!
 
Dec 31, 2012 at 7:22 PM Post #3,977 of 22,120
Quote:
I think the HE-400 will even fit a giant's head. The cups extend pretty riciculously far.
 
Also the HE-400 sounds pretty awesome with any type of music, but I can check how they sound with a particular folk song you have in mind?

Well I wouldn't know where to start, and I'm assuming you'd go to YouTube for that and as we all know, crap in, crap out ...
 
Dec 31, 2012 at 11:25 PM Post #3,978 of 22,120
Happy New Year everyone. Thanks to all those who contributed to a great thread!! I wish everyone the very best in 2013 and more time to enjoy great hp's. 
biggrin.gif

 
Peace....
 
Matt
 
Jan 1, 2013 at 12:33 AM Post #3,979 of 22,120
Yup, happy new year to all the awesome HE-400 owners :D
 
Jan 1, 2013 at 4:15 AM Post #3,981 of 22,120
To answer questions to my previous post on this thread...
 
I am using my HE-400's with [Computer (MOG) > fiio e17 > HE-400s]
They sound great using this set up, but I'm sure there is even more potential.
 
And I came up with 9.4 / 10 based on my subjective view on the HE-400's sound.  They are definitely a 9, but not quite a 9.5.
 
And there is only one artist who I do not quite enjoy on the HE-400's without EQ'ing the treble down... and that is Jay-Z, his vocals on some of the older recordings are very harsh in my opinion.
 
Once again, great investment.
 
Jan 1, 2013 at 5:45 AM Post #3,982 of 22,120
Hey guys, I'm new here even though I've been lurking for years. I recently purchased the HE-400's from Justin @ Head-Amp and have now had a few days to get used to them.I absolutely LOVE them. I came from Shure SRH440's, so the step up was pretty drastic. I spent months reading threads here on headphones under $500 and finally settled on the HiFiMan's, and I'm extremely glad I did. My biggest contender was the HD600, which I plan to buy later anyway. 
 
The one thing I noticed right away was that despite what others have said, I don't believe these are an ideal purchase if you don't plan on amplifying them. I first ran mine on my iPod and felt a bit uneasy because it was nothing like I had expected. The volume struggled tremendously, so I plugged up my E11 and experienced a whole different set of headphones. They really started to feel like I had purchased worthy phones. It wasn't until later that night when I randomly decided to plug them in to my Pioneer receiver and turn on Pandora that I experienced what these cans can actually do. They awoke like a sleeping giant. They were no longer docile with my ears and screamed with perfection (to me) no matter how high I cranked them. I think I finally settled on 58-60 on my knob as the ideal listening level, despite them still sounding awesome at 70.
 
So while I'm just a beginner in this very complex world of audio equipment and my judgement should be taken with a grain of salt, I just wanted to clear that up from a beginners viewpoint. These are AWESOME headphones for the price, but you should plan to amplify them!  The upside is that it's apparent that you don't have to spend a thousand dollars on an amp/dac setup to really push these -- which is great.
 
I plan on ordering the Magni/Modi next. After hearing these on my receiver, I can no longer settle with my soundcard + E11 :p
 
PS. For anyone who hasn't ordered yet, Justin @ Head-Amp was awesome to buy from. He shipped my headphones out the same day, and had them at my door 3 days later. His price was great too (free s&h and free velour pads)
 
Jan 1, 2013 at 6:11 AM Post #3,983 of 22,120
Quote:
Anyone know the curb weight on the he4?

 
I just got the HE-4 in stock, and weighed them along with several other top headphones.  All of these weights are in grams, and without the cable.
 
Sony Qualia (size small) 217
Sennheiser HD800 373
HiFiMAN HE-4 (Velour) 402
Stax SR-009 447
HiFiMAN HE-400 (Pleather) 480
Audeze LCD-3 541
HiFiMAN HE-500 (Velour) 548
HiFiMAN HE-6 (Velour) 552
 
Note: the above weights for all headphones includes the pads.
 
HiFiMAN Velour pair - 34g
HiFiMAN Pleather pair - 37g
 
 
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Jan 1, 2013 at 6:48 AM Post #3,985 of 22,120
Quote:
These are interesting results Justin. Looks like some of the figures floating around this forum are incorrect then. It's been mentioned on this thread that the HE400 was 440g and the HE500 500g. 

 
please see my updated post above
 
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Jan 1, 2013 at 6:49 AM Post #3,986 of 22,120
Quote:
 
I just got the HE-4 in stock, and weighed them along with several other top headphones.  All of these weights are in grams, and without the cable.
 
Sony Qualia 217
Sennheiser HD800 373
HiFiMAN HE-4 402
Stax SR-009 447
HiFiMAN HE-400 480
Audeze LCD-3 541
HiFiMAN HE-500 548
HiFiMAN HE-6 552
 
 


Wow, the weight would probably deter me from buying... I was just think I'd get a HE-500 or similar if I was to upgrade in the "distant" future.
 
My HM5 with quite a bit of dynamat inside only weights 310g with the cable.
 
Jan 1, 2013 at 6:55 AM Post #3,987 of 22,120
Quote:
Wow, the weight would probably deters me from buying... I was just think I'd get a HE-500 or similar if I was to upgrade in the "distant" future.
 
My HM5 with quite a bit of dynamat inside only weights 310g with the cable.

 
the design of them prevents the weight from being fatiguing, in my opinion.  i will put a couple more headphones into the mix 
 
HeadAmp Stay updated on HeadAmp at their sponsor profile on Head-Fi.
 
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Jan 1, 2013 at 8:52 AM Post #3,988 of 22,120
Quote:
Hey guys, I'm new here even though I've been lurking for years. I recently purchased the HE-400's from Justin @ Head-Amp and have now had a few days to get used to them.I absolutely LOVE them. I came from Shure SRH440's, so the step up was pretty drastic. I spent months reading threads here on headphones under $500 and finally settled on the HiFiMan's, and I'm extremely glad I did. My biggest contender was the HD600, which I plan to buy later anyway. 
 
The one thing I noticed right away was that despite what others have said, I don't believe these are an ideal purchase if you don't plan on amplifying them. I first ran mine on my iPod and felt a bit uneasy because it was nothing like I had expected. The volume struggled tremendously, so I plugged up my E11 and experienced a whole different set of headphones. They really started to feel like I had purchased worthy phones. It wasn't until later that night when I randomly decided to plug them in to my Pioneer receiver and turn on Pandora that I experienced what these cans can actually do. They awoke like a sleeping giant. They were no longer docile with my ears and screamed with perfection (to me) no matter how high I cranked them. I think I finally settled on 58-60 on my knob as the ideal listening level, despite them still sounding awesome at 70.
 
So while I'm just a beginner in this very complex world of audio equipment and my judgement should be taken with a grain of salt, I just wanted to clear that up from a beginners viewpoint. These are AWESOME headphones for the price, but you should plan to amplify them!  The upside is that it's apparent that you don't have to spend a thousand dollars on an amp/dac setup to really push these -- which is great.
 
I plan on ordering the Magni/Modi next. After hearing these on my receiver, I can no longer settle with my soundcard + E11 :p
 
PS. For anyone who hasn't ordered yet, Justin @ Head-Amp was awesome to buy from. He shipped my headphones out the same day, and had them at my door 3 days later. His price was great too (free s&h and free velour pads)

 
Welcome to the club!! And yes, as is mentioned often in this thread while you can amp the he400 on almost nothing, you'll need a decent amp to get the best of them. A good starting place with the he400 is a fiio e17 and going all the up to the Schitt lyr. You'll spend A LOT more money to get a modest amount of improvement but hey...I'm preaching to the choir here. 
 
I'm planning on going back and adding some of the important facts and discoveries to the original post to help those just getting started. 
 
Matt
 

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