bagwell359
Headphoneus Supremus
GirgleMirt wrote:
I think 'distortion' or 'ringing' are somewhat blanket terms that most people can't really precisely hear and process; in the sense that the human brain and ears aren't physiologically precise enough to get a clear picture like you can with a waterfall graph. Ok if you have a graph, then you can somewhat try to correlate what you hear to what was measured (but then how to eliminate placebo?), but I truly doubt that a human could reliably draw a waterfall or CSD graph similar to what would be measured... Or maybe I'm wrong. Do you have an audio clip (youtube or anywhere else) where we can hear what you're speaking about? And go into more details into what we should be hearing?
I think that for most people, from my experience, that 8.5kHz peak is the killer. If you EQ the 400i using an inverse EQ curve, something like below, you get a much smoother sound and most of the harshness/sharpness/brightness (distortion) you can hear just goes away. It becomes much smoother and more forgiving, surprisingly without sacrificing much of anything. Well given the boosted bass (below results in a bit of boosted bass) it seems to lose a bit of 'speed' and tightness in the bottom, but, it gains a lot in having a flatter and much less lean/bright character.
But yeah, for the ringing/distortion, I think the 8.5kHz peak is the killer, as to my ears, this is what can make the 400i sound harsh/bright at times. It can add sparkle with say guitar harmonics or strings (ex; violin) 'detail'; so which could be easily construed as very resolving, yet it's something added by 400i and not really resolved; which at other times, like vocals, can and will definitely eventually pop up as 'harshness'...
Let me explain it by using an example. The HFM HE-500. After a lot of listening and reading up on mods, I migrated them from stock to modified and mitigated a number of issues. From the end point the driver is a stunning accomplishment, held down like Guliver by a number of oversights and mistakes.
Unmodified they resolve well, but intermodulate complex passages, and also have that HFM cymbal decay which to fans is evidence of superior resolution. They are slightly chesty and veiled in the lower mids/upper bass.
Install the 'fuzzor' mod which cuts down reflections and the intermodulation while not stopped is greatly reduced. The cymbal decay is shorter, but still not right. Getting rid of the stock silver plate cable for a decent copper, and the decay is shorter still. Add some dynamat and the bass gets tighter. Take off the rear screen (or put in much less restrictive screens) and while you lose some bass impact, the whole 500 Hz down area is less chesty and fuzzed over. Add them all up the cymbal decay is still a bit long but not the technicolored extreme decay of stock. Oh yes, the MrSpeaker Ether Closed pads upgrade - better bass, flatest treble, super wide soundstage..
I didn't invent the mods I made to the 500, there is a huge compendium to choose from. I rejected some as ineffective or wrong changes.
I don't do EQ, so I've got to get my chain to be musically truthful w/o that.
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