[hextanerf]

How do these compare with Hifiman Deva in terms of weight/comfort, soundstage imaging, and separation?

 

[xeizo]

I have no idea about the Deva myself, but from what I've seen from the internet they seem to be very similar. I would think of HE400SE(international version) as a cut down Deva to reach a lower price point but with very similar sound.

As for comfort, HE400SE are not super comfortable per se but I can actually wear them for very long so can't be bad really. Soundstage is more open than a normal dynamic can, mostly left/right but center is exact. As it is a planar distorsion is super low and that in itself gives great separation, every instrument can be pinpointed in its own space and be listened to separately.

There is some need for tweaking to get the best out of the HE400SE, timbre is a little off by default, my current curve to get a more "HiFi-like" timbre:

Spoiler: PEACE image

edit. some minor further tweaking. Trying to bring back body/meat to the sound, compared to dynamic cans like DT1990 Pro, by default HE400SE sound a little too polite with a somewhat grainy treble. I think I'm now at a very enjoyable curve over a wide selection of music. Sounds powerful and clean and no grain:

Spoiler: PEACE image

edit. added spoilers

 

[xeizo]

After a lot of listening, the EQ did miracles, the HE400SE now sounds awesome on a wide variety of music. I managed to create the punch and slam I wanted; the drivers have no problems taking it. I would say these are very good cans overall regardless of price, but with a way too soft and polite default curve with a scratchy treble on top of that. Thankfully it was very easy to correct all issues!
Most glaring improvement over dynamic cans is the very low distorsion and excellent instrument separation, I can really peek into every little sound on my fave old progressive rock tracks.

 

[tendou]

mosat people say that the he400se stealth magnet edition is good. But here the non stealth magnet edition is half the price of the stealth magnet version.

How much better is the stealth magnet version and is the double the price justified? Or is it a personal preference thing? I bought the he400se but have to return them as one of the driver is faulty.

 

[AdamPA1006]

This is only my second pair of legit wired headphones (excluding gaming headphone garbage). My other other wired headphone currently is the Monoprice Modern Retro.

I am loving these so far! I purchased the open box grade direct from HiFiMan....$89 free shipping, no tax, can't beat that!!!! They are the stealth magnet version, with the improved black cable. I'm driving them with the unbalanced output of the FiiO K3 which is only 110mW. It does still get plenty loud enough even running an EQ w/ -6.7dB pre-filter. I do have a balanced cable on the way so I can jack into the 200mW unbalanced output to see if that has positive effect.

I liked the sound a lot out of the box but boy with a little EQ....MAGIC!!!!

I really didn't like Oratorys! I was expecting greatness based on the hype, but the mids sounded very unnratural, way too much boost on 1.9K. He really beefed up the bass nicely though. Compared to Amir, who's tune is MUCH more delicate, WAY less of a difference compared to stock.

A reviewer called Amir posted this tune.
Preamp: -6.7 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 20 Hz Gain 6.0 dB Q 1.0
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 37 Hz Gain 1.8 dB Q 1.0
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1950 Hz Gain 4.5 dB Q 3.0

With Amir's tune, I struggle to notice a difference w/ his two bass bands. I'll probably use the bass shelf from Oratory, and the 1.9K tune that Amir has, that is AWESOME!

I like bright highs, I'm currently rocking this band for the treble and really liking it!

High Shelf 9500hz, +3dB, Q0.71

Anyway I'm super super happy with these. They are very heavy compared to the Monoprice Modern Retro, that is one detriment.

I also really like the angled earbads, and how thick they are ,so my ears are touching flush against the driver area.

After a lot of listening, the EQ did miracles, the HE400SE now sounds awesome on a wide variety of music. I managed to create the punch and slam I wanted; the drivers have no problems taking it. I would say these are very good cans overall regardless of price, but with a way too soft and polite default curve with a scratchy treble on top of that. Thankfully it was very easy to correct all issues!
Most glaring improvement over dynamic cans is the very low distorsion and excellent instrument separation, I can really peek into every little sound on my fave old progressive rock tracks.

I'm going to try out your bass region EQ. Thanks! I'm with you man a little EQ on these goes a LONG way, really all you need is a bit of a boost to 1.9K to correct that odd dip.

 

[zachmal]

Welcome to the other side !

Hope you made it through all in one piece


I've been running the HE400SE with the Douk Audio U3 at around 700 mW with the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro (BHD firmware - so always on high amp mode).

The output felt between great and somewhat underwhelming (sometimes with Deva (wired) AutoEQ profile).

Volume on Windows at times was needed to be raised to 35 - 58 or even more on the scale.

After some careful reading of what the headphones are supposed to handle, raised the output of the U3 AMP by several points - now it should be close to 1000 mW

and the output is like night and day difference !

Voices is somewhat more forward, notes are more airy - more space between them - sound opened up, above all the bass is way more agile and pronounced - not needing EQ anymore.

Never would have thought that amping planar even more would be such a difference.

Just to be really safe - ~ 1000 mW or going all out with the U3 (1300 mW) is considered safe and sane, right ?

 

[xeizo]

They can take a lot of juice, don't be shy.

I'm currently running this curve replicating Sennheiser HE-1 posted by someone, and using Jan Meier crossfeed which adds a lot of body to the sound, I'm calling it Orpheus2. Sounds a lot more clear than my previous attempts, and frankly really good. Biggest pro of these cans is the very low distorsion, meaning they are perfectly suited for frequency curve tweaks.

FilterCurve:f0="10" f1="20" f2="30" f3="40" f4="50" f5="60" f6="70" f7="80" f8="90" f9="100" f10="200" f11="300" f12="400" f13="500" f14="600" f15="700" f16="800" f17="900" f18="1000" f19="1500" f20="2000" f21="2500" f22="3000" f23="3500" f24="4000" f25="4500" f26="5000" f27="5500" f28="6000" f29="6500" f30="7000" f31="7500" f32="8000" f33="8500" f34="9000" f35="9500" f36="10000" f37="11000" f38="12000" f39="13000" f40="14000" f41="15000" f42="16000" f43="17000" f44="18000" f45="19000" f46="20000" FilterLength="8191" InterpolateLin="0" InterpolationMethod="B-spline" v0="2.76287527717044" v1="5.03470559644275" v2="4.07759795929433" v3="3.03513129945464" v4="2.63524973458552" v5="2.41725114298611" v6="1.75570004943397" v7="1.23366327010339" v8="0.915901328841612" v9="0.710793329022933" v10="0.105423231109" v11="0.0489305168376269" v12="-0.0770985874828223" v13="-0.383200013099338" v14="-0.570348586959986" v15="-0.739852062993537" v16="-0.887086263175392" v17="-0.99392423686076" v18="-1.02863052765866" v19="0.179828856878433" v20="2.29961011589826" v21="0.715501605793045" v22="0.767861743481198" v23="1.02852310864049" v24="0.0867198099516349" v25="-0.852765549727774" v26="-0.132937426122643" v27="2.03140135688826" v28="3.54651935714792" v29="3.39293871772881" v30="2.40983940284564" v31="1.31293818088156" v32="0.231585342604857" v33="-0.784328370046042" v34="-1.68317455008909" v35="-3.00244400625167" v36="-0.987084203678413" v37="0.712921540250439" v38="1.43575334249498" v39="1.69490103631143" v40="1.69108587490518" v41="1.5313309587486" v42="1.28089778315421" v43="0.986769416596978" v44="0.686980400549646" v45="0.413989897441191" v46="0.195306028929308"

 

[samandhi]

Welcome to the other side !

Hope you made it through all in one piece


I've been running the HE400SE with the Douk Audio U3 at around 700 mW with the Tempotec Sonata HD Pro (BHD firmware - so always on high amp mode).

The output felt between great and somewhat underwhelming (sometimes with Deva (wired) AutoEQ profile).

Volume on Windows at times was needed to be raised to 35 - 58 or even more on the scale.

After some careful reading of what the headphones are supposed to handle, raised the output of the U3 AMP by several points - now it should be close to 1000 mW

and the output is like night and day difference !

Voices is somewhat more forward, notes are more airy - more space between them - sound opened up, above all the bass is way more agile and pronounced - not needing EQ anymore.

Never would have thought that amping planar even more would be such a difference.

Just to be really safe - ~ 1000 mW or going all out with the U3 (1300 mW) is considered safe and sane, right ?

You will be fine. Just remember that with planar transducers they operate a bit differently than do DDs. The voltage stays steady on planar transducers, and it is the current that swings upon demand, where DD are the opposite. So, saying that you need 1W might be misleading because it would be more accurate to see the amp draw at a given volume level. Either way, it sounds like your amplifier is capable of providing the current (as well as the voltage) needed to properly drive them.

But I doubt that you are actually feeding them a true 1W because you would not only blow the transducers, but you would also obliterate your hearing. Technically it only takes roughly 80mW to drive these to a whopping 110dB.

 

[wolfwalker78]

Unless I need a closed back, these have pretty well become my go-to headphones.
Sivga Robin's for closed back.

EQ yes, as was said.

The only thing that still surprises me is how much power they seem to want.
I have an Asgard 3 with whatever the recent "good" DAC module is, and while I'm
sure my hearing isn't great anymore I find myself on high gain at 80-90% on the volume
knob easily. Something like the Robin's is more like 50% for what seems like the same-ish
volume. That last 10% of adjustment is more than enough, but it takes most of the knobs travel
to get it there. Great headphones for the money, I don't think you can do noticeably better without spending
2 or 3x.

 

[jackt]

You will be fine. Just remember that with planar transducers they operate a bit differently than do DDs. The voltage stays steady on planar transducers, and it is the current that swings upon demand, where DD are the opposite. So, saying that you need 1W might be misleading because it would be more accurate to see the amp draw at a given volume level. Either way, it sounds like your amplifier is capable of providing the current (as well as the voltage) needed to properly drive them.

But I doubt that you are actually feeding them a true 1W because you would not only blow the transducers, but you would also obliterate your hearing. Technically it only takes roughly 80mW to drive these to a whopping 110dB.

After I ordered them. From the reviews and 1 amp, I panicked and ordered a balanced cable to run with my AP-90, my largest output. I thought I would try them on that. To see what volume there was there, before I bought another amp. When delivered, I ran the ap90 on a laptop, at around 20% volume with the HE400se

I think they are seeing the low sensitivity, without applying the low 25 Ohms to the equation. Without judging the perceived sound quality. Probably because I've got aged hearing loss. I can't pick the difference from generic 16/41k, EQ is more important for me. Just on volume, I'm running them on. ~15mw generic dongle up to 240mw @32-ohm. I don't have any real issues. All of them can go loud enough. I can even use the jack on my old smartphone on 80%.

 

[jackt]

This is only my second pair of legit wired headphones (excluding gaming headphone garbage). My other other wired headphone currently is the Monoprice Modern Retro.

I am loving these so far! I purchased the open box grade direct from HiFiMan....$89 free shipping, no tax, can't beat that!!!! They are the stealth magnet version, with the improved black cable. I'm driving them with the unbalanced output of the FiiO K3 which is only 110mW. It does still get plenty loud enough even running an EQ w/ -6.7dB pre-filter. I do have a balanced cable on the way so I can jack into the 200mW unbalanced output to see if that has positive effect.

I liked the sound a lot out of the box but boy with a little EQ....MAGIC!!!!

I really didn't like Oratorys! I was expecting greatness based on the hype, but the mids sounded very unnratural, way too much boost on 1.9K. He really beefed up the bass nicely though. Compared to Amir, who's tune is MUCH more delicate, WAY less of a difference compared to stock.

A reviewer called Amir posted this tune.
Preamp: -6.7 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 20 Hz Gain 6.0 dB Q 1.0
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 37 Hz Gain 1.8 dB Q 1.0
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1950 Hz Gain 4.5 dB Q 3.0

With Amir's tune, I struggle to notice a difference w/ his two bass bands. I'll probably use the bass shelf from Oratory, and the 1.9K tune that Amir has, that is AWESOME!

I like bright highs, I'm currently rocking this band for the treble and really liking it!

High Shelf 9500hz, +3dB, Q0.71

Anyway I'm super super happy with these. They are very heavy compared to the Monoprice Modern Retro, that is one detriment.

I also really like the angled earbads, and how thick they are ,so my ears are touching flush against the driver area.



I'm going to try out your bass region EQ. Thanks! I'm with you man a little EQ on these goes a LONG way, really all you need is a bit of a boost to 1.9K to correct that odd dip.

I don't know if you have seen this. I'm playing with this site and the various targets. You can also EQ to other headphones and IEMs. I find these take EQ better than my K702
https://achoreviews.squig.link/

 

[samandhi]

I don't know if you have seen this. I'm playing with this site and the various targets. You can also EQ to other headphones and IEMs. I find these take EQ better than my K702
https://achoreviews.squig.link/

I have found that most Hifiman headphones take EQ VERY well IMHO.

 

[ezzony]

I noticed some chips on the magnets of my new cans bought from amazon, and one of them has white specks on the coil. I don't notice any problem with the sound though. Would be a pain to have to return them and re-buy them, but should I?

 

[MisterMudd]

Just shined a light through mine and looks like the diaphragm is sandwiched between 2 magnets. Could be wrong though,

Nope. That's planars.

 

[samandhi]

So the midst are recessed on them without eq?

If it is the OG Deva, then I am not sure if they got a bad pair or what, because i am not hearing that at all. I also don't find the sub bass lacking, unless you are used to more than normal amounts. What the Deva lacked was a bit of air up top, which is also pretty easy to EQ.