[MattTCG]

Quote:

The Pro 900's mids are notably recessed vs the HE400. No comparison. The HE400 has lovely mids. They are very different sounding headphones. I find them to compliment each other nicely, though the HE400 may be just on a whole other level in quality, making the Pro 900 seem a bit weak overall.
The D7000 with HE400 would make a godly combo.
The song on my sig.... the vocals on it give me straight goosebumps with the HE400. Wow.

 
That is why I have the he400 and the d5k. They are a wonderful complement to each other. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Had the D7K had a velour pad substitute... trust me, they'd have never left my side.

 

[olear]

Mad Lust Envy, it's good to know you're enjoying the HE400. 

 
How do the DT880 and HD650 compare to the HE400?

 

[MattTCG]

The dkx needs the pleather to produce it's sound signature. Just as the he400 needs the velour to produce it's own wonderful sound sig. They really should come stock with the velours. 

 

[TMRaven]

I Don't really think the HE-400 needs the velour to produce a certain signature as much as some of those dynamics.  It's crazy how anemic the Denons sound without the pleather pads.  I also tried putting the denon pads on my DT990s when I had them, and man.  Black hole.
 
As mad lust said earlier, it's surprising just how much bass the HE-400 doesn't lose going from pleather to velour.  As Hakone mentioned, you can even feel the bass by only holding the headphone a short distance aways from your head.  Planar Magnetics just move a lot of air.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The dkx needs the pleather to produce it's sound signature. Just as the he400 needs the velour to produce it's own wonderful sound sig. They really should come stock with the velours. 

Yeah, that's a large part of the reason why I didn't wait until some velour pads became available for the Denons. They'd alter the sound too much. The few times I have swapped pads on other cans, it has always been detrimental to the sound quality. The HE400 is the first one where it's been largely unaffected, with the exception of added clarity, and slightly more focusing in the bass.

About to test them out with the Mixamp and Black Ops...

 

[TMRaven]

Quote:

Does anyone find that the HE400 velour pads pick up a lot of dust or airborne stuff?  Never seemed to notice with my HD600, HD650 or HD700 pads. I do vacuum my office at least weekly (pretty anal about that with 2 cats).  The HD700 pads still look like they just came out of the box.

 
 
650 seemed about the same to me.  The beyerdynamics, not so much.  They use a different type of velour, not to mention that grey won't show dust nearly as bad.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Hmm, is it just me or is the HE400's blue like almost black under artificial light? Like with all my lights on at home, the blue is very hard to see. Nothing short of a direct light to the HE400 shows the blue.

 

[MattTCG]

Yes, I've found the same thing. It's kinda cool how it looks different in different lighting. Others have mentioned the same thing. I think that they look great!!

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Oh yeah, i think they're lovely. I was in love with the HE-4, and the HE400 is no different. I like how the metal has a rough surface, to keep the cups from sliding. The HE-4s was very smooth, and a bit too easy to adjust.

 

[jerg]

It looks like a HE-6 under ambient lighting actually.

 

[MattTCG]

I thought about the matte finish on the metal also. They could have made the metal polished and gave it a gloss look. But it would have fingerprinted easy and maybe scratched easily also. 
 
I was surprised at how comfortable they became for me after about a week. I'm sensitive to clamp and weight and I also didn't pull the trigger on them. And then after the first three days I almost boxed them up and sent them back. 

 
So glad that I kept them!!

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I wonder how the HE300 compares...

The HE300 coud make some pretty solid $250 cans if they sound anything remotely close to the HE400 in signature. I just hate their silver finish though. They should be drastically lighter though.

 

[MattTCG]

The he300 sounds nothing like the 400. It doesn't sound bad, but it doesn't sound like a planar. The earlier revision sounded weird, but the second release got much better.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Was hoping for a dynamic with a similar sound and build, as I love the fit on the Hifimans.