Yep, that was it for me too. For some reason I didn't expect the cable to be this bad.

thanks, I'll try doing that.

I use a FiiO K3 with my laptop. Naturally, the usb cable connecting the two will move occasionally, and sometimes my audio cuts off because of that. I usually have to reconnect when that happens, though sometimes it starts working again on its own after a few seconds. This doesn't always happen...

The $40 amplifier works! No more volume fluctuations/clipping. Thanks for the help everybody

That's probably it. I think I interpreted everything getting silent on bass notes as the bass dominating, but it really isn't loud either. A dac amp will not work because for some odd reason, my Xiaomi phone can only deliver digital signal to Xiaomi USB headphones. I'm wondering if it's an...

Which leads me to believe that that's just something that some headphones do when you try to get substantially more bass out of them than they were designed for. Is this kind of behavior really completely out of the question with working hardware and software? I've ordered a $40 portable...

Yeah lol didn't realize the HE400 exists too. I'll have to test some other planars then. I was under the impression that roll-offs can be almost completely negated with proper Eq settings, well apparently not.

Yeah I think I got the wrong number, not even sure where I found the pdf specsheet anymore. I'm not sure I understand what you mean. Would an external amplifier remove this failure mode? Nah definitely not that, I'm using flacs from bandcamp

I'm using Viper4Android, which is considered to be the best equalizer software on Android among audiophiles as far as I'm aware, so I doubt poorly designed software is the issue here. And again, the same happens on a laptop with completely different hardware, driver & equalizer. Maybe I'm just...

I use the mi sound enhancer, but turning it off doesn't remove those fluctuations. I also tried my friend's HE400se, and the issue is still there. So it's not the headphones, cable, eq, and not even the device that's at fault (it would seem). Then what the hell is happening here? It's not like...

I'm using a Mi 9T Pro which has a Qualcomm WCD9340 audio chip Well, those headphones came with a standard 3 pole plug cable. They also say on their website that it sounds "terrific on your smartphone", and I'm fairly sure that most (if not all) smartphones don't support balanced output. I've...

It's already very noticeable with a 5db boost

Sadly reducing all other frequencies equally produces the same effect. I also tried it on my laptop with equalizer APO, same thing

The 400s also has a higher sensitivity than the 400se. I'm currently using the AutoEQ for those headphones and boosting 5db at the lower end (though those fluctuations also happen with just the autoEq, or if I just boost the 100hz for 5db). It does help, but it's just not loud enough because of...

I'm probably misunderstanding how it works, but according to hifiman, the HE400s is 22 ohms whereas the HE400se is 25. Wouldn't that mean that they need more power?

I have a HE400S, which are great in all but bass. But when I try fixing it with an EQ, I notice that the music gets almost completely silent whenever there's a bass kick at higher volumes. The maximum volume is also rather low. I am using them with my Android phone. Can this be fixed with an...