[Wyd4]

I have the Sennheiser Momentums, however I am thinking about trying to sell these and get the HE-400's.
Hopefully i dont regret it.
 
Scott

 

[miceblue]

Bah, I tried the HE-400 for a more careful listen and it has a really tizzy treble.

 

[Wyd4]

Bah, I tried the HE-400 for a more careful listen and it has a really tizzy treble.

I have heard some people say the treble is a bit much. How did you feel about the rest of their range? Possible to dull the treble at all?

 

[miceblue]

They had really good bass texture and pretty good extension. They didn't rumble as much as say a Mad Dog (with the latest earpads), but still very good especially considering it's an open-back headphone. The bass quantity seemed about just right for me; not too bassy, not too bass-shy.
 
The midrange as a whole was a bit forward, which I like, but I found it to be on the bright side side maybe in part due to the treble. Violin strings sounded pretty ear-grating to my ears and...
 
the treble was super tizzy for me. I don't know if it was due to the pads (velour) or what, but they just didn't do it for me. I tried to listen to some electronic music due to that super duper planar magnetic textured bass, but the tizzy treble prevented me from enjoying that kind of music unfortunately. Likewise for some pop music. You might be able to adjust the treble a bit with an EQ but I didn't feel like messing around with the EQ at the time.
 
I thought the imaging was pretty good with the HE-400 and although they had good depth, they didn't have a wide soundstage, though it's acceptable to me. I prefer the HE-500's wider soundstage, but it might be a preference thing.
 
 
The HE-400 was somewhat comfortable for me to wear. The earpads felt rather stiff on my head, the earcups don't swivel along the z-axis, and the earpads weren't contoured so I couldn't get a good seal on my head without having to press the eacups on my head. Despite the heaviness of the headphone, they didn't apply very much pressure on the top of my head. However, due to the tight clamping force on my head and the fact that the weight is mostly due to the earcups, I don't advise moving around too much with them on (similar to the LCD-2).
 
 
The cable is kind of awkward to insert as well with the screwing mechanism. It's also quite long and non-pliable so it mostly stays straightened out.

 

[Wyd4]

Wow.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response.
I am potentially moving from a very easy set of headphones to listen to so I have some reservations.
The Momentums are a great pair of headphones but I don't know, they leave me wanting more.
I feel like the highs are almost dulled and the bass seems to 'thud', though it is no slouch in the bass department.
I also find the cups slightly small on the senns.

Hope I am making the right choice

 

[Grey Owl]

May I ask you to add Hifiman HE-5le to your great comparison?
 
Thanks in advance

 

[davidsh]

Fidelio x1?

 

[papazoid]

Quote:

One teacher always told me, the further you go into education, the more you know a lot about nothing.

 
 
the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know.

 

[Overwerk]

Quote:

Fidelio x1?

he already said he won't

 

[Overwerk]

Quote:

 
 
the more you know, the more you realize how much you don't know.

an easy way to remember this line=---what you don't know is the amount of space touched by the circle of things you know, it gets much more the bigger your circle grows

 

[GoldfishX]

Quote:

Wow.
Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed response.
I am potentially moving from a very easy set of headphones to listen to so I have some reservations.
The Momentums are a great pair of headphones but I don't know, they leave me wanting more.
I feel like the highs are almost dulled and the bass seems to 'thud', though it is no slouch in the bass department.
I also find the cups slightly small on the senns.

Hope I am making the right choice

I had them and returned them. Agreed on both counts, the highs have the Sennheiser veil (their headphone graph is pretty ugly past 2khz) and the bass is bloated. Plus, I did not like that look or fit. They sounded much better in the store demo, but sounded mediocre in both my home and portable set-up with pretty much everything. Sennheiser can do better. The 558 they have on display at Best Buy (for nearly $200 less!) destroys these, shame it is still openback.

 

[Overwerk]

Quote:

I had them and returned them. Agreed on both counts, the highs have the Sennheiser veil (their headphone graph is pretty ugly past 2khz) and the bass is bloated. Plus, I did not like that look or fit. They sounded much better in the store demo, but sounded mediocre in both my home and portable set-up with pretty much everything. Sennheiser can do better. The 558 they have on display at Best Buy (for nearly $200 less!) destroys these, shame it is still openback.

they did better by offering an on ear model, muhaha

 

[Wyd4]

Hmn dt880 or he400.
Wasn't a bass capable entry audiophile phone to replace my momentum.
There are far too many options.

 

[TMRaven]

The majority of a violin shouldn't reside in the region where he400 is elevated. He400s laid back upper mids make violins more subdued if anything. Maybe it was a seal issue but the mad dogs with alpha pads I tried had less extension down low than the he400 .

 

[Dubstep Girl]

Quote:

I had them and returned them. Agreed on both counts, the highs have the Sennheiser veil (their headphone graph is pretty ugly past 2khz) and the bass is bloated. Plus, I did not like that look or fit. They sounded much better in the store demo, but sounded mediocre in both my home and portable set-up with pretty much everything. Sennheiser can do better. The 558 they have on display at Best Buy (for nearly $200 less!) destroys these, shame it is still openback.

 
+1 totally agree
 
 i did not like momentums when i heard them. the bass sucks like alot of the entry level sennheisers and the 558 are much better.