[viralcow]

Quote:

I have learned that open-back is NOT for me. DON'T get me wrong, these HE-400's blow the HD 280's out of the water on soundstage, overall clarity, and reaching the lows on the bass. The HD-280's just have the warmer punchy sound I look for in a lot of my genres. I'll go back to them if i listen to acoustic or orchestra. But overall they are boring, painful, and flat when I listen to any music with punchy drum kicks or toms, and with bass heavy electronic and rap. Whether plugged into my Onkyo TX-NR515 receiver or my Xonar Essence STX sound card, the HE-400's are unnatural sounding, harsh, and again neutral. My EQ for these things are unreal, the high end drops off like a cliff, the 16k frequency is as low as itll go, 8k not far behind. Something also just always sounds off, I can't figure out if its the peircing highs drowning out my mids or what. But its like no matter how much I EQ out a frequency, it just makes the whole sound seem unbalanced and a section of frequencies goes missing, I don't quite know how to explain it.   

 
This sounds a bit incoherent. The HD280's are warm and punchy, but at the same time boring and flat? The HE-400's are neutral?

 
And the fact that you like to EQ makes things harder since how responsive headphones are to EQ'ing isn't discussed much on the forums. My question is, why do you buy a bass-light/neutral can to EQ them into bass-monsters? Just buy a HFI-2400 and be done with it.

 

[viralcow]

Quote:

 
Are they over ear or on ear headphones? The M-100s are the only over ear headphones that V-MODA makes. 

 
You're forgetting the Crossfades. Those are over-ear.

 

[Tman5293]

Quote:

 
You're forgetting the Crossfades. Those are over-ear.

 
You're right. OP can disregard my post then. 

 

[Fedelesk]

Yep they are crossfades. And im saying the he400s were flat. And I only EQ them to heavy bass because its what I wanted. I expected more punch

 

[Fedelesk]

Ya rereading my original post I jumped around a bit. I wasnt clear I meant the hE400s Id go to for acoustic and stuff

 

[Fedelesk]

Also obviously viralcow I wouldnt have gotten them if I knew their neutrality, I was just in the wrong world of headphones and was recommended what some would say is strong bass. Which they sound like they are heavier for open. I just didnt realize how flat they would still be. I understand open back sound now I'd say. It was mt fault for not realizing this with the 880s. Those are supposedly only semi open. Closed closed closed cans haha.

 

[Thujone]

Quote:

 
Are they over ear or on ear headphones? The M-100s are the only over ear headphones that V-MODA makes. 

Crossfade LP# is over ear. Also, I'm gonna reference you to TMRaven's EQ's that he uses for HE-400's in iTunes. I made a combo of the balanced and basshead EQ's by dropping everything except the first two down by another 3dB. They are insanely punchy and bassy if you mess with EQ. You can also rid yourself of sibilance which is huge bonus for me.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/604583/hifiman-he-400-impressions-and-discussion-thread/10785#post_9477650

 

[cel4145]

Also obviously viralcow I wouldnt have gotten them if I knew their neutrality, I was just in the wrong world of headphones and was recommended what some would say is strong bass. Which they sound like they are heavier for open. I just didnt realize how flat they would still be. I understand open back sound now I'd say. It was mt fault for not realizing this with the 880s. Those are supposedly only semi open. Closed closed closed cans haha.

They aren't flat, though. The HE-400s do have some significant bass emphasis with some warmth because of the mid range drop off above 1K. So more v-shaped, but not neutral. So either (a) you want heavily emphasized bass or (b) it's that pressurization thing that you like.

Are you EQing your HD280s to give them extra bass? What are your EQ settings like for the HE-400 to get the bass you want?

 

[i019791]

Quote:

Ya rereading my original post I jumped around a bit. I wasnt clear I meant the hE400s Id go to for acoustic and stuff

Beats, if they respond well to EQ ?
(No joke)

 

[nicholars]

You sound rather confused about the whole thing fedelesk lol

 
You could try the Logitech UE6000... They match your criteria.... Decent bass, not harsh, fun sounding, good sound quality.

 

[Fedelesk]

Im not confused haha. I could re explain this entire thing. Simply saying I wasnt clear on which headphone I was talking bad about. I never said anything bad about the 280s and people thought I did. So I was clearing that up

 

[Fedelesk]

And also im saying for me they ARE flat. But in the world of open headphones they are not flat. Im not lost or crazy here im just coming to a realization from the start of this post that open headphones are flat.... and not for me

 

[Glow Fish]

I recommend either Mad Dogs or the newish Denon AH-D600.  MDs have a 15 day return policy and you can get the Denons lots of places that allow returns.  I know that there is a lot of bitterness on Head-Fi over the move from D2000 to D600, but I actually prefer the D600s. They are not as V shaped as the D200s, but I prefer that to the piercing highs.

 

[Fedelesk]

Does anyone know of a place in seattle to try any of these recommended options out? Thanks again for the help here when Im home on a PC ill be writing things down and analyzing this list of recommendations pretty heavily.

 

[cel4145]

And also im saying for me they ARE flat. But in the world of open headphones they are not flat. Im not lost or crazy here im just coming to a realization from the start of this post that open headphones are flat.... and not for me

That's absolutely wrong. Flat or neutral has a scientific basis. It means that the frequency response measures flat. For example, here's a measurement graph of an extremely flat home audio speaker that starts rolling off at 100hz:



Headphones don't usually measure that flat, and then there is some little bit of subjective different between what people here and the measurements because of how the phones can fit ones head and other factors. Nevertheless, this is definitely NOT a flat headphone, and subjective listening impressions of A LOT of people more knowledgeable than you support that it's not flat



The HE-400 has a dip in much of the midrange and has some treble emphasis. That's why it's typically described as being warm with good bass response. But that's not flat.

This is why I asked you to describe how you are EQing both the HE-400s and the HD280s. That would give everyone a better understanding of what you are looking for. But if you insist on making up your own definitions for words, well, then you will not successfully communicate to people what you want. And it should be clear that you've already had that problem right?