[jerg]

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I'm going to have to go against the advice of others here and say the HE-500 is fantastic for gaming and I think you'd do just fine with them. I do mostly first person shooters, and not just the classic ones like Call of Duty. Left 4 Dead 2 has a really good sound engine behind it and a good set of stereo headphones will tell you exactly where the attack is coming from. I have been accused of hacking on more than one occasion while gaming with these bad boys. I've noticed the same in Battlefield 3 and most lately in Borderlands 2.
 
The HE-400 might possibly be better, but I don't see how. The only headphones I might say were better were the Heir Audio 4.A's but I doubt it.
 
At the end of the day, buy whatever headphone you want. If it's a good headphone with a good soundstage it will probably rock for gaming. Good headphones tend to be good for a lot of things, in my experience.
 

HE500 and HE400 are both planar magnetic monsters, meaning they share many technical attributes very closely, the difference then mainly lies in how they are voiced (frequency response). In that regard HE400s emphasize mid/upper-treble and de-emphasize upper mids, which makes them sound more laid-back and shimmery than HE500s (which sound more even and forward). That difference in voicing would account for different perceptions in terms of ambiance, immersion, and subtle cues in games, esp first-person games.
 
Now as for which voicing WOULD actually be better for games, it depends on the definition of "better", which would vary from person-to-person and game-to-game.

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

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HE500 and HE400 are both planar magnetic monsters, meaning they share many technical attributes very closely, the difference then mainly lies in how they are voiced (frequency response). In that regard HE400s emphasize mid/upper-treble and de-emphasize upper mids, which makes them sound more laid-back and shimmery than HE500s (which sound more even and forward). That difference in voicing would account for different perceptions in terms of ambiance, immersion, and subtle cues in games, esp first-person games.
 
Now as for which voicing WOULD actually be better for games, it depends on the definition of "better", which would vary from person-to-person and game-to-game.

 
I've never had an immersion problem with my HE-500's, be it in an FPS or an RPG.
 

 

[jerg]

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I've never had an immersion problem with my HE-500's, be it in an FPS or an RPG.
 

 
I never said anything about immersion problems with HE-500s, heck they might very well be better for immersion in some games than HE-400s; all I'm saying is the relative differences in voicing between these two cans means they work differently for different ears and different games. 

 

[DougofTheAbaci]

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I never said anything about immersion problems with HE-500s, heck they might very well be better for immersion in some games than HE-400s; all I'm saying is the relative differences in voicing between these two cans means they work differently for different ears and different games. 

 
That's a fair point. It's why I think it best to buy headphones based on how you want them to work with music rather than movies/games as if it does the former well it'll be fine with the latter. At least, that has been my experience. My Denon AH-D2000's did a great job which was bested by my Heir Audio 4.A's and HE-500's. Can't tell which is better out of the last two but I find them to be relatively similar so that might be why.

 

[daniel521]

While I am currently eyeing the He-400, I was also interested in the DT-990 600 ohm. Here's the problem: I would like to try out the DT990, and the only way to do that would be buying it at a store with a return policy ans trying both the HE-400 and DT-990 at home. However, I would have to buy a tube amp to really judge the DT990, since that's what I'll be using if I end up buying it. If I buy an amp, however, I probably won't be able to return it, and I would have bought an expensive setup for nothing if I end up preferring the HE-400. To sum it up, there is a chance I won't be able to compare these.
 
This is what I did: I grabbed an ath-m50 and used an EQ app in my iphone to copy the frequency response of each one, so I could get an idea of what each one sounded like. I compared the two while listening to rock and metal, end I ended up preferring the DT990's frequency response over the HE-400's.  The graphs weren't exactly like the HE-400's/DT990's frequency responses, and I was using an M50 which is a lot worst and is closed, so this is kind of an unfair way to judge both. Just in case I can't try both of them out, is it safer to go for the DT990 since I preferred it's frequency response?
 
btw, I copied the grado's frequency response as well, and I thought it sounded awful, even for rock/metal.
 
EDIT: I own a fiio E11, so is it a better idea to buy the DT990 32 ohm instead of the 600 ohm, and compare it with the HE-400 using the Fiio e11? I heard the different ohm models aren't that different so this should be a better idea.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

While I am currently eyeing the He-400, I was also interested in the DT-990 600 ohm. Here's the problem: I would like to try out the DT990, and the only way to do that would be buying it at a store with a return policy ans trying both the HE-400 and DT-990 at home. However, I would have to buy a tube amp to really judge the DT990, since that's what I'll be using if I end up buying it. If I buy an amp, however, I probably won't be able to return it, and I would have bought an expensive setup for nothing if I end up preferring the HE-400. To sum it up, there is a chance I won't be able to compare these.
 
This is what I did: I grabbed an ath-m50 and used an EQ app in my iphone to copy the frequency response of each one, so I could get an idea of what each one sounded like. I compared the two while listening to rock and metal, end I ended up preferring the DT990's frequency response over the HE-400's.  The graphs weren't exactly like the HE-400's/DT990's frequency responses, and I was using an M50 which is a lot worst and is closed, so this is kind of an unfair way to judge both. Just in case I can't try both of them out, is it safer to go for the DT990 since I preferred it's frequency response?
 
btw, I copied the grado's frequency response as well, and I thought it sounded awful, even for rock/metal.
 
EDIT: I own a fiio E11, so is it a better idea to buy the DT990 32 ohm instead of the 600 ohm, and compare it with the HE-400 using the Fiio e11? I heard the different ohm models aren't that different so this should be a better idea.

Sorry but that's a dreadful method. M50s are very coloured compared to better headphones, so imposing additional "simulation EQs" on top of its colouration would just make a mess; the only preference you are getting is one jumbled mess somehow sounds a bit better than another jumbled mess, while neither mess has any real relation to how the real headphones sound.

 

[daniel521]

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Sorry but that's a dreadful method. M50s are very coloured compared to better headphones, so imposing additional "simulation EQs" on top of its colouration would just make a mess; the only preference you are getting is one jumbled mess somehow sounds a bit better than another jumbled mess, while neither mess has any real relation to how the real headphones sound.

Yeah, I imagined that...
 
Do you think the best option is to get the 32 ohm edition, or is it a lot worse than the 600 ohm?

 

[jerg]

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Yeah, I imagined that...
 
Do you think the best option is to get the 32 ohm edition, or is it a lot worse than the 600 ohm?

Depends on if you are willing to get a setup that's able to drive the high impedance variation.
 
Though if you google "DT990 vs HE400" or search that here on Head-Fi, know that the general consensus is that HE400s are a whole different class compared to the Beyers. This gap is further widened if you get a nice tube amp, which seems to synergize extremely well with the Hifimans.

 

[daniel521]

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Depends on if you are willing to get a setup that's able to drive the high impedance variation.
 
Though if you google "DT990 vs HE400" or search that here on Head-Fi, know that the general consensus is that HE400s are a whole different class compared to the Beyers. This gap is further widened if you get a nice tube amp, which seems to synergize extremely well with the Hifimans.

I can't say much since I haven't heard them, but I fon't they the HE-400 would be "better" than the DT990, just different since the HE-400 is dark while the DT990 is bright. I'm just guessing though, I could be completely wrong.
 
But yeah, if I had to pick one without trying them out, I would go with the hifiman.

 

[jerg]

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I can't say much since I haven't heard them, but I fon't they the HE-400 would be "better" than the DT990, just different since the HE-400 is dark while the DT990 is bright. I'm just guessing though, I could be completely wrong.
 
But yeah, if I had to pick one without trying them out, I would go with the hifiman.

More to it than that, the Hifimans seem to be technically better and more balanced / refined. The "dark vs bright" is just a difference of voicing, all headphones are differently voiced. The more important things are smoothness, imaging, separation, timbre etc all that audiophile stuff.
 
You can say STAX SR009s are bright and Dr Dre Beats Studios are dark, that doesn't mean anything in terms of how they perform relative to each other.

 

[daniel521]

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More to it than that, the Hifimans seem to be technically better and more balanced / refined. The "dark vs bright" is just a difference of voicing, all headphones are differently voiced. The more important things are smoothness, imaging, separation, timbre etc all that audiophile stuff.
 
You can say STAX SR009s are bright and Dr Dre Beats Studios are dark, that doesn't mean anything in terms of how they perform relative to each other.

That's a good point, plus the HE-400 would be save me a lot of trouble since it's so efficient, where the DT-990 would require a really expensive setup. 

 

[TMRaven]

You'd be surprised at how easy the 600Ω 990 is to amp, depending on your amp.  Higher ohm doesn't mean harder to amp necessarily, it just means more voltage and less wattage.

 

[faverodefavero]

That's a good point, plus the HE-400 would be save me a lot of trouble since it's so efficient, where the DT-990 would require a really expensive setup. 

Just grab a good tube, "not so expansive", HP-Amp. like a Bellari HA540 or a Schiit Lyr or - even - a Valhalla. Something like that, and the two headphones. Try both using your sellected amplifier and keep the one you like most, as both will benefit quite well from a good HP-Amp..

Good luck!

 

[HamilcarBarca]

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You'd be surprised at how easy the 600Ω 990 is to amp, depending on your amp.  Higher ohm doesn't mean harder to amp necessarily, it just means more voltage and less wattage.

 
In general, I think that's correct. Beyerdynamic's 600-Ohm headphones, however, are known for being relatively power ("wattage") hungry.

 

[Eagle1911]

Does someone know if its worth moving from Ultrasone PRO900 to HE-500?
 
I find the PRO900 pretty agressive/loud/annoying highs and I only listen EDM (Progressive House/Trance, Ambient, Chill, Tech etc.).
 
For the rest, I do own the Bifrost + Asgard combo.