[Fegefeuer]

Hello Eric,
 
I share jerg's experience. I had the HE-500 before and the HE-400 felt rather unlike what I would expect from Hifiman. The first thing I noticed was bright spiky treble pronunciation near the region of a T90 (I had that tood for a while). I thought something was wrong with the headfone, it was more than surprising. The T90 can have a certain "zing" in the highs but it's still less metallic in  the highs. The HE-400 has good voice reproduction compared to the T90 (whose bright character is also represented in the mids) thus the highs stand out more. 
 
Leaving T90 or any Beyer out my HE-400 had too much fatigueing metallic treble. I really hope you take a look at this issue and maybe we can have a HE-400 again with HE-500 highs.
 
regards

 

[Kjeldsen]

Quote:

Hi dear, you don't have to worry about the unnecessary payment such as costom fees because we will label the package as low price as we could.
Plus, we will make a gift label on it. In this way, any extra charges will be easily avoided.

 
Hi,
 
Can you guarantee this? : ) Ssounds great. VAT/Taxes/fines are the same reason i haven't ordered anything from head-direct.com yet-.

 

[TeamHiFiMAN]

Quote:

 
Hi,
 
Can you guarantee this? : ) Ssounds great. VAT/Taxes/fines are the same reason i haven't ordered anything from head-direct.com yet-.

Sure, we can. One condition, what you order from us cannot be too large like EF5 or EF6. Otherwise, you might have to pay just a little as the extra money. If you only purchase some items like headphones, earbuds or some small accessories, you can easily avoid any taxes in this way. Sounds great?  

 

[TeamHiFiMAN]

Quote:

Hello Eric,
 
I share jerg's experience. I had the HE-500 before and the HE-400 felt rather unlike what I would expect from Hifiman. The first thing I noticed was bright spiky treble pronunciation near the region of a T90 (I had that tood for a while). I thought something was wrong with the headfone, it was more than surprising. The T90 can have a certain "zing" in the highs but it's still less metallic in  the highs. The HE-400 has good voice reproduction compared to the T90 (whose bright character is also represented in the mids) thus the highs stand out more. 
 
Leaving T90 or any Beyer out my HE-400 had too much fatigueing metallic treble. I really hope you take a look at this issue and maybe we can have a HE-400 again with HE-500 highs.
 
regards

Hey, buddy.
We already heard of the issue like this from some audiophiles. Telling the truth, the 400 cannot have the same highs of 500 just because they have different content and structure. That's also the reason why 400 is much more easily driven than 500.
Anyway, we still appreciate your voice here. We gonna make great progress in the near future not for us, just for any of you.
Regards

 

[Kjeldsen]

Quote:

Sure, we can. One condition, what you order from us cannot be too large like EF5 or EF6. Otherwise, you might have to pay just a little as the extra money. If you only purchase some items like headphones, earbuds or some small accessories, you can easily avoid any taxes in this way. Sounds great?  

 
Sounds great, thanks!

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Hey, buddy.
We already heard of the issue like this from some audiophiles. Telling the truth, the 400 cannot have the same highs of 500 just because they have different content and structure. That's also the reason why 400 is much more easily driven than 500.
Anyway, we still appreciate your voice here. We gonna make great progress in the near future not for us, just for any of you.
Regards

 
I don't think the issue is HE400s' treble not sounding like HE500's, but that the newer revision (yellow drivers) HE400s have more piercing treble than older (white drivers) HE400s.
 
Anyway thanks for the reply toward our issue, but could you specify what you guys might do? Make another driver revision? Engineer some sort of precise damping material without changing the revision? Or something else different?
 
Cheers.

 

[zenpunk]

So any date when the HE-7 will be released? 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

So any date when the HE-7 will be released? 

 
It'll probably be HE-600 before HE-7.
 
Actually they may very well phase out HE-# (single digit) series completely in the future, as their technology refinement improves and they could make much more sensitive drivers that are also refined and accurate.

 

[zenpunk]

Well, the HE-600 has already been released but it has been renamed HE-500 

. OK! what about the HE-70 ?

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Well, the HE-600 has already been released but it has been renamed HE-500 

. OK! what about the HE-70 ?

 
They may have started HE500 as HE6p but with retuning it turned into HE500s which are quite different, heck even 5LEs are more similar to HE6 in sonic character.
 
There is no need to invade into another numerical category unless they formulate a new general sound signature, no? Maybe more LCD2/3-like, with a flat slightly warm bass and mids, and neutral but subdued treble? That's the only one I can think of that their current models have no been able to cover.

 

[zenpunk]

Nooooooo! nothing like the LCD2/3 pleaaaassse. 

. I have real difficulties finding  faults in the presentation of the HE-6 when listening to it 

. Maybe they could just use carbon fiber to make it lighter, or squeeze the driver inside the HD700 frame ??

 

[MattTCG]

I don't see a drastic departure from the existing build anytime soon. It cost too much in R&D...thinking of the hd650's that I'm listening to now and how long they've been around. Lighter would be a great and compelling feature!!

 

[jerg]

Quote:

I don't see a drastic departure from the existing build anytime soon. It cost too much in R&D...thinking of the hd650's that I'm listening to now and how long they've been around. Lighter would be a great and compelling feature!!

 
Other than the magnets and the metal array holding the magnets in place, everything else has the potential to be switched for lighter materials.

 

[yokken]

Hi there,
 
I have also shared jerg's experience with the fatiguing/"hot" treble. It's not always bad but it truly can be piercing at times and has actually made me take the headphones off for a while just to let my ears recover. I have Beyerdynamic DT880s and despite being known for their sparkly highs, they are hardly fatiguing and I can wear them for hours at a time. I enjoy crisp treble due to the detail recovery but not when it's overdone. I have been led to believe that these headphones are balanced, but I find them sibilant and shrill at times, which saddens me because everything else about them sounds great. Please do something about this. Thank you, HiFiMAN.
 
-yokken

 

[evowei]

Same here, I just received the HE-400 this afternoon and it is rather sibilant. Gets tiring after listening to it awhile. I also have the HE-300 with me right now and the trebles aren't as hot as the HE-400's. I have the Rev.3 of the HE-400 with the yellow drivers. 
 
I hope HiFiMan does something about this. I would love to keep the HE-400 but might end up returning it if the treble continues to annoy me.