wje
Unmodified = Not worth listening to.
Brainwavz HM5. Hollow sounding. The comfort was OK, but I didn't feel that there was much potential for bass. Certainly, not worth the $139.00 - IMO.
I'm sort of starting to regret purchasing the AKG K518, because it just doesn't fit my head very well at all. The headband is too short, and not padded at all =\.
I found a GE H-22 at a thrift store not too long ago, found it comfortable, and thought "For $9, it can't be that bad." I couldn't readily test it at the time due to its 6.3mm plug.
How wrong I was...that thing has no extension whatsoever, and that applies both ways. Quite tinny and hollow-sounding, with a radical V-shaped EQ required to get any sort of balanced sound out of it. It gives me newfound respect for most headphones out there, even things I didn't hold in very high "audiophile quality" regard before, like the Sansui SS-20, Panasonic HTF600, or Audio-Technica ATH-AD700.
Also, for a closed headphone, its isolation is poor.
I guess to truly appreciate the best, you have to experience the worst.
Hifiman HE-5LE. they sound great but they are incredibly power hungry and forced me to max out volume on any amp I tried them on. Plus I never found them comfortable for my head as the cups are installed so low down on the band that the tops of the ear pads would push down on the tops of my ears, no matter how high up I pushed the cups up the rods. I had to bend the headband into a straight horizontal line to raise them up enough to be comfortable (this headband design is the reason i won’t try out the HE-500 even though I figure I would love the sound)
That's essentially the issue with the HE-400s, the HE-500s and I'm assuming the HE-300s, too. They have the same fit, measurements, etc. People with a smaller distance from the top of their head to their ears, will have a feeling of the HifiMAN headphones fitting this way. By no means, does it indicate the individual has any less brain mass by having a smaller head. However, I'd think that HifiMAN would listen to some of these comments and make the necessary manufacturing adjustments. Thus, I can only think that in the country where they are produced, the heads are possibly even smaller - and, drowning the tester with the cups tugging down. My last sentence wasn't meant to be racial, or single out any special racial group either, but thought it was relevant in my comparison.