[pgivler]

  I'd like to try some of the velour pads on the he400. I can guess at the change but would like to see and listen for myself. Anyone try them on the he400 yet?

I ordered the velour earpads at the same time i purchased my HE 400s (from Headroom) but the pads were out of stock and backordered, so I listened to the 400s with the pleather pads for about two weeks.  I was driving them with a Schiit Lyr, also new, and liked the combination immediately for all the reasons others have commented on in this thread:  more air, great separation of instruments, terrific imaging, etc., etc.  Overall, wonderfully musical.  But.  The sound also seemed darker than I'd expected and a little recessed, if that's the word, as if I were at a great performance but sitting a little further back in the house than I wanted to be. 
 
Then the velour pads arrived.  Installing them takes a little fiddling, but if I can figure it out, anyone can.  For me, the difference was  immediate, and dramatic.  The darkness was gone, and suddenly I was sitting right where I wanted to be.  I have no idea why this should be so, but the velour makes a seriously non-trivial difference, one of the cheapest and most effective tweaks I've ever heard.  I should add that I'm using a Cayin CD player as a front end, and listen mostly mostly to classical, some opera, some jazz, some blues, zero rock.

 

[MattTCG]

^^ Wow, how long ago did I make that comment. 

 

[Za Warudo]

Using the Jergpads I still find the HE-400 to be dark and really recessed in the upper mids and lower treble.  This is in comparison to the X1 which is still not particularly emphasized in that frequency range.  
 
Does anyone have a EQ setting to make it more naturalistic sounding?

 

[jerg]

  ^^ Wow, how long ago did I make that comment. 

Heh, kinda like how I still sometimes get PMs asking for my Audio-Technica M50 para equalizer settings (that I made like 3 years ago).

 

[Citizen13469]

 
After last night I'd say to consider selling your hp's and buying a Volcano instead
 
Turned my cousin's Bose QC15's into a live performance...it was beautiful. That and a $600 b0ng......so smooth...
Yeah, my past week has been full of this

haha, this post makes total sense.

 

[Drsparis]

Omg what would my new hd800's sound like? :O March break I'm finding out :-D lol

 

[Citizen13469]

  Using the Jergpads I still find the HE-400 to be dark and really recessed in the upper mids and lower treble.  This is in comparison to the X1 which is still not particularly emphasized in that frequency range.  
 
Does anyone have a EQ setting to make it more naturalistic sounding?

I don't have an answer for you but wanted to echo that I'm also finding the tonal balance of these headphones pretty disappointing. My setup:
 
Macbook Retina ->
Amarra (or Audirvana, use both ), all FLAC or ALAC ->
Music Steamer II ->
Asgard 2 ->
HE-400
 
In Amarra I'm running parametic as follow right now -
Freq, DB, Q
250, -10, 1
2700, 4, .9
8000, -15, 10
 
My comparison is to my Sony MA-900, Amperiors, A900x, d770 (650 ohm). I've also recently owned Momentums, esw9a's, HD598's, and a Crossfade LP.
 
The HE-400 is darker than the MA-900 which I already thought was dark. The soundstage on the HE-400 has no depth to me. It has good detail and left/right/center but nothing close to the 3d stage of the a900x for example. Along with all of that it is pretty boring to listen to.The MA-900, Amperior and a900x all have much more energy and pace to them.
 
I'm very confused by this purchase. I only have about 20 hours on the HE-400's and will update if I start to understand and enjoy them better or if they really change during 120 hours of burn in. The Amperiors DID change a lot over burn in time.
 
Anyway, all of the above are my impressions, certainly not saying I expect many to agree with me but I have seen people complaining about the odd sound signature of these headphones and thought I'd add one more voice to the chorus.. On all my other headphones I don't eq at all. They all sound balanced enough, certainly different from each other, but no serious issues for my ears. The HE-400 is so different from everything else I can't just put them on and listen to them. Lots of fiddling so far with eq etc.
 
I'm hoping it's my brain and ears that need to adjust to ortho's or something.
 
One other note, fit and finish I'd rate is mediocre. They came new and sealed in a box from China and were covered a bit in a white dust. Paint on the frame of the cans is not perfect and fit on your head is a bit painful. Weight is an issue, but not as bad as you might expect. They basically seem industrial but not finished well.
 
Music Styles Listening To:
Pop
EDM
Classical
Jazz

 

[Citizen13469]

  Does anyone use these who has also used Sennheiser HD 25 1 ii? I am thinking of returning my 25-1 iis and getting the he400 instead. 
I dont care about comfort at all, and it seems like every sound aspect of these is better. is that true? Please help!!
 
also:
 
I listen to rock, EDM, metal, rap, almost everything besides jazz and country.
 
-i also am considering DT880, is that better than hd 25 1 ii for sound clarity? I want as little grainyness as possible on synth sounds etc. and everything accurate sounding. Willing to spend 300-400$ on the headphone-

 
My Amperiors aren't going anywhere since getting the HE-400. Amperior's will get almost daily use at work, out and about, commuting, travelling etc. The HE-400 is much too large to wear working around the house, commuting etc. It also has a silly cable.
 
Sound quality the HE-400 is better than the Amperior, but so far in my case it's not THAT much better. I only have about 20 hours on them though, maybe they will burn in better. I'd hang on to your HD25's and get both if you can.

 

[Hellbishop]

  Using the Jergpads I still find the HE-400 to be dark and really recessed in the upper mids and lower treble.  This is in comparison to the X1 which is still not particularly emphasized in that frequency range.  
 
Does anyone have a EQ setting to make it more naturalistic sounding?

 
For me what has worked is just turning up the volume to bring out all the detail in the upper mids  and lower treble. On my Onkyo TX 8555 stereo receiver I have to keep the volume at 40 to 45 to bring out a detailed full sound. I will probably see how they sound with the volume set at 50 in my next listening session. This is the case whether am gaming, listening to music or watching movies. With all my other headphones like my Ultrasone HFI-780 and Sennheiser HD-280 Pro a volume between 12 and 31 is all that is needed for a rich detailed sound. Its interesting how my Brother inlaw can run the HiFiMan HE-400 on his Android with crystal clarity while turning up the volume and yet I still have to do the same on my stereo receiver. Wonder if I would have to turn up the volume as much with a headphone amp.
 
The HiFiMan HE-400 also sounds very different depending on the source in a good way from my brief experience of various sources.

 

[Za Warudo]

I downloaded a Electri-Q preset for the HE-400 that boosts the upper mids.  However I have no idea how to get it working with Foobar2000.  

 

[spacequeen7]

  I downloaded a Electri-Q preset for the HE-400 that boosts the upper mids.  However I have no idea how to get it working with Foobar2000.  

just drag and drop the file to where you keep other presets and change "e-q" to "feq"  like this 
 
he-400flat2rev2.feq 
 
from this he-400flat2rev2.e-q
http://www.mediafire.com/download/5ojcbwczb09p939/he-400flat2rev2.e-q
 

 
P.S. I got this file from here 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/609551/post-your-eq-settings-for-your-headphones/30#post_9037184
is this what you referring to ?

 

[Za Warudo]

  just drag and drop the file to where you keep other presets and change last  this 
 
he-400flat2rev2.feq 
from this he-400flat2rev2.e-q
http://www.mediafire.com/download/5ojcbwczb09p939/he-400flat2rev2.e-q
 

I don't think that works because the EQ loaded onto foobar looks nothing like the Electri-Q EQ curve:

 
On foobar the EQ looks exactly like the one you have.

 

[spacequeen7]

it works since I was zero flat before I loaded the profile 
 
EQ on foobar and Electri-Q EQ curve are two separate apps 

 

[bdr529]

I was playing around with EqualizerAPO and came up with this:



I think it sounded a bit better. The most important part for me is the reduction at ~13Khz to neutralize the sizzle on the treble.

#fPEQGUI-10MC
Mode,1
S,False
Channel,0
Master,1200
Band,True,2,2,18867,1350,10299
Band,True,2,2,15011,2100,12226
Band,True,8,1,6499,1971,10299
Band,True,2,2,16860,2143,12543
Band,False,2,2,10,1800,10299
Band,False,2,2,10,1800,10299
Band,False,2,2,10,1800,10299
Band,False,2,2,10,1800,10299
Band,False,2,2,10,1800,10299
Band,False,2,2,10,1800,10299
LP,False,17000,2
HP,False,40,4

 

[pgivler]

  ^^ Wow, how long ago did I make that comment. 

Sorry, my mistake; new to head-fi, reading posts in the wrong order.