MrMateoHead
500+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2012
- Posts
- 963
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- 121
What is a wacky frequency response? Linear bass is ideal? Despite the plethora of speakers and headphones I've played with over the years, and despite the "measured" response and subjective details provided by others, I've yet to come to the conclusion that any of them are wacky. The HE-400 are darn good, even "neutral" in many ways, to my ears (when I play them against speakers I own that measure very flat but sound mid-centric as a consequence). Fang had said he wanted an "American sound" (JBL-ish), and in many ways he nailed it. I know because I own JBLs, and there was a time that that sort of sound was preferable to my ears. My tastes have evolved over the years, but anyone that can shape the sound in a pleasing way and maintain a smooth presentation has my vote. The HE-400 are just fun 90% of the time, and the planar drivers got it all over dynamics in some ways. If Fang goes after the new Harmon curve, I am sure he'll have a serious hit.
Hell, my Polk's in my car may be more "forward" than the HE-400s, bringing Lana's voice a little closer to me while listening, but they are also way more sibilant, fatiguing, and incapable of a faster bass that would make them the worthy compliment to my 8 inch JL W3 which nevertheless bottoms out before it can really blow my mind. I Guarantee that the "measured" response is "wacky" to someone like you, and you might reject the setup as measured, but I assure you the listening experience is not wacky. Once you learn to set up a system with time alignment, level matching, and effective EQ, you can create quite the stage and quite the fun experience. Sure, the Class D amp hisses, but in practice you just don't hear that in-car. So why worry?
I've learned over the years to appreciate the data, but also ignore it since my ears and brain are thankfully not robotic. Too many people seem to look at the FR chart of the HE-400s and conclude, stupidly, that they are "weird". Too bad, since for me this hobby isn't about the perfect sound but about not making the neighbors mad while I take in my 2014 top hits. BTW Diamond ears and others have raised some important points lately. 1) The volume you listen at makes a difference in your perception and 2) an Amp (like the O2) brings out the bass of the HE-400s and as a result it sounds a little better balanced. I am not one to say "BUY A 1000 WATT AMP" to just anyone, but it is generally a good idea to buy a little more power than you really need. I could go on, but I'll leave it at that.
All that said, I wish I could listen to some Philips L2s now. Did you demo those against your X2s? I am surprised the bass is that good considering it slopes off pretty hard. I like to see strong response to at least 40 hz. Anything lower is increasingly moot.
