[ninjames]

Quote:

You did it wrong then. The correct way is only to button the two buttons on the very ends, and leave the middle parts open.

Sorry but I still disagree. That is not the "correct" way. That's the method you prefer. I buttoned all of them on mine and gave it some time to stretch and conform and it has done that very well. It is not bunched in the middle at all for me.

 

[BrokeStudent]

I don't know if it's headphone burn-in or just 'brain' burn-in but I am loving the sound signature on these more and more. I've raised the bass regions only about 4dB and I must say at almost all listening levels it sounds great. Even at volumes at the highest level I'm comfortable with they're awesome. Maybe I wasn't craving as much ear shattering bass as I thought? I don't know, regardless, I can say that I find myself craving to listen to these all day long. I've already happily given back my friend his ultrasones and these are just in another league. 
 
My M&M stack got into the country today however I dont think I'll be seeing it until Monday. Another weekend amp/dacless. Damn! The E11 just doesnt cut it.

 

[TMRaven]

Most likely brain burn-in.  It's the good ol 'well if I listen to apple buds for one week and go back to my AD700, it'll be a bass monster!'

 

[FuzzyD]

Quote:

You did it wrong then. The correct way is only to button the two buttons on the very ends, and leave the middle parts open.

 
That's what I'm doing. Only buttoned them all for a minute to see how tight it really was.

 

[wje]

Quote:

I'll put it like this.
 
When I let my brother demo the HE-400 at his place, as he was listening to them, his gf (sitting 10-15 feet across the room) said 'that sounds better than our stereo system.'
 
Of course it's a lot of exaggeration and humor on her part, but you get the idea.

 
There's a subliminal component to that message.  Most ladies don't like mega-stacks of audio equipment and in his case, she was trying to be encouraging of the HE-400s so he'd dump the pile of audio gear.  Since she's his GF, I say your friend needs to "grow a pair" before he thinks of marriage.  Once you put a ring on it, all bets are off for the poor fellow.  

  

 

[ozarkcdn]

Quote:

 Once you put a ring on it, all bets are off for the poor fellow.  

  

LOL - of course, that's a two way street.  Buy all the gear you can before putting a ring on it... all bets are off on spending large percentages of take-home after you tie the NOT

  Well... that's for us regular foks, that is... of course, my wife didn't give me too much grief about spending $400 on these phones, so I'm a lucky guy!

 

[darkfireblade25]

So I've been listening to the new V-MODA M-100s since the first batch preorder and decided a few days ago that I wanted to try out my friend's just burned in HE-400s.
 
Stuff went down. And I thought I knew what open backs were like when I had the HD598s... Blew my mind.

 

[ozarkcdn]

Quote:

Well, after hearing my HE-400's this whole afternoon, i noticed only one thing that is bothering me a little: There's some pronounced sibilance in some songs, specially on vocals.
 
Is that normal, or is my HE-400 defective?

Have you read the http://www.head-fi.org/t/413900/how-to-equalize-your-headphones-a-tutorial thread?  I found I have a bad resonance at about 9.1khz. That's a pretty 'sibilancy' area, so I followed that thread and tuned down that range, which has helped.  Same as if I'm listening to live jazz - the trumpet hits my resonant spot badly and makes me cringe, just as the 400's do with those instruments.  That sinegen program mentioned in that thread will help you find any nasty spots.

 

[YGuyG]

Quote:

 
 
I just noticed something VERY odd regarding my previous gear and bass. I just put on a typical trance song with IE8's on my E17 NO eq and the bass is incredible, it's like they are reproducing a very accurate bass frequency response, tight deep, punch, very well defined.. something none of my headphones can do without a bass EQ
 
I'd need +8 bass (E17) on my xb700's to get the level of IE8's with no EQ and the bass knob on them isn't even on max.. the x1's probably need +4 or 6 to get the same amount and lastly he-400 can't even produce such intense bass at all on my e17... i wouldn't be surprised if the ie8s have the most accurate bass (with my setup) because after all I am playing trance songs, you'd expect to hear a strong bassline.. like something you'd hear with a decent set of 2.1 speakers, yet the headphones always cut short in that aspect, unless you boost them with an eq after an hour of testing I may have exaggerated, but the point remains the headphone usually need decent EQing to bring out the bass.. the he-400 with no bass eq is literally bassless in comparison
 
so if im an ultrabass head, then so is everyone that uses an IE8 with a decent source
 
I guess you won't really notice the inaccurate bass response (IMO) of the he-400s+E17 if you're not a trance/electro head.

I have to respectfully disagree with you, while the bass is not as loud if you will, it certainly is accurate IMO and I'm using a puny little E11. I love the HE400's for all ranges of electronic music. While I don't own the IE8's anymore I'll be honest with you, the HE400 blows them away in every aspect. Maybe you need a better amp to make em really kick. Remember, these are OPEN, the bass is astounding for an open can, you can't expect open cans to thrust bass straight into your ear drum like the IE8's though. Accurate is subjective, accurate to a booming club or electronic music festival or accurate like a well tuned home or car audio system?... Or even accurate like you were sitting right there in the very room the recording took place?

 

[TMRaven]

Quote:

 
There's a subliminal component to that message.  Most ladies don't like mega-stacks of audio equipment and in his case, she was trying to be encouraging of the HE-400s so he'd dump the pile of audio gear.  Since she's his GF, I say your friend needs to "grow a pair" before he thinks of marriage.  Once you put a ring on it, all bets are off for the poor fellow.  

  

 
 
Well their speaker system isn't really a mega-stack. 

  It's quite minimalistic.  The cheapest sony receiver you can find, feeding a Bose acoustimass 5 system.  So really it's just a small 'subwoofer' in a corner and two tiny satellites. 
 
They've been together for 7-8 years now-- my brother is 33.  They havn't gotten married yet!  I don't think they ever will.. haha.

 

[Lohb]

Would it be easy to dis-asemble the earphones and powder coat away the blue parts and the side grill ?
After reading more on these they seem great......
Wish they had a headband as cool as AKG K701.Could that headband be sourced and ported onto HifiMan ?
That plus the custom toxic cables = audio heaven !

 

[ozarkcdn]

Quote:

They've been together for 7-8 years now-- my brother is 33.  They havn't gotten married yet!  I don't think they ever will.. haha.

What did my old girlfriend's grandmother say... 'why buy the cow if you get the milk for free?'

 

[kothganesh]

Hi Matt:
 
I have just ordered the HE-400 and can't wait to get my hands on it after reading your post and updates. FYI, I have also ordered the Bifrost and the Asgard (Jason's recommendation). My music source is the iPod Touch (latest gen). In your trials, did you experiment with different sources , e.g. laptop, a music player like Cowon.
 
Curious to know if the source makes a huge difference. 
 
Thanks

 

[YGuyG]

Quote:

Hi Matt:
 
I have just ordered the HE-400 and can't wait to get my hands on it after reading your post and updates. FYI, I have also ordered the Bifrost and the Asgard (Jason's recommendation). My music source is the iPod Touch (latest gen). In your trials, did you experiment with different sources , e.g. laptop, a music player like Cowon.
 
Curious to know if the source makes a huge difference. 
 
Thanks

Take it from the other Mat (yeah I got one T) in this thread as well, depending on what the source is and what's in between the source it can make a very large difference. Straight out of your iPod touch it will sound pretty mediocre for something you payed $400 for, take your laptop/computer, plug the iPod touch in so you have all your music in iTunes, connect the Bifrost and Asgard and it will make worlds of difference. Right out of a music player, computer/laptop it will sound alright but nothing special. Just putting the E11 in between my iPad made a pretty huge difference. 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Hi Matt:
 
I have just ordered the HE-400 and can't wait to get my hands on it after reading your post and updates. FYI, I have also ordered the Bifrost and the Asgard (Jason's recommendation). My music source is the iPod Touch (latest gen). In your trials, did you experiment with different sources , e.g. laptop, a music player like Cowon.
 
Curious to know if the source makes a huge difference. 
 
Thanks

Bifrost>Asgard>HE400 is a pretty solid setup, just know that it will be very very detailed and revealing, so be prepared that some low bitrate or poorly mastered music will sound like crap, while better mastered lossless stuff will sound really great.