[ZMZB]

Well, it looks like my HE400 has been "acting up" these past couple of days. The left channel appears to randomly cut off and there also seems to be some from channel imbalance from the left channel at times. I purchased it in June 2012 from an Amazon.de Marketplace vendor, and up until now it has been performing very well.
 
Anything I should try before getting in touch with HFM?
 
*By the way, the cable appears to be undamaged, and the rest of my setup has been functioning flawlessly with other headphones*

 

[TMRaven]

Quote:

I could see that.
 
But I think square waves are a little silly to look at though. They're basically really cryptic FR graphs(they have harmonics that extend throughout the audible range, they don't represent only bass), and inaudible things can totally mess one up.

 
 
I'm not saying they're the last word in telling you how a headphone will perform, but more often than not the 30hz ones on inner fidelity do a good job of telling you how well the headphone holds up on low low notes. 

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

Well, it looks like my HE400 has been "acting up" these past couple of days. The left channel appears to randomly cut off and there also seems to be some from channel imbalance from the left channel at times. I purchased it in June 2012 from an Amazon.de Marketplace vendor, and up until now it has been performing very well.
 
Anything I should try before getting in touch with HFM?
 
*By the way, the cable appears to be undamaged, and the rest of my setup has been functioning flawlessly with other headphones*

Make sure the cable is screwed in properly. Do some counter clockwise turns before screwing it in to take some of the tension off.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Well, it looks like my HE400 has been "acting up" these past couple of days. The left channel appears to randomly cut off and there also seems to be some from channel imbalance from the left channel at times. I purchased it in June 2012 from an Amazon.de Marketplace vendor, and up until now it has been performing very well.
 
Anything I should try before getting in touch with HFM?
 
*By the way, the cable appears to be undamaged, and the rest of my setup has been functioning flawlessly with other headphones*

Have you tried the cable channel swapping test? Just swap L and R leads of your cable, use the headphone for a while and see if the "L channel cuts out sometimes" phenomenon is reproducible. If it is then definitely contact HFM for a replacement (there's something wrong with the driver, solder, or connector), if however your R channel starts acting up instead then it's a simple cable or upstream setup problem.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

 
 
I'm not saying they're the last word in telling you how a headphone will perform, but more often than not the 30hz ones on inner fidelity do a good job of telling you how well the headphone holds up on low low notes. 

In a lot of cases, but they can get weird and are usually misinterpreted. The LCD2's looks good not only because it holds up well in the low end, but because it is very flat up until the treble as well.
 
But for example, most people would take a look at this and think it's crap, but it's actually audibly perfect:

 

[TMRaven]

If this were true, then a headphone like say, an HE-6, would have a largely flat 30hz wave as well, and perhaps even a spike near the end of it, but it doesn't.  300hz square wave is more indicative of the overall FR than the 30hz wave.  The 30hz is mostly bass and lower mids.

 

[chewy4]

Quote:

If this were true, then a headphone like say, an HE-6, would have a largely flat 30hz wave as well, and perhaps even a spike near the end of it, but it doesn't.  300hz square wave is more indicative of the overall FR than the 30hz wave.  The 30hz is mostly bass and lower mids.

It's not easy to directly translate them. Bass changes do have a more clear effect on them in a lot of cases, but not flat doesn't equal not good, and doesn't even indicate not flat or poor bass. And treble changes do have an effect on them, there are programs you can test this with.
 
The one I posted above is a perfect computer generated square wave with a phase shift and it's not exactly what I would call flat.

 

[Kommando]

Just added an E17 to my collection, great little device - very happy with it. Sounds great with my HE-400's, just wondering what settings people recommend on the E17.
 
I have had a look at older posts but can't seem to find a post I once read about gain/bass settings.

 

[Randolph Duke]

Quote:

They do not mellow or become more aggressive. There is no burn in that changes the sound. You may adapt to the sound and perceive it to lean one way or the other, but that's your brain, not the headphones. Whatever you've read to describe the sound will apply during hour one and hour 500.

?
No burn in effect?
I'm sure I read somewhere that these take about 100 hours to settle in.
You're claiming Headphone burn in time is BS?

 

[ninjames]

Quote:

?
No burn in effect?
I'm sure I read somewhere that these take about 100 hours to settle in.
You're claiming Headphone burn in time is BS?

There is no burn in with these headphones. There is no change in sound one hour in, 20 hours in or 100 hours in. I do believe burn-in is heavily overstated, though it's not even really talked about with these headphones. Almost no reviewers observed a change in sound other than their brains adapting to the sound.
 
I do not believe headphone burn in time is BS. I believe just about any piece of equipment with moving parts could use a little bit of break-in, but we're talking minutes here right off the assembly line, not hours. Not some mystical point where suddenly they have an entirely different sound. Anyone who tells you that is straight-up lying to you or fooling themselves. Anything over a couple minutes is absolutely bogus, especially with these headphones.
 
The "burn in" is usually just someone adjusting to the sound.
 
There is some equipment that may benefit. Tubes in particular could benefit from burn in due to the nature of their construction and operation. 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

There is no burn in with these headphones. There is no change in sound one hour in, 20 hours in or 100 hours in. I do believe burn-in is heavily overstated, though it's not even really talked about with these headphones. Almost no reviewers observed a change in sound other than their brains adapting to the sound.
 
I do not believe headphone burn in time is BS. I believe just about any piece of equipment with moving parts could use a little bit of break-in, but we're talking minutes here right off the assembly line, not hours. Not some mystical point where suddenly they have an entirely different sound. Anyone who tells you that is straight-up lying to you or fooling themselves. Anything over a couple minutes is absolutely bogus, especially with these headphones.
 
The "burn in" is usually just someone adjusting to the sound.
 
There is some equipment that may benefit. Tubes in particular could benefit from burn in due to the nature of their construction and operation. 

My idea of burn-in is a bit different from yours but doesn't stray too far. There is definitely a mechanical break-in with tranducers within the first minutes of usage as it loosens up. But I believe there is also a very long-term (over months / years of usage, several hundreds ~ thousands of hours) "settling-in" of the transducers where the driver material, be it mylar or some rigid polymer depending on driver type, gradually destresses into a more equilibriated state. Any of these can be absolutely unnoticeable ~ fairly noticeable depending on driver type / manufacturing methods.

 

[Marleybob217]

^^ I think anything above 150-200 hours isn't burn in so much as it is wear and tear. 
Logic tells us there is a change, because the materials used aren't indestructible. Eventually every headphones sound will change for the worse, until they finally die.
Might take a while though.

 

[stereolab]

After months of mulling over headphone debate, I finally ordered and subsequently received my HE-400 on Saturday. Although I do enjoy the HE-400 sound, I am not sure these cans are a $400 upgrade over my Senn HD-595 (IMO). Undoubtedly my expectations were too high from the outset, but I figured I'd be a bit more impressed given the step up in headphone tiers. Hopefully in time I will learn to appreciate my new purchase.

 

[merkil]

So Im thinking of selling my Asgard (I actually have it listed) and switching to a pretty much mint recapped Vintage Marantz 1070 integrated amp to run the HE400s. Can any one suggest if this is a crazy idea???

 

[gistmarrs]

After months of mulling over headphone debate, I finally ordered and subsequently received my HE-400 on Saturday. Although I do enjoy the HE-400 sound, I am not sure these cans are a $400 upgrade over my Senn HD-595 (IMO). Undoubtedly my expectations were too high from the outset, but I figured I'd be a bit more impressed given the step up in headphone tiers. Hopefully in time I will learn to appreciate my new purchase.

This was my initial thoughts also. I have sltered my view a bit after some burn in period and also eqing the mids down a bit. Now I'm fairly satisfied with them. However, I still marvel everytime I put on my modded monoprice phones at how close they get to the 400'S.