[nicholars]

I find with the HE400 that the bass and midrange is excellent but the treble is quite horrible at times, basically what I do is heavily EQ the treble down and increase the bass and mids. Not perfect and I would rather have better treble but I have not found many better headphones for electronic music at the price I paid, I do not find them as good for other genres as some similar headphones such as HD650 or D2000 but the speed, detail, bass and mids are awesome for electronic music.

 

[BenF]

  "Originally Posted by gab840 
 
What are the best Amplifier suitable for HE-400 in 150-300$ range ????"
 
 
The he400 does not need as expensive amp which is part of it's allure. It does have the ability to "scale up" pretty well as do most planar's. It can sound good all the way down to the fiio e17. The audio gd products are also good. I personally like the A2 in your price range. 
 
gL!!

E17 can get HE-400 loud enough, but E12 sounds better.

 

[Thujone]

  The cable looks well built and I like the Oyaide jacks. But IMO I wouldn't put a silver cable on the he400. Just not a good idea.

Why is that? Just curious.

 

[Vidmaven]

  Why is that? Just curious.

Too bright I would think.

 

[Thujone]

Silver cables are brighter than copper cables? What is this sorcery?!

 

[jay567]

  I find with the HE400 that the bass and midrange is excellent but the treble is quite horrible at times, basically what I do is heavily EQ the treble down and increase the bass and mids. Not perfect and I would rather have better treble but I have not found many better headphones for electronic music at the price I paid, I do not find them as good for other genres as some similar headphones such as HD650 or D2000 but the speed, detail, bass and mids are awesome for electronic music.

 
Don't EQ up bass. Rather, EQ down about 4~5dB from 0 to 400ish. EQ down 500 area down to around 3.5dBish. Leave the mids but just increase the upper mids (4KHz areaish?) a bit. Then decrease the trebles generally by around 2dB with specifically decreasing 8KHz by around 3dB. You will then have a neutral sounding, non fatiguing HE-400 with better transparency throughout the spectrum.

 

[jay567]

  Silver cables are brighter than copper cables? What is this sorcery?!

 
This is true at least with the experience I've had with IEMs. The more sensitive the can is, the more it reacts to cables I think.

 

[nicholars]

   
Don't EQ up bass. Rather, EQ down about 4~5dB from 0 to 400ish. EQ down 500 area down to around 3.5dBish. Leave the mids but just increase the upper mids (4KHz areaish?) a bit. Then decrease the trebles generally by around 2dB with specifically decreasing 8KHz by around 3dB. You will then have a neutral sounding, non fatiguing HE-400 with better transparency throughout the spectrum.

 
I am a bit of a basshead with some genres so I like increased sub bass.... I don't EQ it up because the foobar EQ has a compensation feature so it does not go above 0. I have to EQ the treble by more like 5db so it does not physically hurt my ears.... It messes up the overall sound a bit but at least I do not get tinnitus! Thanks for the advice anyway.

 

[Muzika]

 
I am a bit of a basshead with some genres so I like increased sub bass.... I don't EQ it up because the foobar EQ has a compensation feature so it does not go above 0. I have to EQ the treble by more like 5db so it does not physically hurt my ears.... It messes up the overall sound a bit but at least I do not get tinnitus! Thanks for the advice anyway.

 
That's the main problem I've had so far with EQ'ing. I haven't been able to EQ without it sounding as though it's been EQ'd! By that I mean the balance seems out of wack, or clarity is lost in the high-end. So far I'm presuming that's due to my poor EQ skills; I've tried other people's presets and attempted the proper EQ'ing guide here on the forums (but had trouble getting through it) though sadly I'm yet to have any real success. And with all the time I'd already spent researching the headphones and potential alternatives and reading various guides, plus time for modification and also sorting out my media player + library - I've so far lost patience with trying to get the headphones to a truly listenable and carefree state. Hence my lack of enthusiasm for them.
 
It's been good as a learning process and I've largely enjoyed being forced to get to know my HE-400s more intimately, but it reaches a point where it becomes frustrating and rather annoying to have to do so much work to get a professionally designed, moderately expensive pair of headphones to work well. I do believe in these headphones, and that they're quite exceptional to other people, I'm just yet to really get there myself.

 

[TMRaven]

Might be a 'getting used to it'k ind of deal.  For example, if you EQ a treble rolloff to make the HE-400's treble more neutral, on some songs you might notice a drastic difference right away, and it might sound veiled in comparison.  That's by no means a loss of detail or clarity though, it just means the more treble you have the more perceived clarity you have.  Give that EQ'd treble a good 10 minutes of listening though, and it'll quickly become your norm.

 

[jay567]

  Might be a 'getting used to it'k ind of deal.  For example, if you EQ a treble rolloff to make the HE-400's treble more neutral, on some songs you might notice a drastic difference right away, and it might sound veiled in comparison.  That's by no means a loss of detail or clarity though, it just means the more treble you have the more perceived clarity you have.  Give that EQ'd treble a good 10 minutes of listening though, and it'll quickly become your norm.

 
Listen to this guy. Give your ears some time to get used to. At least 20 minutes imo. As for subbass, you can decrease it less and is what I do as well. HE-400 has a bit too much bass in the 200~600Khz area IMO which veils the mids quite a lot. To those that do not eq down the midbass and just the trebles, the whole sound sounds veiled because both the mids and treble has lost presence! 
 
Also for those that say EQing reduces SQ. I believed the same as well. But when you learn to EQ well, you get to know that it does not decrease SQ at all. It's all about the balance between the bass, mids and the trebles as a whole since every frequency bands affect one another IMO again.
 
For those that wanna try out my EQ settings:
 
I use Jriver so I use the bands used there.
 
60hz: -2.3db
170hz: -3.5db
310hz: -3.5db
600hz: -3.1db
1khz: 0db
3khz: +1.2db
6khz: 0db
12khz: -1.5db
14khz: -1.5db
16khz: -1.5
 
with using parametric EQ, decrease 8khz by -3db with bandwidth of 1.
 
I'm using these settings with jergpads as well btw. Also, some alteration from that as base will be fine according to your personal preference since I've been changing myself as well. But with this setting, I don't get treble spikes, and overall a balanced sound with mids clear and bass present when called upon which is how it is on neutral phones.
 
Please don't bash me if you don't like these settings haha... I just wanted to share

 

[beaver316]

   
That's the main problem I've had so far with EQ'ing. I haven't been able to EQ without it sounding as though it's been EQ'd! By that I mean the balance seems out of wack, or clarity is lost in the high-end. So far I'm presuming that's due to my poor EQ skills; I've tried other people's presets and attempted the proper EQ'ing guide here on the forums (but had trouble getting through it) though sadly I'm yet to have any real success. And with all the time I'd already spent researching the headphones and potential alternatives and reading various guides, plus time for modification and also sorting out my media player + library - I've so far lost patience with trying to get the headphones to a truly listenable and carefree state. Hence my lack of enthusiasm for them.
 
It's been good as a learning process and I've largely enjoyed being forced to get to know my HE-400s more intimately, but it reaches a point where it becomes frustrating and rather annoying to have to do so much work to get a professionally designed, moderately expensive pair of headphones to work well. I do believe in these headphones, and that they're quite exceptional to other people, I'm just yet to really get there myself.

 
I know exactly what you mean here. Back when I was busy experimenting with different EQ setups trying to find the perfect curve for the HE-400, there were occasions where if I EQed the treble too much, it would totally change the sound signature. It sounded unnatural and veiled despite removing the harshness completely. Even when I listened to it for a good 10 minutes I couldn't adjust. It's best to find the right compromise, don't change it too much where the overall sound suffers, and at the same time don't change it too little where you hardly hear a difference. With the right compromise you can achieve an outcome where the sound seems totally natural and you would never guess EQ was being applied.

 

[nicholars]

I noticed it is dependent on genre.... For example rock or metal music sound wrong with a lot of EQ on the treble but electronic music you do not notice it really, probably because it is not reproducing real sounds a lot of the time, except vocals which the HE400 is pretty good at anyway.

 

[davidsh]

  I know exactly what you mean here. Back when I was busy experimenting with different EQ setups trying to find the perfect curve for the HE-400, there were occasions where if I EQed the treble too much, it would totally change the sound signature. It sounded unnatural and veiled despite removing the harshness completely. Even when I listened to it for a good 10 minutes I couldn't adjust. It's best to find the right compromise, don't change it too much where the overall sound suffers, and at the same time don't change it too little where you hardly hear a difference. With the right compromise you can achieve an outcome where the sound seems totally natural and you would never guess EQ was being applied.

I can indeed agree with this. The correct balance can be really hard to find.

 

[Thujone]

Nothing like swapping from the HE-400 and finding that all your other headphones are super veiled... because you forgot to turn the EQ off...