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**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread**
Jan 13, 2014 at 11:59 PM Post #15,964 of 22,116
Is that treble booster affecting more than just the treble?  The HE-400 has really strong treble-- too much of it.  Boosting it even further might damage your hearing if you'er listening at high volumes.  What the HD598 has way more of the HE-400 are upper mids, which you can manually boost yourself using some kind of EQ.  (The area around 3-5khz)
 
Jan 14, 2014 at 5:32 AM Post #15,967 of 22,116
Just wanted to put ma impression for HE-400 & AKG Annie & Quincy Models
Well bringing into notices the diff. b.w the HE-400  :-
 
Better Clarity -->HE-400
 
Better Instrument Separation --> HE-400 (though AKG ones have much bigger and better SoundStage...must be Magic of Orthos)
 
Better Positioning --> Positioning also refers to Directionality capabilities of a HP which will look better on Thin-Sounding Headphones. HE-400 is Thicker whereas Annie/Quincy are much Thinner.
But also Instrument Separation and Positioning goes hand-by-hand but heard Annie/Quincy has better positioning where as Instrument Separation is much better on HE-400....A point to Discuss (Enlighten Me!!)
 
Better Over-all Presentation -->HE-400 as it is more Engaging & listening to them after coming back from other Headphones seems that some Energy was lost in music in those Headphones.
Better Treble --> AKG K702 Annie/Q701
Better Mids -->HE-400  (Tough Competition there but Keeping such Gr8 Lows with Mids being Intact is just Phenomenal!!)
Better Bass --> HE-400
Comfort --> Annie & Quincy
Amplification --->HE-400
Looks--> All Good, Matter of Personal Choice :wink: 
 
Price to Value Ration -->  K702 65th Anniversary & HE-400 are almost same but if AKG Q701 (being a lower price model) is almost identical to K702 Annie (& even more after adding Memory Foam Pads of Annie to it as per MAD-LUST Envy) then How it fairs up against HE-400 is a question as HE-400 Low End is comparable to some v.good High-End Headphones & its Mids are ALWAYS intact which happen v.less for a Headphone having Superb Low end though being at 400$...   
 
In Need of all yours comment for the same for more discussions....
 
Jan 14, 2014 at 6:04 AM Post #15,968 of 22,116
kramer5150 said:
  Curious... is or has anyone powered their HE-400 with a transformer coupled tube amp (non-OTL if you will)?  What are/were the results?
 
thanks
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I have mine paired with a Woo WA-6 (has a nos 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier) and i really love the sound. The HE-400 sounds very smooth and thick sounding. Some would probably say to thick but i really love it.
 
FWIW though i really didn't enjoy my HE-400 that much till i did the Jerg pad mod, re-grilling mod and replaced the stock rectifier in my amp. The treble was horrible very "tizzy" as a lot of others say. The mods really helped this a lot but the tizzyness was still there just not as bad, after i replaced my rectifier it completely went. I suspect the stock rectifier in the WA-6 is just garbage and was half the problem with the treble.
 
Jan 14, 2014 at 8:30 AM Post #15,969 of 22,116
It seems in general that Hifiman made some awesome drivers for the 400s and stuck them in a generally poorly designed headphone. The pads are a disaster, and the grills are too impeding. Perhaps instead of testing these things they just released the headphones so we could figure it out and they will fix it in the next version of the can.
taker64 said:
No, velour pads.
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Interesting, I find my 400s with my hybrid tube amp to be somewhat V shaped and therfore lacking in warm mids and upper mids.
 
Jan 14, 2014 at 8:56 AM Post #15,970 of 22,116
jshaffe said:
It seems in general that Hifiman made some awesome drivers for the 400s and stuck them in a generally poorly designed headphone. The pads are a disaster, and the grills are too impeding. Perhaps instead of testing these things they just released the headphones so we could figure it out and they will fix it in the next version of the can.

Interesting, I find my 400s with my hybrid tube amp to be somewhat V shaped and therfore lacking in warm mids and upper mids.
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This has been MS procedure for windows releases since the very beginning. 
wink.gif

 
Jan 14, 2014 at 10:09 AM Post #15,971 of 22,116
I wouldn't say that the pads are a disaster or that the grills are too impeding at all for the hifiman headphones.  I tried taking my grills off the HE-400 and the difference is literally less than 1-2% in sound-- not even worth it.  Hifiman sure thinks it isn't worth it either because they kept the same grills for their next line of headphones.  The biggest difference in perceived openness will come from having a single-ended design.  The creators of the Abyss were persistent on this idea, as they chose that as a strategic option in subjective sound even though they knew it had technical shortcomings.
 
The stock pleathers of the HE-400 are pretty deplorable as far as subjective sound quality goes, but they're quite decent as a pad goes-- high quality protein pleather instead of the cheaper fuzzy velour.  The velours sound better with the HE-400, and I'd consider them a worse pad than the pleathers.  Of course I would argue that every headphone needs a leather pad that's angled and has an oval-shape opening to accommodate for the natural shape of our ears, but then I'd be saying that 99/100 headphones on the market have bad earpads.
 
 
Also, HE-400 has plenty of warmth in the lower mids-- it's overwhelmingly warm there for a lot of people because the upper mids-- which people usually associate with colder headphones-- are lacking.
 
Jan 14, 2014 at 12:30 PM Post #15,973 of 22,116
josh05 said:
 
I have mine paired with a Woo WA-6 (has a nos 5AR4/GZ34 rectifier) and i really love the sound. The HE-400 sounds very smooth and thick sounding. Some would probably say to thick but i really love it.
 
FWIW though i really didn't enjoy my HE-400 that much till i did the Jerg pad mod, re-grilling mod and replaced the stock rectifier in my amp. The treble was horrible very "tizzy" as a lot of others say. The mods really helped this a lot but the tizzyness was still there just not as bad, after i replaced my rectifier it completely went. I suspect the stock rectifier in the WA-6 is just garbage and was half the problem with the treble.
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Great thanks for that commentary.  I always liked the WA6 paired with my RS1/HF1.
 
I'm generally a quiet / low volume listener, being very conscious about hearing protection.  Every now and then I do turn it up.  Do you find the WA6 has enough headroom and clean power to adequately push and damp the HE-400?... does it "fart-flab out" the bass at higher volumes?  Is the overall low sensitivity of the HE400 an issue with the WA6?
 
FWIW my main amp is darkvoice 337 with Tung sol mesh plates and 5998s.  I modded it with Hammond output transformers, the same ones they use on the Mad Ear+.  I think it and the WA6 are in the same ball park, in terms of power output.  But yeah, rectifier tubes I think are a whole nother' ball game.
 
Thanks for the reply!!
 
A bit OT...
Oh and some of you were asking about headphone tracks, heres another..."Lenny" by SRV.  Some of that hum and background buzz you hear on this tune (as well as Little Wing) is the hum of his guitar amps, and its in the recording.  IMHO its one of the characteristics of SRV and I think adds to the charm of his music.  he didn't use noise gates or anything like that in either his signal chain or studio processing... just pure tones, AC buzz and all.  It wouldn't surprise me if the reverberation in this track is the natural room acoustics and not post-processing effect.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLTcxM6XoMA
 
Conversely... someone was mentioning distortions and poorly recorded tracks.  Heres my personal worst offender, from one of my favorite bands sadly.  You can hear it in the intro.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kJWkmtjoX4
 
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