**Hifiman HE-400 Impressions and Discussion Thread**
Feb 4, 2014 at 8:45 AM Post #16,322 of 22,120
It will be interesting to see what happens to the he400, the interest in it and this thread over the next few months as hifiman prepares to launch it's new offerings. 
 
Honestly, at $300 the he400 makes a compelling purchase regardless of how good the new hp's sound. But that's all for not as this fine hp reaches the end of it's shelf life. It's been a fun ride. 
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Feb 4, 2014 at 10:02 AM Post #16,323 of 22,120
You could just rename the thread to HE-400i impressions and discussions, and keep it going as one huge megathread.  
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You already renamed it once, so this one isn't a bad idea either!
 
Feb 4, 2014 at 4:19 PM Post #16,325 of 22,120
  Hey, waiting for my Aune T1 to pair it also with my HE400 
How does it pair? Is it a good match?
How did you power your HE400 before this, and how does to Aune T1 compare to it?
 
Thanks

I've got the Aune T1 with a pair of he-400's as well and it's been great so far. I've been rolling tubes, but I haven't had as much time as I'd ultimately like to compare them all, but oh well.
 
At any rate, I've added a little gain just to see how it does and so far so good. I think you'll like the T1 with he-400's. Plus there are plenty of driver grade tubes out there to roll and experiment. You don't need to spend $100 on gold pin tubes to get great sound of this little amp/dac. For example, I picked up 7 tubes for around $70 and 6 of them from Mhamel on here.
 
Feb 4, 2014 at 7:42 PM Post #16,327 of 22,120
So. I got the O2+ODAC combo some 3 weeks ago or so. It's been okay, not a huge improvement over the modern Denon AVR in my opinion. Yeah, you can drive it with higher volume while maintaining better quality, but I don't need to do that. I'm sort of sad I didn't save up for a proper tube amp instead, but I'll stick with this; it's not a bad buy at all.
 
My original cable was really weak from the headphone connectors, maybe I've been a bit harsh on them... There's some 4cm of open wire after the connectors thanks to the completely torn sleeve and it's losing sound from the left channel completely at times, this is why I don't want to spend large amounts of cash on headphones which have no option to change wires without some nasty modding and soldering. I'm all too familiar with this problem; I don't even want to imagine how many cheap earbuds' wires I've managed to break. I ordered the HiFiMAN silver-coated copper cable from Amazon UK, got to be a bit more careful with that. It's the 8m/26ft long cable though... There were no others available and supply here in Finland is nonexistent.
 
Feb 6, 2014 at 3:16 AM Post #16,330 of 22,120
Does anyone have a Vali+Modi combo and if so how does that setup sound with the HE-400? I have a Vali coming but I really need to get a DAC also and the Modi seems like a logical choice. I've read where some say its to bright and if that's the case I don't want one then because the 400 is bright enough as it is. What are some other good DAC's in the under $200 price range that would be a good fit for the HE-400, also would like it to sound good with my HD600 as well.
 
Feb 6, 2014 at 8:07 AM Post #16,331 of 22,120
I didn't like the modi with the he400. The odac was a good bit better (rca jacks). That will run about $150 from jdslabs. Or you could go ahead and get an end game dac like the bifrost with uber upgrade potential. Just depends on your budget. 
 
gL!!
 
Feb 6, 2014 at 10:07 AM Post #16,332 of 22,120
It makes much more sense to me to run modi+vali than odac+vali, even if the odac is a slight bit better.  Keep in mind we're talking dac differences here-- which doesn't amount to much at all.
 
Feb 6, 2014 at 11:14 AM Post #16,333 of 22,120
I have a pair of HE 400s with velour pads, and I enjoy listening to them a lot. One thing though is that I do hear some sibilance for female vocals and even for some male vocals. My Philips X1 doesn't have this sibilance. Are there any ways to reduce the sibilance on the He 400s? I am running it off a Dragonfly v1.2 and Project Ember with the stock tube. I don't have jergpads yet. I'm not sure how much difference it will make to change tubes, but I have a GE 6DJ8 tube arriving soon and was hoping to learn how much sound change different tubes can make. Besides tube changing though, are there other ways to possibly reduce sibilance? It is debatable as to whether or not changing cables (such as toxic cables) will change the sound much right?
 
Feb 6, 2014 at 11:22 AM Post #16,334 of 22,120
I have a pair of HE 400s with velour pads, and I enjoy listening to them a lot. One thing though is that I do hear some sibilance for female vocals and even for some male vocals. My Philips X1 doesn't have this sibilance. Are there any ways to reduce the sibilance on the He 400s? I am running it off a Dragonfly v1.2 and Project Ember with the stock tube. I don't have jergpads yet. I'm not sure how much difference it will make to change tubes, but I have a GE 6DJ8 tube arriving soon and was hoping to learn how much sound change different tubes can make. Besides tube changing though, are there other ways to possibly reduce sibilance? It is debatable as to whether or not changing cables (such as toxic cables) will change the sound much right?

 


EQ and Jergpad. I'm almost done making my set of Jergpads and they are a real PITA to make. I'd highly recommend getting a pair of small scissors with a sharp tip to make cutting the damping holes easier.
 
Feb 6, 2014 at 11:31 AM Post #16,335 of 22,120
 
  I have a pair of HE 400s with velour pads, and I enjoy listening to them a lot. One thing though is that I do hear some sibilance for female vocals and even for some male vocals. My Philips X1 doesn't have this sibilance. Are there any ways to reduce the sibilance on the He 400s? I am running it off a Dragonfly v1.2 and Project Ember with the stock tube. I don't have jergpads yet. I'm not sure how much difference it will make to change tubes, but I have a GE 6DJ8 tube arriving soon and was hoping to learn how much sound change different tubes can make. Besides tube changing though, are there other ways to possibly reduce sibilance? It is debatable as to whether or not changing cables (such as toxic cables) will change the sound much right?

 


EQ and Jergpad. I'm almost done making my set of Jergpads and they are a real PITA to make. I'd highly recommend getting a pair of small scissors with a sharp tip to make cutting the damping holes easier.

@modulor is making a batch #3 of the pads and taking orders, just FYI for jeffbear7.
 

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