[nicholars]

This is the EQ I am using, sounds decent with most genres including vocals, guitars etc. The square is where I set everything to "warm" filter which seems to help smooth out the treble.
 

 

[JR2014]

My HE-400s just shipped yesterday.  I'm excited!
 
Tracking says they are due to arrive tomorrow.  Better yet.

 

[beaver316]

I'll keep the warm filter on for a while and see if I can notice the difference. No harm in keeping it on since I can't hear any downgrade either,

 

[nicholars]

  I'll keep the warm filter on for a while and see if I can notice the difference. No harm in keeping it on since I can't hear any downgrade either,

 
Its not exactly "night and day" different, but it sounds a bit smoother to me, I think it adds some distortion to give a more "analog" sound, although I could be wrong, makes it sound a bit less sharp in the treble.

 

[Atavax]

bigger upgrade then i was expecting compared to my sennheiser 598s! thought the improvements were supposed to get less significant the farther up you went!

 

[Saoshyant]

  bigger upgrade then i was expecting compared to my sennheiser 598s! thought the improvements were supposed to get less significant the farther up you went!

 
While for the most part I agree with the second part, the he-400 stands out and an outstanding value for the cost, especially seeing that the price has dropped even further of late.  To me, the hd598 and the he-400 are not intended for the same musical purposes, so going from the 598 to the 400 can certainly feel like a huge change.

 

[KLJTech]

I like the 400's a lot more when driven by the Lyr than by any of the all solid state amps that I have on hand. Obviously there are a ton of great amps out there but in my two setups the 400's seem to enjoy having tubes somewhere in the chain. 

 

[TMRaven]

  bigger upgrade then i was expecting compared to my sennheiser 598s! thought the improvements were supposed to get less significant the farther up you went!

 
The aspect of diminishing returns holds true still I feel, but in this case you're going from one distinct sound to another completely opposite sound.  The improvements might seem drastic in that case if you like the sound signature of the HE-400 better than the HD-598.

 

[ben_r_]

  bigger upgrade then i was expecting compared to my sennheiser 598s! thought the improvements were supposed to get less significant the farther up you went!

Ha yea thats when you are going from $1000 sets to $1700+ sets of headphones. HD-598 and HE-400 are still well in the lower mid price range.

 

[Atavax]

 
Ha yea thats when you are going from $1000 sets to $1700+ sets of headphones. HD-598 and HE-400 are still well in the lower mid price range.

i don't know, i think you're a bit biased. I think the general population would not consider $300 on a headphone the lower mid range... I think its solid mid range, bordering on high end.

 

[nicholars]

 
i don't know, i think you're a bit biased. I think the general population would not consider $300 on a headphone the lower mid range... I think its solid mid range, bordering on high end.

 
HE400 are more like mid-high range really, probably 0.0001% of people will spend more than HD650, D5000 or HE400 money on headphones. NAD HP50 or Sennheiser Momentum would be "high end" to most normal people.

 

[nicholars]

Strange because I got a bit &*$^%& off with my HE400 and hardly used them for about 3 months for music, but I have done some more tweaking and finding I like them for most genres now, 1 EQ for electronic music and another for instruments / vocals etc. The "other" EQ having a 2-3DB boost around 1300-5000hz, they actually sound good with most music with more upper mids and it sort of masks out the harsh treble as well.

 

[bleudeciel16]

Hey!  I just ordered the he-400's from amazon a second ago for a really fair price of $300.  Pretty stoked to get them.
 
Cliffnotes:
I have bifrost uber,lyr, hd650's and am happy with them.
Wife has ATH-M50's straight off HT Omega Claro sound card.
 
I want to upgrade her to something better, so probably these he-400's.  Will they sound fine straight from the sound card, or will I want to pick up a "budget" dac/amp?
 
I have no info on how to drive these, so any info is appreciated.  Thanks!

 

[MattTCG]

The he400 will sound "pretty good" from the sound card but they do scale up pretty nice with even a modest amp. The best budget amp for them IMO is the Vali at $129. This amps often pops up used here for about $100.
 
gL!!

 

[swoody]

I just got my HE-400's in the mail the other day. I gave them a good audition with the stock pads, but wound up switching them out for the velour ones today. They really do make a difference to me, and even if the sound signature was the same as the leather pads, they are a lot more comfortable to me.

Have been running them straight off my laptop's headphone port so far, but my Magni / Modi stack should be here tomorrow. I've been enjoying them so far, and plan on listening to them with the new stack for a while before I start looking into any EQ'ing.