[Oregonian]

  I'm really hoping i'm lucky enough to score a pair of these (again...) if they ever come on the FS forum and I can find them. 
 
I was wondering if anyway has tried the "mod" where you simply take the black mesh fabric off either of the metal grills inside the headphone? I did this with my old pair and I swear to god it make a noticeable difference in silibance and harshness. To that end grill modding to something with more airflow would do the same I assume. Just wondering if people still do that.

 
Hi fellow Oregonian...................are you a Rush fan?  I know you're a long way south but Rush is coming in July to Portland. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/619447/hifiman-regrilling-mod - that'll give you some idea on what folks are up to.  I personally remove the grills completely, mesh fabric and all and put this in...................
 

 

 

[money4me247]

   
Hi fellow Oregonian...................are you a Rush fan?  I know you're a long way south but Rush is coming in July to Portland. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/619447/hifiman-regrilling-mod - that'll give you some idea on what folks are up to.  I personally remove the grills completely, mesh fabric and all and put this in...................
 

 
is that suspension strap the one being offered here? http://www.head-fi.org/t/754938/planar-pad-for-audeze-hifiman-mad-dog-alpha-dog-paradox-fostex-t50-rp-modders
 
how do you like it?

 

[xskugga]

   
Open headphones generally have weaker bass compared to closed ones. I say generally because it's not always true. Have you tried before various open and closed headphones to get a rough feel?
 
When it is said that the 400s has impressive bass, some of its praise would have taken into consideration that it is an open headphone. That said, I'm satisfied with the bass on the 400s.
 
The amp/dac you pair it with will affect the bass as well, most will have a bass boost function should you wish to use it, and each one has its own sonic signature. Perhaps a neutral one might not fit you.
 
As for graphs, I know too little to help you with that, except that higher amplitude translate to a louder volume. Side note: you should use the graph link near the bottom of the page instead of the one in your navigation bar. The one you post links only to the default page. For example, http://graphs.headphone.com/graphCompare.php?graphType=3&graphID[]=3651&graphID[]=2141&scale=30

Had Q40s and DT990s. Definitely have a feel of the difference. I am aware open headphones have less bass, and really don't need a wallop of bass, I'd prefer quality over quantity, but the DT990s just didn't have enough and couldn't produce enough quantity to satisfy so that's is why I am looking at the HE-400s/X2s. I should add that I am definitely not an extreme basshead, I don't expect to have two subwoofers in my ears, but I do like visceral bass and if I can get close to that I will definitely try to aim for that. I don't expect as much bass as the Q40s, but if I can get more texture and about 50-70% of the bass of the Q40s I'd be very satisfied. As for the amp I definitely understand what you're saying there as I had the E12 with the DT990s and promptly sold the E12 to get another as it was too neutral (even with bass boost) to pair well. As for a new amp I was thinking of going with either SMSL sAp-5, Hippo cricri, FiiO E11K, or C&C BK and was leaning towards the E11K due to having the E6 and E12, but am unsure which would pair best. For the 50Hz square wave response, how would the amplitude translate into bass if it does at all? Thanks for your help so far, I'm starting to get this sorted out. 

 

[ArmAndHammer]

  Had Q40s and DT990s. Definitely have a feel of the difference. I am aware open headphones have less bass, and really don't need a wallop of bass, I'd prefer quality over quantity, but the DT990s just didn't have enough and couldn't produce enough quantity to satisfy so that's is why I am looking at the HE-400s/X2s. I should add that I am definitely not an extreme basshead, I don't expect to have two subwoofers in my ears, but I do like visceral bass and if I can get close to that I will definitely try to aim for that. I don't expect as much bass as the Q40s, but if I can get more texture and about 50-70% of the bass of the Q40s I'd be very satisfied. As for the amp I definitely understand what you're saying there as I had the E12 with the DT990s and promptly sold the E12 to get another as it was too neutral (even with bass boost) to pair well. As for a new amp I was thinking of going with either SMSL sAp-5, Hippo cricri, FiiO E11K, or C&C BK and was leaning towards the E11K due to having the E6 and E12, but am unsure which would pair best. For the 50Hz square wave response, how would the amplitude translate into bass if it does at all? Thanks for your help so far, I'm starting to get this sorted out. 

HE-400 bass is good. It's tight and accurate and plentiful. X2 has a little more bass. Bass you can feel more. To my ears, sounds like the X2 gets lower. I think that might be because of the difference in openness. The HE-400 is VERY open where the X2 is probably about 40% less open...maybe even less than that. The X2 is still tight, not bloated. I feel like it's a 10" vs 12" woofer argument between the two. For me, I like the 12" better (X2). I will say that for music like house or EDM, the HE-400 is better because it's a faster, punchier bass....like a 10" subwoofer would be.

 

[xskugga]

  HE-400 bass is good. It's tight and accurate and plentiful. X2 has a little more bass. Bass you can feel more. To my ears, sounds like the X2 gets lower. I think that might be because of the difference in openness. The HE-400 is VERY open where the X2 is probably about 40% less open...maybe even less than that. The X2 is still tight, not bloated. I feel like it's a 10" vs 12" woofer argument between the two. For me, I like the 12" better (X2). I will say that for music like house or EDM, the HE-400 is better because it's a faster, punchier bass....like a 10" subwoofer would be.

 
Well that answered my question for the bass...the X2s are more for me. Now I just need to look through some reviews and find the best amp for me. Thanks all that helped, going to give a helpful rating to all of you. 

 

[ArmAndHammer]

I have my X2 paired with the Schiit Audio Magni 2 Uber. Great pairing IMO. 

 

[RushNerd]

   
Hi fellow Oregonian...................are you a Rush fan?  I know you're a long way south but Rush is coming in July to Portland. 
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/619447/hifiman-regrilling-mod - that'll give you some idea on what folks are up to.  I personally remove the grills completely, mesh fabric and all and put this in...................
 
 
 
 

WOW, that is a fantastic mod, love the suspention, I personally used the beyer headphone strap for mine (I think since there has been a HE-x00 one made) and it worked perfect.
 
Yes huge Rush fan, the only time I got to see them was on their 30th anniversary tour in "Portland" (it was actually in ridgefield wa but it was called portland) they never do stop touring do they? Maybe i'll see if I can make it up there again.
 
Rush was made for the HE-400's, I liked Signals and Grace under pressure through HD650's, but there is no question that the HE-400's represent their sound, depth, and openness the way it should be experienced.

 

[money4me247]

  Well that answered my question for the bass...the X2s are more for me. Now I just need to look through some reviews and find the best amp for me. Thanks all that helped, going to give a helpful rating to all of you. 

i would recommend trying both yourself rather than relying on other people's impressions. you will find different people prefer one over the other. 

 

[ArmAndHammer]

  i would recommend trying both yourself rather than relying on other people's impressions. you will find different people prefer one over the other. 

I was lucky enough to do that this time around...but for a lot of folks it's just not possible unless you can find a place that will sell you a headphone with a great return policy. There's too much money at risk buying multiple headphones with intentions of only keeping one, especially if your only option is to resell the ones you don't want to keep. You'll lose a lot of money doing that vs. just paying a return shipping charge. And for someone like me...it's not possible to demo headphones because there's no place around that sells them. Well, I have one place but he deals with one a few companies so I'd be very limited with what I'd be able to try out. So for a lot of folks, reviews are all they have to make decisions and yeah, sometimes it doesn't workout as well as you'd hope or expect. I've been there before buying headphones off of reviews and been very disappointed such as with the Alesandro MS1 I had and the AKG K701 I purchased a few years ago. 

 

[xskugga]

  I have my X2 paired with the Schiit Audio Magni 2 Uber. Great pairing IMO. 

 
Need a portable amp right now, but maybe in the future I might get a Valhalla 2. A Magni 2 would be nice though...
 

  i would recommend trying both yourself rather than relying on other people's impressions. you will find different people prefer one over the other. 
 

 
I can't really give them a try before purchase, I could just buy one and return it, but I do want to see what other people think about them as their opinions do have value even if everyone hears differently and has different preferences. 

 

[ArmAndHammer]

   
Need a portable amp right now, but maybe in the future I might get a Valhalla 2. A Magni 2 would be nice though...
 
 
I can't really give them a try before purchase, I could just buy one and return it, but I do want to see what other people think about them as their opinions do have value even if everyone hears differently and has different preferences. 

Just FYI...the X2 also does fantastic with the JDS Labs cMoyBB.

 

[xskugga]

  Just FYI...the X2 also does fantastic with the JDS Labs cMoyBB.

 
Ooo, may just go with that one then. I her the bass boost is phenomenal on that one. Thanks for telling me.

 

[RushNerd]

I went ahead and bought the only he-400 that was up on the FS forum $240 and $33 for velour pads and the beyer headstrap cusion (i'm shocked more HE owners don't invest in this, not only is the fit better, but it completely eliminates pressure points and enables long-term sessions)
Can't wait to be a part of this thread again...now to find a dollar store mesh trash can.
 
 
EDIT: I wanted to mention at a Portland,OR Head-Fi meet I got the honor of trying out the legendary Stax SR-007 MK2 headset and I hope i'm not too out of line in saying that out of all the headphones I've tried, the he400's (he500, might be a better match, haven't tried) come closest to emulating that experience in sound quality, soundstage, and sound sig. Not sure if anyone would agree with that, but this is certainly the closest i'll ever get to that kind of perfection!

 

[ojrobinson]

So I just received some HE-400s(with velour pads) from the for sale forum and am really enjoying them so far.

Currently running them from my PC through a Fiio e10k(upgrade in the near future hopefully). Comparing them to my other general use head phones, the Sony MDR-MA900 they best them in just about every way bar comfort, however I think the Sony's comfort is hard to compete with. **Insert Flanders wearing nothing at all joke. I usually listen to a mixture of EDM and house with a little bit of other random genres here and there.

The base on the cans is like nothing I've personally heard before, it is so satisfying from a non bass head perspective. They are able to go much lower and with more impact than the Sony's while still not leaking into the mid range. Comparing Soundstage between the 2 I am really struggling to spot a difference. So far I have yet to encounter the harsh highs.

Just thought I would throw my 2 cents in!

 

[RushNerd]

The base on the cans is like nothing I've personally heard before

The 400s are the base for bass! No really though they threw me for a loop the first time I set them on my desk while I had some Prodigy playing; I could actually hear the bass almost as much on the desk as on my head! Dynamic drivers need a seal and something to bounce of off to create that and thus sound like you would expect them to when you take them off. 
 
Still boggles my mind how this works, I think it must have something to do with the sheer size of the plastic diaphragm and the way it displaces air.