[jay567]

  This headphone had so much potential. It's bass was almost perfect but is just horrible in other areas. 

 
Potential means better is achievable. A modded HE400 achieves seriously good sound quality which will go well with those that use IEMs often since most CIEMS/IEMs are colored and dynamic.

 

[jay567]

  I am not as bothered by the comfort or "peaky" highs on the HE-400 as others are. 
I still am wondering if getting a HE-500 would be significant upgrade to my HE-400's, 
or would the HD800 be a better sidekick? 
 
I love the planar sound and want to start with music production. Would the HE-500
fare just as good as the HD800 for that? (don't worry about amps or dacs, I got that covered )

 
Most Hifimans don't differ much from my experience.

 

[Kur0]

@jay567  Which mods?

 

[icebrain1]

@jay567
  Which mods?

The He-400s are a very moldable , for sound quality you can swich the ear pads for one, next you can try a vent mod to allow more air through, tightening the driver screws also helps with the bass, you can also add dampening next to the drivers to tame higher frequencys, and many other things that escape me at the moment. There's also a ton of comfort and style mods which can be done.

The only things I personally did though are get audeze pads, and I tightened the driver screws, the pads made a huge difference, and made the mids more pronounced. While tightening the screws made the bass tighter. Im not sure if this is always the case, but the screws holding the driver cover in place were loose on my he400s, so ymmv.

Good listening.

 

[Astrozombie]

Droogs I have a busted cable on mine (only like a year old) don't tell me I have to shell out $60-100 for a fancy "upgrade" cable!?!?

 

[DavidA]

  Mm
Interesting thank you for your observations, I'll look into the ember you mentioned. After just doing some extensive listening on my HE-400 again, and playing around with the equalizer APO on my desktop (raising the 1khz-6khz dip), I still love the stock EQ of the HE-400 more. I absolutely go crazy on the highs especially on "M83 - outro", and the linear bass with the howling warm mids are a nice contrast to clashing highs. It's like this can has 2 distinct personalities. Maybe I already found my endgame can but am just not willing to accept it, which is why I ordered the X00 , XD . However, I am looking for a can that can present tracks like "Cloud atlas Finale - Tom Twyker" or "Spirit of the Universe-Don Davis" on a grander scale (possibly soundstage related), which would rule out the LCD-2 I suppose..

If you think you are at your end-game congrats, if looking for better (grander scale) then T1, HD-800 are the way I would suggest.  I've reached my end-game with what I currently have, last upgrade was MB Bifrost a few months ago (which my son currently is "borrowing" until the end of the semester.  I am lucky that I have a friend who is very well of and stereo/headphones are his second favorite hobby next to golf so when I visited him last year I got to listen to some stuff I wouldn't even have on my headphone bucket list, it showed me that what I have is 95% or more of the TOTL stuff he has.

 

[DavidA]

  Droogs I have a busted cable on mine (only like a year old) don't tell me I have to shell out $60-100 for a fancy "upgrade" cable!?!?

Try Hifiman if looks like the cable failed due to manufacturing defect, if not Ebay has many cheaper ones that are pretty good, usually under $40 but with shipping you never know

 

[raybone0566]

If you think you are at your end-game congrats, if looking for better (grander scale) then T1, HD-800 are the way I would suggest.  I've reached my end-game with what I currently have, last upgrade was MB Bifrost a few months ago (which my son currently is "borrowing" until the end of the semester.  I am lucky that I have a friend who is very well of and stereo/headphones are his second favorite hobby next to golf so when I visited him last year I got to listen to some stuff I wouldn't even have on my headphone bucket list, it showed me that what I have is 95% or more of the TOTL stuff he has.

This post is awesome. Very well put David.

 

[Change is Good]

Any of you 400 gamers insterested in an adapter to use a vmoda boompro mic with these?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/796648/fs-peterek-premium-boompro-adapter-dual-smc-connectors-for-hifiman-headphones

Please pm me if so.

 

[Kur0]

Thoughts on using a Geek Out 450 with the HE-400? Seems like a nice portable solution... how would it compare to say a Schiit Stack and would it have enough power?
 
http://marketplace.lhlabs.com/products/geek-out-450-usb-dac-and-headphone-amplifier
 
Got an offer for $120 used

 

[MrMateoHead]

I'm still using mine with onboard realtek 897. Is buying an amp and dac worth it? Anyone else have the same or similar codec on their motherboard and can comment on the upgrade? Also vali vs magni? Heard solid state doesn't have distortion or high noise floor like tube amps and tend to play better for this headphone.

 
The short answer is, the amp is definitely worth it. The DAC is more questionable.

I have the realtek 892 and by all means it is not a bad sounding chipset at all. It is, however, a bit "softer" sounding than my Sabre DAC in the ODAC, and I perceive it as having less depth (e.g. transparency / instrument separation). In other words, the HE-400 seem to be at their absolute best on the O2 and the ODAC, my normal "hi-fi" rig. Using this rig with other headphones improves their performance, albeit maybe not quite as much. My PSB M4Us, with their high efficiency and minimal impedance swing sound almost the same no matter what I plug them into. Both a good, and maybe a "bad" thing. It is nice when headphones scale up a bit but maybe that speaks more to a sub-optimal design than the benefits of a good amp. I have been shocked at how good my Sennheiser HD 595s are on this setup. Had I amped them first, I might not have felt so compelled to try the HE-400s in the first place.

They don't beat the HE-400s or the PSBs, but honestly their performance does not make them clear "losers" either. In addition, the comfort and build quality are second to none. I'll definitely own some HD-600s or 650s someday.
 
In percentage terms, I'd probably say that in this case the HE-400 headphone is about 70% of the sound, the amp would be 20%, and the DAC about 10%. That statement comes from having owned the whole setup for years mind you. Once in awhile I go back to just a cell phone or my realtek headphone jack and think, "this is really, really good". Then I go back to the Amp, and finally the amp / odac and think "ahhhh - I missed you and why oh why did I ever stray?".

 

[Kur0]

   
-snip-

Thanks for the helpful insight, will definitely look into an amp and dac.

 

[MrMateoHead]

  Thanks for the helpful insight, will definitely look into an amp and dac.

TBH I would also consider sticking with a solid state like the O2 or the Magni as well. I've personally not bothered with a tube amp myself, but you may want to hear the phones on a solid state amp before investing in a "tube sound". I myself have not been particularly interested in tubes or the hybrid amps. Mainly due to distortion + tubes wear out eventually. My longest lasting solid state amps are over 10 years old at this point and are going strong. I did have an Alpine V12 (the old school awesome ones) die on me after about 10 years of bouncing around in my trunk and delivering 400-500 watts to two subs.
 
I've been praying for my Yamaha receiver to die so I have an excuse to upgrade. It won't quit.

 

[fishymamba]

Anyone have a problem with their pads spinning around in the cups? I got the velpads and they are so much more comfortable. but they don't stay in place. Wouldn't have been a big deal if these weren't angled. 

 

[icebrain1]

  Anyone have a problem with their pads spinning around in the cups? I got the velpads and they are so much more comfortable. but they don't stay in place. Wouldn't have been a big deal if these weren't angled. 

Ya, I am currently using the Audeze pads which are angled as well and the same thing happens it is quite annoying. But, I noticed after I tightened the screws beneath the ear pads that it happened less. Although it became harder to switch ear pads as well since it makes the area where the ear pads spin tighter.
BTW, i tightened the screws as mine seemed a bit loose and helped the bass response as well, the ear pads turning less was just a bonus.
 
You could try using something to hold them in place, you could also try these from the hifiman store not sure if they'll make a difference.
Link- http://hifiman.com/products/detail/208
 
Good luck.