[DavidA]

Hi, fellow HE400 lovers. I used to frequent this thread years ago and am just coming back to say how much love I still have for my trusty HE400. I have modded the cup interiors with sorbothane but having caught up with this thread, might try to add more as some of you think the more, the better. However, I just have one question I can't seem to find the answer to - what is this hard rubber part to be fixed into the middle of the driver about? Does it bring up the mids?

I've used a hard rubber pad mounted in the middle of the grills to bring up the mids and it works pretty good but you should experiment with size and density to see what works for you.

 

[Green Golden Retriver]

Just got the canyin N3Pro several weeks ago. Pair very nicely with the he400

 

[bagwell359]

Hi, fellow HE400 lovers. I used to frequent this thread years ago and am just coming back to say how much love I still have for my trusty HE400. I have modded the cup interiors with sorbothane but having caught up with this thread, might try to add more as some of you think the more, the better. However, I just have one question I can't seem to find the answer to - what is this hard rubber part to be fixed into the middle of the driver about? Does it bring up the mids?

Well I'm a HE-500/HE-6se guy that owns a 4XX and had a 400 back when. The 400 needs a good amount of damping, but a whole cup full seems like too much.

If you are in an a mood to experiment, I'd try using a blend of different dampers to spread around the frequencies of the absorbing. I used to use sorbothane, its the best bass damper per sq in. - but it doesn't stick well and its expensive. I use dynamat these days, stays stuck on and its cheap and works well. The other is blu tack (yeah there are a ton more, but these are the ones I use for headphones. I've got a 1/2" thin dynamat cut all the way around the rear cups on the side of the cup with its edge right next to the flat part of the frame that holds the driver.

Rear screen removal/replacement with something like - 1/2" groundcloth helps.

I didn't get much result changing cables.

Pads? Yeah, some.

Digital parametric EQ helps too, more than cables certainly.

 

[MarcelE]

As amigomatt, I haven't been here for quite some time and also wanted to say I still have my HE400 and love them.
Needs a bit of EQ but after that they're still great to have.
They are completely stock, probably latest batch because it was already hard to buy new.
The (also original) leather ear pads are beginning to rip/tear a little and I'm probably going to order some new pads. Never changed them on the HE400 so I hope I don't break anything because when I do something like this I usually break something or have 1 or 2 screws left (thats why I will probably won't do any of those mods discussed here haha).
Have been out of the loop but is better to go for Velour, FocusPad or FocusPad-A?
I don't want the sound to be changed that much. If it helps a bit with the highs and slightly bumps up the upper bass a bit then thats ok.

 

[Green Golden Retriver]

As amigomatt, I haven't been here for quite some time and also wanted to say I still have my HE400 and love them.
Needs a bit of EQ but after that they're still great to have.
They are completely stock, probably latest batch because it was already hard to buy new.
The (also original) leather ear pads are beginning to rip/tear a little and I'm probably going to order some new pads. Never changed them on the HE400 so I hope I don't break anything because when I do something like this I usually break something or have 1 or 2 screws left (thats why I will probably won't do any of those mods discussed here haha).
Have been out of the loop but is better to go for Velour, FocusPad or FocusPad-A?
I don't want the sound to be changed that much. If it helps a bit with the highs and slightly bumps up the upper bass a bit then thats ok.

Velour works great on mine

 

[DavidA]

As amigomatt, I haven't been here for quite some time and also wanted to say I still have my HE400 and love them.
Needs a bit of EQ but after that they're still great to have.
They are completely stock, probably latest batch because it was already hard to buy new.
The (also original) leather ear pads are beginning to rip/tear a little and I'm probably going to order some new pads. Never changed them on the HE400 so I hope I don't break anything because when I do something like this I usually break something or have 1 or 2 screws left (thats why I will probably won't do any of those mods discussed here haha).
Have been out of the loop but is better to go for Velour, FocusPad or FocusPad-A?
I don't want the sound to be changed that much. If it helps a bit with the highs and slightly bumps up the upper bass a bit then thats ok.

I like FocusPads with attenuation rings under the pads, brings up the bass just a bit but doesn't do much to the reset of the sound

 

[amigomatt]

As amigomatt, I haven't been here for quite some time and also wanted to say I still have my HE400 and love them.
Needs a bit of EQ but after that they're still great to have.
They are completely stock, probably latest batch because it was already hard to buy new.
The (also original) leather ear pads are beginning to rip/tear a little and I'm probably going to order some new pads. Never changed them on the HE400 so I hope I don't break anything because when I do something like this I usually break something or have 1 or 2 screws left (thats why I will probably won't do any of those mods discussed here haha).
Have been out of the loop but is better to go for Velour, FocusPad or FocusPad-A?
I don't want the sound to be changed that much. If it helps a bit with the highs and slightly bumps up the upper bass a bit then thats ok.

I use the FocusPad A on mine at the moment, with the grill mod and sorbothane mods. I wanted to return them on the sound of the original pleather pads. Trust me, velour or either of the Focuspads will sound MUCH better than the pleathers. You don't know what you've been missing. With the pleathers, they were really tizzy and hollow sounding.

 

[thug behram]

I used to have these - v2 with the white drivers. The bass is incredible. Is there any newer Hifiman models that has similar bass?

 

[Oregonian]

HE-6SE can pound when fed right.................

 

[autoexec]

Any pads comparison out there? I'm more interested on SQ than comfort. Already own the velours. Looking at FocusPad, FocusPad-A and Sundara's stock pads, Pali Pads. Not sure what will bring these headphones to a more linear FR or at least bring the female vocals less distant.

 

[DavidA]

Any pads comparison out there? I'm more interested on SQ than comfort. Already own the velours. Looking at FocusPad, FocusPad-A and Sundara's stock pads, Pali Pads. Not sure what will bring these headphones to a more linear FR or at least bring the female vocals less distant.

I'm not sure any pad would bring up the mids but I've only tried pleather, velour, Focus, Focus-A and Dekoni Elite Leather. The only thing that helped bring up the mids was installing a 25mm x 25mm hard rubber pad in the middle of the grill to help reflect back some of the sound. Pads seem to have more of an effect on the bass and highs from my experience so far.

 

[autoexec]

I'm not sure any pad would bring up the mids but I've only tried pleather, velour, Focus, Focus-A and Dekoni Elite Leather. The only thing that helped bring up the mids was installing a 25mm x 25mm hard rubber pad in the middle of the grill to help reflect back some of the sound. Pads seem to have more of an effect on the bass and highs from my experience so far.

The velour did indeed bring up the mids quite a bit coming from the pleather in my experience. Thanks for the mod info although I'm not enough of a DiY'er to perform any mod I think.

 

[DavidA]

The velour did indeed bring up the mids quite a bit coming from the pleather in my experience. Thanks for the mod info although I'm not enough of a DiY'er to perform any mod I think.

Its a fairly simple mod, hardest part is making the new grills fit.

This is the new grill before putting the rubber pad.


This is the rubber pad in place, its about 35mm x 35mm, I think this is the one that I decided on since its hard to remove and glue on the pads to keep testing.

Note that I also installed sorbothane in the cup

 

[autoexec]

The velour did indeed bring up the mids quite a bit coming from the pleather in my experience. Thanks for the mod info although I'm not enough of a DiY'er to perform any mod I think.

Yo I have the same Energizer headlamp! Cool thanks for the pics. Won't the drivers be exposed too much to dust? What specific rubber pad did you use? Are the grills 3D printed? Looks good.

 

[genck]

Any pads comparison out there? I'm more interested on SQ than comfort. Already own the velours. Looking at FocusPad, FocusPad-A and Sundara's stock pads, Pali Pads. Not sure what will bring these headphones to a more linear FR or at least bring the female vocals less distant.

I've bought a lot of pads for the HE400 and I like these the most: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32957776585.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.1d064c4dSEMBRx