[Guess?]

Quote:

 
It's worth the wait, lemme just tell ya that. The "right" version sounds great.

 
Ahh, I know, don't tease me, can't wait to hear the planar sound, and will compare the two he-400 to see if there's any difference...
 
Quote:

 
Haha Bender's taking time away from smoking, drinking and stealing to enjoy the LCD3.
 
Hopefully you get them soon, i'd like to hear more impressions of the matrix with he-400. 

 
The Bender unit rocks! You have a PM.

 

[Dragunov-21]

Quote:

Anemic treble-centric sound is almost always indicative of underpowering.
 
To give you a reference point, E17 is pretty much considered the bare minimum for powering these guys adequately, and those are rated for 215mW@32Ohm. I used to drive these with E7s and it was a miserable experience.

 
Ohhhh, thank F- for that!  I was scared I'd bought an expensive lesson on the subjectivity of sound quality.  Got an integrated O2/ODAC on order, so I should be set.  $700 is expensive for a $400 pair of cans though

 

[yokken]

Quote:

 
Ohhhh, thank F- for that!  I was scared I'd bought an expensive lesson on the subjectivity of sound quality.  Got an integrated O2/ODAC on order, so I should be set.  $700 is expensive for a $400 pair of cans though

 
Not to make you second-guess your purchase or anything, but if you're not big on treble, the O2 might not smooth out the HE400 like you want it to. It's a very precise, analytical sound from what I've read. Tubes would be the way to go if you're looking for a bit more lush.

 

[MattTCG]

The o2 was not for me. I heard precise, but thin and analytical like others have described. Oddly, I love the odac. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

The o2 was not for me. I heard precise, but thin and analytical like others have described. Oddly, I love the odac. :blink:

Hahah, this is a major reason why I skipped the O2 and went for the ODAC. I don't mind true to source DACs, but my amps need to have musicality to them. I guess you can say my objective is subjective.

I LOVE the ODAC. It's lovely. Now to get JDSLabs to start branding the BACK PLATE, as that's what faces the front... :rolleyes:

 

[Madmollusk]

Quote:

 
Hah... basshead?  My first love are the Ety ER4s, and my other IEMs are UM3Xs, which I find have almost too much bass.  I find that the HE-400s have markedly less bass than the UM3Xs (is it fair to compare IEMs to cans?).
 
As for amping, I'm using an iBasso D-Zero, which is rated at 95mW into 32ohm.  I don't know how that compares to other amps, but given that it's $100 and the size of a credit-card, I'm comfortably hoping that's the culprit.
 
My material is mostly FLAC that deliciously passes scutiny on the ER4s, so I doubt that's an issue.  It's definitely a Rev2 (white grille).

I just plugged the he400 into my Nook tablet, and they sound amazingly bad through that pathetic little device; in fact they sound exactly the way you described them. Plugging them back into my kenwood receiver afterwards provided me much needed sonic relief; the difference with the bass and midrange in particular is night and day! If the he400 sound comparably bad through your ibasso, then, my god, man, I must commend you for demonstrating such restraint! Subjected to such a crushing disappointment, I might have taken leave of my senses, cursed the wife or worse, smashed my setup into smithereens, and then checked myself into the local sanatorium. 

 

[bcpk]

I saw a mention of running the HE400s off speaker taps on a power amp. Anyone tried it with the Lepai TA2020? It's a pretty famous, cheap 20W speaker amp.

http://www.diyaudio.com/forums/class-d/90500-lepai-t-amp-ta2020.html

 

[gt40]

nice review

 

[TheMaestro335]

Hahah, this is a major reason why I skipped the O2 and went for the ODAC. I don't mind true to source DACs, but my amps need to have musicality to them. I guess you can say my objective is subjective.
I LOVE the ODAC. It's lovely. Now to get JDSLabs to start branding the BACK PLATE, as that's what faces the front... :rolleyes:

I highly recommend checking out the AQ dragon fly! Unbelievable! Works well with all phones!

 

[MattTCG]

The dragon fly is...interesting. The price seems somewhat high for what you get. Maybe I just don't know enough about it. 

 

[Marleybob217]

Quote:

Dang. Some songs are so clear on these... the detail retrieval is unbelievable. It's beautiful. Turned the bass up a bit in iTunes and rolled the treble off a bit and they sound amazing. Sometimes the bass catches me off guard. Not sure how you guys feel about Owl City, but his recordings are so crisp and his voice is right up front... The Bird And The Worm is such a happy tune! If these cans weren't so heavy I'd be really jamming! 

Good! Now use something else then iTunes. It messes with the sound quality a bit, even with the EQ turned off.
I use foobar2000

 

[yokken]

Quote:

Good! Now use something else then iTunes. It messes with the sound quality a bit, even with the EQ turned off.
I use foobar2000

 
I would if I was using Windows. I use Audirvana which is bit perfect. It locks the entire audio stream so only music can be played. I just wanted to try the EQ so I turned Audirvana off for a bit.

 

[IcedTea]

So did most of you guys get your He-400 back yet? 
 
I wonder how many headphones they actually have to document from this recall.

 

[RushNerd]

Quote:

Good! Now use something else then iTunes. It messes with the sound quality a bit, even with the EQ turned off.
I use foobar2000

Yeah i'm still not sold on this, will wait for the day when someone can show me the light because A-Bing does nothing.

 

[MrMateoHead]

Quote:

Yeah i'm still not sold on this, will wait for the day when someone can show me the light because A-Bing does nothing.

I think the effect is partly dependent on your primary audio drivers.
 
Using WASAPI, I am circumventing a lot of "SRS" sound effects which screw with bass, mid, treble, and adds echo and other stuff that I don't want. It is possible to disable all effects, and get close to Foobar sound, but I prefer to lock it all up for music listening. Gaming and Movies, I care less and just let the audio driver do its thing.