[ninjames]

I just have no desire to listen to the velours. The pleathers are perfect for me, and from what I understand, the velours can lead to a bit more harsh highs, and I am most sensitive to harshness up high so that scares me lol

 

[jerg]

Quote:

I'd imagine pleather with a grill mod would be a great combo.
 
I am in love with these headphones again now that I've eliminated that weird amp noise issue.

That's actually what mine are sporting right now (well, partial grill mod because the proper one is on the HE500 atm), really impressive, I actually like it for some music more than the HE500+J$, comparing them at the moment:
 
 

 

[brokenthumb]

Hey jerg does the HE-500 have better instrument separation with more space between them?  I think the HE-500 are a bit faster and feel less congested in complex passages compared to the HE-400 from what I remember.  I can't be positive though without them here to compare.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Hey jerg does the HE-500 have better instrument separation with more space between them?  I think the HE-500 are a bit faster and feel less congested in complex passages compared to the HE-400 from what I remember.  I can't be positive though without them here to compare.

Hard to say, if there are any differences they are too subtle for me to distinguish.

 

[brokenthumb]

Quote:

Hard to say, if there are any differences they are too subtle for me to distinguish.

 
 
Thanks, that was my main excuse to buy another pair.  I guess it's really which sound signature you like better in the end.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
 
Thanks, that was my main excuse to buy another pair.  I guess it's really which sound signature you like better in the end.

Indeed. There are certain tracks in my impromptu comparison earlier where the HE500s sounded really dull and boring, and HE400s just came alive, and others where HE500s sounded oh so engaging and smooth while the HE400s sounded rough and grating. I can see how either headphone would be great for someone with broad music tastes though.

 

[earphiler]

whats best practice when this leatherette headband arrives? button the last one on each side or button it up the whole way?

 

[BrokeStudent]

All this talk about the HE400 is killing me. It's been one week tomorrow since they were shipped out and I just cant wait to get my hands on them. 

 

[brokenthumb]

Quote:

Indeed. There are certain tracks in my impromptu comparison earlier where the HE500s sounded really dull and boring, and HE400s just came alive, and others where HE500s sounded oh so engaging and smooth while the HE400s sounded rough and grating. I can see how either headphone would be great for someone with broad music tastes though.

 
Exactly, I feel the same with the HD650 and HE-400.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

whats best practice when this leatherette headband arrives? button the last one on each side or button it up the whole way?

IMO only the two corner buttons = best way. You want a large surface area of padding for the headband to rest on your head, and bunching up the whole headband by clipping all the buttons is counter-intuitive.

 

[Scyy]

Well I put my d2000 pads on my he400 and I'm really liking the comfort now. Wish I had tried this earlier, looking forward to the j$ pads I'm getting. Gonna have to cannibalize my pleather hifiman pads for the dust guard.

 

[FuzzyD]

Quote:

Well I modded my HE400! The headband was easy to put on and it's nice and soft. The earpads took more work. I had to use a scissors to taper down the rings (from the pleathers) so the DT990 pads would fit. They're like 1/4" too short in diameter. The foam that came with them isn't attached to the pads either so once I got the pads around the rings I had to shove the foam in there and tighten it by pushing it in to each side. I might glue it on, but I'm not sure I wanna do that yet. It is a lot thicker than the thin cloth on the HE400 pads. First impressions, it seems just a little muted sadly. Treble is still a tad pushy, mids are okay, maybe a little recessed, and the sub bass seems a little rolled off, which takes away from what makes these headphones awesome in the first place. I think I'm gonna head to Michael's this weekend and shop around for some thin cloth that I can experiment with.
 

 
 

 
If anyone has suggestions on what to look for as far as the cloth/foam goes, it would be much appreciated.

 
How did you get the Beyer pad to fit this well? I have the same pad and I can only snap the buttons on the far ends. The middle 4 buttons are just too far apart due to the He400's wide pad.
 
That said, even with just those two buttons snapped, these things are world's more comfortable this way.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
How did you get the Beyer pad to fit this well? I have the same pad and I can only snap the buttons on the far ends. The middle 4 buttons are just too far apart due to the He400's wide pad.
 
That said, even with just those two buttons snapped, these things are world's more comfortable this way.

Yokken has long since left the HE400 family I'm afraid, you won't get a response from him.
 
But yeah some people opted to work the headband padding and snap in all the buttons, it IS doable, you just gotta really squeeze the stock headband into the wrap. I don't see how it is good other than aesthetics though, because bunching it up in the middle like that will only make the padding in the middle hard and compressed which is stupid because the whole point of adding this additional padding is to have more softer cushioning.

 

[FlySweep]

Excited to join the HE-400 family soon 

.
 
I've had my eye on it for a long time (even when I owned the HE-500) & finally ordered it (from HeadRoom) last week.. it arrives tomorrow.  Picked up the velour pads (from HeadRoom) & J$ pads (from Jeremy).. as well as a snazzy Skuld 4 cable from Trevor (Norse Audio).  I plan on driving it with the Lake People G109-S.. which I'm ordering from Fried/Lake People, atm.
 
I'm excited & curious to hear the HE-400.. being that I'm actually coming to it from an HE-500.  While the HE-500 was terrific in terms of technical prowess, I grew a bit tired of the thick, slightly midforward nature of the midrange.  The mids were quite smooth.. but they certainly had a bit of Grado-y aggressiveness to them (certainly nowhere near fatiguing in the way some Grados can be, though).  The HE-500's bass was excellent.. but it sounded a little thick through the midbass for my taste.  I was driving the HE-500 (properly) from a variety of amps.. Objective2, Tube-DAC-11 (both the ss & tube outputs.. in the latter outputs, the O2 served as the front end), as well as a class-T speaker amp (which sounded fantastic).  DACs used was the ODAC in most cases (along with the TD-11's well implemented, Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chip).
 
Removing the HE-500 grill's fabric backing helped with flattening the midbass, toning back the midrange's forwardness, and creating a touch of air to the treble (but it could get sibilant in some cases).. ultimately, I still wanted something less 'thick' sounding through the mids and flatter through the midbass.  I opted for the trusty HD600 (which I've long loved) instead and have been quite happy.  That being said, I definitely missed the 'ortho' sound and now that HiFiMan has worked out the build issues with the HE-400, saw it as a perfect opportunity to jump on it.
 
I've done plenty of reading about the HE-400.. I'm more than a little confident I'll enjoy it.  It seems to be a fairly neutral phone with just the right touch of (modest) coloration in the "right" places to make it a fun, musical, engaging phone.  Genre diversity is very important to me as I listen to everything from liquid DnB to jazz, soul, blues, rock, Indian classical music, hip hop.. and everything in between.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Excited to join the HE-400 family soon 

.
 
I've had my eye on it for a long time (even when I owned the HE-500) & finally ordered it (from HeadRoom) last week.. it arrives tomorrow.  Picked up the velour pads (from HeadRoom) & J$ pads (from Jeremy).. as well as a snazzy Skuld 4 cable from Trevor (Norse Audio).  I plan on driving it with the Lake People G109-S.. which I'm ordering from Fried/Lake People, atm.
 
I'm excited & curious to hear the HE-400.. being that I'm actually coming to it from an HE-500.  While the HE-500 was terrific in terms of technical prowess, I grew a bit tired of the thick, slightly midforward nature of the midrange.  The mids were quite smooth.. but they certainly had a bit of Grado-y aggressiveness to them (certainly nowhere near fatiguing in the way some Grados can be, though).  The HE-500's bass was excellent.. but it sounded a little thick through the midbass for my taste.  I was driving the HE-500 (properly) from a variety of amps.. Objective2, Tube-DAC-11 (both the ss & tube outputs.. in the latter outputs, the O2 served as the front end), as well as a class-T speaker amp (which sounded fantastic).  DACs used was the ODAC in most cases (along with the TD-11's well implemented, Cirrus Logic CS4398 DAC chip).
 
Removing the HE-500 grill's fabric backing helped with flattening the midbass, toning back the midrange's forwardness, and creating a touch of air to the treble (but it could get sibilant in some cases).. ultimately, I still wanted something less 'thick' sounding through the mids and flatter through the midbass.  I opted for the trusty HD600 (which I've long loved) instead and have been quite happy.  That being said, I definitely missed the 'ortho' sound and now that HiFiMan has worked out the build issues with the HE-400, saw it as a perfect opportunity to jump on it.
 
I've done plenty of reading about the HE-400.. I'm more than a little confident I'll enjoy it.  It seems to be a fairly neutral phone with just the right touch of (modest) coloration in the "right" places to make it a fun, musical, engaging phone.  Genre diversity is very important to me as I listen to everything from liquid DnB to jazz, soul, blues, rock, Indian classical music, hip hop.. and everything in between.

Wow you're decked out for the HE400s. It's like the last little piece of the big puzzle for ya lol.