[Jabse]

Quote:

Don't bother contradicting yourself, you are an ultra-basshead if you need to replicate bloated one-note club subwoofer midbass. Typical club subwoofers are built to deliver the bass impact via raw volume, rather than tight well-controlled hits, meaning they tend to be the speaker equivalent of Dre Beats. Feed it power and it will spew droning ear-numbing "bass".
 
It's pretty obvious that the planar tonality of the HE400 or any clean well-behaved tactile bass is not your cup of tea, and that's fine, it's just not what you are looking for. Might I suggest looking into acquiring a D2000/5000 instead?

 
I'd keep the x1's if the build was better (pads aren't removable, nor is anything else)
 
I'll be borrowing my friends e9 soon, that will decide if the "planar tonality" is the issue

 

[Jabse]

Quote:

 
I don't have an E17 but isn't that crazy loud?
 
Maxed volume on the highest gain!
 
I'm guessing with bass boost also!?

 
It is quite if you don't -6 the treble, but I don't max it at 12 gain.. that's just asking for distortion

 

[TwinQY]

Quote:

It's pretty obvious that the planar tonality of the HE400 or any clean well-behaved tactile bass is not your cup of tea, and that's fine, it's just not what you are looking for. Might I suggest looking into acquiring a D2000/5000 instead?

 
Or just go with the XB1000s. Might be the most aggressive experience I've had with headphones to date. Nothing compares with that sort of quantity.
 
Really seems like priorities are a bit different from the usual HE-400 demographic. Can you describe how the bass distort for you in a bit more detail? Never had that happen before.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
I don't have an E17 but isn't that crazy loud?
 
Maxed volume on the highest gain!
 
I'm guessing with bass boost also!?

On +12 gain, with HE400s, the most I can put is 35/60 vol before my ears start bleeding (figuratively). I think Jabse is indeed clipping E17's amp because he is blasting the headphone at RIDICULOUS volumes, the amp is not intended to be used that way.
 
Seriously Jabse, stop! You are literally killing your hearing right now!
 
 
This issue you (Jabse) are having has nothing to do with the E17 or the HE400, it is YOU. You are listening to music at extremely hazardous levels of volumes.
 
Oop guess that ain't it.

 

[No Days Off]

Quote:

 
I'd keep the x1's if the build was better (pads aren't removable, nor is anything else)
 
I'll be borrowing my friends e9 soon, that will decide if the "planar tonality" is the issue

I think you're not used to very low distortion clean clear bass. You can try a much more powerful amp and it should get louder without clipping like you find with the e17, but clubs have very boomy bass with a lot of distortion and not a lot of texture..mostly just a ton of power that you can feel. It's not what good quality headphones like the HE-400 are designed to do..but I bet with a much more powerful amp you might be happy..

 

[Jabse]

Quote:

On +12 gain, with HE400s, the most I can put is 35/60 vol before my ears start bleeding (figuratively). I think Jabse is indeed clipping E17's amp because he is blasting the headphone at RIDICULOUS volumes, the amp is not intended to be used that way.
 
Seriously Jabse, stop! You are literally killing your hearing right now!
 
 
This issue you (Jabse) are having has nothing to do with the E17 or the HE400, it is YOU. You are listening to music at extremely hazardous levels of volumes.
 
Oop guess that ain't it.

 
with 0 tre 0 bass 12 gain, full volume in my music player and if i actually play a normal song (not a song that consists of 90% bass)  I'd agree past 35 the treble really starts irritating me. The thing is i usually reduce tre, and have my music players volume at like 70% to reduce distortion AND my songs revolve around the bass.. for sure I admit i listen to deep bass at quite high volumes at times but not treble
 
EDIT: why cross out?

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
with 0 tre 0 bass 12 gain, full volume in my music player and if i actually play a normal song (not a song that consists of 90% bass)  I'd agree past 35 the treble really starts irritating me. The thing is i usually reduce tre, and have my music players volume at like 70% to reduce distortion AND my songs revolve around the bass.. for sure I admit i listen to deep bass at quite high volumes at times but not treble
 
EDIT: why cross out?

Try this then: apply replaygain to all your music. That might be the hidden issue - the music is clipping digitally.

 

[catspaw]

Quote:

 
I think I know exactly what you mean by the bass. Keep in mind, I have very limited experience with headphones however these seem to just lack, bass. I'm only using a PC powered with an E11 and the bass just doesn't seem there and appears 'distorted'. Headphones like the ultrasone pro 900 gave me a nice "rumble" and had my ears vibrating when the song called for it (and if the eq was up +4 for example). Although the mids were recessed and the highs could be sibliant they seemed to fair better for EDM. These just don't have it(bass) and it does sound distorted. It just feels "empty" for the lack of a better word.

Maybe its the DAC/Amp, but I guess we'll see when that comes in sometime this week. 

Actually for me the bass is right about perfect .
 
For me the problem is the mids. But i have no idea even what im looking for so ill test better amps, and if still its not "exactly" what i want, ill keep looking.
 
These sound definitly best as i ever heard, but its just not the right signature.

 

[catspaw]

Quote:

 
I don't have an E17 but isn't that crazy loud?
 
Maxed volume on the highest gain!
 
I'm guessing with bass boost also!?

Out of my cowon that is not Crazy loud. Its very loud, but not crazy by any means (for me).
 
From my laptop and USB, 40+ is too loud for me (crazy? maybe).

 

[FlySweep]

Originally Posted by ninjames /img/forum/go_quote.gif

I must be the only person who is totally content with stock pleathers without removing anything. I definitely will never remove the spacer, as I am more scared of dust than the rest of you, it seems. 

 
You're not alone, friend 

.  I haven't removed the fabric backing on my HE-400.. and as I said previously, I enjoyed the sound with the stock pleathers.  Prefer the velours, atm.. but the pleathers certainly didn't deliver an obscene sound.. If I didn't have the velours, I wouldn't be angry with the sound... that's for sure.  Removing the grill's fabric backing on the HE-500 helped to significantly open up the soundstage and bring forward some treble energy.. I sense such a mod on the HE-400 would yeild the same kind of sound enhancement.  Thing is, i don't have any desire to further open the soundstage or increase treble presence.. those two aspects are more than impressive on the HE-400 in stock form.  Reducing ringing/resonance by changing the grills is definitely something I'm interested in though.  I'm looking into having some very transparent, welded custom grills made, actually.
 
Tonight I ran the HE-400 with the ODAC+Leckerton UHA-6S MKII.. holy resolution!  The ODAC outputs 2 Vrms, so the UHA delivered plenty of volume and dynamics at low gain (+0dB).  I was amazed by how clean the HE-400 sounded.. particularly in the treble region.. crisp, brilliant, effortless.. but not fatiguing.  Album of choice, one of my favorites, Crystal Method's "Vegas" (2007 re-release).  The bass drops, rolling drum breaks, layers and layers of synth work, and cinematic production just came to life.  The word "effortless" keeps coming to mind.
 
The HE-400 sounded quite fantastic with the UHA's built in Cirrus Logic DAC as well.  At max volume on low gain, it was around my average listening level.. I had to switch it to high gain if I was in the mood to rock, though.  One (of many) thing(s) I appreciate with the UHA is the well implemented low & high gain.  I'm typically unhappy with high gain performance on many portable amps (even the O2's high gain sounds a bit rough at times), but the UHA's high gain remains even, clean, controlled, and dynamic.

 

[Clemmaster]

@FlySweep: when did you listen (own) the HE-500? Was it the first version with Canare cable and old velour pads?

 

[beaver316]

100 unread posts in 11 hours? This thread will make it to no.1 in no time.

 

[TwinQY]

Quote:

100 unread posts in 11 hours? This thread will make it to no.1 in no time.

 
I got 836. Of course, that's in the span of 9 days. Might even end up beating the anime thread.
 
 
Know what's great with these? Merzbow. When a headphone just meshes perfectly with one of your favourite genres. Noise and shoegaze, just phenomenal on the 400. 

 

[fatcat28037]

Quote:

There's not an audio device of any kind that doesn't change with burn-in... that includes headphones, speakers, amps, dacs, cables and etc. That is a proven fact!

 
Wow! I completely missed this. Please point me to where this is documented. Thanks.

 

[FlySweep]

Originally Posted by Skooks /img/forum/go_quote.gif

There's not an audio device of any kind that doesn't change with burn-in... that includes headphones, speakers, amps, dacs, cables and etc. That is a proven fact!

 
Cool story, bro.. we're here to discuss the HE-400.  There's a 'sound science' subforum you can take this argument to.. cause you know, burn-in debates just doesn't come up enough 

.  Unless of course, you're trying to get this thread locked or yourself banned.

@FlySweep: when did you listen (own) the HE-500? Was it the first version with Canare cable and old velour pads?

 
The HE-500 I owned was the latest rev. that was available around April 2012.  My pair came with the silver cables (terminated to a 3.5mm plug).  I had shorter, custom silver cables made for the HE-500, as well.  I terminated the stock (silver cable) to speaker plugs so I could drive it from a speaker amp.  My HE-500 had the silver cabling (that the stock cable was made of) in the housing which connected the coax plugs to the planar drivers.  As far as I knew, it had the newer/newest velour pads.  In my estimation, they're identical to the velour pads that came with my HE-400 just yesterday.