[nicholars]

I use Foobar with WASAPI plugin + ElectriQ to play audio and Sinegen (Audacity is good as well) to analyse for EQ....
 
I think this is the best combination, probably not much difference to the one above except that ElectriQ is a bit better but probably harder to use whereas EasyQ is less buggy and simpler.
 
(also free if you use the Poshopit edition)

 

[Makiah S]

  The sound card in your laptop will be completely bypassed by the modi USB. The windows system volume will be controlling the modi USB level directly.
Set it to 100% (the windows system volume in the system tray for the modi USB output).
 
Use replay gain to set your volume to be consistent through out your music collection so you don't have to be fiddling with the volume all the time.
If you haven't already done this, you must do it, it will prevent having to adjust the volume after every song and throwing shoes at it.
 
Set your software player for music to 100%.
The only place you will control your volume from is your software player(s).
You can leave this at 100% always since you will use replay gain so that all songs will have the same loudness.
Next, set the physical volume on your magni to about your normal listening volume and leave it there always (* see below).
This is what I do and it works for me.
 
* Instead of setting the magni volume to your normal listening volume, you can set it to say 150% normal listening volume, to give you some leeway for when you listen to youtube etc. that don't have replay gain applied and which may require a higher volume. You then use the volume control in the software player (youtube in the case) to control the volume as required. Your software player for music won't be at 100% anymore in this case too, set to it to match your normal listening volume and leave it there always.
 
Some other points...
You can set the modi to 24bit, and according to that thread you linked, it will then allow you to reduce the volume (anywhere in software) with no data loss.
There is a lot of ifs and buts in that thread so I am not sure it's 100% accurate but it can't hurt to do that (but it might cause drop outs if your pc is slow).
I don't notice any difference if its 16 or 24 bit.
 
With regards to the EQ volume, its not really there to be used as a traditional volume.
Your EQ setting (nicholars file) is reducing all the frequencies (everything is below the 0dB y-axis), so you should leave the volume at 0dB always.
If you had frequencies being boosted in the EQ, say the bass was boosted by +4dB, you would then reduce the volume by a matching -4dB to keep the overall frequencies always at or below 0dB. This is to prevent your amplifier from clipping and causing distortion.

Not a bad idea, I ought to try sing replay gain... I'll have to fiddle around and see what I can't get out of it! 
 
I have a number of songs that are pretty quiet... stuff mastered like -7 or so, I'd love to listen to WooBoost without having to crank the volume down after it's done 

 

[nicholars]

Also if you normalise the volumes then you can leave your foobar volume at 100% instead of messing about with it all the time.... Not sure how much of a real world difference it makes but the less volume controls you are using at the same time can only be better for sound quality.... I use WASAPI + leave the foobar volume at 100% and set the windows to about 50% and leave it alone (also set windows to 24bit / 44100)... Technically using WASAPI and less volume controls should improve sound quality but I am not sure how much real difference it makes if you have windows 7/8... Sounds best to me that way anyway...

 

[MrMateoHead]

  Heres another link to the guide I made if you missed it before and want to try EQ'ing yourself, your headphones / hearing might be a bit different to mine.... Combined with the other guide on head-fi that I linked to in that thread it should be pretty simple....
 
http://www.head-fi.org/t/687845/how-to-equalise-your-headphones-using-electriq-parametric-equaliser

Well I APPRECIATE YOUR GUIDE! It was obviously a lot of work and effort. I really like the strategy of isolating the problem frequencies and then applying parabolic EQ until it was fixed. Fortunately, the HE-400 are really not THAT hard to adjust since they are so damn good out of the box. But I wonder how easy it would be to correct any headphone without someone's frequency response curve to use as a guide. Having curves helps a lot. 
 
I think I am going to burn a test CD today to see if I can tune my car a little better. Sadly, I've got nothing but a crappy 5-band EQ to work with (and no idea if it really hits the peaks I can hear). But it sounds hot in the midrange at times and I am convinced I have something going on in the upper midrange area as well. Also have a lot of boomy bass somewhere around 100-200hz that needs taming.
 
You make me want to invest in a near-$300 dollar Alpine deck that is out. Time Alignment, 9-Band parabolic EQ, 4V pre-outs etc. That thing probably sounds awesome once setup.

 

[MrMateoHead]

Here is something new -
 
The cable housing on my phones is starting to show some tearing (stock Canare cabling).
 

I virtually never disconnect the cables because I don't really need to. But I am a little disappointed to notice that they are not putting up with the regular stress of life. Anyone else noticing their cables tearing? I admit that I have dropped  / Flung them to the floor on accident. But that was early in their life.
 
It may be time to think about what I can do to replace the cables when needed. Does anyone know a good (cheap) replacement? I would want 3-6 feet minimum. 10 ft is generally waaaaaay too long. I don't believe in expensive cables = superior sound, if that helps. But I do like durability, shielding, and flexibility!

 

[Makiah S]

  Here is something new -
 
The cable housing on my phones is starting to show some tearing (stock Canare cabling).
 

I virtually never disconnect the cables because I don't really need to. But I am a little disappointed to notice that they are not putting up with the regular stress of life. Anyone else noticing their cables tearing? I admit that I have dropped  / Flung them to the floor on accident. But that was early in their life.
 
It may be time to think about what I can do to replace the cables when needed. Does anyone know a good (cheap) replacement? I would want 3-6 feet minimum. 10 ft is generally waaaaaay too long. I don't believe in expensive cables = superior sound, if that helps. But I do like durability, shielding, and flexibility!

welp... Zombie X might be able to offer a nice alternitive. Not sure if he does HifiMan cables but it's possible he does. I like his work... there are plenty of other ppl as well that could offer you a ROUGH TOUGH recable 
 
a shame to hear the stock cable isn't holding up to well 

 

[nicholars]

Hmmm I take my back previous comments about HE400 being bad for metal... If you get the EQ right they are amazing! For fast guitars they are soooo fast, they make the HD650 sound like you are listening to a big slow plodding blob of porridge in comparison.

 

[Makiah S]

  Hmmm I take my back previous comments about HE400 being bad for metal... If you get the EQ right they are amazing! For fast guitars they are soooo fast, they make the HD650 sound like you are listening to a big slow plodding blob of porridge in comparison.

there u go ;3

 

[Thujone]

  Here is something new -
 
The cable housing on my phones is starting to show some tearing (stock Canare cabling).
 

I virtually never disconnect the cables because I don't really need to. But I am a little disappointed to notice that they are not putting up with the regular stress of life. Anyone else noticing their cables tearing? I admit that I have dropped  / Flung them to the floor on accident. But that was early in their life.
 
It may be time to think about what I can do to replace the cables when needed. Does anyone know a good (cheap) replacement? I would want 3-6 feet minimum. 10 ft is generally waaaaaay too long. I don't believe in expensive cables = superior sound, if that helps. But I do like durability, shielding, and flexibility!

Maybe you could convince modulor to make you a shorter cable. He made mine and I couldn't be happier. After all, he's our HFM modding specialist!

 

[MattTCG]

^^ That's nice of you to offer for him. 

 

[nicholars]

Just checking in again with another EQ for you LOL... Sorry I cannot be bothered to upload another one but this is using the same file so if you want to try it just change the gain on the dots... This is the one I have found to have the best balance between detail / glare / overall balance / sibilance.... Another tip is you want to smooth out the treble while leaving everything else alone is draw a square around all the dots above 6khz and select "filter > warm > peak" instead of "filter > peeak (orfandis)... I am going to leave it at this and ban myself from EQ'ing anymore it is getting out of hand now haha. This one sounds spot on to me so I am leaving it alone now!
 

 

[lewisprinceAAD]

I love the HE-400, its definitely worth the step up in price from the HE-300. When it comes t HiFiMAN, you have to go Planar Magnetic I think.
 
I recently tried the whole range, I wrote a blog about it if anyone is interested. 
 
http://tmblr.co/ZWTZMqzB_E3X

 

[modulor]

Thujone is my new consultant 

 
After the jergpad group buy is completed, I may be up to making a few cables.  If so, I'll let the HE-400/HE-500 threads know 

 

[ethan7000]

I love the HE-400, its definitely worth the step up in price from the HE-300. When it comes t HiFiMAN, you have to go Planar Magnetic I think.

I recently tried the whole range, I wrote a blog about it if anyone is interested. 

http://tmblr.co/ZWTZMqzB_E3X

Nice write up! My only suggestion is to link to your HE-6 review when you mention it in the article.

 

[nicholars]

  Thujone is my new consultant 

 
After the jergpad group buy is completed, I may be up to making a few cables.  If so, I'll let the HE-400/HE-500 threads know 

 
What is the price to the UK for the new Jergpads?
 
Also compared to my modded pleathers how do they sound different with the velour tops? Do you make them with / without the back vents as well?