[I95North]

Quote:

Probably been asked 1000 times, but since the second batch of HE-400's look like they'll turn out nice... So, is it true from people's experience that these don't need that much in way of amping? Are they truly a reasonable headphone at the price, with, say, a FiiO E17?

Yeah  i'd say you do need an amp but i don't think nothing crazy my ipod can drive them but its all the way up when it's doing so. That just tell me alil more umph! is need imho.. Yeah i was thinking maybe the E11 should do the trick for me..

 

[dorino]

Quote:

Yeah  i'd say you do but i don't think nothing crazy my ipod can drive them but its all the way up when it's doing so. That just tell me alil more umph! is need imho.. Yeah i was thinking maybe the E11 should do the trick for me..

What? 

 

[Nankai]

http://www.avguide.com/blog/first-listen-hifiman-he-400-value-priced-planar-magnetic-headphone
 
Posted by: Chris Martens

 

[ulogin]

Cool!
 
Meanwhile i've already got my soldering station ready.
 
Quote:

http://www.avguide.com/blog/first-listen-hifiman-he-400-value-priced-planar-magnetic-headphone
 
Posted by: Chris Martens

 
 

 

[JetJock]

Fang,
 
Any update for those of us that emailed that we can do the driver install ourselves?  I have not received a reply to my email and was just wondering how and when we might be getting notified that the drivers are being shipped and what the timeline might be.  My other question is whether I should just plan on shipping the whole headphone set back.  I am very adept at electronic work and soldering is not a problem for me.
 
I did see the offer that the early adopters will have a 3 year warranty...thanks for that!
 
Thanks,
Gordo

 

[Mario_Fpolis]

Quote:

We have done some research on defective drivers, and noticed poor contact between metal trace and frame. We reinforce the contact, then problem solved. We run-in the fixed drivers for 100+ hrs and don't have the problem again. We will keep run-in the fixed drivers until 200+ hrs. Very possibly we will eluminate the problem from 2nd batch.
 
 
Normally we do 1 year warranty for HE-400. For all HE-400 shipped on Jan, 2012, we will provide 3 year replacement policy.
 

´nuff said!
 
Hats off!

 

[MuppetFace]

Just to clarify, the rest of the pre-order HE-400 units shipped after the Chinese New Year will have these fixes already done to them?

 

[Kilosonic]

Quote:

Just to clarify, the rest of the pre-order HE-400 units shipped after the Chinese New Year will have these fixes already done to them?

i would also like to know this too. 
 
 

 

[Auxint]

Yes, Fang said a page or two back that the second batch are fixed.
 
Quote:

Just to clarify, the rest of the pre-order HE-400 units shipped after the Chinese New Year will have these fixes already done to them?

 
 

 

[MuppetFace]

Here's what I've seen:
 
" Very possibly we will eliminate the problem from 2nd batch."
 
"Don't worry. All defective issues are coming from 1st batch. If you place order now or anytime after, you won't receive the headphone with same issue because we have already figured out a way to solve the problem."
 
The problem is, I'm not clear on what the "first batch" and "second batch" are. The first batch could still refer to all pre-orders, or it could refer to only the pre-orders that were shipped before the CYN. See the bolded part. I just want clarification on this.

 

[jerg]

It'd be absolutely idiotic if HiFiMAN decides to ship the rest of the "first / defective batch" after CNY; they would lose money because they have to make additional "batch 2" drivers to ship to all these people, plus 3-year replacement instead of 1-year, and it would make a big cut in their reputation, when some people who have not painstakingly read through this thread get their imbalanced drivers and rant about it more in their new reviews / complaints.
 
Confirmation from Fang that we who pre-ordered after the 10th will be getting the second batch would be nice though, I'm fairly sure that was just a slip of words.

 

[Auxint]

First batch is only the ones that shipped before CNY as that was all their stock, so if you didn't get one shipped already it'll be the second batch.
 
Also, I forgot today was friday, so now I have to wait until monday to ship mine back for replacement. No need to rush it anyway I guess, since it won't be til February when they start shipping new ones.
Quote:

Here's what I've seen:
 
" Very possibly we will eliminate the problem from 2nd batch."
 
"Don't worry. All defective issues are coming from 1st batch. If you place order now or anytime after, you won't receive the headphone with same issue because we have already figured out a way to solve the problem."
 
The problem is, I'm not clear on what the "first batch" and "second batch" are. The first batch could still refer to all pre-orders, or it could refer to only the pre-orders that were shipped before the CYN. See the bolded part. I just want clarification on this.

 

 

[CSGO rice]

hey i just got my HE-400 today.
I'm listening to them through my macbook.
I dont have an amp either, but I read that they are decent without one.
 
Honestly, the sound is muffled even compared to my 4 year old HD 555 that was 98 bucks.
maybe i need to spend more time with it, or maybe i was expecting too much from my first "real" headphone.
Idk... i'm just a little dissapointed.
Or it could be because its not amped.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

hey i just got my HE-400 today.
I'm listening to them through my macbook.
I dont have an amp either, but I read that they are decent without one.
 
Honestly, the sound is muffled even compared to my 4 year old HD 555 that was 98 bucks.
maybe i need to spend more time with it, or maybe i was expecting too much from my first "real" headphone.
Idk... i'm just a little dissapointed.
Or it could be because its not amped.

They're thoroughly underpowered by the lack of amp, not like HD555 which is designed to be driven by onboard soundcards and MP3 players. You're probably getting maybe 5~10% potential performance out of them, arbitrarily speaking.
 
Any channel imbalance issues so far?
 

 

[Ahzari]

Quote:

hey i just got my HE-400 today.
I'm listening to them through my macbook.
I dont have an amp either, but I read that they are decent without one.
 
Honestly, the sound is muffled even compared to my 4 year old HD 555 that was 98 bucks.
maybe i need to spend more time with it, or maybe i was expecting too much from my first "real" headphone.
Idk... i'm just a little dissapointed.
Or it could be because its not amped.

this is definitely because they are not amped.... you can't purchase a headphone at this level and expect to get the full potential of its sound without a proper amp. That said, having experienced the HE500s sound, I preferred dynamic headphones to the planar technology.