[Hifi Man]

So these are both the headphones in my price range. I plan on buying an amp and dac, the schiit magni and modi, because those are affordable too. I am used to using sennheiser hd588 headphones with the foam mod, and I just want to upgrade. I listen to a lot of varying types of music from ambient, slowcore, post rock, to post punk and folk, to emo, screamo, death metal, black metal and death metal. Not sure if that really matter what I listen to in this case with such ridiculously nice headphones. If I don't get any replies I think I'm just gonna go for the sennheiser hd600. Thanks

 

[Jien23]

Do a search in google, there are a lot of threads asking this exact question already. And also do a search within the HE-400 thread and the HD600 threads, tons of people already asked and compared these two there.
I will add though, in case you don't already know, the HE-400's are $100 off this weekend. There are some nice discounts for the HD600 too, but not as significant a cut. Good time to buy

 

[Hifi Man]

What I'm really curious about is if the m&m combo would power either of these headphones to a decent percentage of their potential. 

 

[Jien23]

Can't speak for the HD600 cos i dont own them. However, the HE-400 is easy to drive; it runs well off my Fiio E10 (I even left it at low gain and had more volume than i needed.), bass was tight and well extended. Didnt notice any significant differences when i tried it with some more powerful amplifiers at a local shop.

 

[Hifi Man]

nevermind

 

[Hifi Man]

 /g/ says that the Sennheiser HD600 is better and the HE-400 has distortion and is breakable or something. So I guess I'm gonna go with the sennheiser.

 

[joe50000]

Considering the kind of music you'll be listening to, I heartily recommend the HE-400s.
 
A magni/modi will drive it just fine. But as another headfier has informed me, you'll want a headphone amp that can output a lot of power. The HE-400s are really best suited to solid state amps; the HD-600s can do both solidstate, tube amps,and hybrids.