[swspiers]

I'm glad to see the back-and-forth is entertaining as usual.  It reminds me of the "less filling- tastes great" commercials for bad beer.
 
Anyway, tomorrow I will find out for myself, as my 400i's are scheduled to be delivered.  With all of the contradiction in this thread, I certainly don't know what to expect...

 

[chowmein83]

   
Wait - you can try before buying the 400i? I might be able to recoup a decent amount for my grill modded/focus pad added HE-400s - but i want to know how the 400i sound first. 

Yeah, HiFiMan is currently running a tour for the 400i, linked here: http://www.head-fi.org/t/729422/hifiman-he-400i-touring-event-is-coming
 
I'm not sure if you can still ask them for a demo pair to try out, but it couldn't hurt.

 

[Ekul61]

Does hifiman have a 30 day return policy

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

http://www.independentrecording.net/irn/resources/freqchart/main_display.htm <- an interactive page showing frequencies of various instruments and where sub bass/bass/mids/treble start/end. Well worth a look if you haven't seen it already.

This is why it baffles me that people are saying mid bass starts at 100hz.

Practically every headphone I've ever known for it's punchy mid bass has the area of focus at around 60-80hz. Saying mid bass starts at 100hz would basically be telling us that all some well known mid bass heavy headphones which have their strongest bass point at 60-80hz, are all sub bass monsters, which is far from the truth.

For me mid bass on punchy headphones focus at 60-80hz, and that graph corresponds with this. Sub bass rumble for me is strongest at 35-45hz, while punch has been 60-100hz or so. IMHO.

Going off that graph, the 400i's bass starts to integrate with the lower mids in its mid to upper bass, with a noticeable drop from its sub bass to mid bass. Purrin's graph clearly shows that the sub bass to lower mid bass range is less than the upper bass to lower midrange in basically it's entirety.

As for the 400i's graphs, it clearly shows that the vast majority of 'fundamentals' lies right at the 400i's straight line of mids, with the recession being mostly harmonics and the higher pitched instruments. That to me proves mostly everyone's impression that the 400i has generally forward mids, particularly stuff like the meat of vocals which live in the under 1k range for the most part.

 

[TMRaven]

100hz has always been the standard range I've heard described when people talk about mid-bass.  20-60hz sub-bass, 60-120hz mid-bass, 120-250hz upper bass.
 
400i has roughly the same curvature as the original 400 up to 2-3khz, and people love to call out 400 for having hugely recessed midrange.  In truth I always thought that a lot of the midrange of the original 400 was fairly forward as well, so I can see people calling the 400i's midrange fairly forward, but it baffles me how people can call the original 400 hugely recessed in the midrange, and the 400i very forward.

 

[MattTCG]

Very nicely stated. So does this mean you'll be purchasing one? 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

This is what I said of the HE-400's mids, forever ago, which agrees with what Raven said. (on my guide)

Very natural sounding mids overall, but recessed in the upper range. They're well balanced mids for the most part. With certain recordings, the mids are right where they need to be, and with other recordings, the mids may be slightly pushed back in the upper ranges. The mids are not hindered by the bass. Even with the E17's various bass boosts, they never hampered the mids in any way. Must be planar magic.

I should've clarified though. various E17's boosts by decibels. I used to test it at +2, +4, +6.

In any case, I have always said, all the 400 really needed was a treble reduction. Nothing really needs to happen to the mids. If the treble could just match the mids in general, it would've been quite a grand headphone. The velour pad swap raised the upper mids enough for my taste. If the treble that was reduced to the bass/lower mid to mid line, the 400 would've been ideal.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I wonder how garage1217's Project Polaris's bandwith settings would help the HE-400. I think it would be an incredibly ideal combo, since it could potentially knock off the HE-400's treble problems almost entirely.

http://www.garage1217.com/garage1217_diy_tube_headphone_amplifiers_015.htm

 

[TeamHiFiMAN]

Hi,
HIFIMAN Headphone Stand is available on head-direct.com.
 
It looks good and it only costs $20. This is the same stand we use at various shows (CanJam or CES) and meets, so I can tell you that they are definitely durable.
 
Here is the link.  http://head-direct.com/Products/?act=detail&id=217
 

 

[marshallmole]

That space left for the cable connectors seems very limited. Could have designed it to be higher perhaps...?

 

[Billheiser]

  That space left for the cable connectors seems very limited. Could have designed it to be higher perhaps...?

Really?

 

[Wildcatsare1]

^Bill, how is your 400i trial going? How do they compare too your 650's?

 

[marshallmole]

  Really?

Why, don't you see how drastically the cable beneath the connector is bent? That seems to me a lot of stress. 

 

[Billheiser]

Why, don't you see how drastically the cable beneath the connector is bent? That seems to me a lot of stress. 

Yeh I know that's what you meant, it just seems like it's not any problem. Much less a drastic one. Plus, I imagine HiFiMan, the builders of both the stand and the headphone, know what they are doing.

 

[Billheiser]

^Bill, how is your 400i trial going? How do they compare too your 650's?

I like the 400i and would recommend them for everyone's consideration. I was prepared to prefer the 400i, but my 600's are either tying or beating them in most categories. Got more listening to do, still, and I want to try different amp pairings (among my very finite collection). Will be writing up a review later...