[Soundsgoodtome]

   
What i meant by mastering was how the albums was produced, not the 320 kbps file quality. Everybody uses Spotify, it's more than good enough.
What amps are you looking to buy by the way?

I think logically I'd go with a Dac/Amp. Haven't looked much into it but the O2/ODAC comes to mind, of course I'm open to suggestions but something that is a DAC with an onboard amp combo would be ideal.

Oh I know what you mean by mastering.

 

[Ovrki1]

This would be my recommendation:

http://www.crutchfield.com/S-P2Ao2YSeNdR/p_786EXTNSN/Grado-Headphone-Extension-Cable.html

I appreciate your reference skyline315! Is that cable labeled Grado or is it unidentifiable by company name? Does anybody else have other recommendations of where to look for a proper extension cable that won't dull the sound? Does Hifiman make cables for extending their own headphones? I looked but I'm not very educated when it comes to audio cables.

 

[rovopio]

  I think logically I'd go with a Dac/Amp. Haven't looked much into it but the O2/ODAC comes to mind, of course I'm open to suggestions but something that is a DAC with an onboard amp combo would be ideal.

Oh I know what you mean by mastering.

 
IME, you really need to take into account at least an OTL tube amps if you're getting the hd650. Not just any other amps that can power them, but at least a OTL tube amps... Those amps are on the pricey side though...
 
So, i would look for something different than hd650 if you're not going to get OTL tube amps in the near future. Though on the other hand, there are people that are perfectly fine with pairing their hd650 to a solid state amps, and affordable one at that like say, schiit magni 2 and O2.
 
So... i don't know whether you should get hd650 or not.
On food analogy, OTL tube amps + hd650 is like bacon and eggs.

 

[chowmein83]

   
safe choice because everything even mediocre mastered recordings sounds good out of he-400i. You may like it, you may not like it, but everything sounds good out of he-400i. It has enough micro details to satisfy people in the hobby, yet hides bad recording enough to still be musically listenable.
 
by the way, dt880 and he-400i has a very different sound though.

 
+1
 
I totally agree. I have a post somewhere way back in this thread when I just got the 400i, but I pretty much said the same thing. Poorly recorded and/or mastered songs will still sound good out of this headphone, but well-recorded and mastered music sounds absolutely amazing on the 400i (and you will notice the difference).

 

[DavidA]

  I think logically I'd go with a Dac/Amp. Haven't looked much into it but the O2/ODAC comes to mind, of course I'm open to suggestions but something that is a DAC with an onboard amp combo would be ideal.

Oh I know what you mean by mastering.

If amazon still has the HD-650 for $290 it will leave you with $210 (HE400i = $500) so you could get a Valli and modi for the same price as the HE-400i.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

   
IME, you really need to take into account at least an OTL tube amps if you're getting the hd650. Not just any other amps that can power them, but at least a OTL tube amps... Those amps are on the pricey side though...
 
So, i would look for something different than hd650 if you're not going to get OTL tube amps in the near future. Though on the other hand, there are people that are perfectly fine with pairing their hd650 to a solid state amps, and affordable one at that like say, schiit magni 2 and O2.
 
So... i don't know whether you should get hd650 or not.
On food analogy, OTL tube amps + hd650 is like bacon and eggs.

This is the best post I've seen today. Lol, thanks for the heads up. Quick question, what does OTL stand for? Most likely I would be only using a Dac/Amp for now which does not have any tubes on it. So no separate amp in the near future.

There is that one Aune Dac/Amp with a single small tube on it that I saw while browsing around.
 

 
If amazon still has the HD-650 for $290 it will leave you with $210 (HE400i = $500) so you could get a Valli and modi for the same price as the HE-400i.

This is very true. The concept of a planar technology like speaker (in this case headphone) is very new to me and seems to add a lot of 'cool' factor to the HE400i. I wouldn't mind spending a tad more on the HE400i, I've seen them around $400 used. I totally don't mind buying from the classifieds from someone with good feedback here. Getting them to sell to me might be another issue.

The Vali and Modi is a very interesting pair. Cool that you can stack them and the Vali has tubes!

 

[rovopio]

  This is the best post I've seen today. Lol, thanks for the heads up. Quick question, what does OTL stand for? Most likely I would be only using a Dac/Amp for now which does not have any tubes on it. So no separate amp in the near future.

There is that one Aune Dac/Amp with a single small tube on it that I saw while browsing around.
 

This is very true. The concept of a planar technology like speaker (in this case headphone) is very new to me and seems to add a lot of 'cool' factor to the HE400i. I wouldn't mind spending a tad more on the HE400i, I've seen them around $400 used. I totally don't mind buying from the classifieds from someone with good feedback here. Getting them to sell to me might be another issue.

The Vali and Modi is a very interesting pair. Cool that you can stack them and the Vali has tubes!

 
why getting them to sell to you is an issue? Do you mean you don't have a verified Paypal or something?
Or you're not in the US? because if you're in the US, razordogaudio has good open box deals almost every week.
 
if you're not in the US, classified is a good place to find i'd say.
because where i live, i got them for $600, if somebody is selling them at $400-something and where you live the import tax is not exorbitant, it'd be great...
 
i'm finally able to enjoy my he-400i (and am enjoying them right this moment), after a scuffle with my unit initial clamp force level, but due to said scuffle i impulse-bought another headphone, and i'm heavily considering selling mine. Not today though, today i'm still using it.hahaha!

 
 
- - - - -
OTL means Output Transformerless. OTL tube amps that i know is Woo Audio 2 and Schit Valhalla 2.
the hd650 also reportedly (never heard of them), sounds especially good with an amp called Bottlehead Crack...

 

[DavidA]

  This is very true. The concept of a planar technology like speaker (in this case headphone) is very new to me and seems to add a lot of 'cool' factor to the HE400i. I wouldn't mind spending a tad more on the HE400i, I've seen them around $400 used. I totally don't mind buying from the classifieds from someone with good feedback here. Getting them to sell to me might be another issue.
 

I got the HE-400 mainly because I had Magnapans MG2-B a long time ago (1982-1990) and really loved the sound of them. The bad is that you had to place them correctly in the room to get a sound that is hard to beat.  I've since gotten the 1.6 which is currently in storage along with most of my "speaker" equipment since I live in a one bedroom condo and had a girlfriend move in so lost even more space, hopefully we can move to a 2 bedroom and I can have my sound room again.
I also have the HE-400i and HE-560 but for the current price of $300 for the HE-400 I feel that it the better deal.  And yes the sound of planar headphones is very different from dynamic ones.  With that said, I'm always changing my headphones during a listening session, I make a play list (about 2 to 2.5 hrs long) and switch headphones at the end of the list and then start the play list all over again with the next headphone.  I like listening like this as all of the headphones that I have such different sound signatures it makes it really fun to listen to a song thru and HD-700 then a Grado RS2e, then the HE-400i, then the SRH-1840 and finally the LCD-2f (my son has the HE-560 and I don't think I'm getting them back, might have to get another, sorry wallet).

 

[skyline315]

I appreciate your reference skyline315! Is that cable labeled Grado or is it unidentifiable by company name? Does anybody else have other recommendations of where to look for a proper extension cable that won't dull the sound? Does Hifiman make cables for extending their own headphones? I looked but I'm not very educated when it comes to audio cables.

 
I think it probably says Grado on the ends, but I don't know.  
 
There are other extension cables out there, but they get very expensive very fast.  Most report the Grado cable to be a good value with no noticeable loss in sound quality.  
 
I'm not sure that HFM makes any extension cables of their own.

 

[pavement714]

I did the fabric mod yesterday and can hear an amazing difference in soundstage. But I broke the plastic ring holding in the grill. Has anyone any success getting a replacement from Hifiman?

 

[DavidA]

  I did the fabric mod yesterday and can hear an amazing difference in soundstage. But I broke the plastic ring holding in the grill. Has anyone any success getting a replacement from Hifiman?

Hi pavement, I went about the grill mod differently, I got a fairly stiff grill that I only had to feather down the parts that stick into the slots where the tabs of the ring go so I didn't have to reinstall the rings.  It was taking too much time to feather down all around the grill material to get the rings to fit so decided it was easier to just do where the slots were.  I posted this picture earlier in this thread

 

[pavement714]

 
Hi pavement, I went about the grill mod differently, I got a fairly stiff grill that I only had to feather down the parts that stick into the slots where the tabs of the ring go so I didn't have to reinstall the rings.  It was taking too much time to feather down all around the grill material to get the rings to fit so decided it was easier to just do where the slots were.  I posted this picture earlier in this thread

 
Clever way of going about it. Thanks for the info!

 

[chowmein83]

  There is that one Aune Dac/Amp with a single small tube on it that I saw while browsing around.
 

 
I think that would be the Aune T1. I have one myself - it's a great sounding unit, but I'm not exactly sure that is what you want to be pairing with the HD650 (though the HD650 and T1 combo does sound good). The thing is, the tube there actually acts as a sort of "equalizer" for the analog signals that is produced by the DAC, but the amp in the T1 itself is actually solid-state.
 
What I believe most people have been saying is to pair the HD650 with an actual tube amp - so that would be stuff like the Schiit Vali and anything from Woo Audio. I couldn't exactly tell you how the sound though, as I have had no experience at all with those amps.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

   
I think that would be the Aune T1. I have one myself - it's a great sounding unit, but I'm not exactly sure that is what you want to be pairing with the HD650 (though the HD650 and T1 combo does sound good). The thing is, the tube there actually acts as a sort of "equalizer" for the analog signals that is produced by the DAC, but the amp in the T1 itself is actually solid-state.
 
What I believe most people have been saying is to pair the HD650 with an actual tube amp - so that would be stuff like the Schiit Vali and anything from Woo Audio. I couldn't exactly tell you how the sound though, as I have had no experience at all with those amps.

That's good to know. So the tube part of the Aune T1 is not the amp? I wouldn't know the exact explanation of how it works with the DAC side alone but this is good to know. I'll keep my eye out, although I think I'm going with the HE400i at this point. So the Tube might not be such a big issue.. I'm now looking at Audio-GD units as well. Someone mentioned them for good price to performance ratio.

 

[rovopio]

 
That's good to know. So the tube part of the Aune T1 is not the amp? I wouldn't know the exact explanation of how it works with the DAC side alone but this is good to know. I'll keep my eye out, although I think I'm going with the HE400i at this point. So the Tube might not be such a big issue.. I'm now looking at Audio-GD units as well. Someone mentioned them for good price to performance ratio.

 
i've heard (im not exactly sure) that he-400i is designed to be able to be driven from a digital audio player. I dont know if that means cellphone or something more like a fiio and a ibasso. But the cable is ridiculously short though.
 
Like 1.8 meter short. Some even said 1.5 meter short, which probably is true. So yeah basedon the cables alone, maybe it does designed with easeness of driving them in mind. On amplifications, the magni 2 uber have enough Power to drive them. So, while i've never heard the audio-gd i'm sure it's as powerful, if not more, than the magni 2 uber.