[fjrabon]

  Just ordered these badboys for $250 on Amazon. What! Amazing price.
 
But they will be my first planars and I'm not really sure what to expect. I don't have a proper headphone amp, but could a DAP into one of my Cmoys adequately drive these?
 
Another question, does anybody use these with the PS4 controller? Again I'm skeptical that it would give the HE400i enough power.

mostly depends on how loudly you listen.  For me, the iPhone properly powers them.  There are other issues with the iPhone as a source, but amount of power isn't one for me.  

 

[rgmffn]

  Do tell, what are the other tweaks?

 
 

  I'm all ears as well

 
 

  The use of two layers of organza is a great idea but since mine are the older back plate ones it made the mids too forward for my taste.  With my HE-400 I went with a single layer of silk organza but added a 25mm square of sorbothane in the middle of the grill to bring the mids up since they are a little too recessed on them.

He are the simple tweaks that were requested.
 
As indicated earlier, the first one was the double layer of organza material under the stock backplate. Removing the stock cloth from behind the plate opened them up considerably to my ears. But if IIRC, it made them sound a bit brittle, or something like that.  The double layer organza cured that and they remained open sounding.
 
The second thing I did was place a small block of rubber under the front part of the ear pad.  It's about 1/4in square and maybe 3/8s to 1/2in long. See pics.
Push it all the way under and on top of the mounting ring. (you can feel it under the pad, and that helps it stay too) You can use something else, whatever you have that will do the same thing.  I have mine placed adjacent to the front pivot on the cups.
 

 

 
 
What this does is create a small chamber towards the front of your ears, that won't collapse when you put the HP's on.  This chamber adds depth, to my ears. I did something similar to my X2's.  Pic to follow.
 
The last thing is sealing the pads for leakage to the body. I've seen talk of using some putty, or even silicone gluing the pads to the earpiece. The way these pads mount do not make for a great seal.  What I simply did was tape them around the outside.  Easy, peasy.  This didn't do anything for soundstage, but to me, if you like the signature of the 400i's, this just throws more of it at you. They probably have a little more attack, at times. Maybe a little more bass too since there's less leakage on that side of the drivers.
 

 
As always, your experiences may vary depending on your chain and other factors. But it really improved the sound of mine.
 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
What I did to my X2's was add (tuck) a doubled piece of scotch tape under the pad, towards the front of course. It added a 'slight' amount of presence that was needed.
 

 
I hope all this is understandable as I was pressed for time and did this a bit hurriedly.
 
Oh, and I love these things!  I'm thinking I may have gotten a good pair. Not sure. I recently got to hear another pair on my setup and they didn't sound like mine. Then again, they didn't have these simple mods done either, so...[shrug]

 

[ext23]

SMSL M3 or Fulla 2 for my incoming HE400i, keeping in mind that the SMSL is $70 on Massdrop and the Fulla is gonna cost me $125 with shipping to Japan?

 

[Voxata]

Fulllaaaaa

 

[peter123]

Do all the 3 Geek Outs sound the same?

Some say yes and some say now. They do use them same dac and amp components so my guess is that any difference will be subtle.

I've only heard the 720 myself though....

 

[460414]

What is the bass like on the he400i vs hd600/K7XX?
 
And how does it compare to the he400s?

 

[DavidA]

 

HE-400i bass is between HD-600 & K7XX in quantity, but better than both in quality.
 
Haven't heard a HE-400S yet but a friend says its a little better than his HD-650 so I would say bass on the HE-400i would be close to the 400S

 

[mahdi1234]

   
The second thing I did was place a small block of rubber under the front part of the ear pad.  It's about 1/4in square and maybe 3/8s to 1/2in long.
 

Have to say this small mod has some impact, wow Just took first thing which could fit in there, so will play around bit more but it definitely adds some sparkle/air.

 

[Dvdlucena]

Agree with this entirely. With the right amp, the SR-009 is simply jaw-dropping.

Do you consider the focal elear a real upgrade above 400i?
There is a lot of rave about those headphone, but I'm a little paranoid about it
Any comments could help

Thank you

 

[Dvdlucena]

Have you guys ever listen to focal elear?
There's a lot of good and no so good reviews about them
I was wondering is they are a real upgrade or more a sidegrade when compared with hifiman 400i

Any opinion is important

Cheers

 

[DavidA]

Have you guys ever listen to focal elear?
There's a lot of good and no so good reviews about them
I was wondering is they are a real upgrade or more a sidegrade when compared with hifiman 400i

Any opinion is important

Cheers

I asked another Head-fi member (@fjrabon) about them since he as fairly similar taste in headphones like me most of the time and his impressions were that they were like a better HD-650 which I consider about the same as the HE-400i.  I will probably get an Elear within the next few months just to hear them for my self but I don't think they are a "real" upgrade to the HE-400i or HD-650.

 

[460414]

  I asked another Head-fi member (@fjrabon) about them since he as fairly similar taste in headphones like me most of the time and his impressions were that they were like a better HD-650 which I consider about the same as the HE-400i.  I will probably get an Elear within the next few months just to hear them for my self but I don't think they are a "real" upgrade to the HE-400i or HD-650.

Focal Elear is 4x the price of the he400i with it being $250 on sale atm. Would hope its a decent upgrade.

 

[MWSVette]

Price is seldom a good indicator of whether a sets of cans is an upgrade or side grade.  
 
It is far more about personal preference.  And then will one set of headphones sound better to you than another and then is it worth the difference in price to you.
 
Best way is to hear them for yourself...

 

[fjrabon]

Have you guys ever listen to focal elear?
There's a lot of good and no so good reviews about them
I was wondering is they are a real upgrade or more a sidegrade when compared with hifiman 400i

Any opinion is important

Cheers

part of the issue with Elear reviews is that it's kind of an oddball headphone in what is should be competing against.  It's basically a maxed out "easy listener" headphone.  So, when a review compares it against things like the HD650, Nighthawk, LCD2 and other premium listening headphones, it comes out very positively, as it's just simply better than those headphones in most cases.  However, price range, it squares more readily with things like the HD800, HiFiMan Edition X, and LCD3.  People who have those headphones are usually transparency and resolution maximalists, and don't see what the big fuss is about the Elear.  To them, it's too smooth and lacks micro detail.  
 
Another complicating issue is that the Elear HATES anything with output impedance above 1 ohm.  It can sound very dull.  Doug from ECP mentioned this might be due to it being designed more like a speaker than a typical dynamic headphone (which is basically an inversed microphone more than it's a speaker).  Because it's designed more like a speaker, damping factor is even MORE important than it is on most headphones.  So some of those reviewers may have been using their super high end OTL amps, that have output impedances in the 10-30 ohm range, and that would be an awful match.  

If you like smoothness and richness in the midrange, lack of harshness in the highs, and you like punch, and you like a nice bass kick that isn't overwhelming, but don't care about the last bit of transparency and treble extension, the Elear is for you.  It is the absolute very best at what it does.  Is it an upgrade on the HE400i?  For most people, probably.  They are slightly different flavors.  But the Elear is as transparent as the HE400i, has roughly the same soundstage, is much smoother, has less offensive treble, is more dynamic (which is saying something because the HE400i is very dynamic), is drastically more punchy.  It's a little less up front than the HE400i, but is more up front than the HD650.  
 
It's certainly not a side grade, the Elear is just a better headphone, but there may be some people who would take the HE400i over the Elear, if they really love the HE400i's treble attack.  
 
Comfort is also another issue that could go either way.  The Elear is more heavy, but I think also better designed ergonomically.  I found them both extremely comfortable, but I could see some people preferring one or the other.
 
Looks wise is a matter of taste, but you'd have to have some very weird theories of aesthetics to prefer the looks of the HE400i to the Elear.  The Elear looks every bit of its place of a luxury headphone. I don't mid the HE400i, but it absolutely looks like it was designed by a bunch of engineers.

 

[Dvdlucena]

part of the issue with Elear reviews is that it's kind of an oddball headphone in what is should be competing against.  It's basically a maxed out "easy listener" headphone.  So, when a review compares it against things like the HD650, Nighthawk, LCD2 and other premium listening headphones, it comes out very positively, as it's just simply better than those headphones in most cases.  However, price range, it squares more readily with things like the HD800, HiFiMan Edition X, and LCD3.  People who have those headphones are usually transparency and resolution maximalists, and don't see what the big fuss is about the Elear.  To them, it's too smooth and lacks micro detail.  

Another complicating issue is that the Elear HATES anything with output impedance above 1 ohm.  It can sound very dull.  Doug from ECP mentioned this might be due to it being designed more like a speaker than a typical dynamic headphone (which is basically an inversed microphone more than it's a speaker).  Because it's designed more like a speaker, damping factor is even MORE important than it is on most headphones.  So some of those reviewers may have been using their super high end OTL amps, that have output impedances in the 10-30 ohm range, and that would be an awful match.  


If you like smoothness and richness in the midrange, lack of harshness in the highs, and you like punch, and you like a nice bass kick that isn't overwhelming, but don't care about the last bit of transparency and treble extension, the Elear is for you.  It is the absolute very best at what it does.  Is it an upgrade on the HE400i?  For most people, probably.  They are slightly different flavors.  But the Elear is as transparent as the HE400i, has roughly the same soundstage, is much smoother, has less offensive treble, is more dynamic (which is saying something because the HE400i is very dynamic), is drastically more punchy.  It's a little less up front than the HE400i, but is more up front than the HD650.  

It's certainly not a side grade, the Elear is just a better headphone, but there may be some people who would take the HE400i over the Elear, if they really love the HE400i's treble attack.  

Comfort is also another issue that could go either way.  The Elear is more heavy, but I think also better designed ergonomically.  I found them both extremely comfortable, but I could see some people preferring one or the other.

Looks wise is a matter of taste, but you'd have to have some very weird theories of aesthetics to prefer the looks of the HE400i to the Elear.  The Elear looks every bit of its place of a luxury headphone. I don't mid the HE400i, but it absolutely looks like it was designed by a bunch of engineers.

That's a very nice opinion!!!

Thanks

Could you also mention some amp to pair with elear?

Davis