Hifiman he-400i Impressions and Discussion
Mar 12, 2017 at 6:45 PM Post #11,911 of 14,386
I'm not at all sure I agree, in the case of MoistMan headphones. The stock cables are stiff, awkward and suffer from a lot of handling noise. When the stock cable is a horror show, constantly wrestling with it is an excellent reason to build or buy a better cable.


Yeah, I think upgrading the cable for some miracle frequency response improvement is one of the last reasons to upgrade a cable. I think it's more worth it if the stock cable sucks because of quality or length, hence why it's worth it for the 400i. I'm guilty of listening to the 400i for well over a year worth this terrible cable... eating my words.

The other time I felt the need to replace a cable was for the Fidelio X1 due to quality. For some reason, the stock cable was veiled, but that had to be a special case. It's was uncanny. I think a coat hanger might have sounded better. When the cable was changed, the highs came back to normal, no contest.

I have seen some nice eye candy cables so if that's a reason, I think it's as good as any. Like putting a spoiler on a car without one, haha.
 
Mar 12, 2017 at 6:53 PM Post #11,912 of 14,386
Yeah, I think upgrading the cable for some miracle frequency response improvement is one of the last reasons to upgrade a cable. I think it's more worth it if the stock cable sucks because of quality or length, hence why it's worth it for the 400i. I'm guilty of listening to the 400i for well over a year worth this terrible cable... eating my words.

The other time I felt the need to replace a cable was for the Fidelio X1 due to quality. For some reason, the stock cable was veiled, but that had to be a special case. It's was uncanny. I think a coat hanger might have sounded better. When the cable was changed, the highs came back to normal, no contest.

I have seen some nice eye candy cables so if that's a reason, I think it's as good as any. Like putting a spoiler on a car without one, haha.

 
That's the thing about cables.. while an audiobling cable won't massively improve your sound the way people convince themselves they do, a bad cable can really screw things up. I still shudder at the memory of trying Linium Bax cables on a pair of SE535- thin, tinny.. clearly there was something massively off with the cable. Gnnh.
 
However, yeah, if you actually want an audiobling cable for comfort or to look cool, and go that route with your eyes open, why not? There's nothing wrong with that!
 
Edit: Wow, you persisted with the stock cable for a year? It drove me insane within a week :)
 
Mar 12, 2017 at 9:02 PM Post #11,913 of 14,386
Looking to save for my first pair of really high end headphones, the LCD-2. Can I look forward to better sound than my 400i's? I wanted to stick with planar as i've fallen in love with the sound. Would this be a acceptable upgrade? Just wanted some opinions before i pony up the 1000$ thanks fellas
 
:)
 
Mar 12, 2017 at 11:49 PM Post #11,914 of 14,386
  Looking to save for my first pair of really high end headphones, the LCD-2. Can I look forward to better sound than my 400i's? I wanted to stick with planar as i've fallen in love with the sound. Would this be a acceptable upgrade? Just wanted some opinions before i pony up the 1000$ thanks fellas
 
:)

FWIW I sold my LCD-2s (2nd gen I think?) and picked up a pair of 400i's. I can't say I miss 'em. They hurt my head from lack of padding and the sound signature really didn't grow on me. I think my Hifiman  EF2 amp was holding them back as well and I wasn't in a position to drop the necessary dough on an upgrade that would do it justice... so off to the classifieds it went!
 
Mar 13, 2017 at 12:15 AM Post #11,915 of 14,386
  Looking to save for my first pair of really high end headphones, the LCD-2. Can I look forward to better sound than my 400i's? I wanted to stick with planar as i've fallen in love with the sound. Would this be a acceptable upgrade? Just wanted some opinions before i pony up the 1000$ thanks fellas
 
:)

The LCD-2 was on sale for $500 last Dec which was the time to get them, cheapest I've seen them new.
 
As for an upgrade to the HE400i it depends on what sound quality of the HE400i you want to upgrade, don't put much weight in my comments since my HE400i is an older one with the back plate and my LCD-2f is the original fazor.  The LCD-2f will get you smoother mids and a little better bass extension over the HE400i, the highs of the LCD-2f are a touch rolled off compared to my HE400i but it depends on the genre to notice the differences at times.
 
Also, I agree with @fullyreclined about the weight of any of the LCD series, they are quite heavy and unless I'm lying down never use them for more than 30min at a time.
 
Mar 13, 2017 at 12:51 AM Post #11,916 of 14,386
What about lcd series driver problem ?
 
Asking because a friend in our local (indonesian) audio community recently bought a used (& out of warranty) lcd 2 - not sure of the series though
 
He only used it for about a month, then suddenly the left driver died. IIRC Audeze asked for $400 ish to replace the dead driver and he has to shipped the headphone to USA,
 
I'm personally thinking of "upgrading" from my 400i to something in the near future, but kinda afraid of this problem if decided to go for audeze
 
Sorry for the #OOT
 
Mar 13, 2017 at 12:57 AM Post #11,917 of 14,386
  What about lcd series driver problem ?
 
Asking because a friend in our local (indonesian) audio community recently bought a used (& out of warranty) lcd 2 - not sure of the series though
 
He only used it for about a month, then suddenly the left driver died. IIRC Audeze asked for $400 ish to replace the dead driver and he has to shipped the headphone to USA,
 
I'm personally thinking of "upgrading" from my 400i to something in the near future, but kinda afraid of this problem if decided to go for audeze
 
Sorry for the #OOT

I don't know about any "problem" with the drivers except that they can fail.  The reason for the cost is that you are getting the latest drivers (Dec 2015/Jan2016) installed by Audeze when they do the repair, which may or may not be a good thing if you have the older 2.2 pre-fazor or for some even the first generation fazor.
 
Mar 13, 2017 at 2:31 AM Post #11,918 of 14,386
Hifimesta, suosittelen!
smily_headphones1.gif


Late reply; must've missed this. Can't remember their booth/room from HifiExpo :p
Too bad the markups are often quite horrendous in the Finnish brick & mortar stores, paying for hundreds of euros for better customer service and for a more "convenient" warranty often puts me off. A decent deal on the 400i though!
 
Mar 13, 2017 at 6:50 AM Post #11,919 of 14,386
Late reply; must've missed this. Can't remember their booth/room from HifiExpo :p
Too bad the markups are often quite horrendous in the Finnish brick & mortar stores, paying for hundreds of euros for better customer service and for a more "convenient" warranty often puts me off. A decent deal on the 400i though!


It's true that the prices are often a lot higher. Import fees are so high too that it's often not any cheaper to order stuff online. 350 € was a pretty good deal. And if I had gotten a faulty pair from the US it would've taken a long time to replace.
 
Mar 13, 2017 at 11:28 AM Post #11,920 of 14,386
  Looking to save for my first pair of really high end headphones, the LCD-2. Can I look forward to better sound than my 400i's? I wanted to stick with planar as i've fallen in love with the sound. Would this be a acceptable upgrade? Just wanted some opinions before i pony up the 1000$ thanks fellas
 
:)

In my very limited experience with LCD-2 I felt the sound quality was marginally better than HE-400i (more impactful bass, a bit smoother midrange and slightly bigger soundstage ) but in comparison with LCD-2, HE-400i is much more comfortable and that was the deal breaker for me. In other words based on SQ alone HE-400i gets around 88% and LCD-2 gets around 92 %, regarding comfort HE-400i gets around 85% and LCD-2 gets around 40 %...
 
Mar 14, 2017 at 7:51 AM Post #11,922 of 14,386
  I am going to grab these next month. I hope I get an improvement over the 650s. 

 
Oh wait, wait wait heheh... wait.
 
Improvement. I wouldn't use that word.
I think you're just like I was before I had both. Yeah, I have the 6XX (650) and this Hifiman 400i.
 
It's not improvement, just a different flavor. You highly underestimate the 650. Don't fall for the PLANAR SOUND, the 650s hold their very own despite their much older tech and decades old design.
 
The Hifiman has an OPEN, WIDER sound. It's may be more comfortable (maybe cuz the clamp on my Sennheiser is killing me. Maybe they haven't broken in yet). It's more balanced I think, across the range.
 
The Sennheiser has more bass, hands down. It scales much better.

Basically, it's good to have both flavors; both cans are great, but If I were to vote for 1, I may as well vote for the Sennheiser.
 
So there.
 
Mar 14, 2017 at 8:14 AM Post #11,923 of 14,386
I am going to grab these next month. I hope I get an improvement over the 650s. 


That would probably depend on your preference, to me the HE400i is a better all-round performer but the midrange on the HD650 is very very hard to beat.

Anyway I'm looking forward to hear your impressions of the two :)
 
Mar 14, 2017 at 11:25 AM Post #11,924 of 14,386
   
Oh wait, wait wait heheh... wait.
 
Improvement. I wouldn't use that word.
I think you're just like I was before I had both. Yeah, I have the 6XX (650) and this Hifiman 400i.
 
It's not improvement, just a different flavor. You highly underestimate the 650. Don't fall for the PLANAR SOUND, the 650s hold their very own despite their much older tech and decades old design.
 
The Hifiman has an OPEN, WIDER sound. It's may be more comfortable (maybe cuz the clamp on my Sennheiser is killing me. Maybe they haven't broken in yet). It's more balanced I think, across the range.
 
The Sennheiser has more bass, hands down. It scales much better.

Basically, it's good to have both flavors; both cans are great, but If I were to vote for 1, I may as well vote for the Sennheiser.
 
So there.

I don't underestimate the HD 650s. I just thought that the planar bass would be a bit more detailed, tighter and faster.  I don't expect a huge difference.  
 
Mar 14, 2017 at 11:29 AM Post #11,925 of 14,386
That would probably depend on your preference, to me the HE400i is a better all-round performer but the midrange on the HD650 is very very hard to beat.

Anyway I'm looking forward to hear your impressions of the two
smily_headphones1.gif

I am still looking for a headphone that has the midrange as musical as the HD 650s. I heard the R10s. They are the only headphone that does the midrange better in terms of musicality. Maybe the non fazor lcds too, but they are discontinued and so are the R10s sadly.
 

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