[DavidA]

  I guess portability is a relative concept. Having the ability to listen to music in different rooms and perhaps on a couch instead in front of a desk provides some value. But actually I'm still much more interested in 'subjective' assessments about the SQ or experience improvements that come with m9xx/mojo. @KepinCemit do you have a similar impression to what @DavidA mentioned? Something like a 5% improvement..

FWIW I wouldn't bother with my Galaxy S5 with the HE400i but using a Fiio X3 is quite good (90-95% of the potential of the HE400i IMO) and the addition of either the Mojo or m9xx would give a 1-2% improvement.  So if you are trying for a portable setup then I would suggest going with a DAP, one device versus having an amp and phone.   Another thing to consider is your music files, if using mp3 or other compressed files and also the genre of music then upgrading the amp might not make much difference but if you are listening to high quality classical, jazz, rock, or blues then the upgrades in amp might be worth it.
 
@peter123, for me 100% from the HE400i would be either Red Wine Isabellina, Master 7 + Liquid Glass or Pagoda + Darkstar.

 

[peter123]

FWIW I wouldn't bother with my Galaxy S5 with the HE400i but using a Fiio X3 is quite good (90-95% of the potential of the HE400i IMO) and the addition of either the Mojo or m9xx would give a 1-2% improvement.  So if you are trying for a portable setup then I would suggest going with a DAP, one device versus having an amp and phone.   Another thing to consider is your music files, if using mp3 or other compressed files and also the genre of music then upgrading the amp might not make much difference but if you are listening to high quality classical, jazz, rock, or blues then the upgrades in amp might be worth it.

@peter123
, for me 100% from the HE400i would be either Red Wine Isabellina, Master 7 + Liquid Glass or Pagoda + Darkstar.

I'm sorry but to me it's completely meaningless to talk about percentage when it comes to things that purely subjective. One need to have a common scale to start talking about changes in number, which does not exist in sound. It's like saying that a wine is a certain percentage better than another one, just don't make sense to me in any way......

 

[KepinCemit]

  I guess portability is a relative concept. Having the ability to listen to music in different rooms and perhaps on a couch instead in front of a desk provides some value. But actually I'm still much more interested in 'subjective' assessments about the SQ or experience improvements that come with m9xx/mojo. @KepinCemit do you have a similar impression to what @DavidA mentioned? Something like a 5% improvement..

 
I'm not sure about percentage in SQ improvement, kinda hard to quantify subjective measurements/preferences, i just know that my phone (galaxy s6 fwiw) couldn't drive 400i good enough for me. 
 
 
 
I have the Fiio X5 iii and it can drive 400i (and my beyer dt770/80} good enough roughly around 65% - 80% of the dap's max volume with low gain

 
So i guess what I'm trying to say is if you want "portability", I guess it's worth getting a dap instead of using a cellphone to play music.

 

[DavidA]

I'm sorry but to me it's completely meaningless to talk about percentage when it comes to things that purely subjective. One need to have a common scale to start talking about changes in number, which does not exist in sound. It's like saying that a wine is a certain percentage better than another one, just don't make sense to me in any way......

agree that percentage does not make sense since we all have our own internal scale but since you asked what is 100%, for me the best I've heard the HE400i is when driven with the above gear so it would constitute 100% to me.  It would be great it there was a way of putting a numeric scale to audio/sound but its not happening and the best we can do is to give examples, like "a huge difference" to me is something that anyone who can still hear will notice while "a subtle difference" is something that only those that know what they are listening to will notice and even this is problematic since how do we quantify "those that know what they are listening to"
 
I'm sorry I didn't address the original poster with a better reason of how percentage is not a rating that will make too much sense to quantify a subjective idea

 

[nepomuk66]

What's 100% ?

A lot
 
Ok, let's do it this way. To me: a Thx00 in an iPhone sounds great and plugging it into a Jotunheim improves it. But, a lot? I don't think so, perhaps 3-5% - maybe for someone else it's 10%, it doesn't really matter. However, a HD650 driven by an iPhone sounds good/okay... pretty underwhelming - it does not give you the signature of 'the' HD650. But with a decent amp (tube amp even better here) it's 99% -> This also translates to, yeah, you really freaking need an amp :-D
 
I guess the point is, how much of the headphone's potential are you ignoring when driving it with an iPhone or MacBook?
 
For a subjective reference, I found that a Oppo PM-3 and a Thx00 benefit from an amp but not so much. And that makes sense given they are 'easy' to drive, low impedance and high sensitivity. The He400i is not really as hard to drive as the HD650. I mean the He400i is kind of borderline with its 'low' impedance and 'low/mid' sensitivity. Unfortunately, I don't have an amp right now, so I can't test how the He400i behaves. 

 

[nepomuk66]

  I'm sorry I didn't address the original poster with a better reason of how percentage is not a rating that will make too much sense to quantify a subjective idea

Great comments from all of you so far. No, worries @DavidA your intentions have been rightly interpreted. Percentage, stars, ratings, etc. are just a vehicle of communication here. I thought that was obvious given the subjective nature of the topic overall.

 

[Presto]

They have almost no bass to speak of. Not really for pleasure, IMO. I use them for gaming though, because of the good soundstage and imaging.

 

[peter123]

They have almost no bass to speak of. Not really for pleasure, IMO. I use them for gaming though, because of the good soundstage and imaging.

Really, you should check if you've got a properly working pair.....

If you love exaggerated midbass these certainly won't give you that but I find the subbass to be really good. If your pair is indeed working properly you're probably a good deal more of a basshead than I am but to say that they've got no bass simply isn't true, just check graphs and it should be pretty obvious.

 

[harpo1]

Really, you should check if you've got a properly working pair.....

If you love exaggerated midbass these certainly won't give you that but I find the subbass to be really good. If your pair is indeed working properly you're probably a good deal more of a basshead than I am but to say that they've got no bass simply isn't true, just check graphs and it should be pretty obvious.

I agree there is plenty of bass when called upon.

 

[nepomuk66]

Really, you should check if you've got a properly working pair.....

Is there a good way for testing that without having instruments for measuring frequency response? 

 

[harpo1]

  Is there a good way for testing that without having instruments for measuring frequency response? 

Start here:
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php

 

[DavidA]

  They have almost no bass to speak of. Not really for pleasure, IMO. I use them for gaming though, because of the good soundstage and imaging.

I agree with @peter123 if you say your pair has almost no bass to speak of but then what is your reference point (headphone) that has bass?  If you are coming from a bass heavy headphone like a V-Moda M-100 or similar then the HE400i can seem like it has little bass.
 
 

  Is there a good way for testing that without having instruments for measuring frequency response? 

you can try one of the frequency sweeps found on-line:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k
 
http://www.audiocheck.net/soundtests_headphones.php

 

[peter123]

Is there a good way for testing that without having instruments for measuring frequency response? 

I'm not at home right now but on Thursday I'll find a couple of tunes that I feel have great bass impact on the HE400i and post it here so that you can check them out.

What source are you using?

 

[nepomuk66]

I'm not at home right now but on Thursday I'll find a couple of tunes that I feel have great bass impact on the HE400i and post it here so that you can check them out.

What source are you using?

That would be great. Current source: TIDAL

 

[Presto]

Really, you should check if you've got a properly working pair.....

If you love exaggerated midbass these certainly won't give you that but I find the subbass to be really good. If your pair is indeed working properly you're probably a good deal more of a basshead than I am but to say that they've got no bass simply isn't true, just check graphs and it should be pretty obvious.

Maybe I am a bit of a bass-head, because I find even my VE Monks have more of a punch than my 400i.