[duo8]

@duo8, Don't quite understand what you are asking?

 

[DavidA]

post deleted

 

[duo8]

is this the dent that I circled?
Does it affect the sound? how did you get the dent?

It came like that, I bought it used.
It sounds mostly normal, though there seems to be clipping at certain frequencies/loudness combinations, though that could be equipment/source, since I noticed some clipping with my re400 as well.

 

[DavidA]

It came like that, I bought it used.
It sounds mostly normal, though there seems to be clipping at certain frequencies/loudness combinations, though that could be equipment/source, since I noticed some clipping with my re400 as well.

sorry took so long to get back, my GF was getting hungry so I took a break to make dinner.

If you notice the clipping with your re400 as well I don't think the driver of the HE400i is damaged but if it bothers you can you return them to the seller saying they were defective?

 

[duo8]

sorry took so long to get back, my GF was getting hungry so I took a break to make dinner.

If you notice the clipping with your re400 as well I don't think the driver of the HE400i is damaged but if it bothers you can you return them to the seller saying they were defective?

Probably not, since this was the only one he had.
Ideally I'd be able to get a replacement for a reasonable price, but I doubt that.

 

[DavidA]

Probably not, since this was the only one he had.
Ideally I'd be able to get a replacement driver for a reasonable price, but I doubt that.

I think the only way to get the drivers replace would be to send the entire headphone back to Hifiman and I have no idea what it would cost but if the dent doesn't affect the sound then I don't think I would go through the trouble and expense to send them back.

 

[koover]

For what you can buy this for on the trade forum, it could almost cost as much to send back for repair then to just purchase another one, or move on to another HP. If there's no sonic difference, I wouldn't worry about it. It's just a little questionable this wasn't disclosed beforehand.

 

[Brahmsian]

However, the timbre of instruments and the tone in the HD650 is rather spectacular, and the drivers extract plankton extraordinary well - effortlessly, you hear microdetail without any sense of artificially boosted treble, which IMO the 400i suffers from, a bit at least...The 400i throws the details at you, almost forces you to pay attention to them...

[COLOR=#000000]To me, HE400i sounds a bit colored and artificial, though pleasantly so. I like that it throws the details at you. But that can also backfire. The artificially boosted treble can become a problem with cymbal crashes, which can get harsh. I like the effect of being in and among the instruments, but I can tell you that I don't want to be "in and among" a pair of crashing cymbals. The triangle can also sound harsh on these headphones -- like it's being struck right next to your ear. Grainy to boot.

Usually the highs sound very nice to me though. It's not a constant problem, just here and there.[/COLOR]

[QUOTE="Paddy, post: 13712712, member: 482751"]Just something I noticed last night while listening was i have found some highs quite harsh or sibilant but only with a few songs. I hope this decreases with burn in... Could someone who has spotify please do me a favour, could they search for a song called blade runner blues and there is a point at the song at 1 minute 50 seconds in that it is so harsh it's intolerable...[/QUOTE]

I don't have Spotify but listened on Tidal HIFI. Assuming "Blade Runner Blues" is the track on the Blade Runner soundtrack, the part you mentioned doesn't sound harsh on my HE400i, but I can see how it could have gotten there when the headphones were new and the sibilance was worse. Maybe the inferior quality of the Spotify file gives it the harsh edge.

 

[Paddy]

[COLOR=#000000]To me, HE400i sounds a bit colored and artificial, though pleasantly so. I like that it throws the details at you. But that can also backfire. The artificially boosted treble can become a problem with cymbal crashes, which can get harsh. I like the effect of being in and among the instruments, but I can tell you that I don't want to be "in and among" a pair of crashing cymbals. The triangle can also sound harsh on these headphones -- like it's being struck right next to your ear. Grainy to boot.

Usually the highs sound very nice to me though. It's not a constant problem, just here and there.[/COLOR]



I don't have Spotify but listened on Tidal HIFI. Assuming "Blade Runner Blues" is the track on the Blade Runner soundtrack, the part you mentioned doesn't sound harsh on my HE400i, but I can see how it could have gotten there when the headphones were new and the sibilance was worse. Maybe the inferior quality of the Spotify file gives it the harsh edge.

I agree completely with cymbal crashes sometimes becoming harsh or other pitched sounds. 99% of the time the headphone is bright and smooth which really makes the music stand out without bring overbearing but I have noticed in that 1% high pitched notes can be quite piercing which is just enough to annoy me and pull me out of the music. I really do hope though the sibilance I hear only at some points goes with burn in

 

[mandrake50]

A set of Focus A pads seem to tame this a good bit for me. Perhaps it is the music that I listen to or perhaps the entire system, or both, but I have not noticed this harshness in quite a long time with my "old" set of 400i. They do have several hundred hours on them, and most of the few systems that I play them with have been selected specifically to be at least a little bit on the warm/mellow side of neutral.

 

[Jerda]

Hi to everybody from Italy
New to head-fi and joined the he-4xx drop: 165 for cans and hybridpadA was a fantastic offer! And I like very much the idea of a drop that is a Christmas gift to myself
I got a little question about these cans: assuming them very similar to he-400i, I intend to use them with a portable Sabre dac/amp who can drive them at max 1,9Vrms and 2,7V peak to... it's ok to start with this system and in the future go ahead and upgrade the system or this dac/amp isn't capable to drive them enough well?

 

[leeperry]

400i needs serious juice to sing, it sounds anemic out of a O2 for instance even at 6X gain.

anyway been doing some pad rolling, fact is that some rings break instantly while fitting oval brainwavz and others never give up so YMMV. Using my winning pair I'm currently listening to the angled pleather brainwavz, they sound distant due to their extreme thickness at the back and they're also quite sticky huh. My fav pair comfort-wise is the old hifiman velours because they're quite stiff which balances the weight against my skull quite nicely and they're not sticky to the least but deep bass is far from optimal. Stock hifiman pleather sound good and bass is great, aren't nearly quite as sticky as those oval pleather brainwavz but foam isn't stiff enough. Oh well, I see that the hifman pleather got a ring of rubber at the back, will try to stick it behind the hifiman velours then

 

[DavidA]

Hi to everybody from Italy
New to head-fi and joined the he-4xx drop: 165 for cans and hybridpadA was a fantastic offer! And I like very much the idea of a drop that is a Christmas gift to myself
I got a little question about these cans: assuming them very similar to he-400i, I intend to use them with a portable Sabre dac/amp who can drive them at max 1,9Vrms and 2,7V peak to... it's ok to start with this system and in the future go ahead and upgrade the system or this dac/amp isn't capable to drive them enough well?

Only you can decide if the pairing of your amp and the HE4XX sound good to you since we all hear differently. Another thing you might want to consider is how loud you listen at, your preferred genre of music and what type of sound signature do you like.

Since the HE4XX doesn't ship until Dec I don't think you will find many reviews as to which amps are preferred with the HE4XX at this time.

 

[mandrake50]

400i needs serious juice to sing, it sounds anemic out of a O2 for instance even at 6X gain.

anyway been doing some pad rolling, fact is that some rings break instantly while fitting oval brainwavz and others never give up so YMMV. Using my winning pair I'm currently listening to the angled pleather brainwavz, they sound distant due to their extreme thickness at the back and they're also quite sticky huh. My fav pair comfort-wise is the old hifiman velours because they're quite stiff which balances the weight against my skull quite nicely and they're not sticky to the least but deep bass is far from optimal. Stock hifiman pleather sound good and bass is great, aren't nearly quite as sticky as those oval pleather brainwavz but foam isn't stiff enough. Oh well, I see that the hifman pleather got a ring of rubber at the back, will try to stick it behind the hifiman velours then

The 400i is not really that power hungry. At 93 db/mw and 35 ohms. They will give 110 DB with 50 milliwatts. Around 2.6 volts and 38 milliamps. It does not take a super powerful amp to do this. If you insist on listening at 120 DB (and killing your ears in the process), you can multiply that by around 10 !! The 02, theoretically, can do that as well.

The 02 is not a powerhouse of an amp. It also comes off, to me, to impart a thin and harsh sound to anything that it drives. It is a fine little amp for the cost. I have two of them, one that I built with super premium parts. It just has its own sound signature and, again, is not super powerful, but it is rated at 613 milliwatts at 32 ohms. Probably around 600 into the 35 ohms of the HE 400i. But I can't find MAX voltage and current specs. It really should have plenty of power to drive the 400i, as long as you are inputting a signal at a high enough level to achieve the power capabilities. This is something often overlooked. If you are not achieving the input level to get to the rated output (something that is not often listed in the specs), of course you will need to crank the volume higher. That does not mean the amp can't do it, it means you need to raise the input level.

The HE400i is not exceptionally hard to drive though. my X5II and X5III do a credible job driving it!! There are lots of headphones that are considerably harder to drive well.

 

[leeperry]

Well, I have a pimped O2 with all the most premium parts I could find and following all recommandations from a diyaudio thread and 400i sounds anemic compared to my other headamps. I don't even listen louder than 80 dBA and I do input a +2VRms signal !!! !!!! !!!!!!

Hope you like all the exclamation marks

I think I'll try to enjoy the hifiman pleather coz bass is really great with those, can't really stand the hifiman velours bass-shyness anymore.