[Jerda]

I am reading that the new magni 3 is on the warm side

 

[majo123]

I am reading that the new magni 3 is on the warm side

Thanks I will have a look.

 

[hikaru12]

Hey guys any recommendations for amps for these ??? I am considering jot but worried about overall brightness with both? I have also considered asgaard as runs a bit warmer apparently?? Anything under £600 considered .

These pair great with warm amp unless you manually clean up the peaks with an equalizer. I suggest a tube amp with no mods or some Mullards as they will keep the energy of these cans without going too overboard on the treble.

I can confirm Amperax tubes are my favorite right now with these. They smooth out the harshest treble songs and allow you to just relax. Waiting on my Gold Lions to come in to try out.

 

[peter123]

Thanks I will have a look.

FWIW my favorite amp with the HE400i is the Nuforce HA-200, or even better two of them in balanced configuration

 

[Jerda]

Hey @peter123 a question: what about ess chips as dac for these? Wanna buy the lg v30 that has an 9218p chip when price drop to 400ish € and wanna use that as amp/dac and maybe buy a magni 3 or build myself a desktop amp

 

[peter123]

Hey @peter123 a question: what about ess chips as dac for these? Wanna buy the lg v30 that has an 9218p chip when price drop to 400ish € and wanna use that as amp/dac and maybe buy a magni 3 or build myself a desktop amp

In general I don't necessarily find devices using the same chip to sound more similar than devices using different chips. That being said I'm listening to the HE400i through my LG G5 with the Hifi Plus module right now and it sounds really good, only caveat is that I need to max out the volume with some recordings and I'd expect it still would be too low for some people with some music.

I've got no idea about the power output on the V30 vs the Hifi Plus module but it might be worth checking out.

 

[duo8]

What about portable amps?

 

[Jerda]

Nah, I wanna buy it cause I need a new phone and use it as dac/amp,m: v30 got 1.9Vrms and 2.7Vpk so it can do the work (23dB headroom with 93dBrms).
I was asking about the dac only side cause I'm planning to buy the new magni or build myself an amp to try the sq improvements and was asking myself how a better dac than the ess chip could improve the sound.
Btw MQA capabilities of the v30 will be a nice feature as I get the cans and I subscribe tidal hifi

 

[HungryPanda]

I use a Fostex HPA4BL, does all my headphones a treat both SE and balanced

 

[rez11]

Polaris is probably the most recommended for these, and a reason i bought mine, loved it ever since, a nice warm tubey sound without tubes (thinking of getting a Ember anyway) and just the ability to change settings right on top is so cool, and it looks nice with the aluminum case.

 

[hikaru12]

I'm thinking of canceling my Elise order and going with the Lyr 2. It has power for days so I could drive these things to distortion and play with the sound a little further by getting some Telefunkens or Mullards. I'm loving the Aune. Current using it as my "portable" setup with an OTG cable since the driver is 1.1 which is well supported by mobile.

 

[Jazmanaut]

Now that i had mine for a couple of days, i must say, i really like these cans. Not love, i had hear and own even better, but i do like them a lot.
I dont know how much there is variance in between 400i series(?), but i really cant see, why somebody find these cans sibilant?
Highs are fast and precise, but i even would like a bit more upper higs, from 14kHz up
And if only there could be more sub-bass, these would be amazing.
Some suggest, that with focus pad A:s there comes more bass, but aint these stock pads allready Focus A:s?
Pleather out, and ins, and velour in middle.
I tried to eq up some sub bass, but it gets distorted very soon, so maybe its best as it is.
I just love acoustic material with these. For jazz, folk and classical music these are just terrific. I have better choises for electronic and modern pop music, but boy... i just love precision of these.

Funny thing, first i tought that these and my head amp wont match, because there was some distorsion, and strange compression elements on some records, but spec wice, it could not be possible. Then i realize, that these cans are so revealing, that i just hear so much more small details, that i was missing before. I don´t want to say "microdynamics" cause there is not such a thing. (There is no micro speed inside of speed either ) but i believe thats what people are meaning, when they are referring on that.

Uh and i allmost forgot (pun...) These cans are extremely comphy!

 

[hikaru12]

The 400is actually do have a treble peak if you look at the charts. I couldn't listen to female vocals on them without modding them. The problem with bigger ears on these cups is your ears touch the headphone instead of get supported by it so it hurts after an hour or so.

The Focus A pads are older pads. Personally the pleather pads are the best for comfort but you don't lose out on much, soundstage increases, mids become more forward, bass is harder hitting, and treble becomes smoothed out. I am going to pair these with a Lyr 2 and Bifrost as the Dynamics from a Lyr I think will make these shine. These aren't hard to drive but i think scale well with power. Plus since the Lyr has so much power it will be good for my next pair of Oris.

 

[DavidA]

Now that i had mine for a couple of days, i must say, i really like these cans. Not love, i had hear and own even better, but i do like them a lot.
I dont know how much there is variance in between 400i series(?), but i really cant see, why somebody find these cans sibilant?
Highs are fast and precise, but i even would like a bit more upper higs, from 14kHz up
And if only there could be more sub-bass, these would be amazing.
Some suggest, that with focus pad A:s there comes more bass, but aint these stock pads allready Focus A:s?
Pleather out, and ins, and velour in middle.
I tried to eq up some sub bass, but it gets distorted very soon, so maybe its best as it is.
I just love acoustic material with these. For jazz, folk and classical music these are just terrific. I have better choises for electronic and modern pop music, but boy... i just love precision of these.

Funny thing, first i tought that these and my head amp wont match, because there was some distorsion, and strange compression elements on some records, but spec wice, it could not be possible. Then i realize, that these cans are so revealing, that i just hear so much more small details, that i was missing before. I don´t want to say "microdynamics" cause there is not such a thing. (There is no micro speed inside of speed either ) but i believe thats what people are meaning, when they are referring on that.

Uh and i allmost forgot (pun...) These cans are extremely comphy!

The stock pads are Focus pads, not Focus-A pads. One way to get a bit more bass is to install some attenuation rings as I posted a few pages before. Others have said changing the pads to HM5 or others gets you better bass so you can try that.

The 400is actually do have a treble peak if you look at the charts. I couldn't listen to female vocals on them without modding them. The problem with bigger ears on these cups is your ears touch the headphone instead of get supported by it so it hurts after an hour or so.

The Focus A pads are older pads. Personally the pleather pads are the best for comfort but you don't lose out on much, soundstage increases, mids become more forward, bass is harder hitting, and treble becomes smoothed out. I am going to pair these with a Lyr 2 and Bifrost as the Dynamics from a Lyr I think will make these shine. These aren't hard to drive but i think scale well with power. Plus since the Lyr has so much power it will be good for my next pair of Oris.

The Focus A pads are not older, just that they were the original pads used on the HE560 when it was first announced and came with them but there was a quick revision of the HE560 and the pads were changed to the Focus pads since many seem to like them better at the time IIRC. Its a slight miss conception that these scale with more power but its usually the more powerful amp being a better design its what makes them sound better. The HE560 is a little different since its less efficient so it usually sounds better with an amp that has a few more watts output but then it comes down to the amps recommended being much better designed rather than the wattage output. I've found that my HE400i has more bass with the lower powered headphone output of my Teac UD-301 (100mW at 32ohms) than it does with my Lyr2 (6000mW at 32 ohms) or Ember (1400mW at 32 ohms).

 

[hikaru12]

The stock pads are Focus pads, not Focus-A pads. One way to get a bit more bass is to install some attenuation rings as I posted a few pages before. Others have said changing the pads to HM5 or others gets you better bass so you can try that.

The Focus A pads are not older, just that they were the original pads used on the HE560 when it was first announced and came with them but there was a quick revision of the HE560 and the pads were changed to the Focus pads since many seem to like them better at the time IIRC. Its a slight miss conception that these scale with more power but its usually the more powerful amp being a better design its what makes them sound better. The HE560 is a little different since its less efficient so it usually sounds better with an amp that has a few more watts output but then it comes down to the amps recommended being much better designed rather than the wattage output. I've found that my HE400i has more bass with the lower powered headphone output of my Teac UD-301 (100mW at 32ohms) than it does with my Lyr2 (6000mW at 32 ohms) or Ember (1400mW at 32 ohms).

That's interesting. I found these didn't really get all that powerful with a regular Magni 2 but oddly enough at lower volume levels they sound just fine. I'm considering upgrading to the HEX edition in this lineup because these cans have given me a taste of what this lineup can do but I'll probably still keep these around since they're so light and fun to play with.