[Lohb]

  Cups are black chrome. Really nice paint. 

Nuts ! They look burgundy on the previous page photos....must be my screen or the beer from last night.

 

[money4me247]

i really just want to hear abt the bass and general sound signature comparision that isnt just rumors-speculation.

 

[TMRaven]

HE-400i has slightly more upper bass, more emphasis on lower mids while he-560 has more even midrange.  560 has more lower treble while 400i has more upper treble.
 
The biggest difference between the 560 and 400i is not in the bass, if anybody was dissatisfied with the amount of bass  in the 560, chances are the 400i won't be a revelation.  HE-400 is still the go-to hifiman headphone if you're a bass-first type of person.  Well I guess it's not go-to anymore since Hifiman discontinued it.
 
 
HE-400i has a more in your face type of soundstage, so I guess it's smaller.  The lower treble and upper treble is a bit more disjointed on the 400i compared to the 560, the transition from lower to upper treble isn't as linear.  400i can also sound a bit wonky sounding coming from a 560, because there's more of a suckout in the upper midrange and lower treble.  It also might be because of a more distorted lower midrange but I can't be sure of that.
 
To me there's no big difference in detail extraction, the 400i is very excellently detailed with great instrument separation. 
 
The impressions of the 400i were with the focus-a pads, so I'm guessing focus pads might bring their lower treble up some and make the treble a little more linear. 

 

[money4me247]

  HE-400i has slightly more upper bass, more emphasis on lower mids while he-560 has more even midrange.  560 has more lower treble while 400i has more upper treble.
 
The biggest difference between the 560 and 400i is not in the bass, if anybody was dissatisfied with the amount of bass  in the 560, chances are the 400i won't be a revelation.  HE-400 is still the go-to hifiman headphone if you're a bass-first type of person.  Well I guess it's not go-to anymore since Hifiman discontinued it.
 
HE-400i has a more in your face type of soundstage, so I guess it's smaller.  The lower treble and upper treble is a bit more disjointed on the 400i compared to the 560, the transition from lower to upper treble isn't as linear.  400i can also sound a bit wonky sounding coming from a 560, because there's more of a suckout in the upper midrange and lower treble.  It also might be because of a more distorted lower midrange but I can't be sure of that.
 
To me there's no big difference in detail extraction, the 400i is very excellently detailed with great instrument separation. 
 
The impressions of the 400i were with the focus-a pads, so I'm guessing focus pads might bring their lower treble up some and make the treble a little more linear. 

 
Niice comparison!! thank you i already have the he400 for edm, dubstep, and electronic-y type stuff. looking for a more reference type pair of headphones now.

 

[Clemmaster]

  HE-400i has slightly more upper bass, more emphasis on lower mids while he-560 has more even midrange.  560 has more lower treble while 400i has more upper treble.
 
The biggest difference between the 560 and 400i is not in the bass, if anybody was dissatisfied with the amount of bass  in the 560, chances are the 400i won't be a revelation.  HE-400 is still the go-to hifiman headphone if you're a bass-first type of person.  Well I guess it's not go-to anymore since Hifiman discontinued it.
 
 
HE-400i has a more in your face type of soundstage, so I guess it's smaller.  The lower treble and upper treble is a bit more disjointed on the 400i compared to the 560, the transition from lower to upper treble isn't as linear.  400i can also sound a bit wonky sounding coming from a 560, because there's more of a suckout in the upper midrange and lower treble.  It also might be because of a more distorted lower midrange but I can't be sure of that.
 
To me there's no big difference in detail extraction, the 400i is very excellently detailed with great instrument separation. 
 
The impressions of the 400i were with the focus-a pads, so I'm guessing focus pads might bring their lower treble up some and make the treble a little more linear. 

 
This sounds like the HE-5LE. Interesting.

 

[MattTCG]

  HE-400i has slightly more upper bass, more emphasis on lower mids while he-560 has more even midrange.  560 has more lower treble while 400i has more upper treble.
 
The biggest difference between the 560 and 400i is not in the bass, if anybody was dissatisfied with the amount of bass  in the 560, chances are the 400i won't be a revelation.  HE-400 is still the go-to hifiman headphone if you're a bass-first type of person.  Well I guess it's not go-to anymore since Hifiman discontinued it.
 
 
HE-400i has a more in your face type of soundstage, so I guess it's smaller.  The lower treble and upper treble is a bit more disjointed on the 400i compared to the 560, the transition from lower to upper treble isn't as linear.  400i can also sound a bit wonky sounding coming from a 560, because there's more of a suckout in the upper midrange and lower treble.  It also might be because of a more distorted lower midrange but I can't be sure of that.
 
To me there's no big difference in detail extraction, the 400i is very excellently detailed with great instrument separation. 
 
The impressions of the 400i were with the focus-a pads, so I'm guessing focus pads might bring their lower treble up some and make the treble a little more linear. 

 
Maybe we hear things differently, but I'd disagree with a lot this. It also may be that too much time went by between when I had the 560 and the 400i. Or it may be that I need to put the stock grills back on because they make more of an improvement than most realize. 
 
I do agree that the original 400 had that best sub bass. I'll go back and listen with the original grills before making anymore comments. 

 

[TMRaven]

So you're saying you never had the 560 and 400i to compare side by side?

 

[MattTCG]

There was a very short overlap between the two. 

 

[TMRaven]

So what do you disagree with.  I never bought the idea that people hear differently, just have different tastes and sometimes label different parts of the frequency wrong.  Also the amount of exaggeration to describe differences varies from person to person as well.  If you hear something differently I'll go back and specifically listen for them.  

 

[Clemmaster]

Taste is part of the "hearing" process. If we value different aspects in sound, then we will have a different experience and, thus, "hear" differently.
If seal (pad positioning in general) alter the measurements so much (that is a fact), how could it be any different once on the head of two people with different morphology?

It would be less dramatic with speakers, but the HRTF still plays a role regardless.

 

[Ron12]

Taste is part of the "hearing" process. If we value different aspects in sound, then we will have a different experience and, thus, "hear" differently.

 
I definitely agree with this part... This is very true. People focus on specific aspects of sound while not putting a lot of emphasis on others due to personal preferences... This creates a wide range of different opinions about each specific headphone even though the sound itself is the same. We just look at the sound from different perspectives... It's impossible to be fully objective.

 

[TeskR]

Edit: Just read the last two pages!

 

[Clemmaster]

Something as simple as the cocktail party effct is a good example that while two people might receive the same sound waves in their ears, they will "hear" things differently.
That also explains that one can "train their ear". 
My hearing (in general) greatly evolved since I started my audiophile journey. I can point at compression artifacts while I was never paying attention to them before (= I wasn't hearing them).
Like anything in science, it is so much easier to feel/hear/taste something when we actually know it's there. That's the first step. Once you know it's there and how it manifests, chances are you will always pay attention to it and it becomes part of your "hearing". Do you hear thing differently than before? Yes.

 

[Articnoise]

  Something as simple as the cocktail party effct is a good example that while two people might receive the same sound waves in their ears, they will "hear" things differently.
That also explains that one can "train their ear". 
My hearing (in general) greatly evolved since I started my audiophile journey. I can point at compression artifacts while I was never paying attention to them before (= I wasn't hearing them).
Like anything in science, it is so much easier to feel/hear/taste something when we actually know it's there. That's the first step. Once you know it's there and how it manifests, chances are you will always pay attention to it and it becomes part of your "hearing". Do you hear thing differently than before? Yes.

This is very true and I would add that different volume level can make us perceive things like tonalities differently too.

 

[Acknown3]

  probably end of august.
 
if you e-mail the people at headroom, SALES@HEADPHONE.COM, they will send you a preorder form. Don't forget HR10 coupon for 10% off, though I am not sure when it expires.
 
http://www.headphone.com/products/hifiman-he-400i

It's no longer valid.