[Sonic Defender]

 
Nearfield...Gotcha...Try these on for size. Subs are for losers.


Cerwin-Vega! XLS 215.

N​ice speakers, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss subs. I grew up with all of these big woofer speakers myself, including some Cerwin Vega's (my brother has a pair with 15 inch woofers that he drums too), but stuffing all the bass into one cabinet brings with it issues and compromises. Sure subs aren't perfect either, but they are extremely effective and the ability to tune the sub-bass separately as well as positioning the sub-bass drivers as you need is invaluable. You also typically experience faster bass with multiple smaller drivers, but while you lose some power rumble in general the bass is more detailed. That said, you also need to have the room factors in place even more so with large displacement drivers as the bass can be overwhelming.
 
I still like big drivers, but only in big rooms, and only with awesome cabinet design which is as I'm sure your aware not as easy or common as people think. I have a set of Pioneer HPM 100s upstairs. I have been drumming to these since the 80s and they have 12 inch woofers so I'm not against, nor a stranger to big woofers. What changed my mind was a buddy of mine who really loved audio and the science behind it, He brought me over to his place and played some crazy Silverchair tunes with shock and awe bass lines through some really nice Mission speakers. I think there was like 6 small bass drivers in each speaker, quite small maybe 4" each. He had them hooked up to a monster power amp and I was expecting small bass. Hell no, deep guttural, rumbling bass that had good attack and decay was coming out of those tiny drivers. I was impressed and since that day I moved to smaller bass drivers, but did find that they needed subs to really bring the deeper bottom end up while remaining articulate. Try it, you might be surprised my friend.
 
I would still be quite happy with those particular speakers you have, but for me only in a big room, and not for nearfield of course. Man those babies must move some air!

 

[WildStyle-R11]

 
N​ice speakers, but I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss subs. I grew up with all of these big woofer speakers myself, including some Cerwin Vega's (my brother has a pair with 15 inch woofers that he drums too), but stuffing all the bass into one cabinet brings with it issues and compromises. Sure subs aren't perfect either, but they are extremely effective and the ability to tune the sub-bass separately as well as positioning the sub-bass drivers as you need is invaluable. You also typically experience faster bass with multiple smaller drivers, but while you lose some power rumble in general the bass is more detailed. That said, you also need to have the room factors in place even more so with large displacement drivers as the bass can be overwhelming.
 
I still like big drivers, but only in big rooms, and only with awesome cabinet design which is as I'm sure your aware not as easy or common as people think. I have a set of Pioneer HPM 100s upstairs. I have been drumming to these since the 80s and they have 12 inch woofers so I'm not against, nor a stranger to big woofers. What changed my mind was a buddy of mine who really loved audio and the science behind it, He brought me over to his place and played some crazy Silverchair tunes with shock and awe bass lines through some really nice Mission speakers. I think there was like 6 small bass drivers in each speaker, quite small maybe 4" each. He had them hooked up to a monster power amp and I was expecting small bass. Hell no, deep guttural, rumbling bass that had good attack and decay was coming out of those tiny drivers. I was impressed and since that day I moved to smaller bass drivers, but did find that they needed subs to really bring the deeper bottom end up while remaining articulate. Try it, you might be surprised my friend.
 
I would still be quite happy with those particular speakers you have, but for me only in a big room, and not for nearfield of course. Man those babies must move some air!

The idea behind why I got these speakers instead of any others was all around performance without being bass shy. I would have gone for the smaller one without the one 15" driver, but 215 boosts it up high enough for me to sit right in the sweet spot between mid driver and tweeter. You would be surprised how fast these speakers are, they are quite accurate, my room distorts them a touch on higher volumes, but they play nice on lower volumes aswell so I like it. I put a trap mix on and went to bed today. Best sleep ever!

When I first got them the most sensible idea was to boost bass and let them rip...I had to stop at half volume cause the house was shaking.

I'm not against subs, I just like 2.0 setups cause they are clean. I don't think multiple smaller ones would benefit, just need one that can handle it. and boy do mine handle it.

 

[AutumnCrown]

After receiving the Schiit Fulla and spending some time with it, I can say that the 400i is quite easily better than the HD598 now. The 598 still does imaging and soundstage a bit better, but the tonality of the Hifiman is miles better. I think that anyone who is thinking about schiit fulla vs. a stack for the 400i should know that the HP do sound rather warm with the Fulla, and I've heard that they become significantly brighter with the Magni Modi stack. So I'll look forward to that if (when) I upgrade.

 

[majormajor]

Is it possible to get a reasonably priced balanced cable (4 pin XLR) for the 400i?  The Hifiman cable (https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/cables/crystalline-balanced-cable-4-pin-xlr-plug.html) is $200, which seems like a crazy amount of money to spend on a cable to go with a $500 hp.  Would balanced connection from amp to 400i make a noticeable difference?

 

[ChesterYonany]

  After receiving the Schiit Fulla and spending some time with it, I can say that the 400i is quite easily better than the HD598 now. The 598 still does imaging and soundstage a bit better, but the tonality of the Hifiman is miles better. I think that anyone who is thinking about schiit fulla vs. a stack for the 400i should know that the HP do sound rather warm with the Fulla, and I've heard that they become significantly brighter with the Magni Modi stack. So I'll look forward to that if (when) I upgrade.

no, just a tad brighter.
some people say that it isnt actually brighter, just more detailed in the upper range so it sounds a bit brighter.

 

[AutumnCrown]

 
no, just a tad brighter.
some people say that it isnt actually brighter, just more detailed in the upper range so it sounds a bit brighter.

 
 
 
Do you know if this is true for the 400i and solid state amps in general, or just the Magni/Modi combo?

 

[WildStyle-R11]

If that is so I want a stack. What's the bitrate for magni/modi? Whichever was which.

 

[mandrake50]

  Is it possible to get a reasonably priced balanced cable (4 pin XLR) for the 400i?  The Hifiman cable (https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/cables/crystalline-balanced-cable-4-pin-xlr-plug.html) is $200, which seems like a crazy amount of money to spend on a cable to go with a $500 hp.  Would balanced connection from amp to 400i make a noticeable difference?

There are a few offered on Ebay for around $80. I got a set from BestIntheVerse cables for right  around $100 (their site seems to be down right now. He says "back soon"). I have a couple of different EBay models and one from BestIntheVerse, they all do the job just fine.

 

[majormajor]

 
There are a few offered on Ebay for around $80. I got a set from BestIntheVerse cables for right  around $100 (their site seems to be down right now. He says "back soon"). I have a couple of different EBay models and one from BestIntheVerse, they all do the job just fine.

 
Cool, that seems a bit more reasonable if still pretty expensive.  Guess I'll grab the one on ebay as it looks like Best in the Verse is down.

 

[mistersprinkles]

  After receiving the Schiit Fulla and spending some time with it, I can say that the 400i is quite easily better than the HD598 now. The 598 still does imaging and soundstage a bit better, but the tonality of the Hifiman is miles better. I think that anyone who is thinking about schiit fulla vs. a stack for the 400i should know that the HP do sound rather warm with the Fulla, and I've heard that they become significantly brighter with the Magni Modi stack. So I'll look forward to that if (when) I upgrade.

 
You would prefer bright to warm? I am more inclined towards warm. I am by no means an anti-brightite. I like it just fine, but given the choice I will take warm every time. Glad you enjoy your unit. The Asgard, which is a step or two up from the stack, is quite bright, but not annoyingly so.

 

[mistersprinkles]

  If that is so I want a stack. What's the bitrate for magni/modi? Whichever was which.

 
I am almost 100 percent certain that you are looking at 24/192 for the magni/modi (whichever one of those is the DAC). There is an addon box for $149 that upgrades the DAC to DSD (native) capabilities.

 

[AutumnCrown]

   
You would prefer bright to warm? I am more inclined towards warm. I am by no means an anti-brightite. I like it just fine, but given the choice I will take warm every time. Glad you enjoy your unit. The Asgard, which is a step or two up from the stack, is quite bright, but not annoyingly so.

My preference depends on my mood. I think that with the Fulla I miss out on some definition, for example of violins playing treble notes, due to the warmth. Thanks! I am enjoying them more than I thought I would. Coming from a lifetime of listening to what would be called low-fi here, it's a bit overwhelming. I've often read on here that people experience differences between levels of sound quality as subtle, and this might have been true for the initial minutes or hours, but now it's quite stark. It's as though all the textures of the music have been converted from beige plastic to polished steel, and coated with water, and my mind is gliding/slipping on the surface. Perhaps this is just the infatuation stage...

 

[WildStyle-R11]

   
I am almost 100 percent certain that you are looking at 24/192 for the magni/modi (whichever one of those is the DAC). There is an addon box for $149 that upgrades the DAC to DSD (native) capabilities.

Yeah I was looking at that Uber...One problem that kept me from getting O2 was low bit rate last time I checked up to 24/96? Granted my music my not be all that much higher...But it is the games I play that I prefer to run @ 24/192...Otherwise I'd use cheap razor software to get some virtual low quality 7.1...God that sounds so horrible.

 

[yoshidino]

My second post after being under the cover for a long time. So just got a 400i to replace Sen HD518 that had served me for years. Got it with the new Aune X1S and my immediate reaction was throwing HD518 in the garbage can. I was literally shocked... Anyway, now that i have caught the hifi fever, if i want to have dedicated dac and dedicated amp that is upgrade over Aune X1S, what would be my logical next step, I lean towards neutral and slight warm. I gotta say this combo here is amazing...

 

[kdejonge]

I love my gustard h10. If i were in the game for a new dac I would take a multibit schiit bifrost or gumby.