Alhamdulillah... i received my 400i just today.
OMG... i cant even explain my excitement! soooo long wait and finally its here.
anyways, just listened to it for like 30 min. before my initial expressions, i must tell im coming from using Sennheiser HD 518, 600 & used 650 for a week and i also tested HD 700 for like 5 mins
, Beyerdynamics DT 990 Pro 250ohm.
first off, i can testify this is the most comfortable headphone i have ever put on my head.! the pads are very very soft, very nice to touch and really hug my ears and part around that. after bad (rather very bad) experience with DT 990 Pro (whose clips didnt get any softer even after a complete year of usage, i always felt my head was squished by something and then right driver died on its own without any accident which is a shame for beyerdynamic as they lost one customer FOREVER!)
anyways long story short, these 400i are Comfortable, 10/10. i was really worried about the size of cups and especially the headband but man its good! does not feel its on top of my head. this gives me same feeling as my HD 600 aged and grown on me. but these are more softer. im sure will get better with time, InshaAllah.
sound, well, after my usual thing, first song i played on this was Hotel California, benchmark i guess, and man it sounded awesome. then some Jeremy Soule, Dragonborn and Winter's Tale.
it really surprised me the way it announces details. the mids on almost all these songs gave me something i never heard before. and im not even joking here!
especially noticeable were the "psss" sound of that equipment which keeps on going in Hotel California on left side, i always thought it was something from drums but it is not.
the thump in Dragonborn, the initial beating of drums, i never heard it before. the instrument that they play in Winter's Tale, the sound of it moving, its so Perfect!
sound stage is not small. yes it might be small when compared to HD800 or T1s but compared to HD 650, its as wide and distributed or even a little better. depth is enough, as is the width.
BASS. well, there is nothing that feels like moving parts, not they i felt that in dynamics before, but i definitely felt that when i pushed the vol to top, like very top, and removed cans from ear and i could feel the driver moving.
these are just WOW. bass is there, and its a lot!
these are my first planars.
i feel like the bass is coming to ear from all directions, like its from all over the place, which is a good thing. honestly with all Sennheisers i had, i felt like the bass is kinda coming from middle of ear. yes it gave the thump but not the fullness to BASS. here its more full. lows are LOWS, like REALLY LOWS!
Cable is too short! like too too short! even for me. i sit like 1 feet away and used to coil up all the cable of my sennheisers. but here its cable is hanging. its good quality but its too short. also right angle is Bad!
and i remember someone telling me my Fiio E18 Kunlun would be enough for these, well my friend its not. these are power hungry.
i used to keep my volume at 20 levels from windows and full 10 on E18 and it was loud enough for my 250Ohm DT 990 Pros, at 50 level in windows vol 990 Pro started to hurt my ears. here i have 100 volume on Windows and 10 on E18 and i feel these are not Loud. these are just loud. so yea they need power. might have to get O2 ODAC or something else after getting advise from you guys here.
but in my 30 some minutes with these, i can tell the best thing about these are the mids and freaking details! i never thought i would be so happy with mids so clear! lol
i dont know if im making myself clear here, but im REALLY IMPRESSED! So happy cause i saved for a lot for these, and just to let u guys know how long i waited for these, i placed order on 28November. had to import them from USA.
anyways, i will post more of experience with these here soon.