[WayTooCrazy]

Lol. Girls... as long as it sounds good.

 

[mikesale]

  The reason my GF got me an Ember, see below


Pink is her favorite color

, reason why she doesn't want 6SN7 or any other 2 tube setup which blocks the light.

A very small price to pay! 

 

[1800yolk]

 
A very small price to pay! 

who knows, maybe it completely eliminates pink noise..

 

[Niteblooded]

Hey all,
 
So I'm pining for a new set of headphones and I'm wondering if the 400i is what I'm looking for.   What better place than to ask the people who have these cans.
 
My wants

1. Something good for Rock/Metal and Electronica
2. Good bass ...especially with sub-bass
3. Good soundstage
4. Decent mids, my DT990s aren't so good here so an improvement in this area would be nice

 
I have heard the mids and highs can be a bit bright on these.   How do you guys feel about that statement?   Is it too much at times?   I like my DT990s but sometimes the highs can be too much.   Something more neutral than bright would be preferred.
 
If you guys have other suggestions to look at in addition to the HE-400i please share.
 
Amp/dac = Woo Audio 7

 

[1800yolk]

  Hey all,
 
So I'm pining for a new set of headphones and I'm wondering if the 400i is what I'm looking for.   What better place than to ask the people who have these cans.
 
My wants

1. Something good for Rock/Metal and Electronica
2. Good bass ...especially with sub-bass
3. Good soundstage
4. Decent mids, my DT990s aren't so good here so an improvement in this area would be nice

 
I have heard the mids and highs can be a bit bright on these.   How do you guys feel about that statement?   Is it too much at times?   I like my DT990s but sometimes the highs can be too much.   Something more neutral than bright would be preferred.
 
If you guys have other suggestions to look at in addition to the HE-400i please share.
 
Amp/dac = Woo Audio 7

 
After listening to the 400is for about a week (just got a pair) I gotta say, yes they are very bright. But as some people have mentioned in this forum, EQ settings can remedy this problem. This is my solution for now..
 
They are also very detailed and seperate instruments really well. Which honestly can be a terrible thing, when you've got an odd source of audio, or an odd master, or an odd vinyl rip.. I feel like if I had bought the Fostex th-x00 (which I have never tried), I'd be getting less detail and some lack of bass extension, but would be gaining bass oomph and wouldn't be flagging so many albums for deletion, to be hopefully replaced by better masters and sources.
 
Odds are, either way you'll love these with rock/metal. If you're young like I am, the cymbals will be very fatiguing in metal without EQ adjustments. Electronica? That one is a tough call. If you're the type to scour soundcloud or any sort of underground electronic scene, you probably won't like these. But things like Daft Punk, that are masterfully mastered, will be really amazing.
 
I think the reason these headphones are so well enjoyed, but are also such an oddball, is because they are planars. A lot of people here have gotten used to them and love them, but not everyone likes how they sound. I feel like if my ears aren't towards the back of the headphones, the presentation gets pretty weird. Luckily I have small ears!

 

[coletrain104]

  Hey all,
 
So I'm pining for a new set of headphones and I'm wondering if the 400i is what I'm looking for.   What better place than to ask the people who have these cans.
 
My wants

1. Something good for Rock/Metal and Electronica
2. Good bass ...especially with sub-bass
3. Good soundstage
4. Decent mids, my DT990s aren't so good here so an improvement in this area would be nice

 
I have heard the mids and highs can be a bit bright on these.   How do you guys feel about that statement?   Is it too much at times?   I like my DT990s but sometimes the highs can be too much.   Something more neutral than bright would be preferred.
 
If you guys have other suggestions to look at in addition to the HE-400i please share.
 
Amp/dac = Woo Audio 7

these won't be nearly as bright as dt990. I think these are pretty good with rock, but the sub-bass isn't as good on these as many other orthos, and the soundstage isn't that big for electronic.The mids are good though. I think actually the ZMF Blackwood I have meets a lot of these parameters. Still, they're closed, and more expensive. Its funny, the only parameter here that your DT990 doesn't meet is "decent mids", I believe. Maybe subbass. I would say that the original HE-400 is a lot like your DT990 in sound sig, but it really meets all these criteria in my mind. The mids are pretty good, soundstage is good, it has awesome bass, though maybe you won't like it for rock. Idk, what do you look for in rock? snappy drums? big impacts? raw and clean guitar? that would help
 
EDIT: If you're willing to spend the big bucks I think the HE-6 would be great for this. maybe HE-560, but I feel their soundstage is not much better than 400i, and subbass is not like the old Hifimans
 
EDIT 2: Maybe you should try to get a response from someone with a grill modded HE400i. It really does open things up, I'm just bad with DIY. The subbass here on 400i is still better than most dynamics and this has nice mids. I think maybe that could be a possibility.

 

[coletrain104]

   
After listening to the 400is for about a week (just got a pair) I gotta say, yes they are very bright. But as some people have mentioned in this forum, EQ settings can remedy this problem. This is my solution for now..
 
They are also very detailed and seperate instruments really well. Which honestly can be a terrible thing, when you've got an odd source of audio, or an odd master, or an odd vinyl rip.. I feel like if I had bought the Fostex th-x00 (which I have never tried), I'd be getting less detail and some lack of bass extension, but would be gaining bass oomph and wouldn't be flagging so many albums for deletion, to be hopefully replaced by better masters and sources.
 
Odds are, either way you'll love these with rock/metal. If you're young like I am, the cymbals will be very fatiguing in metal without EQ adjustments. Electronica? That one is a tough call. If you're the type to scour soundcloud or any sort of underground electronic scene, you probably won't like these. But things like Daft Punk, that are masterfully mastered, will be really amazing.
 
I think the reason these headphones are so well enjoyed, but are also such an oddball, is because they are planars. A lot of people here have gotten used to them and love them, but not everyone likes how they sound. I feel like if my ears aren't towards the back of the headphones, the presentation gets pretty weird. Luckily I have small ears!

Interesting. I am 20, good hearing, I don't find these particularly bright, but the 990 is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I guess ears are unique

 

[maul]

  Interesting. I am 20, good hearing, I don't find these particularly bright, but the 990 is like nails on a chalkboard to me. I guess ears are unique

 
They aren't very bright, and measurements confirm that. http://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANHE4002014.pdf
 
Their treble certainly isn't recessed though either.

 

[1800yolk]

Sort of, maybe, but not directly. The brain often interprets high order harmonic distortion as sibilance. An amp pushing its limits that isn't very well made may see a rise in high order harmonic distortion. Not saying this is what is happening, but it's why some mediocre/bad solid state amps sound bright even though they measure neutral.

i think i'm having this issue with the appj's stock tubes. well, i at least hope it's mostly the tubes. people report huge differences using different tubes, so I might as well give it a shot
 
EDIT:
switching to high gain mode seems to mitigate this quite a bit. strange. I'll play around with this more tomorrow. Either way, still need new tubes

 

[dakanao]

How do these compare to the Alpha Primes and the Fostex TH-X00?

 

[dakanao]

I'm worried about these sounding bad with lesser recordings...

 

[NoOneLt]

  I'm worried about these sounding bad with lesser recordings...

Dunno, for me after T90 they sound perfectly fine with any recordings T90 was damn picky about that. Also no sign of brightness after T90, but it is all T90 fault But i miss T90 in BF4 while gaming, they had ton's of details, but in for music it was overkill in most genres.

 

[a44100Hz]

I'm worried about these sounding bad with lesser recordings...

I wouldn't worry about it unless you have an extremely transparent DAC and particularly bad recordings. In which case: get better quality recordings

 

[Unwinking Orb]

Help.
 
I've just acquired a pair of these, and cannot for the life of me get the right connector to attach to the ear cup. The sleeve simply does not 'take' onto the thread on the ear cup, leaving them loose. To be fair, the left even though properly connected doesn't feel THAT secure, but at least the nut has tightened unlike the right cup.
 
Am loathe to send them back as the sound is superb, but anyone else had this problem? (I haven't, to be fair, searched through all 500 pages plus to check!)
 
Orb.

 

[Hi-Fi EDU]

I feel like if I had bought the Fostex th-x00 (which I have never tried), I'd be getting less detail and some lack of bass extension, but would be gaining bass oomph and wouldn't be flagging so many albums for deletion, to be hopefully replaced by better masters and sources.

To my ears, the 400i is the better techincal headphone between the two. That is, it images more accurately, is more detailed overall and has a more open soundstage (ofc, it is an open headphone). However in bass, the X00 does not lack in extension nor detail relative to the 400i. The X00 just has a thicker, smoother quantity and decay to its bass notes. I now oddly find the 400i more forgiving with less than stellar recordings. My source for both is the m9xx.