[dakanao]

People that use it understands it.  People that don't use it, don't.  Its either they don't get it or just dont know.  EQ isn't there to change the sound sig of the set entirely, when it is meant to be used as and aid to make your set perfect for you.

it characteristics are its characteristics.You  cant turn a set of 400i to bass bomber (i've tried) and you can't make the SZ2000 to an audiophile set.  But you use eq to fine tune that sound sig to your liking.


What I was trying to get to was, people need to stop saying that eq is bad, when in turn, its that person not knowing how to use it help them. It gives the wrong idea to people coming into the hobby thinking that they need to find the perfect set, so they go off on this never ending journey.  when all they needed was a little treaking of a set they already have.   Even companies like mr speakers give you stuff to "eq" and fine tune their sound.


So yeah,  EQ is your friend.  Call on him when you need him

I've noticed that there's also a sound quality difference between equalizers, for example I personally find the EQ of Windows media player to sound better than that of Equalizer Apo.

 

[bracko]

Done

 

[Sonic Defender]

Well, I had to get my hifi one way or another

In seriousness I am a criminal defense attorney in Phoenix.

Nice, I'm hoping to become a parole officer very soon, hence my curiosity. I doubt we'll share clients anytime soon!

 

[Crimguy]

Tough job. Good ones make a big difference though.

 

[Sonic Defender]

Tough job. Good ones make a big difference though.

That is what I hope. We need new blood in parole. I did a placement at the Ottawa Parole Office and one at the Research Branch for Correctional Service Canada and man the older POs are just not up on some of the newer findings for working with sexual offenders an area I am very interested in. I currently work with CoSA, an organization that works with high risk sex offenders in the community. I will be working with a professor here who has developed a new risk assessment tool for community supervision that takes into account protective factors and several US states have adopted it as it shows incremental validity over the normal deficits based risk assessment only tools.

 

[RERO]

So after almost a month of being ignored and dumped in the cabinet, I manage to give my 400i a huge scratch.
 

 
...And there goes any chance of selling them for more than $50.
 
Well, looks like I'm gonna be stuck with them forever.
Sadly, the headband still hates me. I need a different one.
Are the old style headbands from older HiFiMANs compatible with the 400i?
Or are the old ones worse?

 

[TeskR]

  So after almost a month of being ignored and dumped in the cabinet, I manage to give my 400i a huge scratch.
 
 
...And there goes any chance of selling them for more than $50.
 
Well, looks like I'm gonna be stuck with them forever.
Sadly, the headband still hates me. I need a different one.
Are the old style headbands from older HiFiMANs compatible with the 400i?
Or are the old ones worse?

 
The old headband was reportedly not a very comfortable affair, haven't heard many people say it was comfortable, what don't you like about the current one?

 

[RERO]

They're very finicky.
 
The combination of its clamp, pads, and adjustment makes me fiddle with them every few minutes.
I've stretched time overnight on a box for a week or so when I first got them. I'm a bit scared of stretching the metal support by hand as I might do it too much or the wrong way and give an asymmetrical look. I find the head support is quite slippery too.

 

[ChesterYonany]

  They're very finicky.
 
The combination of its clamp, pads, and adjustment makes me fiddle with them every few minutes.
I've stretched time overnight on a box for a week or so when I first got them. I'm a bit scared of stretching the metal support by hand as I might do it too much or the wrong way and give an asymmetrical look. I find the head support is quite slippery too.

bending the metal in the 90 degrees area is very difficult, the chance of over bending it is 0.
i had to use so much force that my thumbs actually was hurting.

 

[fjrabon]

   
The old headband was reportedly not a very comfortable affair, haven't heard many people say it was comfortable, what don't you like about the current one?

well, it's a bit hard to say.  The old design didn't distribute weight very well on your head, and the old headphones were also very heavy.  For the new design they both changed the headband and the weight, and it's difficult to say which contributed more to comfort.  It may be the case that the old design headband would be fine with the new design's lighter cups, nobody I know has tried it, as most prefer the new design anyway.

 

[leggy]

While I haven't heard the HE-400S, they are much easier to drive from reading the reviews and impressions in the 400S thread so that may be why they sounded good from your D14.  Curious that the H-10 doesn't seem to play nice with the HE-400i, its one of the amps that those in the HE-560 thread like to recommend, one mentioned changing the opamps but I can't remember to what.
Trying to rule out any issues have you tried using the output from either your laptop or S6 edge+ and connect to the H-10?  I just tried my S5 and its not bad, had the volume at 14 of 15, a little higher than my normal listening level but 13 of 15 was too low.  With Fiio X3 its pretty good.  Do your other headphones sound ok with your setup?  Any chance of trying the HE-400i on another system?

I think the reason for missing clarity and details is the H10 amp. It is smoothing out the highs and pushing back slightly the vocals. The amp section of my D14 doesn't have this effect but I feel it's noisier than the H10.
I would say the H10 has laid back and warming effect.

 

[DavidA]

I think the reason for missing clarity and details is the H10 amp. It is smoothing out the highs and pushing back slightly the vocals. The amp section of my D14 doesn't have this effect but I feel it's noisier than the H10.
I would say the H10 has laid back and warming effect.

I think that's why the H-10 is a recommend amp for the HE-560 which some say is on the bright side.  Did you look into changing the op-amps in the H-10?  One HE-560 owner side that it makes a fairly large difference and the op-amps are not as costly as tubes.

 

[Rub-A-Dub]

  So after almost a month of being ignored and dumped in the cabinet, I manage to give my 400i a huge scratch.
 

 
...And there goes any chance of selling them for more than $50.
 
Well, looks like I'm gonna be stuck with them forever.
Sadly, the headband still hates me. I need a different one.
Are the old style headbands from older HiFiMANs compatible with the 400i?
Or are the old ones worse?

 
That's a tiny scratch compared to the one mine had when I bought them, so after Sonic Defender inspired me to complain (a few pages back) I contacted Fujiya Avic and they offered to exchange them for a brand new pair. The new pair came yesterday, and what do I find? Glue smeared across the top of both earcups! Fortunately I managed to clean it off with a microfiber cloth and a few minutes of careful rubbing, but seriously, couldn't they have done that in the factory and improved the whole customer experience? Leaves me wondering whether the insides were put together just as sloppily. Hifiman, please get your s**t together in regards to quality control!

 

[leggy]

I think that's why the H-10 is a recommend amp for the HE-560 which some say is on the bright side.  Did you look into changing the op-amps in the H-10?  One HE-560 owner side that it makes a fairly large difference and the op-amps are not as costly as tubes.

I am not sure if changing the op-amps will increase details and bring things forward. Hate to invest $150+ to find out things didn't work the way I wanted.

Any standalone amp that would increase details and enhance the highs for less than $400?

 

[HirschiAUT]

I am not sure if changing the op-amps will increase details and bring things forward. Hate to invest $150+ to find out things didn't work the way I wanted.

Any standalone amp that would increase details and enhance the highs for less than $400?

I have the Audio-GD NFB-1AMP paired with my he-400i and really like it, to me it is dead neutral.
The C2 11th anniversary would be the single ended equivalent.
It is a bit above your budget (480$ w/o shipping) but not that much.
You could also scan the classifieds, there are Audio-GD amps pretty regularly