[raband]

HiFiMan have contacted me RE: the headphones with the 2 left thumbs
 
We'll either get it sorted or go into a joint venture with a new (and expensive) way of listening to music using your 2 left ears.

 

[dreambass]

Please tell me I'm not stupid and my set of 400i's do indeed have 2 left cups.


 





 


 


 


edit: sorted - they are indeed 2 left cups - support @ hifiman contacted - will await a response.

 


*chuckle*

That is kinda messed up. Hopefully they will get you fixed up quickly.

It's the most amusing thing I've seen on here for a while, quality control guy done a sicky but work must go on

Very good value these though, you gotta admit they do look kind of quirky like that ha.

 

[Linus1]

  Just ordered this cable:
 
https://www.amazon.com/NEOMUSICIA-Replacement-Hifiman-HE-400I-headphone/dp/B01N5O8S4M/ref=sr_1_cc_4?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1489376042&sr=1-4-catcorr&keywords=OFC+cable+hifiman
 
I read about OFC wires and wanted to give this a try

Have you recieved your cable, and how do you like it?
 
I'd like to look at one of these later - spent a lot on my rig (stereo and headphone) lately.
 
Could anyone tell me if the same connectors would fit the Audioquest Nighthawk? It would be a far eaiser purchase to justify if the cable could be swapped between the two!
 
Thanks!

 

[bozoskeletonz]

I've been seeing a few posts again about how these are easy to drive. It's easy to get loud, but anyone who thinks they sound listenable out of something like an iPhone probably haven't tried them with an actual amp or haven't had than much experience critically listening with headphones.

I have a pair of he400i's with audeze vegan pads. They sounded horrible with my phone/iPad. Sounded poor with my geekout GO2a, even using the balanced output (too bright, poor synergy). I was pretty disappointed.

Then I hit the jackpot with this cheap little Chinese dac/amp I had lying around, an xduoo ta-01 with a gold lion tube (got the setup for about $100 used). The increase in clarity across the spectrum was shocking. I thought the 400i's were very poor, but they sound amazing. Pretty close to the LCD 2.2's I used to have (but I used the LCD's a much nicer gear chain).

Please do these headphones a favor and invest just a little more in a proper setup. They deserve it, and you'll be so much happier!

(YYMV of course. This post is 44% opinion, 10% fact, 2% pontificating and 22% nonsense, since random percentages seem to be in style here)

 

[AT Khan]

I've been seeing a few posts again about how these are easy to drive. It's easy to get loud, but anyone who thinks they sound listenable out of something like an iPhone probably haven't tried them with an actual amp or haven't had than much experience critically listening with headphones.

I have a pair of he400i's with audeze vegan pads. They sounded horrible with my phone/iPad. Sounded poor with my geekout GO2a, even using the balanced output (too bright, poor synergy). I was pretty disappointed.

Then I hit the jackpot with this cheap little Chinese dac/amp I had lying around, an xduoo ta-01 with a gold lion tube (got the setup for about $100 used). The increase in clarity across the spectrum was shocking. I thought the 400i's were very poor, but they sound amazing. Pretty close to the LCD 2.2's I used to have (but I used the LCD's a much nicer gear chain).

Please do these headphones a favor and invest just a little more in a proper setup. They deserve it, and you'll be so much happier!

(YYMV of course. This post is 44% opinion, 10% fact, 2% pontificating and 22% nonsense, since random percentages seem to be in style here)

I agree a 100%. These are as power hungry as my 300ohm Sennheiser HD6XX sometimes... sometimes even more lol. I need at least a fiiO e09k to make them shine, and well, there's nothing my iFi Micro iDSD can't do to these lol.

Yeah, not using an amp with the He400i is... unfair. That won't get you too far, really. You need to push em to unleash em. Or sure, a Porsche can drive perfectly fine below 60 miles an hour lol.

 

[evgenetic]

  @evgenetic Did the problem with the treble issue persist?
 

yeah, i didn't figure out what the problem is, probably some defect/malfunction because i tried it on various sources and it's the same. i solved the issue by giving the headphones to my dad, and got back my older hd650 from him, he can't hear above 11khz anyway so this wont bother him

and he likes their clarity and brightness more than the hd650.

 

[Sinox33]

 
Have you recieved your cable, and how do you like it?
 
I'd like to look at one of these later - spent a lot on my rig (stereo and headphone) lately.
 
Could anyone tell me if the same connectors would fit the Audioquest Nighthawk? It would be a far eaiser purchase to justify if the cable could be swapped between the two!
 
Thanks!

 
Hello, yes I received the cable and the quality is very good and in terms of sound quality I didn't really hear a lot of difference
 
I bought it mostly because of the length, it's 3m and it made me comfortable moving around my desk without worrying about disconnecting the cable
 
Hope that helps 

 

[Deoee]

 
I agree a 100%. These are as power hungry as my 300ohm Sennheiser HD6XX sometimes... sometimes even more lol. I need at least a fiiO e09k to make them shine, and well, there's nothing my iFi Micro iDSD can't do to these lol.

Yeah, not using an amp with the He400i is... unfair. That won't get you too far, really. You need to push em to unleash em. Or sure, a Porsche can drive perfectly fine below 60 miles an hour lol.

I have the E09k + E17 Combo - how do they sound with this setup?

I'm curious because the Hifiman seem to like warmer setups.

 

[DavidA]

 
Have you recieved your cable, and how do you like it?
 
I'd like to look at one of these later - spent a lot on my rig (stereo and headphone) lately.
 
Could anyone tell me if the same connectors would fit the Audioquest Nighthawk? It would be a far eaiser purchase to justify if the cable could be swapped between the two!
 
Thanks!

the cables for the HE400i will work with the Nighthawk, I'm in the process of building a cable for a friend and they use the same connectors, will also fit the HD700

 

[frogmeat69]

  the cables for the HE400i will work with the Nighthawk, I'm in the process of building a cable for a friend and they use the same connectors, will also fit the HD700

Also the Oppo PM-1 and 2.

 

[AT Khan]

 

 
I agree a 100%. These are as power hungry as my 300ohm Sennheiser HD6XX sometimes... sometimes even more lol. I need at least a fiiO e09k to make them shine, and well, there's nothing my iFi Micro iDSD can't do to these lol.

Yeah, not using an amp with the He400i is... unfair. That won't get you too far, really. You need to push em to unleash em. Or sure, a Porsche can drive perfectly fine below 60 miles an hour lol.

I have the E09k + E17 Combo - how do they sound with this setup?

I'm curious because the Hifiman seem to like warmer setups.

I couldn't quite say about the flavor of the sound, but Wolfsons are more neutral, and the e07k+e09k combo is good enough to run the He400i OR my HD6XX with great power and command (without the gain even). I don't find the fiiO combo any lacking, compared to the iFi, and A/Bing between them, the iFi wasn't a leap, so the fiiOs are a good thing to settle for.
 
My iFi Micro sounds similar to me, albeit with much, MUCH more power. I'm not a tube guy at all, so I couldn't say much about any different amps, say Class A or tube. I'm at home with my ss amps and am not looking beyond them right now.

 

[pbarach]

  Please tell me I'm not stupid and my set of 400i's do indeed have 2 left cups.
 

 
 
 
edit: sorted - they are indeed 2 left cups - support @ hifiman contacted - will await a response.

Thank you for posting this!! Until I saw this picture, I was grumbling about how you can't tell one cup from the other because the L and R on the connectors sometimes get turned inwards where they are hard to find. Now I can see that the wires are supposed to come out slightly forward when the cans are on the proper ears. Call me stupid. Or at least directionally challenged.

 

[raband]

No probs.
 
HiFiMaN are working with me to swap over locally (am in Oz)
 
Hopefully once the Easter brake is over we'll get it sorted.

 

[raband]

I have a pair of he400i's with audeze vegan pads. They sounded horrible with my phone/iPad. Sounded poor with my geekout GO2a, even using the balanced output (too bright, poor synergy). I was pretty disappointed.

Then I hit the jackpot with this cheap little Chinese dac/amp I had lying around, an xduoo ta-01 with a gold lion tube (got the setup for about $100 used). The increase in clarity across the spectrum was shocking. I thought the 400i's were very poor, but they sound amazing. Pretty close to the LCD 2.2's I used to have (but I used the LCD's a much nicer gear chain).

 
Am using xDuoo XD-05 portable dac/amp (currently on massdrop I think) and was blown away by the sound.
 
Rolling the opamp next should give even better results

 

[mandrake50]

 

FWIW I wouldn't bother with my Galaxy S5 with the HE400i but using a Fiio X3 is quite good (90-95% of the potential of the HE400i IMO) and the addition of either the Mojo or m9xx would give a 1-2% improvement.  So if you are trying for a portable setup then I would suggest going with a DAP, one device versus having an amp and phone.   Another thing to consider is your music files, if using mp3 or other compressed files and also the genre of music then upgrading the amp might not make much difference but if you are listening to high quality classical, jazz, rock, or blues then the upgrades in amp might be worth it.

@peter123
, for me 100% from the HE400i would be either Red Wine Isabellina, Master 7 + Liquid Glass or Pagoda + Darkstar.

I'm sorry but to me it's completely meaningless to talk about percentage when it comes to things that purely subjective. One need to have a common scale to start talking about changes in number, which does not exist in sound. It's like saying that a wine is a certain percentage better than another one, just don't make sense to me in any way......

This is HeadFi.. there is no rational or objective means to compare anything. I feel your pain, but it is what it is. There can be no definition of 100%. So, subsets or percentages of that unknown are pretty meaningless. People keep talking about percentages... which are meaningless to anyone other then their own personal  experiences.. Go figure.  Reader beware.