GirgleMirt
500+ Head-Fier
Likely due to impedance? 400i are Impedance: 35 Ohms, and as a rule of thumb you want <1/8th the output impedance of your headphones for your amp (ex; headphone 80ohms, you'd want <=10ohm amp),[/edited, thx E1D1!] so;The he400i seems OK with an iphone, and slightly better with a DAP like the Shanlin m2s.
I even tried with a DAC Xonar STU which sounds awesome with the it03 IEM but only okay with the HE400i.
Then I plugged them into my computer which has an older sound card, Xonar D2X and WOW! The Bass is suddenly very present, with excellent sub bass and punch. The sound separation/soundstage is just f-ing amazing.
The HE400i seems to just need the right source, even if it comes from older hardware.
iphone: ???
Shanling Output impedance: 4.8Ω
DAC Xonar STU Headphone out: 10 ohm
Xonar D2X : 50 or 100 ohms from what I could find..
Now the funny thing is that with audio sometimes better isn't better. I think that if your headphone isn't well matched impedance-wise, it might affect the FR, and who knows it might happen that you find even what could be worse theoretically better sounding...! Ex;
https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...formance-af140-earphones&catid=263&Itemid=203
Adding 70 ohms to the V-Can’s output impedance of 5 ohms, to simulate the effects of using a typical low-quality headphone amp, has a big effect on the AF140’s performance. While the balance of bass to treble is pretty much flat with a low-impedance (i.e., high-quality) source device, the tonal balance will radically change if a high-impedance source (e.g., a cheap smartphone, tablet, or computer) is used: the sound will become much bassier and much duller in the highs. This is due to the big impedance swing you can see elsewhere in these measurements.
So who knows if ironically using a worse matched amp could result in a subjective improvement! Like it this case, if you have a somewhat bright-leaning headphone you'd prefer to be warmer, then a mismatched amp who's impedance isn't really optimal so affects the FR as above; adding some warmth, worse might just be subjectively better! But yeah, impedance is only part of the equation, might very well be that one is just plain better than the other and it offsets the impedance differences... But yeah amp matching is so important it might actually explain quite a bit of the so different comments for the same headphones!
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