[hemipowered007]

Yeah, I know. I was referring to pleather pads because original HE400 are pleather. And I even modded jerg pads from my HE400 velours and pleathers, which are pleather actually with velour topping. But I found Shure 1440 velours to sound more natural in comparison. I'd like to hear 1540 pads, but aren't they quite expensive. Worth the price?

On the he4 yes, they're 40 bucks. Well worth it for the he4, I didn't like the he400, jergpads no grills, just did not enjoy the he400 much at all. Not sure if the 1540 pads would work well with them or not

 

[chrismini]

For me the vast improvement in sound was to completely remove the rear screens. Right now I have no screens at all and am forced to handle them VERY carefully. But some of your replacement screens are very close to the stock screen given the small openings. Throw is an "acoustically" transparent cloth, that I don't believe exist except for woofers on loudspeakers because bass sounds are imperious to these grills and woofers, because of their large size, can easily be damaged. (A lot of audiophiles forsake them anyway.) The rear screens that I'm searching for, either to attempt to fashion on my own or to purchase, have large openings and their only function is to protect the drivers, which, as we all know are quite large on orthodynamic headphones. Selling small screens like ones fashioned out of food strainers would only get you back to the same issue which is the drivers to HE-400's sound much more natural with a superior high end and make instrument separation vastly improved with the rear screen removed. I don't care if it's Bach or Motorhead, these modified 'phones just sound better. And I let my ears be the judge. To be honest I also installed sorbathane around the inner mounting ring of the driver and I stuck 1 1/2in. by 1in. on the lower cup, 2 one one side of the connector and 2 on the other. Again a easily reversible tweak that I left in place because of the overall improvement of fidelity. 
 
So using small tight screen would almost be duplicating the stock headphone and any fabric would only make things worse. These are not headphones you'd likely take to the beach or on a train where their open design would be sure to disturb fellow passengers. Years ago I had a tiny pair of fold up Sennheisers powered by an iPod and was admonished by the train conductor that I was disturbing fellow passengers at a moderate volume level. And as that weren't enough, ambient sound will leak into these 'phones as well ruining any music being played. IMHO HE-400's are meant to be listened to at home is a quiet environment with a proper dedicated headphone amplifier.

 

[chrismini]

I seemed to use the word "is" instead of "in" twice! Sorry about that.

 

[Barndoor]

Apology accepted

 

[jkteddy77]

I tried just removing the grills for a taste, but the higher treble doesn't seem like a welcome improvementbit of a warning... the grill itself is metal,
I thought it was plastic.... it stuck to the inside of the driver, not good. I carefully pulled it up, but saw a knick in ofne of the bars of the driver. I suspect the rough grill edge cut it.
Sounds fine to me, but still gave me a bit of a heart attack. I would think it would sound drastically different if I damaged the magnet, but I still don't feel assured myself :/
 
Anyway, I personally noticed the grill is kinda warped, bends in the center. I spun it around before putting the ring back on so it's just ever so slightly further from the center of the driver. maybe it's just a placebo effect, but after blowing the mesh out and repositioning the grill, it sounds a bit more clarity nd less veiled than it used to, which is a welcome improvement to me. Worth at least attempting... as long as you turn the drive down and just let the grill fal out. it's floating above the magnetic field, don't let it fall into the driver like I did 

 

[chrismini]

I don't mean to be condescending, but after years of being an audiophile I have learned to let my ears be the determining factor. After removing the grills on the HE-400's the overall improvement was undeniable. Was it a jaw-dropping experience? No. But it was enough to where I will not be re installing these grills. I won't bore you good folks by describing in detail what improvements were there. My advice would be to remove the grills(careful not the break the retaining ring) and have a listen for yourself. Listen you your "go to" song(s) with the grills in and then remove them. I'm sure we're all eager to hear about your impressions. 
P.S. My go to record is Steely Dan "Aja".

 

[leeperry]

anyone tried woodflil grills like https://www.head-fi.org/threads/mon...anar-headphones.820107/page-369#post-13700319 ?

 

[maul]

So... anyone who has had this for awhile without some kind of dust screen - no issues? I thought nylon would be transparent but it's still not the same as with nothing. Will probably try a mesh next, but my room is dusty as hell...

 

[ilmothedude]

So... anyone who has had this for awhile without some kind of dust screen - no issues? I thought nylon would be transparent but it's still not the same as with nothing. Will probably try a mesh next, but my room is dusty as hell...

I have my HE-400 grill modded with very open grill a year or more and without any dust protector, and haven't had any problems. I would assume that if there gathers so much dust on driver element that it affects the sound, it could be easily cleaned just by blowing it off gently. I'm pretty confident not having screen protector. Just my two cents.

 

[maul]

I have my HE-400 grill modded with very open grill a year or more and without any dust protector, and haven't had any problems. I would assume that if there gathers so much dust on driver element that it affects the sound, it could be easily cleaned just by blowing it off gently. I'm pretty confident not having screen protector. Just my two cents.

That's good to hear, I just love the sound of the grills removed, wish I had done it earlier. I'm going to try to get a thinner type of mesh, really want it to be as close as possible to having nothing. Might end up covering them up when not in use, just in case.

 

[mandrake50]

You might try some organza. Pretty sheer and seemingly audibly transparent. It comes in lots of colors. I couldn't tell much difference at all between using it and nothing.

 

[hemipowered007]

So... anyone who has had this for awhile without some kind of dust screen - no issues? I thought nylon would be transparent but it's still not the same as with nothing. Will probably try a mesh next, but my room is dusty as hell...

He4 full open 90% of the time for years now, and I take them with me.to work, no issues luckily. Although, as the years pass, I am concerned about making these last forever as they're discontinued and I doubt hifiman would do any repairs on them. So right now I have mesh on them but no dust filter. I believe it would be easy enough to "clean" the drivers/membrane off without damaging them. Hopefully I never have to find out. Organza is probably a good idea as I doubt it would cause any sonic difference. I will probably do just that, just organza and a very simple grill just to protect them from my kids, who love listening to them, but have a bad habit of sticking their hands onto the drivers.

 

[maul]

You might try some organza. Pretty sheer and seemingly audibly transparent. It comes in lots of colors. I couldn't tell much difference at all between using it and nothing.

Right on, I've been looking it up. I used some pantyhose nylon and it was very thin, but was surprised how it still muffled the sound a bit. I'll give this a go, thanks -

He4 full open 90% of the time for years now, and I take them with me.to work, no issues luckily. Although, as the years pass, I am concerned about making these last forever as they're discontinued and I doubt hifiman would do any repairs on them. So right now I have mesh on them but no dust filter. I believe it would be easy enough to "clean" the drivers/membrane off without damaging them. Hopefully I never have to find out. Organza is probably a good idea as I doubt it would cause any sonic difference. I will probably do just that, just organza and a very simple grill just to protect them from my kids, who love listening to them, but have a bad habit of sticking their hands onto the drivers.

Yes, that's one of my main concerns - even though I'm very careful it would be way too easy for something to poke the drivers for instance. I'll experiment with organza but I might just end up with a mesh grill. I think it may have been linked to in the original post, but Hifiman themselves said they had one without the grill for a couple years and there were no issues.

I've noticed that even with the grills some bits of material has collected on the drivers, like it's stuck there and can't be blown out. I might work on some sort of protective attachment that can be put on when they're not in use. I've seen some good grills in here where the metal is nice and thin, though some of them don't list the source, so I'll have to dig around a bit. The baskets I checked out at Walmart are no good, too thick for what I'm looking for...

 

[maul]

So I finally got my grill mod done with some computer fan covers. I really wanted to have them aligned vertically or horizontally but it wouldn't work with the metal and plastic connectors being in the same spot unfortunately. Either way I'm satisfied with how it turned out and it sounds nearly the same as having nothing on at all. You can see how the metal pushes the plastic out a bit where the connectors aren't attached - I already filed it quite a bit at an angle but I could do more to make it completely flush:

 

[hyperactiveaudiophile]

I have a original HE-5, will it benefit from the regrilling and focusA pad. Heard about code-x thing, but that’s beyond my financial means now.
Anyone any experience? Thanks.