[razminr11]

I am planning on purchasing the HE-400 headphones and pairing them with a Fiio E17, and I am wondering, how forgiving are they of low bitrate mp3s? I currently am using 256 kbps mp3s on my PC and ipod, and am considering ripping my audio CDs to ALAC (Apple lossless), but if there really is not that much of a difference, then I will hold off on that until later. Any info and/or help is much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[TMRaven]

I'm not too sure about low bitrate files, what is your definition of low bitrate?  They clearly have enough detail to show you any bit of treble distortion, though.  They are very forgiving of badly recorded songs.

 

[054k4]

I bought the HE-400 and returned them but I think you should be fine, 256 kbps is not ideal, but as said byTMRaven, the 400 is very forgiving. Also, it can be driven reasonably well off the iPod. But it's not really meant to be a portable headphone because it's open (sound can leak in and out), but I highly recommend the HE-400. The only reason why I returned my 400 is that I liked my HD600 better, but that's my personal taste. 
 
What music do you listen to ? Rock and bass heavy music is great in the 400, but not so much with classical...

 

[jerg]

Quote:

I bought the HE-400 and returned them but I think you should be fine, 256 kbps is not ideal, but as said byTMRaven, the 400 is very forgiving. Also, it can be driven reasonably well off the iPod. But it's not really meant to be a portable headphone because it's open (sound can leak in and out), but I highly recommend the HE-400. The only reason why I returned my 400 is that I liked my HD600 better, but that's my personal taste. 
 
What music do you listen to ? Rock and bass heavy music is great in the 400, but not so much with classical...

 
I quite like em with classical actually, likewise personal taste though. Just how they do instrument separation justice, as well as their really high dynamic range, really makes grand orchestral music lively and exciting. The soundstage is a little too intimate and "in my head" for it to be perfect but it's, again, not bad.

 

[razminr11]

Thanks for the info, but I am really wondering if it would be worth it (as in, is the difference big enough) for me to rip all the CDs I have to lossless. (I mostly listen to rock (Beatles, Guns N' Roses, Santana) and some rap/pop).

 

[MattTCG]

Well...I have a group of 256kb rips and they sound pretty good on my he400's. To me my flac rips sound the best. I've ripped an itunes library of lossless files and it sounded good but not great. I've heard other report issue ripping to apple lossless. 
 
As the others have said, the he400 is pretty forgiving though...
 
gL!!

 

[TMRaven]

If you have 256kbps rips you'll do fine.  256kbps still sounds fantastic, lossless isn't that big of an upgrade.

 

[razminr11]

Well, thanks everyone for the very informative replies, I guess I'll now declare this thread closed (as in, I don't need any more help). Thank you all very much.