[slex]

do you have access to a hot glue gun?  you can put a small dab on the edges of the grill, it doesn't smell and can be removed later if you need to.

Yes i do, thanks. Will try that.

 

[DavidA]

   
The HD650 scaling is definitely crazy, a friend of mine who attended Canjam London last week and who's had and loved the 650s for a good number of years tried them on the Tungsten prototype (can't remember which source it was connected to) - he also tried the Elear however and said he had to concede the fact he liked it noticeably better, his pair isn't modded though far as I'm aware.
 
Whether or not it's worth $700~ more is subjective though I suppose. Personally if I had the money to buy either of them I'd rather invest in the Elear for build quality, aesthetics and newer technology. Not saying newer is necessarily better of course though.

I think my friend is like me in that we tend to favor headphones that are extended in the highs like the HD-800/700 and most Grado's so its more a personal preference.  While I have the money for the Elear, I would rather get a better amp like the EC ZDS or similar since it will work with most of my headphones.  I haven't modded my HD-650 yet, thinking about it but will wait for now.

 

[Vigrith]

  I think my friend is like me in that we tend to favor headphones that are extended in the highs like the HD-800/700 and most Grado's so its more a personal preference.  While I have the money for the Elear, I would rather get a better amp like the EC ZDS or similar since it will work with most of my headphones.  I haven't modded my HD-650 yet, thinking about it but will wait for now.

 
Oh yea, of course, it's all about personal preference, that was my point. Both my friend and I are a little treble sensitive (much more me than him though) so the 650 and Elear are much more our thing than the 700/800, I really can't stand Grados even though their higher up models look very nice.
 
If you favour extended highs and based off of people impressions I'd say the Elear is probably short of ideal for you - the ZDS is amazing, it'd take me way too long to save up for one of them however, crazy import taxes on top of all else so I'll "settle" for the Elear to compliment my LCD-2s, NightHawks and 650s (this is probably very telling of my sound signature preferences haha). Excited to try them out for myself, already pre-ordered them at the local dealer.
 
One thing I'm eagerly waiting for is the new Schiit announcement at the Show this upcoming Saturday!

 

[funkisound]

  After several months using the HE400s with brainwavz angled pad, i tried switching back to focus pads A for a couple of days
 
 
For my personal taste, I prefer brainwavz angled.
Sound wise, bass sounded better to me, if nothing else. There's just more of it (and dare I say better ?)  in a good way
 
Maybe it's the distance of my ears to the drivers when using braiwavz angled pads (vs focus pads A), soundstage etc sounded just right, not too "in your face / inside your head" kinda way when using focus pads A.
 
Also dislike my ears touching the inner cover of the driver when using focus pads A, lol. Focus pads A are just too shallow in depth, foam not thick enough for me.
 
 
Not saying focus pads A are bad for HE400s, but personally I prefer brainwavz angled pads.

Sadly, I couldn't try out the brainwavz angled pads.. I tried stretching them a lot and they still wouldn't fit over the rings, and I didn't wanna take any risk of damaging them so I returned 'em. I have Focuspad-A's fitted now, I think they're an improvement over stock because of more bass and bass extension. The flipside is that they do lose a bit of the airiness (they have a warmer sound) compared to stock and the soundstage is indeed a bit narrower. Not drastically so, I think it's still very good and balanced sounding, and the bass makes up for it.
I guess having thicker pads is indeed better, as a bigger distance from ear to driver makes the mids a little less forward which is what I would prefer. The HE400s mids are just slightly too forward for my taste.
I also tried the standard hifiman leather pads, but the bass was boomy and the airyness was pretty much gone, so those I wouldn't recommend.

 

[dbaker1981]

Hi
Got a quick question. I keep Google how to replace the pads on my 400's. But I have yet to find a video and I was told there very hard to change. Do anyone have a link to video or any help changing them.

 

[Sajakhaki]

It's not hard to do, just a pain in the *ss.  It has 4 little tabs you have to kinda bend them into place.  Just takes a few minutes of messing with them to get it.  
 
https://youtu.be/ThkPNbqpiG0 - go to about 7 min in, shows you the basics.  

 

[funkisound]

You just gotta click in 2 of the tabs on opposite sides, and then rotate the earpad one quarter so the other 2 tabs will click in also.
So start with the fat side on top or bottom, so you have to turn the earpad only 1 quarter to get the fat side to the back.

 

[DavidA]

Hi
Got a quick question. I keep Google how to replace the pads on my 400's. But I have yet to find a video and I was told there very hard to change. Do anyone have a link to video or any help changing them.

I've been using a credit card to push in the tabs while gently pushing down on the ear pad.  After doing it a few times it gets quite easy to do.

 

[Csokis]

It makes sense to grill mod if the existence of an important dust filter? I mean new grill (larger grids) + dust filter (e.g. speaker grill cloth)? I'm using FocusPad-A earpads.

 

[DavidA]

Quote:

  It makes sense to grill mod if the existence of an important dust filter? I mean new grill (larger grids) + dust filter (e.g. speaker grill cloth)? I'm using FocusPad-A earpads.

I've been using silk organza as a dust filter, very fine and very acoustically transparent.  Using a spray on adhesive on the back of the grill and then just lay the silk organza over it, trip of the edges after the adhesive has time to dry.
This is my HE-400 with grill mod:

 

[Csokis]

Does that make sense? 

Has the soundstage become larger/wider? Thanks!

 

[DavidA]

  Does that make sense? 

Has the soundstage become larger/wider? Thanks!

It helps the sound stage to be a touch wider but its not easy to notice and depends on the genre, with classical its pretty easy to hear the difference, with pop, jazz and most other modern music where the sound stage is limited to begin with its hard to tell.  Since I usually listen to classical on either HD-800 or SR-009 the sound stage doesn't really matter much to me for most of my other headphones.
 
One thing it did for me was to get rid of some ringing with certain tracks, I think certain frequencies were being reflected back in with the stock grill.

 

[slex]

Does this happen to you? Just checking!



The plastic yoke just broken into 2 pieces. No wonder hifiman have it change in the HEX edition V2 plastic to metal.

Already email them for assistant.

 

[tgaguirre]

I recently got some HE400S headphones and I really like them.
 
There is a certain sonic quality and fullness of the planar magnetic sound which I enjoy very much.
 
Changing the crappy velour pads to the leather ones made an improvement to the bass (and the look of the headphones) however I found that they muffled the sounds so I ended up putting the stock ones back on.
 
These are one of my favorite pairs of headphones.

 

[apaar123]

These vs hd598?