[VeerK]

As someone with an HD598, I want to jump up to a better pair of headphones for an overall better experience, so naturally I have been debating between the He-400s and the HD600. I'm leaning more towards the 400s, can anyone else chime in whether I'm looking in the right direction?

 

[Rish732]

As someone with an HD598, I want to jump up to a better pair of headphones for an overall better experience, so naturally I have been debating between the He-400s and the HD600. I'm leaning more towards the 400s, can anyone else chime in whether I'm looking in the right direction?

If you like a warmer, richer sound then the he400s is the way to go. If you like a more detailed and intimate sound then the hd600. Soundstage is a tricky thing. It all depends on amping and your ears.

I had the hd600 and returned it and then itchy fingers decided to jump on some used deals on Amazon (return policy totally helps these itchy fingers) and both the 600 and 650 are arriving tomorrow.

I wanted to see how my ears have adjusted to the 400s.

That being said my original decision to return the 600 is something I don't regret. I'm just curious and will post my results by the end of the week. I also just double downed on a project ember v2 to see what actual power will do with these high impedance cans.

And oh yeah, the he400s sounds pretty darn good even out of my iPhone directly. I usually at least hook up my hifime saber 9018 dac but in a pinch they run just fine from the headphone jack. I sometimes forget with my eyes closed, after 5 minutes into a listening session of I'm running an amp or not.

Hope that helps

 

[VeerK]

If you like a warmer, richer sound then the he400s is the way to go. If you like a more detailed and intimate sound then the hd600. Soundstage is a tricky thing. It all depends on amping and your ears.

I had the hd600 and returned it and then itchy fingers decided to jump on some used deals on Amazon (return policy totally helps these itchy fingers) and both the 600 and 650 are arriving tomorrow.

I wanted to see how my ears have adjusted to the 400s.

That being said my original decision to return the 600 is something I don't regret. I'm just curious and will post my results by the end of the week. I also just double downed on a project ember v2 to see what actual power will do with these high impedance cans.

And oh yeah, the he400s sounds pretty darn good even out of my iPhone directly. I usually at least hook up my hifime saber 9018 dac but in a pinch they run just fine from the headphone jack. I sometimes forget with my eyes closed, after 5 minutes into a listening session of I'm running an amp or not.

Hope that helps

That does help, thank you. I'll be waiting for your impressions, the 600, 650, and 400s are all headphones that I'm interested in and it'll be great to see what you think of them side by side.

 

[thomoz]

I think the Sennheiser 600 sounds a lot more like "hi-fi" and a lot less like "live music" compared to the HE400S.
 
I think Tyll said the HE400S bumped the Senn 600's off his best phones list. 
 
I got to play both side by side at the Can-Lanta a couple months back and my HE400S beat pretty much everything in the room under $2500. I was honestly looking to see what would be my next upgrade but there really wasn't one.

 

[Vigrith]

  I think the Sennheiser 600 sounds a lot more like "hi-fi" and a lot less like "live music" compared to the HE400S.
 
I think Tyll said the HE400S bumped the Senn 600's off his best phones list. 
 
I got to play both side by side at the Can-Lanta a couple months back and my HE400S beat pretty much everything in the room under $2500. I was honestly looking to see what would be my next upgrade but there really wasn't one.

 
I agree that the HE-400S are fantastic and definitely a steal for the money they cost but... $2500 is a bit of a stretch, let's be honest. Opinions are all good and all but still, with headphones like the Ether Flow, Elear, even the HE-1000 nowadays retailing for less than 2.5k you really should not have an issue finding an upgrade for the 400S if your budget reaches that far.

 

[DavidA]

  I think the Sennheiser 600 sounds a lot more like "hi-fi" and a lot less like "live music" compared to the HE400S.
 
I think Tyll said the HE400S bumped the Senn 600's off his best phones list. 
 
I got to play both side by side at the Can-Lanta a couple months back and my HE400S beat pretty much everything in the room under $2500. I was honestly looking to see what would be my next upgrade but there really wasn't one.

Consider your self and wallet lucky and stay away from here if you consider the HE-400S that good

 

[Tassie Devil]

My 2c on all of this.
 
I own the HiFiman 400S and prefer it to the Sennie 650 & 598 BUT not to the HD800, which I've adapted cords to use for portable playback (Sony SA100, SA17 & SA25).  So I strongly disagree with an earlier comment the HiFiMan 400S is ther best unit under $2500.
 
That said there may be compatibility issues which steer others to feel differently and a major one for me is quality of input.  Some headphones might react adversely to faulty input while others mask it and the input I'm talking about is not only the quality of the original recording, but how well it has been ripped and how well it is reproduced by the player.  I source all FLAC files from a Meridian Sooloos server so feel confident of their quality and am impressed with the SONY players, particularly the SA100.
 
But. as I've said before, we all have different brains with attached ears, different because of genetics and environmental influences so there is no one size (translate to headphones etc) that fits all. Viva la difference.
 
Bottom line is that the 400S is a fine set of headphones which will, given the right input, can reproduce music far far better than most hi-fi systems BUT there are better headphones out there.  And of course you can pay a lot more for the improvement with costs rising exponentially. And they might not be the "best" at that price range for everyone.

 

[GI-Mike]

Focuspads vs Brainwavz? Anyone?

I did not like the brainwavz leather pads personally. Changed the linearity a bit to much, muddied up the bass a bit..also hot after long listening sessions.jmho

 

[emad]

how the he400s is compared to ATH-M50X?

 

[funkisound]

M50x is very bassy, a bit v-shaped maybe but with much more bass then highs. The bass presence covers up a lot of faults that are in the sound. Not technically great, but the M50x is a "fun" sounding headphone. HE-400s is of course much more open sounding, and also has a more linear frequency response, although it has some faults too in the sub-bass extension and mainly also lacks soe extension in the highs above 10KHz. But despite the faults it's much more balanced and neutral sounding headphone with much cleaner sound, and more clarity. Mids are more present for sure too. It tries to present you the music like you're in a studio listening to a live session, so it's much more hi-fi, with a clean and clear sound, and an open soundstage with instrument seperation. It lacks maybe a "fun" factor though.

 

[apaar123]

How do these compare to meze 99 classics?

 

[Vigrith]

How do these compare to meze 99 classics?

 
Well, the Meze are closed, these are open. The Meze are dynamic, these are planar. I've never tried the Meze but it feels sort of moot to draw a comparison between two fundamentally different headphones.

 

[apaar123]

Well, the Meze are closed, these are open. The Meze are dynamic, these are planar. I've never tried the Meze but it feels sort of moot to draw a comparison between two fundamentally different headphones.

ya its true but I just wanna know differences between these 2 sound quality build quality etc

 

[shagrasniper]

Hello everyone
 
I just received these headphones & i must say, I'm disappoited.
I used 2 DAPs, and all of my music collection are 16 bit FLACs (full CD quality)
 
1. Fiio X3 1st Gen (which has a Wolfson HIFI DAC): even in low gain the volume is more than sufficient, yet the sound is a tiny bit more congested compared to my old Sennheiser HD598 !!!
2. Exynos Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: and the volume was not even loud enough to start judging
 
I didn't bother with any iPhone, cause i instinctively knew that its gonna suck, i heard about portable solutions like the AudioQuest Dragonfly (but the only issue is, it would require a 3rd party app to function properly just as an audio player, so i cant use it with youtube or any other app)
 
What is the best portable solution to drive these supposedly cheap, definitely troubling cans ???
I want something that delivers good rich sound, not just a loud brick.

 

[apaar123]

Hello everyone

I just received these headphones & i must say, I'm disappoited.
I used 2 DAPs, and all of my music collection are 16 bit FLACs (full CD quality)

1. Fiio X3 1st Gen (which has a Wolfson HIFI DAC): even in low gain the volume is more than sufficient, yet the sound is a tiny bit more congested compared to my old Sennheiser HD598 !!!
2. Exynos Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge: and the volume was not even loud enough to start judging

I didn't bother with any iPhone, cause i instinctively knew that its gonna suck, i heard about portable solutions like the AudioQuest Dragonfly (but the only issue is, it would require a 3rd party app to function properly just as an audio player, so i cant use it with youtube or any other app)

What is the best portable solution to drive these supposedly cheap, definitely troubling cans ???
I want something that delivers good rich sound, not just a loud brick.

meze 99 classics in my opinion