[wakka992]

Hi there,
I confirm I got the new one without backplate, and with new 2.5mm jack.
Sound-stage/openness seems on par with HD650, maybe a tad smaller/not as deep. Still in burn-in with white noise/random track now, only time will say.
So It's an upgrade!
Do you think that now glil replacement mod is superfluous?

 

[Headphone4Life]

  Hi there,
I confirm I got the new one without backplate, and with new 2.5mm jack.
Sound-stage/openness seems on par with HD650, maybe a tad smaller/not as deep. Still in burn-in with white noise/random track now, only time will say.
So It's an upgrade!
Do you think that now glil replacement mod is superfluous?

 
Yeah I think the soundstage is on par with my HD600. I actually think the width is a little smaller on the 400i with a bit more depth than the HD600 but its a very small difference.

 

[fjrabon]

Hi there,
I confirm I got the new one without backplate, and with new 2.5mm jack.
Sound-stage/openness seems on par with HD650, maybe a tad smaller/not as deep. Still in burn-in with white noise/random track now, only time will say.
So It's an upgrade!
Do you think that now glil replacement mod is superfluous?

I've tried them with no grills, which is supposed to approximate what a well done grill mod sounds like. I wouldn't say it's superfluous now, but I thought it could make the treble a tad hot and cut the midbass a tiny amount. I didn't notice the soundstage becoming larger. It did seem like treble extension was improved. I preferred the grills on to them being off, which led me to believe I wouldn't like the grill mod, though I may try it some day when I have time to tinker. There's a difference with the grills on and off, albeit not gigantic. Certainly a difference though. Whether it's an improvement is harder to say I think. You just have to try it.

I do think this upgrade/revision has fixed the issue that lead s lot of people to do the grill mod in the first place though. Soundstage, clarity, treble extension and imaging all seem to be improved with the removal of the backplate. There was a certain segment who preferred the 400s to the 400i because the 400s was a bit more open. I think that probably goes away now, as with the new 400i you get the openness of the 400s, but with the improved build quality and stronger driver of the 400i. I'm really hoping to get my hands on a 400, 400s, old 400i and 560 sometime soon to really suss out a comparison of how these changes shuffle the relative rankings.

 

[Headphone4Life]

I took the grill off on my original 400 before and I heard no change in the soundstage at all. I even left one side on and the other off and still heard no difference.

 

[bavinck]

I've tried them with no grills, which is supposed to approximate what a well done grill mod sounds like. I wouldn't say it's superfluous now, but I thought it could make the treble a tad hot and cut the midbass a tiny amount. I didn't notice the soundstage becoming larger. It did seem like treble extension was improved. I preferred the grills on to them being off, which led me to believe I wouldn't like the grill mod, though I may try it some day when I have time to tinker. There's a difference with the grills on and off, albeit not gigantic. Certainly a difference though. Whether it's an improvement is harder to say I think. You just have to try it.

I do think this upgrade/revision has fixed the issue that lead s lot of people to do the grill mod in the first place though. Soundstage, clarity, treble extension and imaging all seem to be improved with the removal of the backplate. There was a certain segment who preferred the 400s to the 400i because the 400s was a bit more open. I think that probably goes away now, as with the new 400i you get the openness of the 400s, but with the improved build quality and stronger driver of the 400i. I'm really hoping to get my hands on a 400, 400s, old 400i and 560 sometime soon to really suss out a comparison of how these changes shuffle the relative rankings.

I agree with your assessments regarding removing the grill. No soundstage change, hotter treble, less bass.

 

[fjrabon]

Put on My Morning Jacket - It Still Moves and it brought me to this conclusion:
 
The soundstage on these are dang fantastic.  They sound spacious and dreamy on this album, just like it should.  In small club jazz live albums they sound, warm, tight, and intimate.  In stadium live albums, you get the sense of the enormity of the crowd.  I think sometimes we get so caught up at soundstage enormity at all costs, that we forget: a lot of headphones have soundstage size that is actually fairly unnatural.  I'd call these extraordinarily accurate soundstage.  It's something I had said about the HD650's soundstage in comparison to the K701 before.  The HD650 soundstage sounded "correct" to me, whereas the K701 at times seemed to make everything into a huge soundstage, even if it was never intended to be so.  The more I listen to these, the more I get the impression it's a nearly identical soundstage to the HD650, except you're on the third row, instead of sitting by the soundboard on a HD650.  And the precision of the depth is great.  I feel like I can close my eyes and point to exactly where everything is coming from, both in a left-right sense and front to back.  
 
All of this is with crossfeed on the m9XX enabled, btw.  

 

[a44100Hz]

Is this change something that can be done at home, or are there now two distinct versions of this 400i?

 

[fjrabon]

Is this change something that can be done at home, or are there now two distinct versions of this 400i?

I don't think you can remove the backing plate with the old drivers without runing the magnet array, as the magnet array was attached to the backplate (in fact that was the entire purpose of the backplate).  You may be able to potentially rebuild the driver from scratch without a backing plate, but at that point you're a headphone manufacturer instead of a modder.  So, yeah, I'd say that this constitutes a distinct version of the HE400i.  

 

[a44100Hz]

Interesting. Hope more people will A/B the old and new. These are already the most clear headphones I've ever heard so I'm not sure how they can get clearer

 

[fjrabon]

also, I found this funny:
 


"outside of this quality of use change (meaning the 2.5mm cup jacks), no other change has been made to this product." Haha.  From talking to a few different people at HiFiMan, it almost seems like the no backplate change was something only the engineers knew about until after it had happened.

 

[a44100Hz]

Alright, I have a new 400i with the plug-in cables (and no back plate) and I've been switching back and forth between it and my 400i with the screw-on cables (and back plate).

There are differences, but they're subtle, and probably just caused by the removal of the plate.

The older screw-on 400i sounds a tiny bit smaller / more confined or more inside of my head, but has a satisfying billowy decay to bass and vocal echoes.

In comparison, the plug-in 400i has a much faster decay and the sensation of a slightly wider soundstage. It sounds airier and less "cozy."

It's likely just reflections or less air movement from the presence of the plate that causes this. I can't say one is better or worse, just slightly different.

The older pair are more burned in so I'll check again tomorrow after leaving these on for a while.

 

[bavinck]

Glad I got it when I did, the newer version sounds more like what I want. I am happy with my new version.

 

[a44100Hz]

Glad I got it when I did, the newer version sounds more like what I want. I am happy with my new version.

 
If this is a helpful comparison for anyone, the new 400i is closer to sounding like my Grado 325e than the older 400i is.

The old 400i makes me feel like I'm being taken to another universe and immersed in the sound. The 325e makes me feel like the singer is singing directly at me in the same room. The former like looking in at a magnificent recording, the latter like being part of the recording. They're both satisfying in different ways; the new 400i is closer to the "singing to you in the same room" Grado sound rather than the "being enveloped in sound" feeling.

But the difference is still like... 5%, 10% at most.

 

[GettingBuckets]

So how recent are the new changes made on the 400i? I ended up buying the X2s on Amazon when they had the deal, but they ended up defective so I returned them. In the process, I realized I needed a good pair of open cans, and these were immediately next on the list. If I order from Amazon or a related seller on there right now, will I end up with a new or old version?

 

[Hungry Eyes]

So how recent are the new changes made on the 400i? I ended up buying the X2s on Amazon when they had the deal, but they ended up defective so I returned them. In the process, I realized I needed a good pair of open cans, and these were immediately next on the list. If I order from Amazon or a related seller on there right now, will I end up with a new or old version?

I have a set of the new ones with the new 2.5mm jacks that I think I may be posting in the next couple of days. I am leaning towards keeping the LCD-X. As far as the Amazon sellers go, you can send them a question asking if they have the new plugs.