[jerg]

Quote:

 
The e17 pairs very nicely with the he400. You will enjoy it for sure. I usually don't like to add much gain to the amp, but the e17 does need extra gain to drive the he400 properly. It's a great little device for the money. Slap a l7 cable on it with an ipod and you've got a great portable setup!!

 
I could either go 6dB gain and ~45 to 50/60 in volume, or 12dB gain and ~30 to 35/60 in volume; lesser gain is better, am I correct?
 
At any rate, this is the first time ever that I've heard the HE400s with loud volume (FiiO E7 couldn't get it loud loud even with 60/60 vol), that's some good stuff heheh.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Wow, really? So all them mods, and you weren't able to even drive them loud enough. Hahaha.

I'd love an E17, but I'm holding out for the ODA.

As for gain, I use high gain on my NFB5, because I feel weird needing to have the knob so far on the right side to drive them to my decibel level on low gain. I'm used to having the knob stay at around 9-11 with all my headphones, and just change from low to high depending on the headphone I use.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Wow, really? So all them mods, and you weren't able to even drive them loud enough. Hahaha.
I'd love an E17, but I'm holding out for the ODA.

As for gain, I use high gain on my NFB5, because I feel weird needing to have the knob so far on the right side to drive them to my decibel level on low gain. I'm used to having the knob stay at around 9-11 with all my headphones, and just change from low to high depending on the headphone I use.

 
I was able to, it just starts getting noisy with background static past 55/60 vol on the E7, so it's not feasible if I want to either enjoy the music or do any critical listening.
 
The grill mod does what it does though, regardless of how the HE400s are driven, the default grills impose a narrowing of soundstage as well as a small but noticeable (with pink noise) resonance effect that is improvable with less airtight grill mesh material.

 

[musicinmymind]

Quote:

I could either go 6dB gain and ~45 to 50/60 in volume, or 12dB gain and ~30 to 35/60 in volume; lesser gain is better, am I correct?
 
 

 
Wow that  is pretty loud...I do not cross 23 with 12dB gain

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
Wow that  is pretty loud...I do not cross 23 with 12dB gain

 
It's loud to me as well, I'm just listening loud right now to see how well it performs with a higher than usual load.
 
The bass boost is nice, I think +4 bass is a bit too much, +2 might be for me.
 
 
Btw, why are you on 12dB gain if you only turn it up to 23?

 

[TMRaven]

He might be listening to higher dr music.

 

[musicinmymind]

Quote:

Quote:

 
Wow that  is pretty loud...I do not cross 23 with 12dB gain

 
It's loud to me as well, I'm just listening loud right now to see how well it performs with a higher than usual load.
 
The bass boost is nice, I think +4 bass is a bit too much, +2 might be for me.
 
 
Btw, why are you on 12dB gain if you only turn it up to 23?

 
I took Matt suggestion on that...experimenting the SQ change (if any) with 12dB and 6dB....I normally do 25 on 6dB

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

 
It's loud to me as well, I'm just listening loud right now to see how well it performs with a higher than usual load.
 
The bass boost is nice, I think +4 bass is a bit too much, +2 might be for me.
 
 
Btw, why are you on 12dB gain if you only turn it up to 23?

 
Don't be afraid of +4 brother. It takes that much to make an appreciable difference really. With the modded t50's, I have to go +8 to get some good bottom end.  

 
The hardware EQ is really nice, because I don't find that tweaking really changes other parts of the sound signature and their is no muddying up things with the bass boosting. 

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I'm gonna assume +2 is like the Mixamp 5.8's bass expander. Its subtle because it fills out sub bass, and not mid bass. I think that's about as much as I'd put on if I had the E17. Something similar to the E7 and EQ1. EQ2 and EQ3 really altered the signature of every headphone. Hell, it turned the K701 into a basshead can, and it actually did that well, but it wasn't a K701 any longer.

 

[Steelbarrage]

Man when I received my E7 a couple of weeks ago i tried to bump the bass boost but it made the low end sound like complete garbage.
I was listening to a few cds that I have where the bass is mostly in the 20 - 40 Hz range and the distortion was horrific.
I'm not a critical listener so I don't really know why the bass boost made such a terrible difference.
 
I have a onboard sound card but the dac on it is pretty terrible.
It seems to provide just fine on the low end for the same tracks.
 
For general use the E7 is great but I feel that the low bass extension is incredibly lacking.
Am I missing something or is that what I should expect for the duration until I can get a proper amp/dac?

 

[Necrontyr]

Just to add a confession to these discussions try listening to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Gb3faOzvBk with +10 bass on and at 35-40 with +12db gain, rocks your ears off, I'm not a massive fan of dubstep but its one hell of a ride when you have a pair of HE- 400's

 

[TMRaven]

Some of these doobie brother recordings have been by far the best recordings I've heard so far on the HE-400.  Listen to the Music, Long Train Running, What a Fool Believes in to name a few.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

Man when I received my E7 a couple of weeks ago i tried to bump the bass boost but it made the low end sound like complete garbage.
I was listening to a few cds that I have where the bass is mostly in the 20 - 40 Hz range and the distortion was horrific.
I'm not a critical listener so I don't really know why the bass boost made such a terrible difference.

I have a onboard sound card but the dac on it is pretty terrible.
It seems to provide just fine on the low end for the same tracks.

For general use the E7 is great but I feel that the low bass extension is incredibly lacking.
Am I missing something or is that what I should expect for the duration until I can get a proper amp/dac?

It depends on the headphone. Certain headphones can't handle bass boosting without distorting. The K701 with the E7 handled bass boosting like a champ.

To be honest, I don't see how the HE400 can handle a *lot* of bass boosting. It sounds it wouldn't like a strong bass boost, but I dunno. Haven't tried outside of my Mixamp 5.8, which did just fine (outside of the 5.8's tendency to distort the bass boost during instense bass passages, regardless of headphone).

Also, the E7's level one bass boost (EQ1) is an incredibly subtle sub bass boost. So much that a lot of people wouldn't be able to tell with their headphones. It's really just a warmth boost. Sounds great for bass neutral headphones that are on the bright side.

 

[TMRaven]

I would have thought planars would handle bass boosting the best of all headphones.  They're rated at stupid high max power consumptions, and not only their bass, but their entire frequency response, lowers in distortion with the more power you feed them.  AKG701 is only rated at 200mw max power on AKG's site, but I'm not sure how entirely accurate that is.  Something like my D2000 went into severe distortion if I give it a 10db boost at the 32hz range and played Late Night Tip, but then again the bass in that song isn't exactly the cleanest on the block either.

 

[Mad Lust Envy]

I dunno, it's just the way the HE400 portrays bass that makes me feel as if boosting it a moderate amount wouldn't be ideal. The bass is very broad and full sounding as is, and I feel emphasizing it would make it sloppy. Other headphones (like the Pro 2900) have a tighter, leaner, faster bass, so boosting it won't be as sloppy.

I haven't done it myself, so I can't say for sure.