[RushNerd]

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More importantly it had a fairly artificial tinny somewhat sharp treble that really offset the timbre. 

I really really wonder if this is the Markl mod at play here. 

 

[jerg]

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I really really wonder if this is the Markl mod at play here. 

 
If anything it should improve the sound. There was another guy at the meet who owns a stock D5000 and he concluded that the modded pair sounded significantly more balanced and smoother.
 
People like various different coloured sound though, meanwhile my judgement with headphones has always been based on how natural and realistic they sound, above all other criteria.

 

[SoftE]

Would anyone say that there is anything wrong with running this out of the asus xonar STX headphone amp?

 

[IEMCrazy]

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If anything it should improve the sound. There was another guy at the meet who owns a stock D5000 and he concluded that the modded pair sounded significantly more balanced and smoother.
 
People like various different coloured sound though, meanwhile my judgement with headphones has always been based on how natural and realistic they sound, above all other criteria.

 
I really like my D5k with the Lawton pads as the only mod.  However I would not accept them as my standard headphone.  I use them exclusively for electronic and pop-electronic music.  Basically anything with a heavily processed synthetic low-end.  The coloration of the Denons perfectly color the already unnatural sound of the recording.  It was meant to be surreal sounding and Denons deliver.  I would not, however, accept those wholly artificial sounding headphones for any sort of organic music.  Jazz, classical, world, bluegrass, etc, they're right out.  Rock...I can see how some can like it, and tube distorted guitars are hard to call "organic" either. 
 
For music that's supposed to sound synthetic, they're my first choice, even over HE-6 (despite HE-6 having technically superior bass performance, it's too linear without heavy EQ for synthetic music.)  For music that's not supposed to sound synthetic Denons are my last choice.  I'd rather put up with the cold and fatiguing K70x for natural sounding music.
 
HE-400 fits a nice middle ground.  It would suit electronic/synthetic music well enough to be enjoyable though without the heavily pleasing coloration of the Denons for it, but it's home is with natural music. 

 

[MattTCG]

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Would anyone say that there is anything wrong with running this out of the asus xonar STX headphone amp?

If you already own it, give it a shot. That card has a decent dac and plenty of power. Should be okay...

 

[jerg]

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I really like my D5k with the Lawton pads as the only mod.  However I would not accept them as my standard headphone.  I use them exclusively for electronic and pop-electronic music.  Basically anything with a heavily processed synthetic low-end.  The coloration of the Denons perfectly color the already unnatural sound of the recording.  It was meant to be surreal sounding and Denons deliver.  I would not, however, accept those wholly artificial sounding headphones for any sort of organic music.  Jazz, classical, world, bluegrass, etc, they're right out.  Rock...I can see how some can like it, and tube distorted guitars are hard to call "organic" either. 
 
For music that's supposed to sound synthetic, they're my first choice, even over HE-6 (despite HE-6 having technically superior bass performance, it's too linear without heavy EQ for synthetic music.)  For music that's not supposed to sound synthetic Denons are my last choice.  I'd rather put up with the cold and fatiguing K70x for natural sounding music.
 
HE-400 fits a nice middle ground.  It would suit electronic/synthetic music well enough to be enjoyable though without the heavily pleasing coloration of the Denons for it, but it's home is with natural music. 

Yeah HE6 had freakin' amazing timbre and such realistic and open 3D imaging capabilities, IMO it sounded shoulder-to-shoulder in terms of naturalness to LCD3s when driven well like out of the Bryston setup at the meet I was at. Downside is it has a fairly pronounced treble, so a lot of us who listened to it kinda agreed that it is not something we'd relax and listen all day long, while the LCD3 (and also the HE400s of course) are.
 
If HE6s had slightly toned down their treble then I couldn't see any flaw with it given I can drive it well.

 

[IEMCrazy]

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Yeah HE6 had freakin' amazing timbre and such realistic and open 3D imaging capabilities, IMO it sounded shoulder-to-shoulder in terms of naturalness to LCD3s when driven well like out of the Bryston setup at the meet I was at. Downside is it has a fairly pronounced treble, so a lot of us who listened to it kinda agreed that it is not something we'd relax and listen all day long, while the LCD3 (and also the HE400s of course) are.
 
If HE6s had slightly toned down their treble then I couldn't see any flaw with it given I can drive it well.

It has treble extension out the wazoo, but it doesn't actually have that pronounced treble when really well driven on a speaker amp.  Great extension, but linear extension doesn't translate to brightness when in balance with the mids & bass.  Though I'm guilty of referring to them as "bright" on occasion when I really mean "with fully extended treble."   I tried it on Lyr and didn't find it too treble heavy, but Lyr's one of the more powerful amps already.  It doesn't drive it with enough finesse, but I do think it drives it with enough power to keep the FR balanced.  The Bryston supposedly drives it, but so far the only three headphone amps that are liked with it reliably are the Mjolnir, HF-6, and Dark Star...and among those only the Dark Star is considered excellent, and even that can be beaten by much cheaper speaker amps supposedly.
 
Over-pronounced treble is the classic sign of insufficient power on them, so I'm guessing the Bryston may not be a good match overall, even if it otherwise sounded good.  Driving them on a modest speaker amp, I don't find it treble pronounced at all, no moreso than HE-400 unless the recording itself is throwing treble left and right (a lot of brass, violins, etc.) And I'm someone very sensitive to treble fatigue.  I can't stand K702 for very long without dropping the volume to near-nil. D5k is far more strident and fatiguing for me. But my speaker amp is on the warm side, so that could help. They' have great extension but they're not truly bright.  They're rather balanced, and they take EQ/tone controls well enough that you can roll them easily into a laid back can.   The beauty of LCD-3 of course is that amazing bass response down to 10Hz, and the fact that you don't don't need to build a containment chamber to house the reactor powering your amp

  The trick of HE-6 is to think of them as speakers you wear on your head, not as headphones. I'm glad I got on that train, but I nearly didn't for the same reasons most people don't.  Building a speaker rig to drive your headphones is not where most people want their headphone listening to go

 
That said I listened to HE-400 directly after an HE-6 listening session the other day.  I was pleasantly impressed.  HE-400 holds its own quite well.  Yeah, the timbre's not as perfect, the detail not as nuianced, the bass not as textured, and the soundstage not as open.   But it wasn't the stunned kind of "eww, I can't listen to this now" kind of experience. I could have easily listened to the whole album again on HE-400 and not thought of it as horrible.  HE-6 may be more speaker-like, but HE-400 is sufficiently speaker-like on its own. 
 
At $400 + $450 for Lyr (ok, plus tubes, but I won't include that) it's a heck of a kit compared to $1300 + $600-$3.8B for speaker amps and a lifetime supply of uranium fuel to drive it

 

[GardenVariety]

Just picked up the E11 for portable use. I have to say, it does a very decent job on the HE's! Thanks for the heads up on that guys.

 

[MattTCG]

The fiio products are much better than they get credit for. I love my e17!! What a great little amp/dac. Portable and pairs beautifully with an ipod w/wolfson dac. Man, does the make for a good sounding mobile combo!!

 

[IEMCrazy]

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The fiio products are much better than they get credit for. I love my e17!! What a great little amp/dac. Portable and pairs beautifully with an ipod w/wolfson dac. Man, does the make for a good sounding mobile combo!!

 
My trouble with the FIIO products, at least E11, and I've heard it about other FiiO products, not sure about E17 though, is that they do not properly shield them and they pick up crazy amounts of noise from just about anything.  Pairing it with an ipod, tablet, or just about anything else usually results in horrible noise and screeching, and ends up resulting in fiddling with it constantly.  It's kind of unacceptable behavior for a device primarily intended to be used with said devices. 
 
I like my E11, but that flaw makes it painful to try to use

 

[MattTCG]

Don't you think I'd point out something like that? 

 Just giving you some crap man. Mine is dead silent no matter what I pair it with or how I use it. I love being able to take my he400 with me and not have to sit in front of the pc all the time. I sit in front of the computer for a living, so I've pretty much had enough once I get home.

 

[GardenVariety]

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My trouble with the FIIO products, at least E11, and I've heard it about other FiiO products, not sure about E17 though, is that they do not properly shield them and they pick up crazy amounts of noise from just about anything.  Pairing it with an ipod, tablet, or just about anything else usually results in horrible noise and screeching, and ends up resulting in fiddling with it constantly.  It's kind of unacceptable behavior for a device primarily intended to be used with said devices. 
 
I like my E11, but that flaw makes it painful to try to use

I run the E11 from my iPad to a Fiio LOD connector then straight to my heapdhones. It sounds completely noise free and is more than able to drive my HE-500's at 40-50%.

 

[viveksaikia22]

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The fiio products are much better than they get credit for. I love my e17!! What a great little amp/dac. Portable and pairs beautifully with an ipod w/wolfson dac. Man, does the make for a good sounding mobile combo!!

How does the Fiio products compares with that of iBasso?
I just had a Fiio E3 for some time and didn't noticed any improvement in sound. It just increased the volume.

 

[jerg]

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How does the Fiio products compares with that of iBasso?
I just had a Fiio E3 for some time and didn't noticed any improvement in sound. It just increased the volume.

 
E3 is a LOOOOONG way off compared to FiiO's new models like E11 and E17 in terms of SQ, not just because of price difference, but also because FiiO has grown hugely in technical maturity and parts sourcing over the last couple of years since the early days with the E3 and such.

 

[viveksaikia22]

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E3 is a LOOOOONG way off compared to FiiO's new models like E11 and E17 in terms of SQ, not just because of price difference, but also because FiiO has grown hugely in technical maturity and parts sourcing over the last couple of years since the early days with the E3 and such.

Sounds good then. 
Which Fiio amp can drive the HE-400 to satisfactory level? I can get rid of my iBasso D12, in case the Fiio is going to provide me the same quality.