[MattTCG]

Quote:

On a different note, man these new HE400s sound bright as hell with velour pads and my custom grills. Almost as bright as how I remember HE6 sounded.

 
Hhhmm...I don't really go for the bright sound. I think that I'll stick with my stock grills and old revision 2 drivers for now. 

 

[Scyy]

Quote:

On a different note, man these new HE400s sound bright as hell with velour pads and my custom grills. Almost as bright as how I remember HE6 sounded.

Aside from the few changes you noticed do they still overall have the same sound signature as the older revisions?  I'm hoping my new ones don't change to much.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Aside from the few changes you noticed do they still overall have the same sound signature as the older revisions?  I'm hoping my new ones don't change to much.

 
These are fresh so there is zero burn-in. I already notice quite a bit of increase in bass and lower mids body quantity since when I just received them a couple of hours ago so I won't have anything conclusive to say until at least 4 or 5 days from now.
 
But overall yeah they still sound like HE400s, just at the moment seemingly with a more forward and prominent treble (or I could say a relatively less present lower end).

 

[viveksaikia22]

It is scary to see so many HE-400s failing. The Chinese companies make great products at an affordable price but they sacrifice on the QC front.
I have already terminated the cable to an XLR connector (something like these). What if the headphone dies now and HiFiMan don't take the headphones back due to the modified cable?? 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

It is scary to see so many HE-400s failing. The Chinese companies make great products at an affordable price but they sacrifice on the QC front.
I have already terminated the cable to an XLR connector (something like these). What if the headphone dies now and HiFiMan don't take the headphones back due to the modified cable?? 

 
AFAIK Headdirect customer service is topnotch, explain the situation and they will comply.
 
As for QC and its correlation with the company being Chinese or not, I tend to think that's null; I frequent the Audeze threads in High-end forum and guess what? Those owners also get units fail on them. It's more a matter of a company's own philosophy as well as the technology they have to work with, more than the nationality. Planar magnetic headphones revival is a VERY new thing, and there are a lot of material science that companies like Audeze and Hifiman have to deal with and resolve before the technology becomes a mature one with intrinsically low QC issues.

 

[preproman]

You guys got me really interested in these "CANS"  I was wondering, do they sound like any of the below headphones?  If they do - I might not be so interested after all.
 
 
HD650
Mad Dogs
Paradox
Thunderpants
BMFs
Denon D7000
LCD-2.2
Pro900

 

[jerg]

Quote:

You guys got me really interested in these "CANS"  I was wondering, do they sound like any of the below headphones?  If they do - I might not be so interested after all.
 
 
HD650
Mad Dogs
Paradox
Thunderpants
BMFs
Denon D7000
LCD-2.2
Pro900

Out of that list, I've A/B'd the HE400s against Paradox, Thunderpants, D5k (which is arguably warmer than D7k), and LCD2r2; and no it sounds nothing like any of these. I preferred its sound over all of those I compared against by a fair margin, except with LCD2r2 with which I still preferred the HE400s but only subjectively.

 

[preproman]

Quote:

Out of that list, I've A/B'd the HE400s against Paradox, Thunderpants, D5k (which is arguably warmer than D7k), and LCD2r2; and no it sounds nothing like any of these. I preferred its sound over all of those I compared against by a fair margin, except with LCD2r2 with which I still preferred the HE400s but only subjectively.

 
 
Thanks jerg,
 
That's some good intel.  Even the Paradox huh..  What about the 650s - anyone?

 

[giedrys]

Quote:

 
 
 What about the 650s - anyone?

http://www.head-fi.org/t/605929/review-comparison-he-400-vs-d2000-with-snippets-of-hd650-thrown-in#post_8311737

 

[I95North]

Quote:

On a different note, man these new HE400s sound bright as hell with velour pads and my custom grills. Almost as bright as how I remember HE6 sounded.

Hey jerg can you take a pic of  the new version 3 driver?  Close up shots so we could see the driver membrane inside of driver and outside??. Thats so funny because i had came across a review that i saw those light gray drivers but brushed it off as though it way the revision two clear drivers but just a bad shot of them. Hmmm
 
From what i remember rev1. had more bass impact and slam than the rev2..."just fuller/and more snap if you ask me"" or it could just be my imagination

 
So now rev3 is even lighter in bass lol. what the hell is hifi man doing to the HE-400. Dam fix the cutting out issues but keep the sound the same geeshhhh..
 
Look
 
Rev1 HE-400
Rev2 HE-425
Rev3 HE-450

 

[TMRaven]

We need to give a rev1, 2 an 3 to tyll to measure all 3 for his upcoming he-400 review.

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Hey jerg can you take a pic of  the new version 3 driver?  Close up shots so we could see the driver membrane inside of driver and outside??. Thats so funny because i had came across a review that i saw those light gray drivers but brushed it off as though it way the revision two clear drivers but just a bad shot of them. Hmmm
 
From what i remember rev1. had more bass impact and slam than the rev2..."just fuller/and more snap if you ask me"" or it could just be my imagination

 
So now rev3 is even lighter in bass lol. what the hell is hifi man doing to the HE-400. Dam fix the cutting out issues but keep the sound the same geeshhhh..
 
Look
 
Rev1 HE-400
Rev2 HE-425
Rev3 HE-450

 
I don't have a high definition camera at hand so it's not possible for me to take any meaningful photos of this. My phone's camera....ugh I might as well use a potato.
 
As for the retuning hypothesis, like I stressed earlier, these are freshly made so there's quite a bit of burning in involved still. It's already quite a bit less bright compared to 5 hours ago, and I bet that will continue to change. Although...I can't help but feel as though the upper mids are a bit more forward than my previous pair, even with the overall slightly brighter treble (which is getting darker by the hour) considered.
 
 
Borrowing TMRaven's illustration of perceived FR, here's what my new pair sound like through a sinewave sweep to my ears (black line).
 
 

Keep in mind this is with my modded grills. But other than that nothing else out of the ordinary. I know for a fact that my grill mod has very little effect on the FR, it mainly works on removing some ringing and expanding the soundstage a bit.

 

[MattTCG]

Quote:

We need to give a rev1, 2 an 3 to tyll to measure all 3 for his upcoming he-400 review.

 
Now hang on just a minute...I don't know that there is any "official" r3 series he400. Or is this just speculation? 

 

[TMRaven]

There wasn't an official rev 2 of the he-400 either.  

 

[I95North]

Quote:

There wasn't an official rev 2 of the he-400 either.  

lol thats funny!          Hey maybe there is no difference between any of them maybe its just a different housing material / color change for the magnets??  Well i just wanted jerg to take a photo of the driver membrane to see if like maybe the pattern on the foil traces changed or magnets changed to warrent what jerg is hearing..Its possible he's / and we that thought there is differences between the first two revisions  are crazy to say there's differences between each when there might not be any??..