[jerg]

Quote:

Just got my HE-400s in the mail, and i'm also noticing that its making female vocals harsh and breathy, especially poorly mastered / low quality tracks.  Just out of curiousity, what jazz tracks did you buy from HDtracks?
 
EDIT: please note that I have not burned my headphones in at all yet, and this is right out of the box.

This:
 
https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=catalogdetail&valbum_code=090368032362
 
With the female vocals in these tracks, there is texture but nothing harsh IMO.
 
I do think that there's something a little funky with the upper mids though, which could cause this incompatibility with female vocals.

 

[Aaron1006]

Just got mine in the mail and the right side has no sound 

 

[MuppetFace]

^ Yikes. That's unfortunate.
 
I'm assuming you've checked the plug connections, twisting the jack in the outlet to see if it cuts in again?

 

[Aaron1006]

Yep. Nothing. It never worked at all from the second I plugged them in. I'm in the process of trying the old fix now, we'll see how that goes..

 

[Dazedy]

Quote:

This:
 
https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php?file=catalogdetail&valbum_code=090368032362
 
With the female vocals in these tracks, there is texture but nothing harsh IMO.
 
I do think that there's something a little funky with the upper mids though, which could cause this incompatibility with female vocals.

I'll check that out and tell you what I hear. At the least I'll get some good music
 
EDIT:
I see what you mean, upper mids seem to jump out for some specific sounds, which can cause female vocals to seem sibilant / harsh in many songs. To me it seems the "s" and sometimes the hard "t" sound gets a very sharp edge to it for a lot of artists. I also heard this sharpness when listening to some Black Sabbath, the high-hats seemed harsher than they should be.
 
The songs you linked me are definitely very smooth, and I didn't notice any harshness in them either. This may be more due to the style of music than the quality though, seeings as they are all very mellow songs, in comparison with the pop i was listening to, and focus on melody rather than impact. I'll need to listen to more songs through these headphones before I make a real judgement, as I've only had a few hours to listen through them.

 

[amcananey]

I don't know whether HiFiMAn was going for the LCD-2 sound or not, but I can quite emphatically state that they do NOT sound like the LCD-2s. There may be elements of the HE-400 sound that, in the abstract, seem like elements that the HE-400s have in common with the LCD-2s, or where HiFiMAN might have been trying to achieve LCD-2-like characteristics in the HE-400, but if you do an A-B comparison, you won't mistake one for the other. The LCD-2s sound much more balanced and coherent, the sound seems natural and organic, and they are non-fatiguing. The HE-400s - as I've said elsewhere - are excellent cans and well worth their $400 price, but they aren't at the same level as LCD-2s. Nor do they have to be. It is unrealistic to expect $400 cans to sound like $1,000 cans (not that price is necessarily proportionate to sound quality, but it often is).

 

[Aaron1006]

Tried the old fix and no go... Man this sucks. I emailed them already, just waiting for a response now.

 

[Dazedy]

Quote:

Tried the old fix and no go... Man this sucks. I emailed them already, just waiting for a response now.

Just out of curiousity, you wouldn't happen to have a multimeter handy would you?

 

[Aaron1006]

Quote:

Just out of curiousity, you wouldn't happen to have a multimeter handy would you?

My step dad has one in the garage, never used one though haha

 

[Gribble]

A good quality amp is a must for these cans. This is what I use: http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/home/hifi-components/ha10-se-headphone-amplifier. I use the DC1 power supply to feed it.
A marriage made in heaven, sounds sublime.

 

[Dazedy]

A good quality amp is a must for these cans. This is what I use: http://www.custom-hifi-cables.co.uk/home/hifi-components/ha10-se-headphone-amplifier. I use the DC1 power supply to feed it.
A marriage made in heaven, sounds sublime.

Could you try listening to a few tracks of Keshia or something off of YouTube and tell me if you hear any harshness? I do with mine, coming from a fiio E10, and I'm wondering it it might just not be a good enough amp for them (maybe a good amp actually makes them more forgiving?

 

[TMRaven]

You're listening to kesha songs on youtube with your he-400s?

 

[Dazedy]

You're listening to kesha songs on youtube with your he-400s?

Not for pleasure no, I hate Keshia. I just noticed that every one of her songs has that harshness through the he-400's when i was trying to see what the cause of the harshness was. I noticed more for her songs than for others, even for the poor YouTube quality (IE crap in, crap out), and I want to know if that is a quality issue or a result of insufficient amping.

Please forgive any bad typing, iPhone keyboards aren't the easiest to type on.

 

[Kilosonic]

Quote:

Not for pleasure no, I hate Keshia. I just noticed that every one of her songs has that harshness through the he-400's when i was trying to see what the cause of the harshness was. I noticed more for her songs than for others, even for the poor YouTube quality (IE crap in, crap out), and I want to know if that is a quality issue or a result of insufficient amping.
Please forgive any bad typing, iPhone keyboards aren't the easiest to type on.

Just forced myself thru her "tik tok" song on youtube and 0% harshness. Might be your amp but then again, mine was also somewhat harsh at the beginning before burn-in.
 

 

[Gribble]

Believe me, it is nothing to do with your headphones and everything to to with the recording method. Try some 24/96 files or XRCD through a Squeezebox Touch. I wouldn't contaminate my headphones with You Tube stuff! Honestly you might as well use a £20 set of cans. Mine sounded harsh for the first 6 hours or so but are still improving.