[olegausany]

Do you have gain settings in the Asus control panel when you choose headphones instead of speakers?

 

[palmfish]

Definitely something wrong in there. It shouldn't sound that bad.

 

[satanigatan]

Hate to be a worry wart, but I haven't heard back from Head-Direct and my order was never updated. Granted, I placed my order on a Friday. And Monday was a holiday. But I figured I would have had heard something today. Even sent off an email just checking up.
 
Anyone in the past had any issues with them not updating orders or taking a while to ship their stuff out?
 
=/

 

[TMRaven]

Mine took 10 days to ship.  Once it shipped though it arrived in like 3 days.

 

[manzana]

Quote:

I happen to find that HD650 makes an excellent complement to HE-400.  K702 does as well, both are different from HE-400 in opposite directions, so it depends what flavor of different you wanted to go with.  HE500 by most accounts is too similar to be a compliment.

 
 
Quote:

Certainly not the he500. They are cut from the same cloth for sure. Different but too similar if you are looking for a very different can that will complement the he400.
 
I'd say go for a closed can like the d5k or a pair of modded Fostex t50's such as the Maddog's. That would make a good complement. 
 
gL!!

 
Quote:

+1 but if choose Mad Dogs get with Dog Pads
Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

 
Good thing, I found the K702 new for US$400 (I live in Chile), the HE500 for US$590, and the Beyers DT880@250 for US$500. If the HE500s aren't a good compliment, I'll go for AKGs. I didn't find HD650.
Thanks guys!

 

[Mikesin]

Are you sure the speaker 3.5mm jack is properly inserted into the soundcard (loose connection?), therefore you headphones won't get a proper connection either? 
Why don't you just plug the headphones directly into the soundcard, really can't be that difficult 

Quote:

To me it doesn't sound good at all by any standard.  I had the volume almost all the way up in the control panel and it was barely even loud enough, everything sounded muddy/muffled even with EQ at certain extremes.

 

[jerg]

Be aware that if HE400's tonality fits your taste and you think it sounds balanced rather than dark, then the AKG K/Q701/2 line will sound very bright and fast to your ears.
 
If however your perceived impression of HE400 is fairly dark, then you should be able to tolerate or even enjoy the AKG sound.

 

[hawk1410]

So I am finally getting my HE 400 in the mail today, too excited. Just hope I made the right choice by going with O2+ODAC. Anyway, are there any songs that you would suggest that particularly show off the strengths of this headphone and make you WOW!

 

[jerg]

Quote:

So I am finally getting my HE 400 in the mail today, too excited. Just hope I made the right choice by going with O2+ODAC. Anyway, are there any songs that you would suggest that particularly show off the strengths of this headphone and make you WOW!

 
Some live acoustic music would work. E.g. Nirvana - unplugged in new york.

 

[satanigatan]

Quote:

Mine took 10 days to ship.  Once it shipped though it arrived in like 3 days.

 
Ah okay. Was thinking of calling them up today, but if it's a common thing, then I'll just hold off. 

 

[Necrontyr]

Quote:

Hate to be a worry wart, but I haven't heard back from Head-Direct and my order was never updated. Granted, I placed my order on a Friday. And Monday was a holiday. But I figured I would have had heard something today. Even sent off an email just checking up.
 
Anyone in the past had any issues with them not updating orders or taking a while to ship their stuff out?
 
=/

 
I did tell you they were slow, email them through their contact us form, I got on their case heavily for being so slow when i bought my Hifimans, it turns out i had to wait two weeks because of a defect with the leather pads that week, they needed to wait till a new batch were made, so in my anecdote they were *super* slow, they are still generally slack on communication, just get on their case, you paid $400 for headphones that should be built and ready to ship, get your monies worth and email em !

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

Your sound has no dedicated headphones amp which uses 6.35 mm jack unlike Xonar ST/STX so you need attach external amp to your line out jack using 3.5 mm to RCA cable or attach DAC to SPIDF jack and then attach amp to DAC using RCA interconnects
 
Edit you attaching them to the correct jack nut since it isn't dedicated headphones amp it can't drive them properly so your only option is to do what I said earlier or I like I do now connect dac thru usb and then attach amp to dac using RCA interconnects

 
+1
 
Quote:

To me it doesn't sound good at all by any standard.  I had the volume almost all the way up in the control panel and it was barely even loud enough, everything sounded muddy/muffled even with EQ at certain extremes.

 
As olegausany said, the issue is that the standard headphone out jack of a sound card is generally going to be poor quality and low power.  The Xonar is special because it includes an onboard headamp.  A regular headphone out on a sound cart will be roughly line level output at max (generally a bit under line level from a desktop component), and horrendous output impedance (a bad thing for the already very low impedance HE-400.)  The HE-400 is an efficient headphone for an ortho, but it's still an ortho and still has some power requirements to it in terms of current.  It doesn't need the HE-6's crazy 100w speaker amp, but it needs at least a solidly amped portable headphone amp or better.  The Xonar would do it since it does have a headphone amp built in.  Otherwise, getting the sound out to an external amp is essential.

 

[chewy4]

They were actually very fast for me. I ordered them on Amazon(through Head Direct) on a Wednesday, got them on Saturday. I must have got lucky.
 
 
 

So I am finally getting my HE 400 in the mail today, too excited. Just hope I made the right choice by going with O2+ODAC. Anyway, are there any songs that you would suggest that particularly show off the strengths of this headphone and make you WOW!
 

I loved how "Aubergine of the Sun" by Ott sounded: http://ottsonic.bandcamp.com/track/the-aubergine-of-the-sun
 
 
 

 
+1
 
 
As olegausany said, the issue is that the standard headphone out jack of a sound card is generally going to be poor quality and low power.  The Xonar is special because it includes an onboard headamp.  A regular headphone out on a sound cart will be roughly line level output at max (generally a bit under line level from a desktop component), and horrendous output impedance (a bad thing for the already very low impedance HE-400.)  The HE-400 is an efficient headphone for an ortho, but it's still an ortho and still has some power requirements to it in terms of current.  It doesn't need the HE-6's crazy 100w speaker amp, but it needs at least a solidly amped portable headphone amp or better.  The Xonar would do it since it does have a headphone amp built in.  Otherwise, getting the sound out to an ext

 
 
They shouldn't sound horrible without an amp though, maybe a lot worst in comparison but by no means bad. On their website they even say that they can be driven by an iPod.

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

 
They shouldn't sound horrible without an amp though, maybe a lot worst in comparison but by no means bad. On their website they even say that they can be driven by an iPod.

Agreed. There is nothing unique to planar magnetic headphones that requires any special amping. If anything, they are more compatible with a wider variety of amps than dynamic headphones. The HE-400 (little pretty much all modern headphones) has high enough impedance to be an undemanding load for any audio amp, and a high enough sensitivity to generate ear-bleeding SPL's with very little power. Output impedance of the amp is irrelevant.
 
If the HE-400s sound terrible out of the Xonar DX, then something is not working properly.

 

[jerg]

FYI guys the US Hifiman department shipping manager is on a vacation right now, so anything that end is not going to ship until she's back.