[MattTCG]

Quote:

After about 15 hours of continuous usage / overnight burn-in, I can still confirm that the new HE400s have a more forward treble and upper midrange than my previous rev.2 pair.
 
There is a particular song which I use to judge brightness with, "Keith don't go" by Nils Lofgren on his Acoustic Live album, there is a very intense and "hot" guitar passage near the end of the song with which bright cans are almost painful; on the same listening volume, the previous HE400s were borderline tolerable, the new pair is much more aggressive and the passage does actually bite my hearing a bit.
 
 
Not sure how I feel about this...on one end maybe Hifiman is trying to retune the HE400s to be more balanced, on the other hand maybe it's detracting from what people have previously been expecting the voicing to be. I may or may not like it more in the long run, we'll see.

 
Well, if you are correct, and I have no reason to be that you're not, then I would enjoy this new revision a lot less than the ones that I have now. I just am not comfortable listening to a bright hp or one with "hot" treble. It may be time to shoot an email to the powers that be over at HFM and ask what is going on.

 

[palmfish]

I think Fang Bian might be the George Lucas of the headphone world...

 

[MattTCG]

Following that analogy then the he400 would be Skywalker, the he500 Darth Vader, and the he-6...Yoda 

 

[jerg]

Quote:

Following that analogy then the he400 would be Skywalker, the he500 Darth Vader, and the he-6...Yoda 

Nah HE6 would be more like Jabba the Hutt.
 
And HE400s were Darth Vader (it being dark and all), maybe now it's the redeemed Anakin who's bright again.
 
 
This gives me a thread idea - "Describe your headphones with popular film characters".

 

[jk70007]

You don't understand; none of these (HD25, Ultrasons, Grados) have a huge peak at 10kHz~15kHz. HE400s are one of the few that have that.

Look at the 10kHz+ regions in these FRs:

Of course I'm only correlating this unique frequency response feature of HE400 to your blues, but it seems plausible as high frequencies tend to fatigue people sensitive to them.

Thanks jerg. It very well may be where the he-400s peak in the highs, One question about the FR charts as I still do not know very much about the technical side of things. Does the characteristics of headphones change at different volume levels. Would the FR charts be different at very low vs high volumes, if they do change then it could be the low volume behavior of the hifiman's that are causing my problems as I ltend to listen to music on the quiter end of the spectrum.

I guess the most interesting take away for me is that unlike Grado and ultrasone, I found the hifiman's sound pleasant and without harshness, yet still more fatiguing. Unlike my Grados and ultrasones which I could tell ran hot with the right music, the overall signature of the hifiman was to me much more balanced and listenable (to all music genres).

 

[pb21cyclist]

Quote:

Not sure how I feel about this...on one end maybe Hifiman is trying to retune the HE400s to be more balanced, on the other hand maybe it's detracting from what people have previously been expecting the voicing to be. I may or may not like it more in the long run, we'll see.

 
I am a bit confused too. I bought these solely based on reviews here and elsewhere (nowhere for me to audition them). I spent a lot of time thinking and reading before I made the purchase, but these seemed to tick all the boxes for me. It turns out I may not have bought what I think I was...
 
Its weird because I like them, and don't regret buying them so I guess that's the main thing!

 

[palmfish]

Quote:

and the he-6...Yoda 

 
Is that the original 1980 version, the time-compressed Laserdisc version, the 1997 "Special Edition" version, or the 2001 BluRay CGI version of Yoda?

 

[jerg]

Quote:

 
I am a bit confused too. I bought these solely based on reviews here and elsewhere (nowhere for me to audition them). I spent a lot of time thinking and reading before I made the purchase, but these seemed to tick all the boxes for me. It turns out I may not have bought what I think I was...
 
Its weird because I like them, and don't regret buying them so I guess that's the main thing!

 
Well you don't have a physical reference other than words in reviews and impressions from others, so it really doesn't matter, as long as you find the headphones good for you (or not), that's what counts.
 
For guys like me who have gone through 1 or 2 revisions of the same headphone due to QC issues, we actually know how each pair sounded so we note relative changes in sound rather than absolute sonic qualities.

 

[pb21cyclist]

Are two headphones always the same anyway?
 
I guess they are, at least to the human ear, but  wonder if they are all slightly different!

 

[viveksaikia22]

Quote:

Are two headphones always the same anyway?
 
I guess they are, at least to the human ear, but  wonder if they are all slightly different!

This is what is defined by the quality control practice and standards followed by the manufacturing companies.

 

[tuna47]

Much better in my opinion. Much more bass and snappier highs the only area that the 650 compete is in the mids
I found 650 boring hd400 fun

 

[jerg]

Anyhow I placed an order for a cheap digital camera, should arrive in a week or so. If no one else is gonna post some photos of the new new HE400 innards then I will.

 

[tuna47]

Sometimes you guys pick the sound to death
The 650 were dark the Akg were bright the q Akg 701 sounds different than the k 701 even though the company says the are the same
Now we have a different version on the Hd 400
Can't you just enjoy the sound not pick it apart it's like conspiracy theories
Who shot Kennedy is the hd650 veiled or not etc

 

[palmfish]

Sometimes you guys pick the sound to death
The 650 were dark the Akg were bright the q Akg 701 sounds different than the k 701 even though the company says the are the same
Now we have a different version on the Hd 400
Can't you just enjoy the sound not pick it apart it's like conspiracy theories
Who shot Kennedy is the hd650 veiled or not etc

This is a headphone forum. It's where we discuss headphones. Different kinds, how they sound, etc.

What else would we talk about here?

 

[anoxy]

So I'm reading a lot about how the HE-400 is a great all around can that does everything well. But I have a question for you guys: is there any genre of music that you prefer to reach for a different pair of cans for? How do they handle hip-hop and electronic music?
 
I would love to trade all my cans in for one pair, but I want everything I listen to to be enjoyable.