Alright guys, I promised a more in-depth review so here it is. These are my comments after listening to the Didos for a while on my laptop, using my Sansa Clip, and my Concero + Ember setup, with some comparisons to my HE-400.
Bass quality: I was a bit harsh in my initial impressions. Now that I've grown used to these headphones, I don't think the bass is bloated at all (relative to the fact that it's boosted, if that makes sense). There is no distortion to my ears. However, I do still stand by my assertion that the Didos render bass textures less viscerally than the HE-400s. This is something I love about the HE-400s--crunchy textures just rip and grate against your ears. The Didos can't do this with the same granular sort of tactile speed, precision, and snap. Also, I'm pretty sure the HE-400s have deeper extension, though that may just be the tighter bass presentation fooling me--in any case, the Didos have more boost in the midbass than the subbass. The one thing that the Didos do that the HE-400s don't is create a massive wall of bass pressure. I don't know if any of you like Wumpscut, but these headphones really give it the meaty, pounding aggression it deserves (example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sfB5Mv4IQ4&feature=kp)
Treble: Very smooth with no traces of sibilance. The bass overshadows the treble once it kicks in, but songs with little bass content have a nice treble on the Didos. It's hard to compare with the HE-400s. I'm listening to the Didos with no EQ and I have to EQ the HE-400 treble down by 12 db or so in order to enjoy it. However, I will say that the Didos have a very decent audiophile-grade treble. Not for the price, however--my EQ'd HE-400s beat them in delicacy and resolution for about half the price. Minus signature differences, I'd put the Didos in the general ballpark of the DT-990 in terms of treble resolution, detail, and refinement (only if the song doesn't have a lot of bass--if it does, the bass kills much of the low-level detail).
Soundstage and Imaging: The nicest closed, full-size headphones I've owned are the Sony MDR-V6 and the Sennheiser HD-280 so it's hard to make a fair comparison. I was pleasantly surprised at the Didos soundstage and imaging. The soundstage is smaller than what you would get with popular open headphones for a quarter of the price (such as the DT-990), but it doesn't seem closed in to me. Just intimate. Imaging is fairly precise, though the bass tends to dominate the sonic picture.
Value: Whether or not these are worth the money is obviously a personal decision. They are very much basshead headphones. Maybe this is just pride of ownership talking, but I think the HE-400 objectively beats them in every single arena for less than half the price. The HE-400 doesn't have the same bass emphasis, but all it takes is a major EQ bump in the bass and then the HE-400 does everything the Didos can do with bass, and maybe a little more, while also beating them in resolution, refinement, detail retrieval, soundstage, imaging, speed, everything really. Of course, the HE-400 is neither closed nor portable in the sense that only closed headphones can be. The Didos also have the clear upper hand in terms of materials quality and overall luxury.
Amping: The Didos are extremely sensitive. My preferred volume is around 30% on my laptop and 50% on my Sansa Clip+. The Project Ember isn't really a suitable amp, as it's way too powerful. I started with the low impedance setting because it's the only one that will give me an appropriate damping factor. Unfortunately, that is also the Ember's highest power setting. There is significant hiss with no music playing, and I have to set Foobar at around -30 db digital volume just to get the volume knob to 9 o'clock. On the Ember's mid impedance setting, I hear a tiny bit of hiss but not enough to bother me. However, the signature becomes a bit warmer due to the damping factor. Low impedance gives me the cleanest signature, but it's close to unusable due to the volume considerations and hiss. I didn't try the high impedance setting.
As far as SQ differences between sources, the Didos were resolving enough to show that my Sansa Clip is better than my laptop (I can't really tell with the HE-400 because the Clip doesn't really drive it to satisfactory volume levels). The Concero + Ember cleaned up the soundstage and tightened the bass a bit, but it was not a massive difference. The Didos bass overshadows fine details enough that the increased resolution was hard to notice.
Also, it looks like I may be the last person on the tour. The only person after me, according to Gelocks, is Mad Lust Envy.
And frankly, we cannot compare SRH1540 pads to anything really, they were so good!!! I actually bought the new HFM "hybrid" earpads just because they look as comfy as the 1540 ones! LOL (will probably buy a set of 1540 pads as well... their sizes just fit a bunch of headphones in the market...)
