May someone copmpare Psb m4u 1 to Hifiman he-400i?
A response I sent to Beefheart via private message before seeing he had asked the same question here:
I have both the PSB M4U-1 and HE-400i. I also have the Sennheiser HD-6xx from Massdrop, and that is now almost the only headphone I listen to.
I used to mostly listen to closed-back headphones and loved the PSBs, but recently have had the opportunity to do more open-backed listening. The bigger soundstage and “airier” sound is just much more pleasing to me. To my ears, the HE-400i is just too treble forward and I find myself enjoying the overall musicality of the Senns better. I recently got a Lyr 3 amp, and the combination of it and the Senns is almost perfect (with my spending limitations I am done looking for incrementally better at this point).
That said, I think all three are terrific headphones. I still like the PSBs and think they do a very good job with what creator Paul Barton called “room feel” where they sound like listening to a good set of speakers. I like the balance of treble/mid/bass they provide. They will not appeal to real bass-heads but they are not bass-light either. Just a very good, solid closed backed headphone. The HE-400i on the other hand, while providing the pleasing openness of an open-backed seem a tad bass-light to me (some claim that is normal in planars while others claim planars can really slam but I’ve never experienced the latter). The mids are fine, not too forward, but clear and very present. As I noted above, the highs were a bit too emphasized and on occasion I heard a little bit of sibilance.
If I was to pick one headphone to keep with my Lyr 3 (just a little bit of tube goodness, not the full-on “tubey” sound), it would easily be the Senns. My second choice if it was the only headphone I was going to listen to would be the PSB over the HE-400i. But, if the only headphone I could listen to was the HE-400i, I would still enjoy it, just not quite as much (and I would likely still keep looking for something better).
Cheers,
TTGuy