I suspect most people would feel a slight emphasis on vocals is a positive. I owned and really enjoyed the 400i, but for me, personally, the ERA-1 is easily the better headphone. Throw in the much better build quality, or at least so it seems, and I think the Quad is the better purchase, certainly if the price is less than MSRP. Don't get me wrong, the 400i is a thoroughly enjoyable headphone, at least the tuning that I knew. That is the problem in my mind with HiFi Man currently, they never leave anything alone, constantly tweaking, re-issuing new models etc. To a point that is great that a headphone company shows a commitment to working on things, but there is too much of a good thing. I kind of enjoyed the product development cycle that used to be the norm, things were well tested, the sound signature was believed in by the company and the model was released and sold until it proved to be of no consumer interest or it aged out for other reasons. Now it is like smartphones, all kinds of constant "upgrade" opportunities and enticements when really the merits in doing so seem to often simply be that the previous version was rushed to market, gained user feedback and then a new version comes out. Kind of exhausting really.
