[MWSVette]

  Nice. What are those wire wrapped rubber things around your tubes? Antivibration addon?

Those are Herbies,  I have 2 sets and they work great...

 

[rovopio]

   
Pretty much the only headphone I'm interested in right now. Thoughts? I don't care if you haven't even had enough time to get your ears warm, what do you think?! Must know!

 
what do you want to know specifically?
 
almost 85% my music are female vocals focus, and the dip on 2k-5k frequency makes the upper midrange/lower treble female vocals doesn't sound as forward and as engaging in comparison to my ma-900.
 
On the other hand, he-400 is touted for it's bass, and the he400i bass is well, bass. In fact, it's as much bass as i can tolerate without going overboard. The bass hits you in a controlled tight burst, and the lower midrange is thick enough, so the combination of both makes it musical.
 
In addition, because of the frequency response above, male vocals sounds really good with this. I prefer headphone that can portray female vocals better, but if your music collections are golden generation male musics like the 60s to 80s rock, i think this will sound good.
i just happened to like female vocals bossa genres better.
 
hd600 is the most natural headphone i've ever heard in the $500 bracket, and the he400i won't change that. It lacks air in the treble area, to be as natural as hd600. But comparing that's a tall order.
 
it's a street price $430-$500 headphone so, you don't have to worry about detail retrieval and clarity. it's great.
 
Sibilance eliminator! Yeah, this is important. According to frequency response, the he400i has peak on 6-7khz, but then drop down at 8khz-9khz, While i know that my dt880 steadily going up from 6khz-9khz. I don't know how much that matters to your ear, but to mine, this resulted in he400i having very little sibilance.
In fact, it has very little sibilance that whenever the sibilance happens, i immediately notice it and semi-counting them just because. Like sibilance happened "oh, there it is". This is a very high praise coming from me because all my previous headphones are bright, and japanese bossa and pop songs are shouty at best so, sibilance is the norm.
 
what else.... it's new so, the clamp is HARD. i have low tolerance to clamp force i guess. I really don't know how people can tolerate older hifiman or audeze, and saying the he400i is by far more comfortable than them. Maybe i can stand weight, but the clamp force, owh, this is claustrophobic enough for me. Though i assume it will get better by time, like any other headphones would.

 
i did not know what natural sounds like is until i'd heard hd600. i did not know what neutral sounds like until i'd heard dt880. I did not know what airy sounds like, and how important it is, until i listen to he400i.
 
I'm quoting parts of conquerator2 review of the 400i because i could not say this better myself.
 

"What separates these two trebles is more than anything, the air. The 400i treble is handled in such a way that it allows very little room for air while the 560 allows for much more. This does mostly affect the decay, timbre and just the way how real and authentic things sound. Best way to demonstrate is with an example. As voices or instruments travel through the air and eventually disappear, they leave a trail around them, a faint presence of sound and movement, what is best described as air, as well as a part of timbre or decay. This air, produced by each instrument or vocal, moves with said instrument or vocal, until it eventually disappears. On the 560, this presence is more and it rises up or moves outside of the field of said instrument/vocal as it decays, almost as if it moved beyond the boundaries of the headphone and their drivers, in a natural and convincing way. If the bow of a violin is moving from left to right and disappears, so does the airy presence. The 400i has less and does not do it nearly as convincingly - you never feel the air 'leaving' the headphone, it stays inside, trapped in the cups and just stops, with a less convincing and shorter decay. This is for me subjectively the most notable deficiency in the 400i's treble, but a very subjective thing indeed. Air is obviously not limited to treble - it manifests itself in the midrange and bass as well, but is not as apparent there as it is here."

 
Second quote on the lacking air part

The 400i's treble is a bit more complicated. As has been pointed out, the upper midrange-lower treble region is a bit less present, or to put it more simply, the treble is there but it is slightly overshadowed by the relative forwardness of midrange and bass, while the upper treble region is more present. The treble is smooth and well extended overall, without any major peaks but it just does not carry the airy presence I like, and what I assume is the side-effect of this - a noticeable lack of air to instruments that extend to the treble and female vocals. This negatively affects their timbre and accuracy, among other things. It is still a coloration, however, that might be desirable, especially for those people who don't want much treble energy and seek just that warm-tilt with a slight upper-treble sparkle this provides. This is thus a very subjective flaw. It does not affect other things as much, but it is definitely something to consider if you want a completely even and open treble. Other than the air issue, the treble is pretty great and smooth, and if you don't need lots of air in your music, you'll certainly like it.

 
I dislike bass and thickness by nature. So what sounds lush or full to some, sounds stuffy to my ears. So, while there are many sub-$500 headphone out there that has very little sibilance due to their bassy sound-sig, or musical sound-sig in way of thick lower midrange, I sort of dislike them.
For example, V-moda m100 is $420 and momentum is $540 last i checked, (though the current exchange rate should make them somewhat cheaper now), i'm not paying $150 for either of those two headphones. And i have a strong feeling i wouldn't like fidelio x2 either.
 
So I have to repeat a point. Man! this is the least sibilance headphone i've ever tried that still retains all the detail retrieval, resolution, and clarity, while at the same time, doesn't irritate me with it's thickness.
 
It's not the last word on resolution, but at $500, well, it punch above it's weight.
 
Sidenote, i also got to listen to (very underpowered) he-560 a/b with he-400i back in early february when i auditioned them.
 
At $900, he-560 is fairly priced and sounds really natural. It has less thick midrange, the headphone has enough air, and has even treble response, which makes female vocals sound beautiful, and instruments sounds like it should.
 
That said, he-400i has slightly forward lower midrange and slightly elevated midbass so, while he-560 is more to my liking, some people could make arguments that they could prefer he-400i better. Now... it's $500, how great is that!
In fact, if you never listen to hd600, or A/B with he-560, or your music collections doesn't heavily comprise of female-vocal-centric songs, i guess that you might not notice he400i lack of air and female vocals portrayal weakness as apparent as i do.
 
In summary, I would say, he400i is jack-of-all-trade that makes a nice recommendation for music lover that wants just one headphone, or not really into the hobby (of buying personal audio gear). At $500, it's great how he-400i performs. If you get it at way LESS than $500, like say, $400, that should be a crime.
 
i'd still buy some headphone with frequency response like he-560 int he future, but for most people, they really won't lose any sleep by getting he-400i, as long as they don't do A/B with something twice the price.

 

[ThurstonX]

  Nice. What are those wire wrapped rubber things around your tubes? Antivibration addon?

 

  They look like Herbie's Tube Dampers:
http://herbiesaudiolab.net/tube.htm

 
The very thing.

 

[crixnet]

Hi,
 
Just got my new Uberfrost and Lyr 2.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when I stack the amp on the dac, do the tiny self-adhesive feet that come with the Lyr2 give the amp enough separation from the Bitfrost? If not, are there better alternatives to the tiny stock feet?
 
Thanks!

 

[bearFNF]

  Hi,
 
Just got my new Uberfrost and Lyr 2.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when I stack the amp on the dac, do the tiny self-adhesive feet that come with the Lyr2 give the amp enough separation from the Bitfrost? If not, are there better alternatives to the tiny stock feet?
 
Thanks!

As long as the Amp is on top you are good to go.  There are alternatives I have seen others use but I do not know specifics, I'm sure someone will chime in with them for you.  You might search the threads for them...have fun with your new gear...

 

 

[ThurstonX]

  Hi,
 
Just got my new Uberfrost and Lyr 2.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when I stack the amp on the dac, do the tiny self-adhesive feet that come with the Lyr2 give the amp enough separation from the Bitfrost? If not, are there better alternatives to the tiny stock feet?
 
Thanks!

 
Congrats, it's a great Stack O' Schiit.
 
IIRC, Jason said those feet are fine, as the Bifrost can take the heat.
 
FWIW, I raised up my Lyr quite a bit when I had them stacked.  If you look at the photo I posted recently, you can see the feet I use.  I never bothered removing them.  It's actually two: a foam disc, then the clear plastic feet on those.  Pretty sure I posted the specifics of both somewhere in this thread, or in the Lyr Tube Rollers thread.
 
HTH.

 

[BeatsWork]

  Hi,
 
Just got my new Uberfrost and Lyr 2.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when I stack the amp on the dac, do the tiny self-adhesive feet that come with the Lyr2 give the amp enough separation from the Bitfrost? If not, are there better alternatives to the tiny stock feet?
 
Thanks!

My M/G stack ran quite hot with stock feet and adding more clearance made a huge improvement. There are plenty of "Isolation feet" on EBay or Amazon that look quite nice and if you're patient you can find some for around $15. I'm sure you could DIY something much cheaper - try looking at Home Depot in section where they have pads for furniture/chair legs.

 

[David Aldrich]

Sorbothane makes some exceptionally nice feet in a variety of sizes.

 

[Mr Rick]

  Hi,
 
Just got my new Uberfrost and Lyr 2.
 
Sorry if this is a dumb question, but when I stack the amp on the dac, do the tiny self-adhesive feet that come with the Lyr2 give the amp enough separation from the Bitfrost? If not, are there better alternatives to the tiny stock feet?
 
Thanks!

Amazon has everything you need for just a few $$$

 

[crixnet]

Thanks for the info, everyone! I had checked Amazon for some isolation feet before I posted, but they were pointy metal.
 
Thanks for the Sorbothane tip, David. I found some feet made from it on Amazon.

 

[StanD]

I use the below stick on feet made by 3M on my Schiit. Looks like chocolate in the picture but it's not. They're much better than those little turds that come with our Schiit and add a little more breathing room between Schiit.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002OTNGPQ

 

[rune-san]

So I just had an issue this morning. I have a Schiit Valhalla (I) that I've been the single owner of for about 2.5 years now. I've been using it for about 2 and a quarter years with Tubemonger Socket Savers, essentially just to raise the tubes up, as I had an almost miserable time getting the 6n1p tubes out of their sockets and did not want a repeat lest I break a tube or something else!
 
So fast forward to a few months ago and I was getting an extended quiet crackling sound out of my left channel (fairly quiet). I figured it was about time for tube replacement (still using the original tubes). The sound would go away after about 3 minutes of warming up so I've just been letting it go. This morning, I noticed while watching a movie that there was occasional crackling coming from the left channel, even when going several hours later. Thinking it was unusual, I removed the tubes for the first time since I installed the socket savers and the left power tube (6n6p) had residue all over the pins. I looks at the socket saver and the socket pins were coated plastic just around the melting point. It was semi-soft and easily movable. The socket area around the pins had essentially melted on at least 3 of the pins.
 
Before I get around to replacing these, I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened? Naturally, the socket savers (shouldn't) melt in standard operation, so I'm curious as to why the tube got hot enough to melt the socket saver.
 
Anything I should be concerned about? Anyone else have this happen?

 

[Mr Rick]

  So I just had an issue this morning. I have a Schiit Valhalla (I) that I've been the single owner of for about 2.5 years now. I've been using it for about 2 and a quarter years with Tubemonger Socket Savers, essentially just to raise the tubes up, as I had an almost miserable time getting the 6n1p tubes out of their sockets and did not want a repeat lest I break a tube or something else!
 
So fast forward to a few months ago and I was getting an extended quiet crackling sound out of my left channel (fairly quiet). I figured it was about time for tube replacement (still using the original tubes). The sound would go away after about 3 minutes of warming up so I've just been letting it go. This morning, I noticed while watching a movie that there was occasional crackling coming from the left channel, even when going several hours later. Thinking it was unusual, I removed the tubes for the first time since I installed the socket savers and the left power tube (6n6p) had residue all over the pins. I looks at the socket saver and the socket pins were coated plastic just around the melting point. It was semi-soft and easily movable. The socket area around the pins had essentially melted on at least 3 of the pins.
 
Before I get around to replacing these, I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened? Naturally, the socket savers (shouldn't) melt in standard operation, so I'm curious as to why the tube got hot enough to melt the socket saver.
 
Anything I should be concerned about? Anyone else have this happen?

I would say the problem is not with the tubes or the unit, but the socket savers. Are the socket savers ceramic like the original sockets? I think you said plastic. There is the problem.

 

[ThurstonX]

  So I just had an issue this morning. I have a Schiit Valhalla (I) that I've been the single owner of for about 2.5 years now. I've been using it for about 2 and a quarter years with Tubemonger Socket Savers, essentially just to raise the tubes up, as I had an almost miserable time getting the 6n1p tubes out of their sockets and did not want a repeat lest I break a tube or something else!
 
So fast forward to a few months ago and I was getting an extended quiet crackling sound out of my left channel (fairly quiet). I figured it was about time for tube replacement (still using the original tubes). The sound would go away after about 3 minutes of warming up so I've just been letting it go. This morning, I noticed while watching a movie that there was occasional crackling coming from the left channel, even when going several hours later. Thinking it was unusual, I removed the tubes for the first time since I installed the socket savers and the left power tube (6n6p) had residue all over the pins. I looks at the socket saver and the socket pins were coated plastic just around the melting point. It was semi-soft and easily movable. The socket area around the pins had essentially melted on at least 3 of the pins.
 
Before I get around to replacing these, I'm trying to figure out what exactly happened? Naturally, the socket savers (shouldn't) melt in standard operation, so I'm curious as to why the tube got hot enough to melt the socket saver.
 
Anything I should be concerned about? Anyone else have this happen?

 
Like Rick said, I'd bet it's the savers.  Tubemonger are very reasonable folks, so I'd contact them, explaining it just as you have here.  I know when I suspected a problem with one of mine, they were eager to get it back to examine it.  I'd guess they'd be interested in this, too, and may have had others report something similar.
 
Good luck!

 

[tomb]

I'm not sure using socket savers as a permanent solution is a good idea.  I've always measured higher distortion and noise from an amp when a tube(s) is plugged into a socket saver.  It could lead to oscillation with some tubes and cause the tube to overheat.