I will say I cannot give more details on that and the different revisions as I didn’t look into it too much. On a final note, there are those who claim that there has been a revision of the HE-400 at some point. But my takeaway is that stock velour has a weird V-shaped tonality. If you wanted a short summary of how the stock velour sounded to my ears, here’s the TL DR: treble can be sibilant at times, bass has decent impact but texture feels lacking likely due to seal or decay and tends to bloom over midrange, midrange definition is overall good - however, it has peaks in weird places that makes some background instruments more noticeable at times and the vocals subdued, but at different parts of a song. On a side note, for people’s reference, I usually listen anywhere between 60 dB - 75 dB.Īs I mentioned in the comfort section, I did not find the stock velour very comfortable and instead chose to go with the Dekoni Elite Velour for Audeze. Take that as you will as there are others who would slide in their comments about using speaker taps improving the bass and such - I am not one into trying that route so you can discuss with those individuals about them.
![infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer](https://www.beatportal.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/BP-MissedTracks-Breaks-_-Breakbeat-_-UK-Bass-Beatportal.jpg)
You don’t need a high wattage output amp for this based on my experience.
![infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer](https://res.cloudinary.com/soundbetter/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,g_face:auto,h_288,q_90,w_540/v1586504311/assets/photos/245787/Matan.jpg)
Heck, I don’t go past 9 o’clock on the JDS Element dial, and only go around 10 when EQ is applied. They can run off an iPod just fine without me noticing any loss of quality. This is neither demanding nor easily driven - about smack in the middle of having enough volume out of a decent source, but likely not enough headroom for highly dynamic tracks at louder than my preferred listening levels. These are rated with 92.5 dB sensitivity and 35 ohm impedance. How do the Dekonis feel? Predictably, much better and I’ve since then been using these as my pad of choice. I’ll cover a short section about the sound when used with the stock velour, but I immediately replace it with the Dekoni Elite Velour for Audeze that I have and used for my HE-500 (currently in hibernation while I play around with other cans).
![infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer](https://images.thebrag.com/tio/uploads/2020/08/1200px-Cat_using_computer.jpg)
It just passes what I consider to be comfortable. I feel the same with the HE-500 and this weighs slightly less than that.įor the pads, the stock velour is just plainly irritating to my skin. After that, I feel a hotspot at the top of my head, which I attribute to poor weight distribution on this particular style of headband. That aside, the headband is reasonably comfortable overall… for the first couple of hours. I had the HE-400i that was released in 2016 with the suspension strap and on a personal note - I preferred that headband system because of the weight distribution being better compared to the singular band present in still current models like the HE-4XX and HE-5XX. So count me on the statistic of “still in working condition” Hifiman QC count.
![infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer infected mushroom heavyweight mixing engineer](https://res.cloudinary.com/soundbetter/image/upload/c_fill,f_auto,g_face:auto,h_288,q_90,w_540/v1512376553/assets/photos/89160/Shay_Raviv.jpg)
There have been reports of this style of headband failing because the glue holding the headband sliders eventually weakens - I fortunately have yet to experience it on my HE-500, and this doesn’t seem to be the case with the HE-400 I bought used. With those out of the way, let’s get to the review.īuild quality is classic Hifiman decent looking and heavy. When I got this, it had a broken original SMC to 3.5mm cable, had the stock velour pads, and the HD650 padding stuck on the headband (similar to my HE-500). I’ll skip over some sections given that this is a used, discontinued model there isn't much to talk about with regards to other tangibles (i.e. This made me really curious about the performance of these when compared against my HE-500 and was fortunate to purchase one recently at a good price. I’ve read posts from previous owners (and current owners) about the touted bass on these as being fun and enjoyable when compared against the HE-500, and does not reach the bass quality of the veneered HE-6 when powered through speaker taps. You rarely see these on the used market nowadays since their release about 7 or so years ago (before I started even in the hobby). The “low” end of the Hifiman classics that is recognized alongside the lineup of the legendary HE-500 and HE-6.