Another headphone i’ve heard a lot about and is recommended to new people. People keep saying what a good deal this was at $169 but now it’s priced at $130. This headphone is often compared to the HE400i. But has the build of the HE400. The only other planar that comes close to this headphone at this price would be the t50rp.
Slightly V shaped signature, warm. Bass is good. Mids are present and good. Treble is good but a little sibilant. Detail is fine. Imaging is fine. Dynamics mediocre. Soundstage is medium. Not peaky or shouty. clear brighter headphones yet also warm. I noticed that the snare drums on this headphone are not too peaky which I like. Usually on new good dream the drums on certain songs can be a pain but not on these. These lack dynamics.
COMFORT
Comfort is good with these headphones. Not heavy. Good tilt and swivel. Adjustments are friction based and hold. Might be a good headphone to buy used and replace the headband parts of inferior headphone builds lol. They often show up on ebay 50$ for parts.
BUILD
The build really really good. Mostly metal. HiFi man can learn a lot from these headphones and how they are constructed for their new headphones. How these exist for 130$ and the lamer Hifiman builds on their higher end headphones exist is beyond me.
CONSLUSION
I hear these are a steal at their price range. And to get a good planar headphone at this price is very nice. It has many nice features. But the lack of dynamic range kills it for me. But the T50rp 150$ might be a better deal. Especially since you can send it in to get moded for you into a much better headphone.
Scoring rating: 20$-300$ 7.0 / 300$-700$ 8.0 / 800-1000$’s 9.0 / 2000$’s and up 10.0
Word description grading: Poor, Mediocre, Fine, Good, Great, Exceptional, Phenomenal
Yeah the thx gives them plenty of power so that’s not an issue. Did you let them burn in? They do get a fair bit better by listening to them for a while. You can just put on a playlist of music you like at a bit louder than normal listening level for a day and then come back to them
and my biggest complaint with my pair of 4xx is that the tension fails to hold the ear cup height on one side. even if I set it to the maximum, it just slowly slips down to the smallest. fortunately for me that happens to fit my head…
For $130, the 4XX are really solid. I think they stand out in midrange timbre at the price point. Their overall signature is reasonably pleasant. They can at times be slightly sibilant, but to a degree that fades for me after some use. They can be just a bit thin in the lower mids and mid bass. I find running them off a hybrid tube or through a tube buffer warms them up and they just sound really nice and enjoyable. I do have one complaint about the fit. The headband on my head feels like it pinches the top portion of the cups in causing the bottoms to flare out just a little. If I lossen so that doesn’t happen, they feel super loose and I don’t trust them to stay on my head. This complaint is minor though and doesn’t detract from these being a $130 bargain. I think the only thing that might prevent this can from being a gateway drug to the hobby is that they do require some power. Drop advertises them as easy to drive and can be run right off a phone, but I don’t see that.
I received mine yesterday and today I’ll get the Fiio Q1 Mk2 to give them some power.
The construction is really solid. I did a small test connected to the iPhone but they are power hungry.
I need to spend some time with them, hopefully this weekend. As soon as I can I’ll post my impressions.
Thanks for your review!
