I bought a pair of HE350’s from Massdrop a couple of years ago. When I got them I realized the pads were crap and uncomfortable. I ordered a set of brainwaves XL pleather pads. They are now comfortable…UNTIL I play music… The upper mids and highs are brutal. I thought the same thing when I first got them with the stock pads. I never thought I was treble sensitive, but maybe I am? I ran them for a couple of days to try to break them in and see if they mellowed out. I’m pretty much ready to put the stock pads back on and sell them, but I don’t really want to give up on these. Any suggestions/input would be appreciated.
I’ve never had issues with these hurting my ears…however, after getting the HE-4xx, I just didn’t enjoy them as much and haven’t worn them since.
solderdude sells kits or pre-made filters to cut the peaks out though…but they’re almost as much as the headphones themselves, so you have to figure out of their sound is as good as or better than a $200 dynamic like the HD58x or HD6xx.
Z also commented that he found them to settle after being broken in. honestly, if it were me (and well, it is me, LoL, I’ve got these) I would give them away as a gift to someone that’s never heard good sound. these shouldn’t be any worse than Grado’s peaking.
LOL any worse than Grado’s! I might just give them away…I don’t think I will like them regardless of what I do. I was hoping I could tolerate them a bit more with some pleather pads and a bass improvements, but no luck.
I think the hifiman planars like the he4xx are much better then the he350. It was kinda a failed product for hifiman. That being said, if you have other headphones or can demo any, you could see how sensitive to treble you are, or if it’s just this particular setup that is uncomfortable to you. It would really suck to get a new setup and still encounter treble discomfort. You could always use eq if it bothers you alot
I have a set of original HE-400’s and LOVE the sound. They are one of my favorites. I like trebble and analytical top end, but something about the 350’s just kills me lol. I don’t really like to EQ, but maybe that would help. I don’t really want to put ANY money into these cans either.
How are the 350s for the other sound attributes like speed, dynamics, detail? According to the Oratory1990 graph that one treble spike is the only thing wrong with their frequency response?
I would say then just find a way to get rid of them then. I also enjoy the older hifiman cans. I recently bought a he6se and it sounds just like my old he6 did. The he500’s were pretty frickin great as well
The 350’s are kinda mediocre in most areas imo. Nothing stood out as particularly good for the price. Kinda poor bass imo, but decent mids, but the highs seemed really unrefined. It’s like a new manufacture trying to build a headphone to me. I just think there are much better options in the price range
Huh, I found that they had slightly boosted bass. Do you wear glasses or have issues with sealing on your head? The seal is important for good sound. A pad change can also effect this
So you find the 350 to have stronger bass? interesting. I wonder if it’s a sealing issue for the bass. I do wear think framed glasses. That aside I think the highs are still a problem for me. I was reading about the passive filter…I like tinkering so maybe I will try that and maybe some different pads.
Yeah, I would try any non destructive or reversible mods to see what you can do, but do they sound different without wearing glasses with the original pads? The seal can effect the bass response and also effect other aspects of the sound on most headphones
