They actually remind me a lot of Aryas. Not quite as resolving or dynamic but similar timbre and stage handling. Fantastic headphone for the price. They can sound really great on a warmer source chain.
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Where do you get real Sundara pads for the replacement you mentioned?
I wouldnât get sundara pads at all. Iâd destroy the pads they come with to cannibalize the adapter rings and use zmf leathers, aliexpress 115mm leathers, or brainwavz XL gaming micro suede and be set for a while and focus on chain components. Theyâre plenty resolving enough to outperform entry level gear and if given a warmish chain theyâre pretty nice. Given the price theyâre amazing.
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Iâve had these for a few months now and really like them. They make the Sundara redundant to me, honestly. I find them to be at least on par if not better, and at half the price of the Sundara no less.
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That is good to hear. I have been really happy with the sound on these, about the only feature I am guessing I would like on the Sundara, would be the suspension strap. I find I have to move the headband around to avoid the hotspot on the top of my head.
They have a very satisfying sound profile, and it has been an opportunity to rediscover some old music, which has been a lot of fun.
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This was my solution, and you could get the Sennheiser pads on Amazon:
Looks stupid, but if youâre just using it at home for comfort, I guarantee completely removes the hotspot issue.
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Thatâs an interesting idea I may have to try that, I have the 400i 2020 which has this same hard as a rock headband.
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That is funny, I independently guessed that might work, and have them in my wishlist on Amazon, but just havenât bought them yet.
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I got the Sennheiser pads and had a spool black cable ties, so the headband mod turned out looking pretty ok. Thanks for the tip.
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Dang that looks nice! Guess I should have gone with the all black velcro ties as well
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I have black and blue just sitting around the house, the correct answer seemed obvious, no matter how much I like blue.
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Has anyone tried pairing the HE400se with ifi Zen Dac V2 and especially with the True Bass button while using the 4.4 balanced output?
Thinking about getting the Zen Dac on 11.11, hope someone can share some thoughts.
I normally pair my 400se with xDuoo MT-602 hybrid tube single ended. Still I would almost always end up EQing to get more bass juice.
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I can check on my IFI zen Dac V1 if that helps but I assume it should be a pretty dope pairing (I use it with an IFI stack dac+can)
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Thanks! Does your stack have a balanced output?
Iâm asking not because I believe that thereâll be a sound difference, but just because how hard the 400se is powered. Plus planar seems to the type most affected by power
Ya i got it connected via the 4.4 at the back.
As far as power it should be more than enough
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@PopinTeddy Thanks for the idea, it works great. Yeah you do have to notch it up a few for it to fit but the comfort is night and day.
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Thanks yall for playing with the idea and confirming that it works! Iâm also an amateur in modding so I canât tell whether it works for everyone, but seeing this, it really is a win-win scenario!
Cheers
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The thing for me is that I donât see these type of âminimize tweaking the originâ mods too much in the audiophile community. A lot of times itâs big changes like completely rewiring the connectors, or breaking apart the cups adding this or deleting that, or completely swapping the whole oem headband.
I really donât like these type of mods when the original headphone/iem was already great. Or else, why am I purchasing it? So luckily for this comfort mod, and also my DIY pad-holder mod for the KPH30i, itâs just adding stuff to solve the issue but not changing anything that was originally there.
True 5-min craft I guess?
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Yeah, I really appreciate the small tweaks here and there just to make your user experience better. Itâs the little things, whilst small in nature they have a pretty big impact.
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