I run mine with the stock cable on a BTR5 with no problem, and they have even more power if I switch to a balanced cable. Something like a ZenDac would be a good pick too, and not that expensive.
Would anyone know the differences in the sound profile of these and the he400i (2020)?
well, I was about to post a sad message, that my 400se were DoAā¦channel imbalance. on a whim I swapped the 6.25mm - 3.5mm to a dif and the problem disappeared. swapped it back to check and it was also fine. so seems one of the connections wasnāt fully seatedā¦into the amp or into the adapter.
another weird thing is that if I tried to turn up the volume, something like clipping would start when I tried to raise the volume to a preferred level. upping the gain caused it to start doing this at a lower level on the dial. that disappeared when I swapped to the other adapterā¦and didnāt return when I went back to the one it came with.
bah, hum happy! LoL!
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What donāt you personally like about the 400i? sound characteristics wise.
And just in case you want to know my opinions on the HE400se in comparison: Review - Hifiman HE400se
Did you end up trying another pair of 400i?
No, I havenāt had chance to try another
Nice review btw!
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for what itās worth I keep hearing the 400se have worse soundstage, which I kinda believe cause the 400i were really really good at that imo
Thats also what i keep hearing. So when i hear someones saying otherwise i get confused even more:)
Apologies you posted this a while back, but could you elaborate on this quality jump? What exactly changed with a balanced cable?
For the zen DAC imo its better to invest into some decent balanced cables to get more out of harder to drive HP, think someone wanted to know if he had to upgrade to the zen can for his 400se
For me the bass speed did improve when going to balanced in busy section of rock and metal bass was a bit limp and I had problems hearing some details, with the balanced output bass had more impact and it was easier to hear some details
the Zenās balanced output is really good. the extra power will almost always help make for better sound, with a few exceptions. one would be when the headphone needs more power than the Zen can provide, essentially making the pairing lack synergy. an example of this would be the HE-560v4ā¦or at least thatās what Iāve been told as Iāve ordered one and then a couple commented not even the CANās balanced will have enough power to drive these well, which leads to a second example, when the SE output on an amp is REALLY good. the Schiit Asgard 3 is SE only and itās so good that many say it made the Jotunheim with itās balanced output redundant.
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I hope you guys can help me out. I ordered this cable: cable as a balanced cable to connect my HE400SEs to the ZEN Dac v2.
Itās not working at all. If I wiggle it I sometimes get some sound out the right ear.
Stock Cable is working fine. So Is it the AMP or a faulty Cable ?
Its more likely to be the cable (either faulty or isnt deep enough to get to the drivers), if you dont have another headphone to test the port you might i suggest wiggling it and either end (the cups and the connection to the amp), if it reacts near the caps its most likely either a faulty cable or the cable isnt deep enough (also compare length to the stock cable)
Tough telling. Iād exchange the cable first.
When I wiggle at the Dac side I can get it to work sometimes so I donāt know if itās the DACs terminal or if the Cabel has an issue
You probably want to check both.
If the cable swap works, then you know the answer was the cable.
You also might want to check it on another source? If you have a computer, you could try seeing if it works plugged into that.