HiFiMan HE400SE users? What amp?

DHR

DHR

DHR

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30 Apr 2003
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Picked up some of these as an experiment having been a devotee of the DT990 Pros... Ironically have ended up initially loving them which I was expecting.

I've currently running all of my headphones through an aging dragonfly black, it's served me well but thinking the HE400SE could use more power.

Any users here? What have you got paired with them?
 
I ran them briefly on an Aune T1 which isn't the best solution, but it did prove that they can function pretty well on relatively cheap hardware.

Good cans, excellent entry level planars tbh and like you I'm a fan of the DT990's in the price range. I still prefer the DT990's, but it gives you an impression of what planar is capable of at the higher end and I've been running LCD2's for a few years now as my main.
 
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DHR said:
What is it you like about it so much @kona786?
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Excellent SQ thanks to quality components

Neat design, good battery life and very portable

Plenty of power to drive planar magnetics headphones like the Sundaras. 4V output via balanced.

Can be used wired wireless thanks to BT with LDAC.

Great app design and immense customisation. Regularly updated with community based PEQs for many different headphones that can make a massive difference to the stock sound.

Great value for money.
 
DHR said:
There non battery powered options that you're aware of? It's only for desk use really
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If you're on a budget the Zen Air Can isn't a bad shout at under £90, was chatting with a friend about it earlier and he runs one quite happily with his Sundara.
 
Funny you should suggest that, I ended up with an open box zen can, the one with the balanced outputs which was a nice find in the end - turned out £70-110 off the list price depending on the price at the time.

Happy with it, just need to get some volume limits in place to stop me from killing my ears (more!). They run pretty 'warm' too as far as headphone amps go.
 
Onix XL1 at £87, 500mW @ 32ohms, the 400se is 25 ohms, more than enough power to drive them loud enough to deafen at around 65% volume level given they drove my Ananda Nano 14 ohms. But the output goes far beyond just wpc numbers. You likely won't ever need another hp amp ever again, it's also well featured and no need to faff about with anything else.

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Used mine briefly with a Creative SXFI, which had sufficient headroom for me even with a lot of EQ (in the bass region, they're fairly neutral otherwise)

They're like 30 quid.
 
So after little more than a month with the zen can, have to say, given what I got for the money, I'm really happy with it.

I still need to sort out volume limiting so I'm not accidentally deafening myself with the volume on the desk, sound wise though it's alright.

I'm still intrigued by the onyx @mrk, may end up picking one of them up eventually if there are sales and that, but more out of interest than requirement now.
 
At £87 it's an easy buy really. Sounds great and has a bunch of features that are useful too. I ended up selling mine on MM as the Arya Stealth were powered by the Topping nicely unlike the Ananda Nano, and now I just got the Fiio K11 R2R so a different beast entirely.
 
Picked up some Hifiman Deva Pro's a couple of months ago for an utter bargain price. Always wanted to try planar headphones. Turns out the bluetooth receiver it comes with also works as as a balanced dac/amp too. It's not the most subtle of things, but works and supports LDAC bluetooth for. Also all the beeps the receiver makes are extremely loud.

Currently just have a Soundblaster G6 on the PC. Powers them very nicely up to way too loud. Doesn't have a balanced output though.
 
Are the Hifiman headphones (HE4000SE or Deva Pros) workable just using motherboard sound ?, I've got literally a £3 pair of el crapo 2.5mm wired in-ear headphones attached to the front phono plug on my X570 motherboard for gaming, and I'm looking for something a bit decent, but I don't want to go down an audio rabbit hole of having to install a separate sound cards etc.

Don't need something that will "blow the bloody doors off", but just something that I can hear distinct and with semi-decent quality. Can these work with standard motherboard drivers ?
 
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tangey said:
Are the Hifiman headphones (HE4000SE or Deva Pros) workable just using motherboard sound ?, I've got literally a £3 pair of el crapo 2.5mm wired in-ear headphones attached to the front phono plug on my X570 motherboard for gaming, and I'm looking for something a bit decent, but I don't want to go down an audio rabbit hole of having to install a separate sound cards etc.

Don't need something that will "blow the bloody doors off", but just something that I can hear distinct and with semi-decent quality. Can these work with standard motherboard drivers ?
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I think you'd struggle going wired, but if you get the Deva Pro's with the Bluetooth wireless receiver you should be able to connect to your motherboard via that.

I'd look into it though, I'm not sure how well that will work.
 
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@tangey

I actually looked into this a little last night out of interest, it seems that you ideally want to have a Bluetooth receiver that supports 24 bit audio and low latency using technology such as aptX. I've no idea if your motherboard has that baked in or if you'd need to buy a separate dongle, the world of wireless audio is pretty alien to me and seemingly more complicated than I expected.
 
Gray2233 said:
@tangey

I actually looked into this a little last night out of interest, it seems that you ideally want to have a Bluetooth receiver that supports 24 bit audio and low latency using technology such as aptX. I've no idea if your motherboard has that baked in or if you'd need to buy a separate dongle, the world of wireless audio is pretty alien to me and seemingly more complicated than I expected.
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Thanks for that. My motherboard spe says BT5.2 but doesn't mention any other specs.

However in terms of the audio out it does say

DEDICATED HEADPHONE AMPLIFIER THAT AUTO-DETECTS IMPEDANCE

A dedicated headphone can drive audiophile headphones up to 600Ω impedance, delivering studio-grade sound quality from your gaming PC. Audio Boost 4 automatically detects the optimal impedance and adjusts the output for the best sound quality.
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So I wonder does that bring wired connection back into play.
 
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