HE400se EQ

HE400se

Picked up “B-stock” HiFiMan HE400se headphones (stealth magnets, planar magnetic). First impression: Whoa. I’m hearing detail I never noticed before, in an album I’ve spun a thousand times (Tori Amos, Under the Pink). The immediate response by the drivers to things like the sharp attack of Tori’s piano keys is crisp and controlled in a way I’ve never heard before.

Driving them with the Schiit Hel 2 DAC/Amp. They’re 25Ω (or 32Ω? The site says one thing, the box another), but have a sensitivity of only 91 db, so they’re somewhat hard to drive. The Hel seems up to the task, though (though I do have it switched to high gain). I also have a balanced cable coming that might make them usable with the ES100 or AP80 Pro or Surfans F28 or ...?

Meanwhile, Apple Music’s EQ doesn’t quite line up with the 10-band oratory1990 provides, so I kinda approximated it. I’m sure I have tweaking to do and I lack the instrumentation to confirm how close to (or nowhere near) the Harman Curve I am, but, needs must. (I could use Sound Source, I have in the past, but I found it was unacceptably resource intensive and created problems with some audio hardware, so I’ve regrettably stopped using it.)

My Apple Music EQ settings for HE400se