Drop + HIFIMAN HE4XX Planar Magnetic Headphones Discussions | Drop

Drop + HIFIMAN HE4XX Planar Magnetic Headphones

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Nov 30, 2017

I just got mine today and already had a balanced cable ready to go. They sound excellent out of my Jotunheim/V200/Phonitor Mini. I've never owned a planar before, so I was expecting these hard to drive headphones, but these are super easy to drive. I never have to go higher than 10 o'clock on my amps to get them to a good volume.

Marsi

Nov 30, 2017

Zombie_XHi! I'm curious what a balanced cable is. Thank you!

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264

Nov 30, 2017

MarsiA balanced cable is a cable that has 2 signal wires and 2 ground wires. You need a 4 Pin XLR amp to drive them.

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Nov 30, 2017

MarsiA balanced setup is like having an amplifier dedicated to each ear.

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Nov 30, 2017

Zombie_XHey man, got a front page feature! Tell us more about the sound, when you get a chance ;) I’ve never heard this headphone or the HE-400i/s before.

ProfessorPat

380

Dec 1, 2017

Zombie_XReally, a lot of headphones are terribly inefficient. There are full sized speakers running loudly on 3W and the Jot can do 7.5W into 16Ohms. Not sure why efficiency is so lacking, but easy to drive is definitely relative.
Relative to a truly difficult to drive planar like the HE6, these are cake. Relative to a Grado, these things are horrible. Without an amp that spews power, these are sort of hard to drive, but the "planars are hard to drive" claim is not true so much as it used to be. With the tech being focused on so much more heavily, it's definitely come closer to your average large dynamic.
With a competent amplifier that can cope with higher end headphones needing weird amounts of power, you should be able to drive a lot of planars fine.

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ProfessorPat

380

Dec 1, 2017

EvshrugAn "unbalanced" amplifier has an amplifier dedicated to each channel too. You're sharing a ground, not amplification. But, even my 100% independent monoblock amplifiers that don't have any common connections are "unbalanced." My old dual mono power amplifier had 100% independent signal grounds too, still "unbalanced."
You have two amplifiers per channel in "balanced" operation, where "unbalanced" amplifiers only need one. "Balanced" is frankly a dumb name for it. It's differential amplification. You run a signal and an inverted signal simultaneously, which apparently equates to "balanced." The purpose is noise rejection, but some claim it helps sound. It can mean more power than another amp, it can mean lower distortion than another amp, it can sound better than another amp, but none of these are automatically true just because it's used.
Personally, I don't believe it helps, but I have nothing against its use. I just think it's worth knowing what's going on if you decide to go that route.

DAS21

Dec 2, 2017

Evshrugactually two amps ;) each amp drives half a driver and should cancel the signal out !

Dec 3, 2017

EvshrugWell in a way the HD-4XX sounds kinda like a brighter HD600 with more bass to me. It's bass is well controlled with excellent slam. Treble is more detailed and airy, but is somewhat bright with some of my metal. Nothing too bad though, at least not as bright as my DT990. Midrange is actually nicely detailed though perhaps a tiny bit recessed. Overall is a warmer and bassier HD600 to my ear. Well not exactly like a HD600, but the closest thing I have that sounds like the HE-4XX.
The Phonitor Mini and Jotunheim drive them the best out of my amps though some of them are higher end. The V200 is pretty damn close though. The balanced drive of the Jotunheim delivers a lot more power to the planars and it can be heard. Single ended operation on the Jotunheim is no slouch either in delivering power. The Phonitor Mini is a colder amp but offers a more detailed or analytical sound. I like the more detailed sound but the power of the Jotunheim really makes a difference with the bass on the HE-4XX.
Heck, even my Audio-GD ROC sounds really nice with them, but low end control is a tad lacking. It's not entirely the amps fault though. The HE-4XX may be low impedance and easy to drive, but feeding them more power really makes them shine. The power output of the ROC is't quite enough to make these shine.

jedi5diah

Dec 21, 2019

Zombie_XHows the balanced cable performance Worth the upgrade?

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Dec 21, 2019

jedi5diah🧟‍♂️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♀️ ............ ... .. . . 🧟‍♀️🧟‍♀️🧟‍♂️🧟‍♀️..... .............. .... . .. ... . 🧟‍♂️ ............ Zombie thread is back! ZombieX used to make Balanced cables himself, for sale, but he was selling them just above cost and basically driving himself out of business while physically wearing himself out. As stated in this thread by numerous people like @ProfessorPat, the main inherent difference of balanced operation is noise rejection. I said “it is like having an amp for each channel” as a simplification, but now that I know more 2 years later, that was an over-simplification. Rejecting the random background noise inherent in any analog signal is great, however single ended (SE) connections can also be designed well enough to have noise below the threshold of human hearing. Balanced (BAL) is one more tool to get there. Having said that, in practice, a device with both connections often sounds differently with SE and BAL. If you have a Radsone Earstudio ES100, Sony ZX300, or Cavalli Liquid Carbon X, the BAL output uses the full design of the amp circuit, often resulting in larger mW peak output. You could just make the SE output more powerful from the start, as my FiiO X7 with AM2A amp module only has SE, but it is more powerful than my Sony ZX300’s BAL output. Or a balanced output can be poorly designed (thankfully rare), as in the case with the FiiO X5 Mk III, which has a BAL output that has the same output power as the SE port and actually sounds worse than SE. You’ve really got to look at it in a case-by-case basis. So, with the ZX300, it’s like I have two amps... a lower power SE that’s good for IEMs, and a 4.4mm Bal output that drives my 150 Ω HD 660 S well. Both are actually low noise and very clean sounding. I like having the option, because the SE saves power so the battery will last 25-30 hours in practice (mix of MP3, AAC, FLAC), while I can still have good performance with some of my fullsized headphones (shorter battery life, but still more than I need to last me two to three days of typical use).

(Edited)

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Dec 29, 2019

EvshrugThe main reason I don't sell cables anymore is because my site was hacked and everything was deleted. I just kinda lost ambition. I still make them on the side for people but not as a job. But to jedi, I wouldn't say it's worth the upgrade if you're expecting sound quality improvements. For more power from you amp, then definitely. Just don't empty your bank account on overpriced virgin constructed cable made in uptopia land.

Dec 29, 2019

Zombie_XHot damn! I didn’t know your site was hacked! Sorry man 🙁

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Dec 30, 2019

EvshrugYeah, that's why I stopped selling cables. There were multiple hack and my hot at the time wouldn't help me.

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