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AceOfFives
0
Jun 3, 2016
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First up: I'm very new to this. Secondly: would you recommend going for these or holding out until Massdrop puts out another ATH-40X or 50X?
Jun 3, 2016
PSquare
18
Jun 4, 2016
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AceOfFivesI would suggest going to YouTube, searching for "Z reviews" and watching both reviews.
Jun 4, 2016
LexyVFX
13
Jun 5, 2016
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AceOfFivesFor what it's worth, M50X owner here, and I am completely happy with them, as I bought them as a good starting pair of fairly well balanced closed back headphones for on the go, that would also do well as a desktop pair for a while. That being said, my plan from the get-go was to eventually buy another pair of open back headphones such as the Beyerdynamic DT-880 Pro, or something similar, but then I saw the drop on the HE-350 and went for it because of the price. Between my experience with the M50X and what I'm hearing of the HE-350, both are fairly well balanced, but I can say with certainty that the M50X has a darker sound with a reasonable emphasis on the bass and less emphasis on treble with mids falling in between. It also doesn't have much of a sound-stage by virtue of being closed back. The HE-350 on the other hand, has a much wider sound stage by virtue of being open back, and is very much a 'bright' pair of cans with most of the emphasis on the treble, still with some added emphasis on the bass with less of a focus on the mids. Clearly these headphones are very different and so it depends on your use case and what you are looking for. The HE-350s will definitely leak a lot of sound, both in AND out by being open back, whereas the M50Xs seal decently but still definitely leak when you REALLY crank the volume. Personally, the M50Xs are great in noisy environments that you want to tune out, perhaps such as school, work, or traveling, whereas open backs like the HE-350s are better suited to listening at home, in peace and quiet typically, or if you want to listen to music or whatever else and hold a conversation with someone at the same time, such as at a LAN party or possibly at work (so long as your music won't annoy them). At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide what your usecase(s) are and how different headphones fit into them after appropriate research (to which I'm hopefully contributing). That being said, if you do go after M50Xs, it may not be worth the wait for them to drop again, as amazon already has them for around $120, I wanna say and that's brand new. Sorry for that being long, but already having had the pair you spoke of while also participating in this drop, I figured I'd share my experiences and reasoning for doing so. Hope you don't mind. (Also, quick bonus, just tonight, I received my order of a Fiio E10K USB DAC/Amp combo, and once amped, the M50Xs really shine... literally. The treble really improved by doing that alone, to were I no longer have complaints of the treble being pushed slightly too far back for my tastes. They are definitely still bass-centric, but they sound just that much more balanced now, which I'm quite happy with for closed backs.)
Jun 5, 2016
awi5951
87
Jun 5, 2016
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AceOfFivesThese are better than those and the HD 598
Jun 5, 2016
Uzuzu
1431
Jun 9, 2016
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LexyVFXm50x is very incoherent sounding so I'm sure the 350s will blow you away in comparison.
Jun 9, 2016
LexyVFX
13
Jun 9, 2016
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UzuzuYeah, I know, and I can't wait. I have actually spent some time with both DT990s and HD700s which is part of why I made a point to search out open backs for desktop use. Definitely gonna be buying new pads for the HE-350s and M50Xs, both though, to further improve their sound.
Jun 9, 2016
Will
8470
Chief Product Officer
Jun 10, 2016
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LexyVFXHaving tried and measured many different pads, I have yet to find one that produces an objectively better sound. Leather/pleather as a component of the pads (either whole pad, or some type of hybrid pad) results in a warmer, U shaped sound signature. That said, there are ways to change the sound signature of the HE-350 without buying additional parts.
The internal housing structure has a series of holes, some of which are covered, some partially covered, some totally open. The default configuration results in the sound that reviewers have described, and our FR graph depicts, but you can have a big impact on everything up to 4khz (as well as decreasing bass distortion) by altering the configuration yourself.
Sometime before these ship, we'll likely put together an article showing some of our configurations, outlining ways to turn this from a reference sound to warmer signature.
Good news is, because it's just covering or uncovering holes, the mods are all fully reversible if you have scotch tape (there's actually a better product from post-it, these little stickers that are almost the exact size of the holes, but we'll link that in the article).
Jun 10, 2016
pmronline
21
Jun 10, 2016
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Willawesome! can't wait to try some of these mods
Jun 10, 2016
Will
8470
Chief Product Officer
Jun 10, 2016
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pmronlineFor sure, there's only one tricky part. To get to the the driver housing, you need to pop off the back screen, which is held in by a plastic ring that has four plastic tabs. The tabs slot into the housing, and hold the grill in place.
If you break the tabs... you're SOL, no direct way to keep the screens in-place without them.
I'm lobbying HiFiMAN to include some extra plastic rings, but if not, be careful and you'll be fine.
Jun 10, 2016
LexyVFX
13
Jun 10, 2016
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WillI was more referring to my M50s needing improvement than the 350, though for both I'll probably realistically buy multiple different pads to play with to get a hands on feel for what I like and generally just keep my options open. That said, with this alongside the RE-00s (FINALLY) being my first purchases here, I'm quite impressed with the support of you, and thereby Massdrop pushing to help make these products more mod friendly. Obviously that might not work out, and so failing that, if my modding efforts go awry, (if they even go that deep), given my experience in the area, I would probably see about CAD modeling a replacement which I could get 3d printed for free through Uni. Obviously, impact on sound could be a potential concern and tolerances may be difficult, but luckily in my case, the trial and error wouldn't cost anything. I suppose if we can't get extra rings, that's not a terrible alternative, though perhaps failing availability of extra rings either bundled or through their store, and I suppose this is a bit unconventional of a suggestion, but failing all other official options, perhaps it would be possible to push for the release of the CAD files for just the rings to take the guess work out of printing replacements??? I mean, I know if I had to model replacements, I'd be sure to share the file for others to print as needed both here and probably over on head-fi (which I've been wanting to become active on anyway) but I'm really not sure. I honestly don't know how doable that would be, what with releasing CAD files in some capacity into the wild, but it would definitely save me and others a lot of time and headache should we run into potential issues of our own stupidity. XD
Jun 10, 2016
Uzuzu
1431
Jun 10, 2016
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LexyVFXvery nice. I own tons of headphones and by far the ones I spend 90 percent of my time with are open backs. you just can't really go back to closed imo. I enjoy reference sound more than colored, but I don't mind a bit of mid forwardness. I also like hd650s, though they are pretty dark. Like will said I doubt you'll want to change the sound with pads, but the hifiman jergpads are supremely comfortable (but not the best materials) in my opinion. they are the stock 400i pads. Also some other pads that fit hifimans are the th-900 pads, and I'm sure i'm the only person to have ever put them onto the he-400is. Honestly it improved low end response without muting the treble or mids, it was beyond fantastic. I think that it's because they look like pleathers but are breathable and actually let sound leak in/out so it doesn't mess too much. the soft foam also picks up sub-bass better than almost any pad. they're expensive at 60 dollars though, and also SUPER fragile to tearing/flaking. you could try alpha pads and they are super durable, super thick, and marshmallow soft it is insane. But they'll roll a bit of the highs off and make the mid-bass a bit more prominent (which could be a good thing for these cans). Good luck modding. also what equipment (dac/amp/dap) are you using?
Jun 10, 2016
Uzuzu
1431
Jun 10, 2016
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LexyVFXwhy not 3d scan them and make a copy that way? Or just email hifiman, I'm sure feng's great company will solve any issue. I've never broken the grills on any hifiman, just be careful ;-)
Jun 10, 2016
LexyVFX
13
Jun 10, 2016
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UzuzuQuick(-ish) reply before crashing because it's going on 5am, as I said initially, the M50s are for traveling for over-ear, and once they arrive, the HE-350s will be for pretty much every other time. For the HE-350s I'm not expecting to change the sound too much, though I will wanna play with it a bit. So far, I've seen from both z reviews and the head-fi post that the HM5 Angled pads are good in either pleather or velour, although I was also seeing the Focus Pads from HifiMan which are stock from 560, but thanks for mentioning the th-900 pads to consider. I'm tempted to go with the Focus pads or something similar to just boost the mids to make them flatter still and that's about it, but it could also be nice to do something a little more fun. Actually as of yet, I'm not yet fully convinced that I'll bother opening them up to play with the hole configuration though that very well may change. If I do happen to open them and there is some kind of an issue, I will be sure to reach out though. I would consider 3D scans in that scenario, but I'm what you'd call a quality w**** regarding mesh topologies, as I have significant experience in both creative and industrial 3d packages, and in my experience, a bad topology equals a bad time. Sure there are automatic tools for fixing up bad meshes and 3d printers won't really care a ton as long as the mesh is sealed and certain common sense conditions are met, but I also don't fully trust automatic fix tools as they've bitten me more than once. Especially factoring in varying print quality and tolerances, I would do a much better job and likely get a much better result out of taking measurements and rebuilding it myself. All things considered, I'm keeping my options pretty open and am not too worried as I have a couple months to decide for any modifications that I may make. As far as equipment, I recently switched from the (decent) on-board of my MSI GS60 and the terrible on-board of my self-built desktop (business oriented mobo was all that was available at the time) to an E10K which should be plenty for now, though I'll definitely be looking for an upgrade a while later when moving to something with higher impedance.
Jun 10, 2016
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