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oldladygran
8
Dec 26, 2016
I don't understand the hate for these headphones. I got these from the first delivery a few months ago, I'd seen the reviews saying they weren't bass heavy and had a bit extra treble. When I got them, I thought they sounded pretty good, I thought the bass was alright, after wearing for the majority of a day my ears were not bleeding. I tried the angled leather pads but they make these headphones sound more closed and heavy, so I stuck with the default pads even if they have less bass. Also the bass mod ruins the sound for me.
But that's all fine, I didn't buy these headphones for ear crushing bass, I tried EQ'ing the trebles down like everyone suggests and I really missed it, trumpets lack that brass ring, cymbals lose that metallic shiiing. What I'm trying to say is, these headphones sound great at this price even with the highs. I dunno if all the hate is from people coming from heavily bass tuned headphones and this is the first time they've heard treble in their EDM, or if it's all these dismissive reviews. If you read a bunch of negative reviews before playing a game, you'd go into it pessimistically, seeking out the flaws.
"But I picked up a $10 pair of NAME BRAND headphones that sound twice as good as these." The frequency graph of those probably look like \ (max bass, no treble), because that's what people want these days, and it's obviously made you happy, so don't buy these.
If you brought these and were disappointed they were not beats by dre, read the reviews first and don't complain. If you read about them and knew what they were and still brought them, don't complain. That's like buying a red car and then complaining that it's red, no point buying these headphones and then complaining they're tuned the way they are if you knew they would be.
I can see the hate from the "Audiophile Community" in the comments already, lay it on me headphone experts.
TianZi
37
Dec 26, 2016
oldladygranI don't think the hate is actually that difficult to understand. The highs on these are probably the most bright of any headphones I've tried, more so than notable bright headphones like HD800, K702, Q701, DT990, and any other headphone I've had. I do use the term bright though, because to me they are bright, but I do not find them really piercing or fatiguing. Meanwhile even headphones like SHP9500 get considered as bright by many people.
Anyone that has tried those other headphones and found them to be fatiguing would almost automatically consider these awful because when you give someone a pair of headphones brighter than what they already considered to be fatiguing, it's simply not going to end well, lol.
These are my current favorite headphones, and that's because I like the highs. I preferred both K702 and Q701 sound over K7XX because I liked the highs. I treble boosted HD600 and HD650 when I used those years ago as well. The highs on these are going to have a lot of love and a lot of hate. It's hard to really give a middle ground rating on headphones that are so heavily defined by it's highs.
I think a lot of people buying these probably haven't tried many other headphones, in which case these would be quite a bit brighter than anything they've tried so far. If you had people that have had headphones like the Q701 or DT990s and felt they weren't too bright, then trying HE-350 would make a lot more sense. When you have people that already consider headphones like Phillips X2, SHP9500 bright, they're not going to like these.
Without a reference point to "how bright", most people simply don't know what to expect from these. This isn't really like a random crap vs HD600 comparison. This is more like a 0 to 100 in terms of brightness without stops in between.
Selfish_Android
215
Dec 27, 2016
oldladygranI use Grados, so bright headphones are ok for me, at first listen the HE350 were harsh playing them from my phone, then a connected to my tube amp, and they were delicious, more so after a got the angled earpads from brainwavz
Achel
1
Dec 27, 2016
TianZiIf people expects having the real sound of those headphones out of the box ... they don't know that headphones need burn in process ... HE350 was harsh at first and I mod them : remove stickers, put brainwavz angled pad and solder resistor inside the can ... after one week I desolder the resistors, replace the stickers. After two weeks I removed the angled pad and replace them by the Hybrid pads. They needed 3 weeks to be burn in (with more than 8 listening hours per days) and now the are "perfect" with all mod removed, they are precise, not agressive, no more harshness, good bass but with mid and high bright but without sibilience and to talk like that I have diffect Grado / Beyerdynamic / Sennheiser and Stax Lambda ... If someone say that they give horrible sound, they really needs to buy crappy headphones with only bass sound (hello kitty or other craps), those people dont like music but just loud sounds without melody.
PACoug
187
Dec 27, 2016
TianZiPeople like what they like. I've been a musician for 35 years and I can tell you that you can spend 40 bucks or $4k on your cans and they will not sound like the live performance, so it's down to taste.
I really think these cans are cheaply made and cheap sounding. There is no mod that can be made that will make them sound good to me. To me, the HD600 with a Creek headphone amp still sounds amazing almost 20 years after I bought both. I have dozens of IEMs from Etymōtic, Shure, Sennheiser, Sony, JVC, RHA, and my favorite on-the-go buds, the "budget hi fi" MEE Pinnacle P1. I have quad-driver balanced armature phones that can't hold a candle to the dual-coil dynamic P1s.
And just about all of those buds have more natural sound than this HiFiMan/Massdrop collaboration. That isn't a bad thing. Most of them cost considerably more than the HE350 so you expect them to sound more refined.
But the $75 Sennheiser Momentum in-ears sound way better and cost 20 bucks less. Yes, the Momentums are tipped up in the bass but that can be cured with a little eq.
There are hundreds of better $100 options out there.
Achel
1
Dec 27, 2016
PACougThat's funny cause I have the momentum in-ears, on-ears and over-ears and they are the only headphones that I need to eq (except my old pionneer SE-L40 really detailed sound but more than 40 years it need to be eq) because the sound seems me tamed but I don't have this problem with the HE-350, I use them without EQ (on my headphone amp and on my Fiio X3 2nd) ... look like there is different batch of HE-350 and it's sure there is different taste of music ...
I totaly agreed with the fact that you can spend a lot of money and you'll never have the same feeling of a live performance but working in motion design (and working in studio) I can say that this HE-350 have a good kick when the burn in process is done ... as I said I use grado, beyedynamic, sennheiser (hd25 600ohms at work but have some others of the brand, 600 also), use at home a Burson headphone amp and a stax lambda on an atoll amp and those cheap HE-350 can give me thrill on some good records. I surely don't use them in studio, that's not their target, but they are fun, really fun for the price.
Personaly I'm very happy that a lot of people feel them as cheap dumb headphones, I surely buy another one for less than half the price on second hand website :)
PACoug
187
Dec 27, 2016
AchelSo you eq the Momentums too? I knew it wasn't just me.
Find a pair of Pinnacle P1 IEMs. You might enjoy them. No eq required, plenty of bass without any bloat. For inexpensive in-ears they're really great. I almost never pull out the big Sennheiser anymore.
Achel
1
Dec 27, 2016
PACougThanks I already watch them since you talk about them ;) but I watch also the iSine 10 and the ERIB-2A, first is planar the second is hybrid (like GL2 from Mitchell & Johnson that I have too and needed more than 200h of burn, that's why I said that the HE-350 need a good burn in too ... If didn't insist I surely put the GL2 in the trash and now it's one of my favourite headphone). None of the less, I have a problem with in ear earphones since I had Shure SE425 broken in my left ear ... that's not a pleasure to use a twizel to remove the part stoked in ...
felix9000
0
Dec 30, 2016
oldladygranYeah, and you hit it on the head. The negatives are coming from people who listen to hip hop at levels that are gonna leave em with tonitis. I've heard these, a pal has em, and I've used em for gaming, which is why I'm getting them here. People like different sounds for different reasons, but ragging on a product because of your particular listening style is dickish. Sell them if you don't like them. If you don't like massdrop, leave. Don't show up and rip a company online because you got your feelings hurt by something you bought not being up to what you wanted in something as incredibly particular as audio/headphones. I listen to Audeze's for music, and generally use less than 100 buck headphones in gaming because I game a LOT and they wear out. This is a more than suitable upgrade, for the price, from the Superlux HD668b's I've used for the last few years. And I like bright in gaming. Too many phones nowadays (imho) are tuned to be bass heavy. Maybe that's because current popular music sucks raw as$, and the predominance of bass IN current popular music precludes any detail in sound in music at all.
drummerdrewski
1
Jan 23, 2017
AchelHello there, you have me interested with this talk of soldering a resistor. What resistor did you use and what's the purpose for that?
Achel
1
Jan 23, 2017
drummerdrewski
1
Jan 23, 2017
AchelThank you so much Achel. Just in huge break-in I've noticed massive improvement in sound quality.
Achel
1
Jan 23, 2017
drummerdrewskiThe sound of the HE350 is near (for me) to my beyerdynamic DT880 600 ohms (with less details, but near the clear mids of them with more bass). Since I have the HE350 I also buy in second hand a stax sr lambda ... so the HE350 became my mobile headphones :p (when you have the sax on the head at home, you don't want other headphones but they really not portable).
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