I hate headphones, but .....

[Sherwood]

Going overseas again shortly and as much as I hate headphones I can see that I am going to be doing a lot of my listening on the move again.

One problem is that I find my ears get uncomfortably warm using headphones for any length of time. I have had some good phones in the past (e.g. Grado 80s) and some AKGs (forget the model number now). I could usually get through a couple of albums before I needed an ear-break. These days I tend to use in-ear phones

As a LS3/5a and Maggie owner I value tonal accuracy highly and am really put off by phones with a thumping bass. However, as I listen to a lot of acoustic music, I want something that delivers a good account of, say, a double bass. Speed and detail are important.

Was thinking of spending around £300 and was surprised to see that the Sennheiser HD600s come in under that. Was also thinking of a planar design. Would something in the Hifiman range give me an approximation of my ribbon speakers?

Thanks for any advice.

Geoff

[Shovel_Knight]

I use Hifiman HE-400S and I think they’re superior to the HD600. They’re slightly dark and smooth sounding. The stock earpads are rubbish and the cable is very fragile. I use Brainwavz protein leather earpads and a custom-made cable with mine. I believe they’re under 200 pounds at the moment.

If you can squeeze HE-400i in your budget they’re even better, faster and more detailed than HE-400S. But I find their treble and upper midrange a bit too hot. I had a chance to buy either HE-400S or HE-400i for the same price and went for the HE-400S because they’re less fatiguing in the long run.

My ears don’t get hot in these headphones, they’re so open you can literally see through them.

[Sherwood]

I use Hifiman HE-400S and I think they’re superior to the HD600. They’re slightly dark and smooth sounding. The stock earpads are rubbish and the cable is very fragile. I use Brainwavz protein leather earpads and custom-made cable with mine. I believe they’re under 200 pounds at the moment.

If you can squeeze HE-400i in your budget they’re even better, faster and more detailed than HE-400S. But I find their treble and upper midrange a bit too hot. I had a chance to buy either HE-400S or HE-400i for the same price and went for the HE-400S because they’re less fatiguing in the long run.

My ears don’t get hot in these headphones, they’re so open you can literally see through them.

Interesting. Where did you see the 400s at that price?

Geoff

[Shovel_Knight]

Interesting. Where did you see the 400s at that price?

Geoff

I think I saw them on Amazon and they were heavily discounted, but it seems they’re out of stock now.

[Sherwood]

I see that the 400i model is available on Amazon UK for £180. Very tempting!

Geoff