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Something had to give: Tyll has given me the assignment of evaluating a bunch of midprice phones. But I feel that the amps I have to drive them are not completely up to the task. The Burson Soloist is fun, punchy and “tubey”. The O2 sounds comparatively transparent and is a great bargain, but how would it compare to the big guys? So I knew I needed to include a transparent high class amp to drive and test these phones. But Mary would divorce me if I proposed buying yet another expensive headphone amp. Instead I found a solution: Build one…

Over the years I've tried a number of headphone subwoofer gadgets. Most didn't work well at all. For instance, I had fun reviewing the Skullcandy Crusher; the sound was surprisingly good and the subwoofer bit worked...sort of. It was much better than the previous Snoop Dog version, but it still tended to deliver bass that was somewhat one-note—the Sensation 55 bass driver frequency response was narrow delivering sound...er, sensation, only between about 50Hz and 130Hz.

I've also checked out the Woojer body-attachable sub-…

In 1995, for Sennheiser's 50th anniversary, they produced the Sennheiser HD 580 Jubilee, which became the HD 600 introduced in 1997. And ever since, along with the 2003 introduction of the HD 650, these headphones have held a position of near reverence by headphone enthusiast—many of whom will claim they remain the pinnacle of price/performance value.

I, too, hold this opinion...er...held this opinion. The HiFiMAN HE400S ($299), in my opinion, now claims this spot.

The HE400S is a full-size, circumaural (around the…

Sound Quality
Oh man! The HE400S is a fabulous sounding headphone! Right off the bat, I'll say it lacks low bass extension and is just a tad splashy sounding in the treble...but that's when I compare it with the best headphones available. Given it's price and type, I find it best to compare them head-to-head with the venerable HD 600/650. Listening side-by-side, I've got to say I prefer the HE400S over the HD 600 by a modest margin.

I suggest the reader have a look at the Sennheiser HD 600 measurements along side the HE400S as a reference point.

Raw frequency response plots show a gently rising response from 300Hz to 2kHz, and then a 12dB peak at 3.5kHz with subsequent roll-off to baseline level at 10kHz falling somewhat thereafter. This is very close to the Harman target response and the mid-range coherence I heard is likely a result of this profile. The HD 600, by comparison, shows the raw response actually descending between…

For a long time Mr. Speakers' Dan Clark, Founder and CEO, has worked his way up the ladder from enthusiast, to modifier, to manufacturer of heavily modified Fostex T50RP headphones. With the Ether (starting at $1499), Dan has completed the transition to a headphone completely designed and manufactured from scratch...and sounding better than anything he's previously produced. Congrats Dan!

Description
The Ether is a full-sized, circumaural open acoustic, planar magnetic headphone. The look is superb, to my eyes, the…

More than any other category, hard-core headphone enthusiasts love to rage about the failings of top-of-the-line headphones. It's perfectly understandable. When a $1500 headphone doesn't crush the performance of a much lower priced headphone—let's say the $400 Sennheiser HD 600 or $300 HiFiMAN HE400S—most enthusiasts are want to winge about it. But that's life. Developing headphones at this level is an expensive proposition, and normal diminishing return curves, it's quite understandable in this new but increasingly maturing category that manufacturers aren't hitting "perfection…

Measurements

Raw frequency response plots show a headphone that's quite flat between 60Hz and 1.7kHz. Below 60Hz, due to the transition to below pad resonance, the Ether has a roughly 2dB loss. This is very common among planar magnetic headphones and the Ether actually does a pretty good job of remaining flat in this area. The Harman response curve would want a bass rise beginning at 150Hz and increasing to a shelf at about +2dB to +4dB.

Above about 300Hz, the Harman curve would want a gentle increase up…

Editor's Note: As I read and edited this article an ever-increasing grin spread across my face as I realized it was Bob's geekspeak love note to Ti Kan and Morsel for their ledgend M3 DIY headphone amp. I'm sure they're both ticked pink at your praise, Bob.

It seems to me Bob's message here is: If you're a fairly accomplished DIYer, this is surely an amp to consider buildings.

This episode is full of ideas on what makes audio sound better (or worse). If you're like me, constantly searching for scientific reasons,…

You just never know what's going to show up from InnerFidelity's headphone measurement program. Today I got to measure a rather unique completely DIY headphone.

"The Empiric," built by superbestaudiofriends.org member feilb is a visual stunner. But more stunning, much more, is that they are not modifications of an existing headphone, but rather a self-designed and hand-built from the ground up headphone. Well, he sourced the drivers, but everything else is pure imagination.

He's got some great pictures in this…