Nice

It’s all experience. Just keep listening to gear and talking to people and you’ll get it eventually. It also helps hanging out in other forums with more experienced people like head-fi. Ask questions whenever you can because most people in my experience are glad to help.

Also attend local meets/conventions if you have any near you and see if there are any hifi stores near you that allow you to demo headphones (most will allow it)

Also don’t take every word as truth. For example I see people on here criticizing anybody who buys expensive gear, but somewhere else I see people saying that the same gear makes a difference in audio quality. Same thing goes for graphs/data vs personal preferences. Like I said, experience is the best thing for you to learn. Listen to things yourself before discounting a certain viewpoint

For the reference, it’s been 1.5 years since I’ve started out with headphones and I still get confused occasionally. It’s a deep rabbit hole!

You can smoke one for $10 and get much better results.

They dont sell the qc35 (to my knowledge) so i have been looking online at places like mercari. And ive heard good and back about 45. Thats why im so indecisive!

http://nwavguy.blogspot.com/2012/04/what-we-hear.html

Read all his blog posts.

Nah, you would need to step up to the Arya with the suspension headband. It is legit the most comfortable headphone out there not just Hifiman assuming the egg shape doesn’t push on your jaw weird (only complaint I have heard). Plus you get better bass extension with better detail.

Still not going to sound like speakers tho.

This. I have both Focal speakers and headphones. The headphones are more precise and detailed. Even the Utopia I had before sounded better than the same price point speakers Focal offers. But I but much of that comes down to room treatment and listening position. And figuring all that out is a nightmare

Interestingly, the sound tonality should be almost the same: https://crinacle.com/graphs/headphones/graphtool/?share=IEF_Neutral_Target,Sundara_(2020),HE400se

I do not think 400se should be bad choice. There are more measurements taken of this headset and IIRC they only tend to have just a defect with a bit of narrow-band resonance around 700 Hz. Otherwise, the performance looked fine. So, I am quite at loss to explain what the problem is.

This. Pre-Android PMPs ran slim, non-bloated software that was very close to the hardware and as a result were not very demanding on batteries. Using Android to run a PMP is like using a tractor trailer to do a grocery run. It works but is grossly inefficient.

That's fair then, yeah. I guess they are pretty cheap and available to where you could just pick one up to try and then return it later. And lots of people probs just have them laying around at this point. Did not mean to come off passive aggressive!

Could be a bad cable tbh. That's the first thing I would try if you have another one that's compatible. If you are able to try a different cable and still don't see a difference, then it's either a defective unit or you hate the tuning.

I had a pair of HE-4XX that I passed on to my gf (same drivers pretty much same headphones) and they easily went toe to toe with the HE560 I replaced them with. To my ears when I listened to them both through the same amp the 4XX were like 90% as capable easily, and those HE560 are a $300-500 headphone.

They are tuned a little bit different than Sundara and probably lean a bit towards "fun" rather than absolute detail.

I recommend this to get you started. If you're done with that, then you can check out this video on FR graphs by Crin.

This article should also be read and understood by everyone imho.

Then there is this article on headphone power requirements.

Aight thanks I'll keep that in mind

Yeah, it’s not the cable that’s the issue. How long ago did you ship it out?

The sidebar/community info for this sub is full of information. It’s a nice resource for both budding audiophiles and longtime veterans. Also by listening to as much gear as possible in person, but that’s not as easy as it sounds.

If you can't return them, you can either try to sell them, or just keep them around and revisit them every once in a while. Preferences do shift over time, and I've had headphones that I didn't like that much, but I went back to them a few months later and found that their sound was better than I had originally thought.

I do have a basic knowledge is just that this subreddit takes audio specs outta pocket and i just get confuse. I need to gain more knowledge so i can disagree better whit people here as that what all audiophiles do either way

Don't buy the same shit

Yup I will... Someone else as well told me that before buying the samsons... Also even if it does I have a soldering iron and the other neseesities to counteract the problem... So it won't be problem I hope.. nevertheless thanks for the advice will keep that in mind :)

And its just balls of clay!
Not gonna lie, its tempting to try make and list an item like this, super easy :)

Sorry - where is rule 2?

Yeah this hobby is not really cheap. But the weird thing is that I don't really see these things you praise. I'm starting to feel like I got a defective unit or something. When I tried the sundaras everything felt so textured and I could make out so many little details. But with the he400se I'm sure they're not gonna compete with the sundarad but they just sound cheap. I really have no way to describe them except for cheap and low resolution.

I loved these cans. They sound wonderful for the price it offers.

Also be weary of the cable that goes into the headphones. Had one of those problems where sound will only play if it’s at a specific angle. Only had them for a year…

I pretty much am, I'll look into those, thanks

I'll probably try these with my friend's amp and I'll see how it goes.