I've found that Project Ember does well in terms of soundstage and separation with the HFM cans. It does amazingly with my HE-4 and I really enjoyed it with the HE-500 and HE-400 over my other amps at the time.I jammed out to the HE-400i on Ember at a meet and wasn't disappointed, though I didn't get to try the 400i on anything else. Garage1217 also has the Polaris which is a cheaper solid-state alternative to the Ember, same output stage, just no tube rolling.
Alright.dac/amp time. The biggest drawback to the 400i is the soundstage. It's not bad, in my opinion, but it is the first thing I'd look to enhance. I will definitely be looking into modding once jerg has had some time to cook some things up for the 560.While I know that dacs and amps aren't going to transform a headphone, many of them are still described in terms of their soundstage. If a bigger soundstage were my main goal, are there any dac/amps in the sub $500 range that would need to be looked at?I currently have the HRT MSII --> Asgard 1.
Quote from: Skyline on October 01, 2014, 02:53:40 PMAlright.dac/amp time. The biggest drawback to the 400i is the soundstage. It's not bad, in my opinion, but it is the first thing I'd look to enhance. I will definitely be looking into modding once jerg has had some time to cook some things up for the 560.While I know that dacs and amps aren't going to transform a headphone, many of them are still described in terms of their soundstage. If a bigger soundstage were my main goal, are there any dac/amps in the sub $500 range that would need to be looked at?I currently have the HRT MSII --> Asgard 1. There are two factors that help with congested and smallish sound stage on the 400i. The first is a simple grill mod which is well documented. I have made no less than six pair for others and can now make a nice pair in about 20 minutes including painting them. This is the best and easiest way to add to the sound stage and add air to the signature. The other factor that helps on sound stage is to switch to focus pads if you are using focus-a. The improvement is smaller than the grill mod but helpful nonetheless.
