I thought I heard them say that the bass and other enhancements was an improvement to the 660S and not necessarily the 600/650 and the S2 isn't really a replacement to either of those headphones or trying to be, it is pretty much its own thing in the 6xx series which targets a different audience.

I was kind of wondering about whether they would sound more like a SSP/SSR or Chu with more bass and less treble bite. I honestly like the sound of my Chu with bass added and the treble smoothed over a little which my iFi iDSD signature takes care of. Sounds like I will enjoy this one.

Mine is stuck in Chicago in the US and there are terrible winter storms all over, so probably won't get it until next week I would guess. Love the mouse pad!

I really love the 58X, I am really starting to appreciate it a lot more now that I've been listening to it a lot lately. I definitely like it more than my 6XX, it has the perfect balance of treble, mids and bass for me on a finely tuned Sound Blaster GC7. It is a pleasure to listen to and fixes up all the things that I do not like about the 6XX which was mainly the relaxed nature of that headphone.

That is good news, the atom stack should be a perfect litmus test to put this mystery to bed!

No worries, let us know how it goes and what your friend was using for a dac along with amp. Hopefully we can figure this one out because the K3 specs at a minimum I would expect that the 400se should be a relatively pleasant experience rather than the description you gave it and the horrible turd fest that came out of my EPOS dac/amp. Plugging into my Galaxy S8+, I'm not a fan of how the 400se sounds either, "The lower mid range sounds muddy and untextured higher mids and treble sound veiled and everything feels very low resolution" was pretty closely fitting the description I had that you gave outside of needing more volume on the S8. Plugging into a Apple Dongle, it's not terrible but it sounds a bit rough compared to what I'm used to.

Hopefully by testing the headphone out on your friends gear will yield some positive feedback/findings to at least let us know if it is a gear thing or if the headphones sound signature is not a good fit, it's just a really tough call here because of the same-ish experiences I've had which back up your findings minus actually having a K3 to know for sure if its just a sound preference issue or the K3 is the issue here.

Hoping for the best.

Yea, good call. Hopefully your friends amp can help you realize the 400se's potential and help you figure out if the sound is worth investing further into.

I would also have your friend listen to it and see what they think since they are used to the Sundara but mind you the Sundara is a big step up in comparison but you already knew that from your original post.

Godspeed!

What you are describing sounds like you are running the headphone off a lackluster dac/amp. I do not have a K3 to comment but I think I know what you are talking about.

I plugged my 400se into my PC and my EPOS GSX300 and achieved similar results. Volume for days but it just sounds like a shit headphone and there isn't a thing you can do to make it sound better. The headphone sounds congested, the bass is one note and everything else fairly mediocre. I would say that this is not a great headphone and I would have returned it for something else post haste.

Plug it into something a bit more robust. Bass becomes better textured, excellent control and extension but the punch/slam remains about the same strength which is on the gentler side as far as planars go. Bass excitement was never a quality of this headphone, so coming from gaming headphones this would be a let down and don't expect throwing more power at the headphone to help, it's just enough to keep the headphone from being lean and boring, I would say it is a lively sound. Mids become uncongested, voices sound organic with decent timbre, decent spacing and imaging. The soundstage seems fine, it's not a big improvement but I feel everything is where it is supposed to be. Excellent clarity in the mid to uppermid region, no notable issues here but seems about right for the 400 series.

I feel like there is a point where you can hit rock bottom with this headphone, however if after a week of listening it doesn't grow on you, most definitely return it for something else as there shouldn't be any reason for you to upgrade your gear around the 400se, just get a better headphone instead.

I feel like the 400se is a great starting point to get an idea of what the hifiman sound signature is all about but this headphone does need a little bit of finesse to have it all come together and I feel like sometimes I can get it all together on less but some of the biggest complaints I've seen is about the HP needing power (not for volume) but to bring out the best performance out of this headphone and this isn't coming from people who are inexperienced with headphones but from reviewers themselves. I would agree but I've had fairly mediocre dac/amp combos deliver the goods but if what you are saying is true, it sounds like the K3 might be the problem. Just my 2 cents.

Basically this. In the most basic way I can describe it, I found the biggest changes in sound came from what tubes I rolled. Some sound like shit, some laid back, some no different than a good clean solid state. In the end, it was fun rolling but after blowing through a dozen or more tubes only to find out I liked tubes that were just a really good solid state sound... it was a huge waste of money, I could have just scooped up a really nice SS amp and have been done with it rather than the hundreds of dollars in tubes I wasted my money on including the amps.

I just busted out my Sony CD Walkman D-E220 and a copy of Weird Al - Off the Deep End. Ahh memories. I can't believe you can still buy this model on Amazon.

I thought the Chu was aight with a good seal and running through ifi gear the bass boost made it nice and thumpy. Sure other sets might be better for the price of a LAN but I get a new waifu and good sound to enrich my... laifu? lol, i tried, I'll see myself out.

I have one on the way and will give it a spin as soon as it arrives.

As a single dude running a database of hundreds/thousands of audio products, QC, build and comfort is not something that makes sense to keep up with when you have reviewers out there that can get into that stuff individually. His work is impressive for what it is. Honestly everyone is different and Crins manly sized head isn't the gold standard to judge comfort of a headphone on. I don't see anything wrong with Crins site knowing that he's just there to judge sound above all else which to some helps weed out a lot of options assuming you share similar listening preferences.

Just return it and try again. If it doesn't work out after that then you need to decide for yourself if you continue, try again or go for something else.

While it sucks to get a DOA or defective product as a new purchase, shit happens with mass produced goods. I've had incidents like this happen with Beyer, Sennheiser, LetShour and Razer. The only time I've had an issue with a Hifiman product was when I purchased a used Sundara off somebody from Ebay. Pretty sure he got rid of it because the left driver was shitting the bed intermittently but luckily he had a receipt for the headphone and it was still under warranty. Hifiman had awesome support, I got a replacement in no time and it's been good for 2 years now.

Sundara is an awesome headphone, definitely worth a second shot. I would make sure to stick with a retailer like Amazon who makes returns/exchanges easy as sometimes you can have shit for luck and get a bad streak.

As far as B-stock goes, I wonder how much of these issues are due to human error. I think a lot of stuff slides through the QA process at a lot of companies and I've seen it first hand like for example where some kid will get bored or lazy after churning out repairs all day or functionality testing and its nearing time to go home or the weekend and obvious issues will be signed off on, considered 'good enough' or ignored.

It does feel like a lotto sometimes, no matter what company you decide to buy from. Personally I've never had good luck with b-stock items from any company but that's just probably my luck. I can't tell somebody how many times I've ordered b-stock items and it was super obvious that if somebody did a proper functionality test or used the item it shouldn't have been resold or passed an inspection.

Hopefully your next headphone is a good one!

That's some nice Schiit you have there partner. Just got a Schiit Modi Multibit 2 in today and love it.

I have a Vali 2+ and it's very nice as you would expect from Schiit but in the end I ended up liking tubes that sound more more like a normal clean Solid State amp, lol. Schiit has come out with a newer version of the Vali 2 which is the Vali 2++, has a different pinout but is otherwise virtually identical to the Vali 2+, so make sure you get the right tubes if you get this model and not the ones for the old one, at least not without an adapter.

Vali 2 is not a bad way to get a taste for tubes but the ones I like tend to be more expensive and the amount of tubes I acquired over time I probably could have purchased a better amp or headphone honestly but oh well. Hard to know what you will like until you do and it was fun rolling different tubes to get varied changes in sound.

It was a good read. I am kind of excited to see what they release next year. Glad to see some of those releases could potentially be around $300 or under.

I hear you on that. With some of these wireless designs, I like how the mic is an optional component and you can tune the way the headphone sounds so you can alternate between gaming and music. Bonus points for headphones that don't have crazy gamer LED lights all over the place draining battery.

I'm not sure that I have tried any IEMs marketed specifically for gaming but I do see them from time to time and I do use IEMs for gaming quite often.

I do have quite a few IEMs but one that comes to mind most vividly during my gaming sessions would be my Final Audio A4000. The sound is crystal clear and It is excellent at picking up distant ambient details. Placement and strength/volume of various sound seems to be just right. There is just enough bass to give some weight without being a distraction in other areas. While not being my favorite IEM for music it does feel like it was made for the kinds of games I like to play such as Star Citizen.

The Schiit stack will make an excellent gift and a great excuse for you to upgrade. :)

I think your post is old enough now that you would probably benefit from re-creating it and adding more details + specifics so that people can better help you.

r/HeadphoneAdvice/ might also be a good place to get suggestions. I would also include your budget.

Next steps is to sit back and enjoy your magni/modi stack.

On another note, kind of a waste of money to buy a balanced cable when your magni/modi stack does not support balanced input or output. You also do not mention what kind of headphone you have.

Whether or not you would even benefit from a balanced output is questionable and would largely depend on the dac and the amp.

For most headphones magni/modi is all you will ever need, just as Schiit says.

I love solupeak line switchers, I have one like the one you linked so I can switch between two dacs and four amps.

I had some glasses with thickish temples and temple tips which caused discomfort and sometimes pain after awhile. Decided to switch to this brand called Silhouette. They make some ridiculously ultra thin eye wear, I have absolutely no problems wearing headphones now, even on-ears are okay. The temples and temple tips are basically just a wire almost.

I totally just had the MMX 300 in my cart believe it or not!

I was probably minutes away from pulling the trigger until I saw the post here on Reddit about the Maxwell. I immediately went onto Audeze's website and ordered it without hesitation. The wireless isn't really a big deal to me as I would rather run everything wired off my array of dac/amps I have but I am a pretty big fan of how the Mobius sounded back in the day when my friend had owned one but I was really put off after reading about all the issues with it and build quality problems of the Penrose and by extension the Cloud Orbit S. So I thought, okay, well maybe I'll go with the MMX 300 until the next generation of Penrose is released.

What timing!

I'll probably consider getting the MMX 300 at some point for giggles but my closed back 'gaming headphone' needs will probably be met with the Maxwell. Thinking about scooping up some non gaming Beyers though! I've always avoided them because of how bright or analytical I hear they sound. Kind of looking for something less on the analytical side, mostly. The TYGR came up as an interesting compromise and more what I was looking for. I ordered one of those to test the waters and it showed up today but sadly the left driver is hosed and will need to go back to Beyer.

Amazing, I was in the market for a new PC closed back gaming headphone and was just lamenting over how the poor build quality issues with Penrose and Mobius, the Maxwell design looks like it has taken all the criticisms from the previous models and addressed them.

This is good advice, I did the same and purchased a decibel meter to see how loud I am listening to my music as I was concerned that I might be listening way too loud. I was pleased to see my listening levels I like to listen at is between 65-75dB with 75dB being the high end.