JVC HA-S400 Headphones- the $27 wonder?

rodge827 · « **Reply #80 on:** 10 Jan 2013, 01:25 pm »

Thank you, thank you, thank you Ed for starting this thread!

Without it I would never have even thought of buying headphones!

I have been without my listening room since 10/30/12.
Hurricane Sandy wiped it out with 2' of water.

All of my gear is in boxes in the spare bed room and I haven't listened to quality sound until last night when I hooked up my new JVC headphones.
What a treat it is to be able to listen again.

I'm using them with my HP lap top, Windows Media Player, and SRS Audio Essentials.

Wow! Very nice out of the box and I'm planning to do the mod very soon.

Ahh....it's great to have a source like AC with all of the great gents and ladies to inform each other of their finds.

You guys rock!

eclein · « **Reply #81 on:** 10 Jan 2013, 01:54 pm »

Chris I'm so sorry to hear about your loss, I've been to your home and can't imagine how much stuff you may have to replace, hang in and glad we could help you start to find the fun again in music. Hey Chris those $27 cans sound pretty good don't they, wait until you hear a few $150 plus cans and realize the whole headphone thing is all new again to you....and a lot less expensive to play with.
Enjoy my friend!!!

wisnon · « **Reply #82 on:** 10 Jan 2013, 02:39 pm »

$150 cans, like Skull Candy and Dr Dre? LoL

Actually, those cost even more than that...more like $300 and the JVC trounces them.

eclein · « **Reply #83 on:** 10 Jan 2013, 02:53 pm »

Good sound can be had for $150, AT-M50's (?model#) and various Grado models, plus several more I'm sure and that just around $150. When you go higher which was the "plus" I added the whole headphone thing goes wild. The $150 was an arbitrary number I chose, my point was there are amazing sounds in store for someone who investigates and enters the world of higher priced cans.
Chris has now been bitten by the $27 headphone category wait until he jumps in higher if he chooses too.....the fun is just beginning and no body can bitch about the sound being too loud...LOL!!!!!

charmerci · « **Reply #84 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 06:28 am »

Did a little playing around. I tried a thicker felt pad between the back and the speaker. (Light brown 3/16" - upper left.)

I found the bass deeper and the mid-range more prominent. However, I don't actually like part of the mid-range on this (somewhere around 700-1300 Hz upper piano/high voice.) It's too harsh. So I tried a less thick piece of cloth (the white one,) still too harsh for me but better. So I went back to my cotton (old sock) cloth. There is less bass and the mid-range is less prominent/forward - but I enjoy it more.

wisnon · « **Reply #85 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 07:01 am »

Quote from: eclein on 10 Jan 2013, 02:53 pm

Good sound can be had for $150, AT-M50's (?model#) and various Grado models, plus several more I'm sure and that just around $150. When you go higher which was the "plus" I added the whole headphone thing goes wild. The $150 was an arbitrary number I chose, my point was there are amazing sounds in store for someone who investigates and enters the world of higher priced cans.
Chris has now been bitten by the $27 headphone category wait until he jumps in higher if he chooses too.....the fun is just beginning and no body can bitch about the sound being too loud...LOL!!!!!

LoL

You just know I had to throw in the non-performing boom, boom Gucci brands....

eclein · « **Reply #86 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 02:48 pm »

Speaking of which, I read a bunch of the customer reviews associated with the new Monster headphones, the ones that look like futuristic bad scifi cans, and they were shockingly bad. Like more than a few started with "Do Not Buy". Just sayin.........

wisnon · « **Reply #87 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 03:58 pm »

Yes, I was in a Dept store talking with a vendor offline and we both had a good laugh how the kids were shelling out HUNDREDS for the "KOOL" brands that sounded so bad when the $50 Sonys/Philips, etc sounded waayyy better. The SKs and the Beats cost more than the audiophile models! M_AR_K_E_T_I_N_G.

lcrim · « **Reply #88 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 04:21 pm »

I received the HM5 earpads from MP4Nation ($17) yesterday. Shipping from Hong Kong took almost 2 weeks.
I've been using the double Q-tips mod and the tape mod but removed the Q-tips. The pads do make the cans circumaural and help w/ comfort a great deal. Spectacular isolation now.
Larry

randytsuch · « **Reply #89 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 04:55 pm »

Quote from: lcrim on 11 Jan 2013, 04:21 pm

I received the HM5 earpads from MP4Nation ($17) yesterday. Shipping from Hong Kong took almost 2 weeks.
I've been using the double Q-tips mod and the tape mod but removed the Q-tips. The pads do make the cans circumaural and help w/ comfort a great deal. Spectacular isolation now.
Larry

Does it change the sound? Or is it just for comfort?

I'll probably order a pair either way, just wondering

Randy

lcrim · « **Reply #90 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 06:19 pm »

Quote from: randytsuch on 11 Jan 2013, 04:55 pm

Does it change the sound? Or is it just for comfort?

The sound is relaxed but properly detailed. I think that the distance from the ear is somewhat of a critical dimesion w/ these and most cans I've used. These pads fit over the stock pads and the placement where things end up produces the best sound I've had from these to date. The Q-tip mod made things a bit stark and somehow removed the romance. I also think that further messing around w/ these may provide others w/ trade-offs they may prefer.

Larry

eclein · « **Reply #91 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 06:55 pm »

Larry that was an excellent idea, thanks.

randytsuch · « **Reply #92 on:** 11 Jan 2013, 08:38 pm »

Quote from: lcrim on 11 Jan 2013, 06:19 pm

The sound is relaxed but properly detailed. I think that the distance from the ear is somewhat of a critical dimesion w/ these and most cans I've used.

I remember someone at head fi making the same comment about these cans and the distance to ear.

Just ordered these pads.

Randy

SET Man · « **Reply #93 on:** 12 Jan 2013, 01:57 am »

Quote from: eclein on 11 Jan 2013, 02:48 pm

Speaking of which, I read a bunch of the customer reviews associated with the new Monster headphones, the ones that look like futuristic bad scifi cans, and they were shockingly bad. Like more than a few started with "Do Not Buy". Just sayin.........

Quote from: wisnon on 11 Jan 2013, 03:58 pm

Yes, I was in a Dept store talking with a vendor offline and we both had a good laugh how the kids were shelling out HUNDREDS for the "KOOL" brands that sounded so bad when the $50 Sonys/Philips, etc sounded waayyy better. The SKs and the Beats cost more than the audiophile models! M_AR_K_E_T_I_N_G.

Hey!

Those headphones are all about "Bling Factor" and some people are happy to pay for it... especially youngsters. Sad isn't it?

Take care,
Buddy

soundbitten1 · « **Reply #94 on:** 14 Jan 2013, 05:14 pm »

Has anyone compared these to the Monoprice 8323 phones?

murphy11 · « **Reply #95 on:** 16 Jan 2013, 09:06 pm »

I bought these JVCs as my first set of headphones and am very pleased! I also bought a Dragonfly DAC and downloaded MediaMonkey as my player. I thought ripping to FLAC was going to be a challenge but it turned out to be simple. The Dragonfly is a huge upgrade over the PC sound and I love how portable and simple it is to use.

murphy11 · « **Reply #96 on:** 16 Jan 2013, 09:24 pm »

I actually bought and modded 2 pair of these cans.

The first pair I used one piece of duct tape, 1 piece of Kinesio tape and 1 round cut cotton sock inside the cup. I cut small strips of duct tape and added them to circle the back side of the driver. I cut small pieces of duct tape to stick on the top side as described by Charmerci. I've got maybe 40 -50 hours on that pair and am happy with them.

My 10 yr old broke his phones he uses on the Ipad so I bought another pair and modded them in a slightly different way. I used 2 pieces of duct tape inside the cup and added single strips of electrical tape in the cup and then added the round cut sock. (so 3 strips thick of tape) I did a more thorough job of duct taping around the back of the driver and I used 2 pieces of duct tape on the face. I'm also using Qtips on both cans and stock pads (for now)

I prefer the 2nd pair with maybe 16 hours on it to the original pair. I will put more hours on the second pair and see if I can describe the differences when both pair have same number of hours.

murphy11 · « **Reply #97 on:** 16 Jan 2013, 09:35 pm »

Last tip - for my second pair I found a better way of cutting the duct tape to place on the face. I cut the tape so it was longer than the width of the can and placed it so that it split the can in half. I took a Sharpie with cap on and pressed around the edge of the driver cutout so I could easily see the round edge. I drew with Sharpie on the tape around the edge so I had a semi-circle on the tape. I cut with kitchen shears the semi circle in half and then cut with the end of the shears one half of the semi-circle. I did the same thing with the other side and it worked great. Drawing the semi-circle as a template, breaking cuts into 2 small jobs came out clean.

I also had the tape extend off the edge of the face and then used the shears to do small cuts around the perimeter. This cutting technique was clean and allowed me to cover the entire face of the can. Sorry for the long post but maybe it will help someone who cares about little things like that.

eclein · « **Reply #98 on:** 17 Jan 2013, 07:01 pm »

I like this guy, his first cans and he's in there tweaking them...welcome!!!!! Your in the right place....

Hey guys is the q-tip mod putting something under the rim of the earcups?? Somebody post a list of the mods so far I think I'm way behind. Are the earpads a pain in the ass to get back on when you pull them off to open the drivers up???????

murphy11 · « **Reply #99 on:** 17 Jan 2013, 09:54 pm »

I read somewhere that you put a full Qtip into the earcup but a standard Qtip was too wide for these pads. I took kitchen shears and cut the ends off about 12-15 Qtips and stuffed them under the inside edge of each earcup. Pretty easy to do this mod. I'm not sure if they make too much of a difference. I am too lazy to take them out and do any comparison.

Just taking everyone's word that the Qtips are better than no stuffing.