Hi there Mr. Jedi. and welcome to the planar club. Iāve just received my 400i 2020 set after owning 4xx before. Yes, with planars it will be an adjustment coming from dynamic cans. The sound is produced and presented in a different way that most were not used to (self included). Planars are generally more linear in the bass with little to no mid bass hump that gives dynamic cans their perceived bass or āslamā. Planar bass goes deep, flat, and generally more accurate. Keep in mind that these are entry level cans, they will still roll off slightly in the bass but not as much as most dynamics. They may also benefit to some degree from a few days burn in, to allow the new membranes to settle in, to loosen slightly. Try this if you can: Play them at a medium or slightly louder volume overnight for a week. Listen normally daily, see if the treble smoothes out, bass deepens, and soundstage widens. As an owner of several planars (Fostex t50rp mk3, he4xx, Sundara, and now Ananda and 400i 2020) itās been my experience that they all benefited from a gentle burn in process. Also they need power, amp them well. The more current the better (dynamics use mostly voltage), but donāt catch them on fire, haha. Only wishing to help.
Hi, Iām currently deciding on buying the new 2020 revision of the HE400i. Originally I was planning on HE4XX but I got turned off by the QC problems it was plagued with, especially since I donāt live in America so getting it sent back is more hassle than its worth.
Anyway, on their site, they claim the HE400i 2020 are easy to drive. I donāt have an amp yet but my BTR5 is coming in soon, will it be enough?
Yes. The balanced output on the btr5 will be enough.
Ah, thank you! I didnāt think Balanced cables affected the power output.
They donāt. Itās the output itself on the amp. The balanced output usually has more power than the SE output depending on the amp, in the case of the btr5 it has 220 mw 2.5mm vs 80 mw 3.5mm @ 32 ohms.
That was my experience too, but i ignored it for a while because I was so mesmerized by all the detail that planar speed makes possible. Then I made a personalized EQ preset for it that adds 6 dB to everything from 50 Hz all the way down (among other things) and I thought I could live with the bass that way. Then after even more time and some listening sessions with the Superlux HD662-Evo occasionally reminding me what dynamic bass sounds like, I found the 400i bass disappointing again and went shopping again, ending up with the Verum 1, which had better slam out of the box (with stock pads; I donāt think the slam survives a pad change to anything perforated or in any way breathable).
All this, only to find at some point this year that if I A/B my EQād 400i against my non-EQād Verum, powered by the iFi Micro iDSD I find they have pretty much the same bass quantity and slam. 
I guess it took this long to reach those 100-150 hours of burn-in that HFM recommends for them? (I always used them as ācritical listeningā cans, so relatively rarely, when all the conditions were right, when there was silence, when the musical planets were aligned etc.) Maybe this is what it takes for the membraneās edge/suspension to develop enough āgiveā for some minimal pistonic motion, which coupled with the surface area can finally move enough air in one go to produce some amount of that slam weāve been looking for. (I assume dynamics do this so much more easily because they have much more excursion or xmax, whereas planar membranes have practically no suspension to speak of, theyāre just locked in place all around the edge and their free portion in the middle moves back and forth as much as the materialās elasticity allows, which is initially very little.)
Exactly. The membrane has very little excursion compared to a dynamic driver so it displaces less air (low frequencies need more air to be displaced). This is why planars go for big drivers - in order to compensate for excursion with more surface area.
Yeah, and itās obviously still not enough. The loss of excursion is waaay more than what surface area they can put in there to compensate. Even dynamics have 50mm drivers in some cases, and a 50x50 planar will only be 27% larger than that. Nowhere near enough to cover the loss of excursion.
Yep. Physics is a biatch lol.
And my dad always said physics are good for youā¦
I swear the full review was here, but this is just the first look. Here is Joshua full review.
Iām not a reviewer and I donāt have very sensitive ears from what I can tell, but Iām still going to give my 2 cents on the HE400i (2020) in case anyone is interested 
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My musical taste is not focused on bass much, I mostly listen to progressive/classic rock and after that pop, hip hop, a bit of classical, sometimes jazz; pretty much anything but electronic music and heavy/death metal and stuff.
My setup is Spotify -> FiiO E10K -> Monoprice Liquid Spark.
Comfort
My first impressions of these is that they are much more comfortable than I expected after reading opinions and reviews. I come from the DT880 Edition 250 Ohm and I donāt find the HE400i significantly less comfortable than that one. I find them better than the Koss line-up though they are less comfortable than the MH752.
Sound
The first song I listened to was Famous Blue Raincoat by Leonard Cohen. If I were to compare it to the DT880 Edition I would say that the HE400i sounds more open and relaxed. Like I said Iām not that sensitive and I find it hard to really convey what details I hear, but it seems like the HE400i sounds faster in the sense that the driver sounds a bit more responsive if that makes sense. The DT880 are a bit fatiguing from time to time, I havenāt had that with the HE400i yet. Though they are not bass focused headphones, my preference goes to fast detailed bass over much bass, these sounds very good to me. I prefer the bass of these over the DT880, it doesnāt seem to have more or less bass than the DT880 but itās just a bit faster.
The headphones seem to bring out the best of male vocals to me, female focus I find a bit less impressive.
Design and build
Hifiman is known for their rather questionable Quality Assurance AFAIK, but my unit seems not to have a single blemish on it, for what itās worth. The headphones leak like crazy though, so I will be in the market for another pair of headphones once we can go back to the office again 
. Strangely I donāt notice too much noise coming from the outside, but maybe Iām just cranking my volume too much 
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The cable is a nice length for me and doesnāt suffer from micro-phonics, though they are a bit curled out-of-the box and I think they are a bit more stiff than Iād like; I donāt see any reason to order new ones at the moment.
Conclusion
Iām very happy with the headphones. I ended up choosing these over the HD560s because I got the idea those might be a bit to clinical sounding and I have been curious about planar magnetic headphones for a while now (plus that cable on the HD560s). Iām definitely keeping them and I might compliment them with a pair of Grado sr60eās to get a bit more out of female vocals and guitars, both are fine but necessarily special to me. I prefer the HE400i over the DT880 since it sounds a bit more relaxed without becoming veiled or loosing detail, as far as I can hear.
Like I said Iām not a really a reviewer so if I said something stupid, or if youāve heard something different or have a better way to phrase something I said please let me know 
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Interesting, I see what you mean though I have a completely different experience. I think it also largely depends on what headphones or gear youāre coming from. My previous headphone was a DT-880, so the highs on these are comparatively a bit more mild. I hope the speakers will bring you more joy .
Yeah I think Iām just used to something but I canāt tell what it is. Itās really weird tho, anything that doesnāt suit my taste will never do even though it can be really good.Odd.
I deleted the comment I made as I realised itās inaccurate. I played around with a PC equalizer, (equaliser APO) and realised the highs I said was mids.
I didnāt really know how equalizers work so I didnāt account for the bass boost I did. But now I still donāt know. I might have messed up again?
But Iāll get speakers first as itās a guarantee Iāll get the sound I want.
Iām not too much at home with equalizers as well. However today I took some eq settings from this guy on Reddit called Oratory1990.
He has two profiles for the He400i, his own and a Harman profile. I didnāt really like his profile, it was overdoing it on the bass, actually sounds distorted and seems to destroy the soundstage; but the Harman target profile is quite nice. It makes the headphones a bit less bright and gives some more impact to the bass. Iām not sure if Iāll keep using the EQ, since I quite like bright headphones, though they are more of a complement to the SR60eās Iām getting this weekend so who knows.
Long story short: when you get back into headphones and want to eq, Iād start by looking at what profiles other people are using who know what they are doing .
I can see what he is saying, honestly even watching netflix some of the audio has distortion, on other headphones like my DT990 itās like ādid i hear thatā on the sundaraās itās in your face, they really thrive on good audio quality and music made to be enjoyable with neutral headphones, but most audio is just shit at a technical levelā¦ Itās kind of like having racing slicks on your car, if conditions were perfect they would be absolutely optimal but when all other factors are less than ideal itās glaringly obvious. I am very happy with them as my normal audio headphones, between my no soundstage mid heavy senns and my huge soundstage v shaped dt990ās.
Oo good info. Iāll try and find. Thanks
Had it bookmarked: https://www.reddit.com/r/oratory1990/wiki/index/list_of_presets
In case the 400i there are multiple, for the new version and the old version.
I was contemplating maybe returning / selling these and getting the Sundara instead, but after this review Iām sure Iāll be keeping these. A/Bāing these with the DT-880 has taught me that I actually am a bit sensitive to sibilant treble, and I find myself keeping these on for longer when Iām switching between the two. Shame that they are apparently going out of production though, the new HE400se better be something very good otherwise Iām not sure what Hifimanās goal is by cancelling theseā¦