yah I am lucky that my wife had gotten the Sundaras so I got the 400iās and was able to compare them. When you compare the the Sundaras definitely are a little more detailed at the high end. They are definitely much better built IMO but if you got the 400iās I donāt think you would be disappointed. It is a very very slight difference. Zeos is pretty accurate in his review if you donāt have Sundaras to compare you wouldnāt even really know at least in my very uneducated and limited opinion.
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I would be curious how the HE-560 v4 compares with its price between the 400i 2020 and the Sundaras.
Z said there should just be these at $170 and the Sundara at $350, but its not clear if heās heard the latest 560. I havenāt seen him review them since the v1.
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Regarding the DT-800 I also find myself sensitive to itās treble in stock form. Not to get too off topic, but dekoni suede pads really transform the DT-800 into a much more usable headphone.
Iāve enjoyed my HiFIMAN 400 HE-400i for almost 5 years now.
Yes, they definitely benefit from the 100-150 hours burn-in that HifIMan suggest.
I have been fortunate to still be able to enjoy a Linn Sondek and Magneplanar 111b speakers.
I guess thatās why when hearing the HifiMan for the first time I could immediately identify with the magnetic strips.
Finally I had a pair of phones that I didnāt miss the openness and clarity of the Magneplanar speakers.
These days I mostly listen to Tidal via the UAPP App.
And yes, they most definitely need the Opus #11 that is tasked with the DAC/AMP responsibility.
I have also used LG Quad DAC for many years, and recently moving to the Wing the Opus#11 is now my favourite audio device, of course coupled to the HifiMan phones.
Tidal max HiRes and MQA are definitely a requirement and compares to my own flac recordings from the Linn of my vinyl collection.
Finally to conclude, I would appreciate any comments on a suitable DAC for the HifiMan as my faithful Opus #11 has a dreadful battery capacity now of only approx 2 hours.
Hope to hear some thought on this.
Thank you
Do yourself a favor. Everyone should have these on their he series cans.
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i tested HD 560s and HE400i A/B for a bit. to sum it up in layman (me) terms:
general and sound:
both probably not bass head headphones but have great bass. itās clean and thumpy but never bloated and blown up. iām a musician and my headphone knowledge is limited so i go by how i experienced bass guitar in real life (gigs and rehearsal room) as a benchmark.
i like them both but i went with the HE400i because over longer periods of time they were more pleasant and less fatiguing without EQ. the HD 560s have a more flat/accurate tonality but they have some harshness to them, which became a factor when i turned up to really get immersed in the music. itās not crazy noticable otherwise but in comparison it was a deciding factor.
i felt like due to the HE400i having this smoothness and clean almost liquidy character (planar sound? itās my first) i could turn them up more without it being straining. that way the mids being slightly recessed in comparison wasnāt an issue. imho both are great headphones. both work great for gaming but the HE400i is the better alrounder for me. voices in podcasts (youtube mostly but also spotify) sound nicer to me on them for example. this could be be due to the HD 560s just being les forgiving. who knowsā¦
so in terms of sound i donāt think one of them is better than the other. itās more a matter of taste and use case. the HD 560s are designed for production so they might be better for that. could just be marketing mumbo jumbo though.
soundstage
again, just based on my limited knowledge and in layman terms. sound stage ingame (bfV) seems similar but HE400i seems more open. hard to say though if that is as simple as saying they have more. just with music the tonality plays probably a big factor. since the HD 560s are flatter they are also feeling denser and less airy. gaming still felt immersive. itās just that airy sound can probably convey the feeling of space more. HD 560s never felt claustrophobic though. i enjoyed them for bfV. maybe some more seasoned people can say more on that.
comfort:
HD 560s gets more comfortable over time because their pads wear in and the clamp becomes less. nice and ergonomic. the HE400i are more comfortable on the ears but the headband (2020 version) needs adjustment after while for me because it only has contact to my head in a small area so i start feeling that. so iād say comfort is overall equal but more balanced on the HD 560s.
EDIT:
EQ
also wanted to add that the HE400i seems to respond really well to EQ. the HD 560s did respond well to stuff i found online too but i didnāt go as indepth on it as the 400i. so i can not really make a real comparison. i just made 3 peak filters in APO EQ for the 400i and i can easily get different tunings without any noticable weirdness. so now i have a gain knob for subbass extention, mid attack (for hardrock and metal) and one for treble roll off. i donāt really use the treble one since i love the treble so far. i noticed though that the treble stayed remarkably clean when i boosted it way up.
@Pokrog whatās the benefit?
Massively improved soundstage and noticeably sharper imaging. Sound wise its noticeably cleaner and more detailed. Also Iāve owned a pair of 400is for years now and the new he400se is so much better Iām blown away. Iāve been using them for the last 3 days exclusively for gaming and I gotta say they are absolutely fantastic with the honeycomb grills. Theyāre what Iām going to be recommending to people in the under $300 price range for gaming, maybe even higher. The thing is they are really good stock but not extremely good but opened up I would pick the he400se over my he6se for gaming. They really are that good. Detail is noticeably better than my he400i as well. The imaging is laser accurate.
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do you know of anyone that made measurements before and after that change? would be interesting to look at. i only had my 400i a few days so i donāt feel like taking them apart yet 
but i will keep this in mind. iām a sucker for immersive sound stage.
would you say it recesses the mids more?
No the mids stay intact. Better separation but doesnāt really push the mids out at all really. It gives the bass better detail by a noticeable amount most of all, though the highs do get cleaner as well. You can pop the grills off really easy and listen for yourself, the honeycombs are just there for a little protection. Just pry the retaining ring slightly inward and it pops right out.
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would these qualify? https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/headphone-grill.html
i canāt really tell, if they are different enough from default HE400i 2020
Those are the ones that come on them. These are the honeycombs. And this is how to remove the grills for yourself to test to see if you even want to do it.
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hey another follow up question. so since i think i found my headphone with these i became a bit more confident opening them up. i tested with both grills off and A/B-ing holding them over the opening. i also tested with one grill on and one off. it was really just a quick test late night but i didnāt notice anything that jumped at me. more like i would need to really sit down and listen for a difference with the right material.
so iām wondering two things:
do you have any good reference tracks for testing soundstage or should i just test with games?
are these built different than the ones you own and are these somehow more closed on the inside (i have 400i 2020)?
maybe i was just expecting too much. either way i really love these and the way they present the music to me. no issue with sound stage whatsoever. but iām still very curious, if i can get a second sound out of them easily.
tried the headband fix you suggested in the HE 400 SE thread. created an account to say thx. works like a charm. headband a is not an issue anymore
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Anyone got good recommendations for a dac/amp/dap for the older model? Just picked up a pair yesterday. The cheaper, the better. Iām working on a tight budget.
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Same, except when Iāve recently listened to the KSC75 - those bastards have some of the best staging there is. 
Iām gonna have to give this no-grille thing a shot too, if thereās any chance it will make them more KSC75-like.
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actually i ended up removing the velcro strap because after a few days of it on the headband the foam seemed to permanently give in. so i donāt need it anymoreā¦for now. similar to how some people put headphones over a bunch of books over night to reduce clamp faster.
that being said, iām still thinking about ideas to mod the headband while keeping it fully intact. i was looking at some of beyerdynamicsā headbands. they have the stuff with the buttons bit also some with velcro. but i bet none of them fit around this headband.
@abm0 i was looking at those too. they look so dumb but iām really tempted.
So has anyone tried pad swapping the 2020 version? I Like the stock sound but the small hole size annoys me >.>
Tested old 400i no-grilles, thereās not much difference and what there is isnāt necessarily for the better. With something close by for the highs to reflect off of I was normally hearing extreme-left and extreme-right sounds as very crisp and positioned close to the ear, in the cup or not far behind it. Without the grille, stage-edge sounds are more diffuse and less clearly positioned, which makes them feel farther away but in a vague, undefined way. This could create the impression that the stage is wider I guess, but itās not in a way that I find attractive. Other than that, central sounds also lose some crispness and thatās about it. So this seems mostly detrimental to the imaging for me. I do not prefer them like this vs. stock.
That grille variant might improve things, but no-grille I would say is not better.
Yeah itās definitely not a massive improvement on all hifimans but the he6se and he400se respond extremely well to it. The 400i itās kinda picky and I found putting the mesh from the stock grills on the honeycombs for a little dampening. @abm0
what i can say about the grill vs no grill thing is that IMHO it removes a certain degree of dampening of outside world sounds. this indeed makes things sound slightly more open because the music is less removed from what happens around you. i donāt really know the exact definition of sound stage but i personally thought it was how wide/deep/high the image is. i didnāt feel like any of that changed. when i snapped my fingers next to the earcup it just sounded less dampened on the side without grill.
so i guess itās a bit of a game of semantics. i definately noticed a very small difference after not looking for sound stage size anymore.
i could imagine earpad shape and size having a real impact though.