Yeah I have one of those headbands and youâll have to remove the driver to replace the fittings which is quite the hassle and another problem would be the lacking quality of the headband itself
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Sadly Iâm just not that kind of guy. If I canât even succeed securing the mounting rings into the headphone, what the hell can I doâŠ
Actual miracle. The headband has suddenly gone back in stock in a store I found it on about a week ago:
Price is absolutely decent. Shipping is insanely cheap (6 pounds!), and because VAT is different in my country, itâs less than the price presented, at 52 pounds. I will be very happy with my new HE-400i
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I love it when stuff works out in the end! A new lease on life for your HE400is will be nice. Theyâre such a fun pair of headphones!
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Yeah I absolutely love them. Going back to these with the new pads after my dad lent me his HD 6XX has been like a new life. After a little more listening Iâm certain there is also slightly more bass and they just sound so damn good. So full and lively compared to the 6XX which I find tend to lack impact and stage. And to have it with actual good comfort is insane. Really the only problem right now is that the right earcup does not sit properly on my ear and it slides down, there is space between the bottom of my ear and the earcup, the new headband will fix this 100%. Really do love the 400i.
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Cool! The other day I finally got to try the HE400se and the HE5XX and I can honestly say that the HE400i is my favorite of the Hifiman low cost/budget line (he-x4, he4xx, he400i, he400se, he5xx, he400s).
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always sad to find the thing one threads to come true 
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iunnoâŠthe 400i are twice the price of the 400se and at that level Iâd swing for the Sundara.
For me personally, I much prefer the 400i to the 400se. I actually agree with you about buying the next Hifiman up if purchasing new, though I would go with one of the HE560 versions since I like them better than the Sundara, but if someone is willing to buy used, you can get the 400 series headphones for very little money and theyâre definitely worth it. I got mine off ebay for $78 shipped in excellent condition (used so little they still smelled new and pads werenât broken in yet) with a pretty nice aftermarket cable included.
So, yeah, I stand by my preference for the 400i out of the 400 series headphones and over the 5XX as well.
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Woah! Look who has a solid new headband. Very Nice! 
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Man, I was really hoping it actually said that lol! 
Has ayone tried the Sundara pads on the he400i per chance? Heard someone somewhere offhandedly mention they are an upgrade, but I canât find much information on how they change the he400i (I have the 2020 edition to be specific).
I have tried the PaliPads on my 2016 HE400is briefly and found that they lower bass quanitity and seem to cause it to roll off a little earlier. They did open up the soundstage a bit and take a little bit of warmth out of the low mids as well. However, after the grill mod, the palipads no longer made much of a difference on the staging and because I much preferred the low end of the HE400is with the stock focus pads, I just switched back. That said, the palipads I tried with were borrowed from a pair of Sundaras so they were well worn, thus, Iâm not sure how they would fare new.
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Thanks for the detailed answer! Donât sound like much of an upgrade, you saved me $50!
Happy to help! If you want a real upgrade and you havenât done it already, do the grill mod. Twenty bucks for a pair of hex/honeycomb grills off eBay and 2 minutes to swap out the stock grills and youâre set. Bigger soundstage, tighter bass, cleans up the mids a touch, and gives you a clearer center image. The HE400i was helped more by the grill mod than any of my other Hifiman round cup models, except the OG HE400. If youâre interested in the grills I included a link below to the grills that I use. Iâm not associated with the seller in any way other than owning like half a dozen pairs of his grills at this point.
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