I am not able to find much information on them. A guy I know has a set like new. He bought 2 sets one for home the other for the office, but never took them to the office. He heard I wanted to try a Planar and is wanting to sell them and will let me try them first - but I don’t want to waist his time or mine if they are not a good example of a Planar. I am content to hold out till after the holidays before looking for something new. I just picked up a Focal Elegia and am good to go for a while but, if these are something worth snagging I’ll do it.
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The HE400S were well regarded by Tyll @ Inner Fidelity and fairly well received in general at the time of their release.
I just picked up a pair very recently from HiFiMAN directly, open box, for $119, and at that price, I think they are quite good as a planar - a bit rolled off in the lower bass so if good bass extension – “planar bass” – is what you’re looking for, the 400S may not tickle your ears, but otherwise I think it’s a fine entry-level planar if you can get it at a very good price.
They’re the easiest to drive of any of my HiFiMAN planars, substantially (HE-400, HE-560, Deva), so that’s also potentially a plus unless you already are well amped.
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@Trellus, Thanks for the input I really appreciate it. I do like bass but, I am still exploring what I like so I’m keeping an open mind. I have decent amps Atom, ZenDac, and Asgard 3 so I should be covered. Also, thanks for throwing in a value - so I will know what to offer it it comes to that. I will probably pick them up to borrow / try b4 buy this weekend.
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I picked up the HE400S from my friend and have put in about 8 hours of time with them. My first impressions are that I like them. They’re comfortable - I wore them all day yesterday while working. They are not as super-bright as I imagined, or excessively sibilant. Not sure I could call then “warm” but I think they have some warmth in the mid to lower treble range. Bass, well yes I wish there was a bit more range but it wasn’t as thin as I was expecting, and after 15-20 minutes I really wasn’t thinking about it anymore. As far as timbre, I think cymbal crashes, high-hat accents and smaller toms don’t sound as natural to me as on other headphones I have. I’m sensitive to that because used to play (no longer have a kit). Still, I have enjoyed listening to these headphones, sourcing an eclectic range of tracks across many genre’s.
I used them paired with the Atom dac/amp stack on my home office rig and also with the Modius/Asgard3 and for grins & giggles, ZenDac alone and ZenDac/Asgard3 combo all on my primary rig. I think that the Atom Stack and these headphones had the most synergy but, to be honest I spent roughly 3x as much time with that set up than the others, so it could be “brain bias”. I am curious what my E30 > Atom amp would sound like with these. I’m assuming really similar to the Atom stack. If I get a chance I’ll try it but at this point that would be for science only. Short story, I liked the HE400S on all combos tried.
They came in the original box all accessories included and they are in I’d say like-new open box condition. The cable looks nice but man it’s stiff - like the stock cable on the Focal Elegia. If I keep them that’s getting replaced, maybe some different pads too. For now stock pads are OK and I prefer to run out of the box for a while on everything to get a baseline before making changes.
I’m going to keep using them for a while more before I make a final decision as to keep them or not but, I’m leaning towards that I want to add them to my collection as my entry in to Planar HPs.
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If u have the elegia it’s probably not worth a shot. It only is it not going to be as good as the elegia but the elegia actually is possibly even faster than the hifiman (focals have speed that rivals many planars). And separation ur elegia probably provides better separation too. I would suggest just waiting to try planar with a higher end headphone later as it won’t be too different from the elegia (except less slam)
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Just wanted to follow up -
After trying out the HE400S and getting a taste for planar sound, I got the “fever”. I ended up buying an Hifiman Edition X V2. The warmer signature and the huge presentation they have is was what sold me.
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