A couple more recent reviews. Hifiman picked a funny time to solicit reviews considering the nearly identical sounding HE-X4 just launched lol
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Hifiman does make questionable business decisions
Is it questionable?
The HE400se is part of their normal product cycle. The HE-X4 is an item for Drop. Assuming Drop comes to you asking for a new model headphone to market why wouldnât you do it?
Got the HE400se today and so far theyre great, gonna write a full review when I have a lot of hours on them.
Quick observations - Initial impressions
Out of every hifiman headband this is the most comfortable one for me, by far. The pads are no doubt also the comfiest pads hifiman has made, not to say they are super high quality but theyre a lot better.
The sound strikes me as a middle ground between the tuning of he400i and sundara, I think it has the best of both worlds but need to listen further.
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He4xx, He400i 2020, Deva, He5xx, He400se, Hex4 all together is questionable
Itâs strange how all their models are so similar yet the He400i 2020 clearly stands out as the greatest headphone they ever produced. The other pairs all have at least one annoying thing about 'em⊠He4xx sounds stellar but can dismember on your head anytime, He400se has distracting upper mids shoutiness, Deva has kitschy âluxuryâ colors and lethargic mids, Hex4 and He5xx are the former headphones but with worse headbands.
And again, half of those are Drop exclusivesâŠ
And the he400i has a boomy, bloated bass. Dude everybody will just add some other magical comment about how this and that is bad, just look at a frequency response graph unless you want to hear the endless subjective bullcrap.
I just got he400ses yesterday and I guess people really hate the cable more than I thought because they shipped with an extra cable in an envelope taped to the back of the box
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Anyone know seller that sell honeycomb grill mod on alie express?
Thatâs usually the only place I can find them
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Hi everyone. Iâve been considering getting these, and my only concern is driving them. 91 ohms seems pretty scary, thatâs lower than most headphones and on par with something like a HiFiMan HE1000V2. So to the owners of the He400se, what do you use to power them, and is it hard to drive? It doesnât really make much sense if it is hard to drive for an entry level model
It takes between 2 and 3 times as much power to get to the same volume as my gl2000s. And more on top to get them âfully poweredâ. I think the advertised impedamce and sensitivity is for the non stealth drivers and so far most of the stealth drivers have come in at 83ish db/mw. I think they dropped the impedance to attempt to make the stealth driver portable but they really arenât imo. Iâll test the impedance when I get home.
OK thanks. 2 to 3 times of Gl2000? So the impedance is at least 10dB lower
impedance was about 56 ohm. definitely a lot higher than 25. i wish i knew how to calculate sensitivity easily. i have a decibel meter but idk how to input like only 1w or whatever.
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Unfortunately this is way more complex than high school physics calculations. For example, the impedance changes with frequency. Like the Focal Elex, which has a massive rise in impedance in the sub bass
A month has passed and I have listened and compared quite a bit, so hereâs my review of the he400se.
As reviews are so subjective anyway Iâm just going to lay out my thoughts in a simple way using the adjectives that match what I hear.
I found reviews for this pair to be divisive, and mine is as well, my perception doesnât quite match everyone else, Iâd say resolveâs review is the most similar.
TLDR
Iâm gonna throw my conclusions right off the bat.
If you are relatively new to this hobby or/and want to try a planar, this is an absolute bang for your buck, great for music, gaming, movies and immersion. But beware they need a powerful amp to deliver good bass, at least 1watt at 25ohm should do.
Build and comfort are very nice for a hifiman, they look and feel way better in person than they do on camera, but the cable is shit.
Get a replacement cable, the stock one sets a new standar for shitty cables, cheap amazon cables (newfantasia, geekria, neomusicia) do the trick no problems.
I myself, returned these headphones to amazon, owning several better ones these didnât sound different enough for me to keep.
Mods (grill, pads) didnât improve the sound at all to me, in fact they sounded not as good as stock.
Sound overview
Very nice bright tuning, goes in line with the other hifiman products Iâve heard, so this is a nice one to get to know their house sound.
Regarding the frequency response I find it to be linear as the charts indicate, enough bass to be fun, present mids and bright treble, if there is sibilance in the recordings this will produce that sibilance, if you listen to RHCPâs californication you will get a bad headache.
Detail is very good for the price, but its not a detail monster by any means. They are fast sounding like other planars, great attack and decay. I would have liked more body in the midrange, other than that I didnât have any issues with their sound.
These are some of the airiest headphones iâve heard (this is a good thing for me but may be rough for some ears), the vertical soundstage also sets new hights in this price range, the horizontal soundstage is kind of âaverageâ big, overall soundstage size is large but the horizontal staging limits how big they sound.
Even though they are bright and have a some heavy air to them I could use them for long periods without any problems.
Gear used
schiit magnius - only this one drove them properly, they sound the same to me from the single ended and balanced outputs.
ifi zen dac (balanced out)
fiio btr5 (balanced out)
With every amp the sound signature is about the same, the coloration doesnât change very noticeably, but the bass delivery is sloppy on the lower power amps compared to similarly priced headphones.
Comparisons
Sennheiser are A/B, hifimen are from memory, as I donât own them anymore. I wish I could A/B them but I do trust my memory.
he400i (previous version, not 2020): I find the he400se to have a better, more linear frequency response, overall more true to the recordings, but the he400i were just a little warmer and more fun, thicker and forward sounding, with just slightly bigger horizontal soundstage and lesser vertical size.
sundaras: are basically an improvement in most aspects, but not by a lot. Where its really noticeable is in the midrange (actual body, he400se mids sound thin in comparison) and overall detail/extension. I find them to be a worthy upgrade.
The he400se do have some perks, they respond better to EQ, have punchier bass, and are probably more honest to the mixing, sundaras have some kind of makeup on their tonality and weird staging on some records.
anandas: are almost identical in FR to the he400se, but have a ton more detail and bigger soundstage. However, I find the he400se (and sundaras) to be more dynamic, present sounding.
senn hd560s: I like the sennheisers just a bit more, they are kind of a sidegrade, I love how they stage the instruments horizontally, the midrange and bass have more body and punch (vocals really kick he400se ass), plus they are very easy to drive.
The he400se have a little better extension on both ends, more refined treble, are more immersive (and maybe even more fun), I would pick them for gaming and movies, but they are less musical to me.
senn hd6xx: They sound so different and get colored so much by the source they maybe not worth comparing, what I can say is that hd6xx are intimate, warm and very dynamic, which are things the he400se isnât.
Pad rolling
My expierence pad swapping the he400se is that its sound doesnât change very much from pad to pad, I couldnât A/B them as the pad swap is kinda slow.
I mostly tested them rolled with zmf ori suede pads, they sound almost the same but the sound feels just a little more tight overall, with decreased bass ârumbleâ. Comfort is just a bit better.
Specially on longer listening sessions its very hard to tell the difference from stock.
Other pad rolls, including Dekoni choice hybrid and Brainwavz xl velour, I felt like a
bit of the bass and treble frequencies were lost, it was noticeable enough and I didnât like that change.
Honeycomb grills mod
I didnât like it. You can test the how the sound changes by removing the stock grills, thatâs what this mod sounds like.
I consider this a minor change in the sounds just like the pads; not worth the money and the loss of dust protection.
The good thing is the headphones feel just a bit more open and airy, giving a hint that the sound is more âclearâ.
The bad: noticeable bass impact reduction, detriment to the tonal balance and rougher treble overall (in an aggressive way).
This may be good for competitive gaming (I canât really tell) but for music it was fatiguing and less enjoyable to me than the stock sound. Itâs also worth noting that the pad swaps change the sound more when combined with the honeycombs, but I couldnât find any combination that I liked more than stock, and I tested thoroughly.
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I totally feel what youâre saying with the pad rolling. Only oneâs I found that I actually liked were the micro suede brainwavz xl. The rest just sounded thin.
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Amazing review, thank you.
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How is the soundstage and separation on the he400se vs sundara? The one things i found the sundara beats the hd6xx to the ground is the soundstage and separation, it is soo much better