And again, half of those are Drop exclusivesā¦
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?
Thatās usually the only place I can find them
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Hi everyone. Iāve been considering getting these, and my only concern is driving them. 91 ohms seems pretty scary, thatās 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 doesnāt 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 āfully poweredā. 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 arenāt imo. Iāll 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 hereās my review of the he400se.
As reviews are so subjective anyway Iām 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 doesnāt quite match everyone else, Iād say resolveās review is the most similar.
TLDR
Iām 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 didnāt sound different enough for me to keep.
Mods (grill, pads) didnāt 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 Iāve 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 RHCPās 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 didnāt have any issues with their sound.
These are some of the airiest headphones iāve 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 āaverageā 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 doesnāt 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 donāt 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 isnāt.
Pad rolling
My expierence pad swapping the he400se is that its sound doesnāt change very much from pad to pad, I couldnāt 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 ārumbleā. 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 didnāt like that change.
Honeycomb grills mod
I didnāt like it. You can test the how the sound changes by removing the stock grills, thatās 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 āclearā.
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 canāt really tell) but for music it was fatiguing and less enjoyable to me than the stock sound. Itās also worth noting that the pad swaps change the sound more when combined with the honeycombs, but I couldnāt find any combination that I liked more than stock, and I tested thoroughly.
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I totally feel what youāre saying with the pad rolling. Only oneās 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
from what Iāve heard, the soundstage and separation is better on the sundara but you get 80% of the sundara in the he400se
yep, although iād say that is one important 20%, and even though sundaras are more detailed I think the he400se is more honest with the instrument placement, sometimes sundaras go out of their way with their presentation, overly forward or overly laidback from time to time.
its the center imaging. the sundaras are just straight up not good with the transfer from left and right to center. its just wonky and feels unnatural. the 400se is definitely leaps and bounds smoother of a transition and i kinda suspect its that verticality potential to help the transfer to feel more natural.
Agreed lol, it sounds like the dolby 3d vst I used to use on my foobar, maybe trippy but unnatural.
edit: on this same topic I will also say to my perception the anandas also get wonky with their placement, maybe worse sometimes.
I donāt think I stressed it when I initially started gushing over these headphones but the main thing I was trying to get across was that they had a lot of things going for gaming. theyāre dark. theyāre fast. they have absolutely phenomenal imaging, easily some of the best Iāve ever heard in my life regardless of price range. and they can slam pretty good if called for. slap all that on planar detail and its a solid combo for gaming especially when paired with the grills (which really just helps exclusively with depth in basically fps games only) and the brainwavz micro suede gaming pads with the gel BS because they are really deep and wide and accentuate that soundstage and really drag out the width, height and depth. that combo is really something to behold in some games. I am struggling hard to think of something close to as good for gaming exclusively under $500. and on the topic of the Anandaās, thatās the reason those and the Sundara are the hifimans Iāve owned. not own. Iām super particular about imaging and soundstage realism and they just donāt tick the boxes just right. they can be a little bassy but in games like call of duty iām usually using boost high for foosteps because the crisp crack of footsteps can be heard with really good accuracy from really far away. dolby gaming performance works pretty well with them as well and helps kinda mask a little more of that bass rumble and iām sure you could feel that ~26hz bass rumble in those cans is pretty extreme.
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Yeah, even though I dont play fps games currently I really really like these he400 series for movies, but all that said I would still pick the sundaras for music, the 400se sound llike a big monitor, the sundaras are different to most products thats something I really appreciate.