HIfiman HE400S

The real question is, where is a HiFi Man without QC issues or concerns?

 

The removal of the SMC connectors should already have a very positive effect on reliability. I've had my Hifiman headphones for around 3 years now, but this past few months I have had lots of issues with broken connectors, fortunately replacement parts are plentiful and cheap.

 

How do you compare this to HD6XX on vocal? I put a lot of emphasize on vocal.

 

I just got a set of these to try out and while I've only had a few hours of listening these are my impressions so far.
The first thing that jumped out at me within seconds of listening to them was the slightly hot treble in a certain area that gave it a very pronounced and splashy character. Not an offensive character however and not really harsh in any way. The other immediate notice was the lack of bass which I knew about but didn't realize how lacking it truly is. Upon hearing these things I went ahead and measured the headphones. I would guess that the "splashy" treble region is due to the 10db peak at 8.5 kHz that is very wide and goes from about 5.5 k to 11 k. I will say that upon further listening this slightly hot splashy treble region has become much less noticeable and isn't really offensive in any way. The feeling of the lack of bass however has not gone away and leaves the overall character of the headphones a bit thin sounding.

I got these in large part due to Tyll's recent rave review, I've been following Tyll and his reviews for a long time now and have tried many of the headphones he has reviewed positively and in most cases came to very similar conclusions about the sound. In this case however I do not as of right now share Tyll's opinion that these are better than a pair of HD600's, their sound seems to be rather underwhelming. Not offensive or bad in anyway really but the level of detail doesn't seem to quite be there. The soundstage is much smaller compared to the HD600 and there seem to be too many missing areas of the music. Maybe my opinions will change with further listening, but for now I'm not sold on these headphones.

 

Alright after lots more listening I have to say I do start to hear what Tyll was talking about in his review. It is not a very immediately impressive headphone and there is a lot of the music which it sort of seems to miss out on but it does have a very natural tone and timbre to vocals and after spending significant amounts of time with it it makes other headphones including my lovely HD600s sound a bit unnatural although there is definitely a lot more of the details up top and a lot more extension in both directions on the HD600. I think there is definitely a bit of brain burn-in going on here so take that to mean whatever you want. I have to say I am slightly tempted to actually purchase a set of HE-400S even though they are a bit redundant as they fit the same uses as my HD600s (open headphones for home use). I should also point out that while many people have said they are an easy headphone to drive and they certainly sound pretty decent directly out of a phone I found a pretty dramatic improvement in sound switching to my project ember from either my O2 or the geek pulse X infinity's built in amp. I should also mention that they are the most comfortable headphone I've worn.

 

@logscool, I definitely recommend getting your hands on some Focus-A or Focus pads and listen again. It might surprise you more yet

 

The pair I have has a wonky connection in the right ear, or it's the shitty as shit cable, but static upon moving and it's cut out a few times when turning my head. Go HiFiMan!

It's like everything they do in regards to build is one step forward with a step backward in some other form.

 

Very nice review. Sweet photos! Any chance you can get the waterfall/CSD start at 200 or 500Hz instead of 20Hz?

 

Well, a CSD of the entire spectrum doesn't show much. Notice how it looks like there is uniform decay across the board? Low frequencies resonate a lot more by nature, so most CSDs start at 500Hz to focus on the treble decay. Also, you will see more by lowering the time range significantly.

I put CSD parameters in a post on this page: http://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/measurements-setups-post-your-rig.141/page-2

Give it a try and it might make more sense. I had to tweak a bit before finding something that looks like the CSDs from Marv, Hands, UB, etc.

 

With the HE400i at $299 for Black Friday, is there a reason to still get the HE400s instead? Is it easier to drive than the HE400i? Slightly off topic: But if the 400i were always at $299, would it be on the leaderboard, too?

 

The 400S is just a better headphone.

 

How so?

 

Warmer, less v-shaped. Less offensive in the treble. That is if you can get it to seal.

 

Odd, Tyll's measurements are flat as a crab from about 20 to 1000 Hz. The treble looks a bit bumped from 6k to 10k, but I don't get the V shape bit.

 

The treble and upper mid dip were noticeable worse on the i. I guess subbass was better but I don't care as much about that.