Preface
The “low” end of the Hifiman classics that is recognized alongside the lineup of the legendary HE-500 and HE-6. You rarely see these on the used market nowadays since their release about 7 or so years ago (before I started even in the hobby). I’ve read posts from previous owners (and current owners) about the touted bass on these as being fun and enjoyable when compared against the HE-500, and does not reach the bass quality of the veneered HE-6 when powered through speaker taps. This made me really curious about the performance of these when compared against my HE-500 and was fortunate to purchase one recently at a good price.
I’ll skip over some sections given that this is a used, discontinued model; there isn't much to talk about with regards to other tangibles (i.e. packaging, accessories). When I got this, it had a broken original SMC to 3.5mm cable, had the stock velour pads, and the HD650 padding stuck on the headband (similar to my HE-500). With those out of the way, let’s get to the review.
Build and Comfort
Build quality is classic Hifiman; decent looking and heavy. There have been reports of this style of headband failing because the glue holding the headband sliders eventually weakens - I fortunately have yet to experience it on my HE-500, and this doesn’t seem to be the case with the HE-400 I bought used. So count me on the statistic of “still in working condition” Hifiman QC count.
I had the HE-400i that was released in 2016 with the suspension strap and on a personal note - I preferred that headband system because of the weight distribution being better compared to the singular band present in still current models like the HE-4XX and HE-5XX. That aside, the headband is reasonably comfortable overall… for the first couple of hours. After that, I feel a hotspot at the top of my head, which I attribute to poor weight distribution on this particular style of headband. I feel the same with the HE-500 and this weighs slightly less than that.
For the pads, the stock velour is just plainly irritating to my skin. It just passes what I consider to be comfortable. I’ll cover a short section about the sound when used with the stock velour, but I immediately replace it with the Dekoni Elite Velour for Audeze that I have and used for my HE-500 (currently in hibernation while I play around with other cans). How do the Dekonis feel? Predictably, much better and I’ve since then been using these as my pad of choice.
Amplification
These are rated with 92.5 dB sensitivity and 35 ohm impedance. This is neither demanding nor easily driven - about smack in the middle of having enough volume out of a decent source, but likely not enough headroom for highly dynamic tracks at louder than my preferred listening levels. They can run off an iPod just fine without me noticing any loss of quality. Heck, I don’t go past 9 o’clock on the JDS Element dial, and only go around 10 when EQ is applied. You don’t need a high wattage output amp for this based on my experience. Take that as you will as there are others who would slide in their comments about using speaker taps improving the bass and such - I am not one into trying that route so you can discuss with those individuals about them.
On a side note, for people’s reference, I usually listen anywhere between 60 dB - 75 dB.
Sound
As I mentioned in the comfort section, I did not find the stock velour very comfortable and instead chose to go with the Dekoni Elite Velour for Audeze. If you wanted a short summary of how the stock velour sounded to my ears, here’s the
TL;DR: treble can be sibilant at times, bass has decent impact but texture feels lacking likely due to seal or decay and tends to bloom over midrange, midrange definition is overall good - however, it has peaks in weird places that makes some background instruments more noticeable at times and the vocals subdued, but at different parts of a song. I can’t explain it any better than that. But my takeaway is that stock velour has a weird V-shaped tonality. On a final note, there are those who claim that there has been a revision of the HE-400 at some point. I will say I cannot give more details on that and the different revisions as I didn’t look into it too much.
Since comfort and seal was an issue for me, I opted to go with the Elite Velours I used to have with the HE-500 - so essentially both my HE-400 and HE-500 are evaluated with the same pads (talk about consistency). The review moving forward consists of the HE-400 with the Dekoni Elite Velour for Audeze pads installed.
Further, I have not been able to find a reliable frequency graph measurement of these, so this will essentially become a completely subjective review without confirmation to my ears of what I hear. Guess this is the most subjective review I’ve written and you can put as much salt as you want with it, but I’m winging it so let’s go with it.
My music testing mostly involves modern tracks, OSTs, classic rock, 70s to 90s pop.
Overall Sound Signature
With the Elite Velours, the HE-400 is warm sounding, similar to the HE-500 but with some distinct differences (which we’ll touch later). The overall balance is decent in my opinion, bass comes across as warm, midrange has good definition, treble has enough energy to not make the tonality dull. I would classify this as warm-neutral with no EQ and is fairly enjoyable for modern tracks.
Bass
- Extension is good, but slightly behind the HE-500, rounding up to around 35Hz or a bit higher
- Bass is quick in attack, but texture is a bit unrefined, like they’re a bit loose. I think some would describe this as lacking “tightness”. This may have something to do with decay being slower compared to others I’ve heard. You can still distinguish the individual bass notes though
- Bass extends a bit to midrange, giving off a warm transition to the lower midrange
- Bass impact/slam is good, but I would have preferred more. Impact is a touch less than the HE-500 from recollection, and lesser than the Focal Clear I had before.
Midrange
- Lower midrange I feel has decent texture and definition. Male vocals have good quality and weight
- With the bass extending its transition to the lower midrange, this seems to add a layer of thickness to instruments like electric guitars, which makes them slightly incorrect sounding
- Upper midrange is a bit weird. Some notes are more prominent than others on certain tracks, which I find odd because other headphones don’t bring out such pieces in a song. Some brass or violin notes will come out with more volume than say the lead vocal at certain parts of a track, which I don’t experience with others like the Clear, DT1990, HE-500 and such. Not sure if this is what others would typically describe as ‘wonky’
- Piano notes have good texture and definition. *Some* female vocals seem to lack weight, while others sound fine
- Vocal transition is good, similar to the HE-500 and DT1990 in quality, but maybe just a touch slower and not as smooth in transition
Treble
- Treble air quality seems hindered a bit, like the 10kHz region is more subdued than preferred, adding to the overall warm tonality
- Presence region (6kHz - 8kHz) has enough energy to give liveliness in a song, but seems to have some lingering effect on the consonant range and some ringing effect of some sort
- This presence region makes some consonant ranges and cymbal crashes sound sharper than what I prefer, but it’s not in the level of annoyance as the Focal Clear or TH-X00
- Overall passable treble balance leaning towards the warm side with a slightly peaky presence region
Detail Retrieval (Resolution) and Dynamics
Overall good, but maybe a step behind against the HE-500 and DT1990 in stock tuning with the Elite Velour. There seems to be some weird peaks and dips in the midrange to upper-midrange section that’s causing some details to share the center stage with other instruments at different times. Once EQ’d, it fixes this unusual detail retrieval presentation to something that sounds more normal. With EQ, I would rate the detail retrieval and resolution only a half step behind the DT1990 and HE-500.
Dynamics is also a positive for me. Bass dynamics and slam are a bit behind the HE-500 IMO. Initial leading attack on the upper midrange to treble region seems somewhat blunted, likely caused by the weird midrange peaks it has. It’s just slightly dampened when compared against the HE-500 and I would attribute the cause to be from the weird upper-midrange to treble balance. Even with the good dynamics, cohesiveness of the different instrumental pieces are great and something that makes music listening engaging. Overall dynamics is still behind the Focal Clear to my ears, as I think Focal is still leading in this technicality.
Head stage and Imaging
Like my other reviews, I don’t give this technical ability too much notice since most of the songs I listen to don’t require me to concentrate on this aspect. I usually multitask when I’m listening, I don’t often listen to music just to listen. I will say that the head stage presentation is about average, stage width = average, imaging = no glaring flaw to speak of. It’s cohesive enough across the 180 degree listening stage for me.
Timbre
Overall, a bit coloured and lacking in naturalness to my ears. There is this weird dips in the upper-midrange that makes female vocals sound a bit odd at times. Further, there is this ‘plastic’ effect that is noticeable when the presence region is reached, namely in the consonant range. I suspect this comes to the decay of the drivers that’s hinting at a somewhat plastic sound after the initial consonant range is pronounced. (What I mean by plastic effect, imagine tapping a ziplock bag and the sound of that plastic crinkle - that’s the sort of sound I hear during the decay of the consonant range pronunciation).
Instruments like piano, acoustic and electric guitar sound tonally correct for the most part. What some of the instruments lack is that initial ‘bite’, which I will attribute to the combination of upper-midrange and treble balance.
In summary, it’s not as natural sounding as the HE-500 in stock form. However, it’s not overly coloured to the point that it sounds completely incorrect. It just adds some colouration that some might find enjoyable. I certainly enjoy this type of colouration on some songs, but not so for others. The thing is, if I don’t find it consistently correct in timbre on the majority of the well recorded tracks I listen to, I can’t give this particular category a good mark. Timbre quality is just on the passing line grade for me.
EQ
As always, EQ for the most part fixes the tonality section and some of the timbre issues. The midrange to treble balance has for the most part been alleviated for me. The ‘plastic’ decay quality in the consonant range has also been reduced significantly, so only a hint of it remains with the EQ profile I use. Bass has also reduced its uncontrolled texture and over-reach to the lower midrange. It’s still not quite as impactful as say a Focal Clear, but it’s more linear sounding which I prefer. This headphone takes a lot of EQ’ing to get to my target curve, but once it reaches my preferred signature, it has been pleasant to listen to.
Among the most interesting things about the HE-400 EQ’d and the HE-500 to my ears, is that it makes voices (especially female vocals) sound like they’re not coming from a set of speakers, nor does it sound like a playback recording. I can’t quite point to it, but there is this certain sense of texture in the vocal range that makes them sound like they’re right there with you, as if they are life-like in quality. Besides these two, the DT1990 EQ’d is similar in quality for this but maybe marginally behind. Of course, your findings may vary as our experiences differ. We tend to differ in what sound texture we look for that registers to our perception of what sounds real or not.
At this point in time, I’m EQ’ing almost any headphone I get nowadays. The only exceptions so far that I find doesn’t need EQ to sound great are the HE-500, HD600 and Focal Clear. For the HE-400, I am one to recommend EQ with them. This is not to say that they are un-listenable in stock form. No. You may like the stock tonality for sure, but to my ears, the stock tuning is not something I would openly recommend to the next headphone enthusiast.
Comparisons
Hifiman HE-500
How does it compare to it’s older brother? They share some characteristics (other than their design and build quality). In stock form, the HE-400 tonality is more V-shaped, while the HE-500 is more linear sounding. The HE-400 hits my sibilance sensitivities for certain tracks, whereas it is absent on the HE-500. The HE-500 has the better extension on both bass and treble to my ears on both ends than the HE-400.
With an EQ’d HE-400 vs HE-500, I can’t say yet. The HE-500 is in hibernation for the time being as I expect my perspective will change and have this particular guilt on why I keep trying out new headphones when this is close to my ideal signature overall. Both are discontinued anyway so it doesn’t matter too much since these come every so often in the used market. Still, I would say the HE-400 EQ’d is a good alternative if you can’t find the HE-500, and I find the HE-400 the more ‘fun’ sounding of the two.
Hifiman HE-400i (2016 2.5mm version)
I haven’t heard the HE-400i in a while, so I’m only going by memory of it’s overall tonality - bright neutral. There is a presence region shout that can become sibilant at times. I like the bass better on the 400, but I didn’t really play around with EQ on the 400i so I can’t say much about its potential other than the stock form bass is quite lean in texture despite being tight and quick typical of all the planars I’ve heard so far. Head stage width is also narrow on the 400i for some reason, it could be my unit is defective or my dac/amp setup at the time (E07k/E9) is causing problems with it.
Comfort also goes to the 400i with that suspension strap structure distributing weight better.
Sennheiser HD600
One of the iconics in the headphone world. As I’ve mentioned in the other sections, if someone is looking for a no-frills headphone that sounds great all around without needing to mess with any other DSP tools, the HD600 is the choice. It has an inoffensive tonality and good technical abilities, hence why it’s been recommended time and time again despite its flaws when compared to certain headphones people prefer that’s not a Sennheiser HD6X0 series.
When an EQ’d HE-400 is put up against the HD600, it becomes more competitive. With the profile I use for my target curve and earpads, the HE-400 I find is better in almost all fronts (except for comfort) by a small margin. It’s a bit more dynamic, a bit more engaging, with vocal qualities that so far is at the top of my list. Feel free to disagree, because that means we already differ in perspective, and I’ve mentioned on my section about Timbre that this (EQ’d) and the HE-500 have vocal qualities that I find special compared to the rest I’ve tried. I'm not with the majority that find the HD600 vocals to be realistic sounding, only tonally correct sounding (if this is what most would mean by 'natural' sounding).
Conclusion
For a discontinued model made around 2012, I feel this is one heck of a bargain at its used market price (<$150). Hifiman’s double-sided planar in the HE-400 and HE-500 have some special quality to them that I find isn’t quite captured in the newer HE-400i released in 2016. I can’t say if the newer Hifimans are able to replicate it, but from most that I’ve read around, it seems the Hifiman sound is a bit different nowadays. Better to ask others who have the OG 400 and the newer ones to compare it to.
I can wholeheartedly recommend the HE-400… if you meet majority of these criteria:
- Have strong neck muscles
- Confident in doing even simple mods on them (i.e. pad change)
- Likes a semblance of V-shaped open back tonality in stock form
- Use EQ to fix flaws in the signature
- Likes a ‘fun’ and ‘engaging’ pair, however you perceive a headphone as being those two adjectives
The stock tonality is just a pass for me, and is something you might want to hear for yourself. Stock velour pads become sibilant for a number of songs I listen to, so that is an off mark for me. Further, stock tonality is not very correct sounding to me. However, at the price they can be had at the used market for less than $150, I’d still put this on my list of ones to obtain.
Overall grade comes down to the following:
- Stock tonality - 7.3 / 10
- EQ’d tonality - 8.5 / 10
- Comfort - 7 / 10
- Technical Abilities - 8.2 / 10
Because of how good I find these when EQ’d, I will be giving them a score of 4 / 5 here. Excellent sonic performance with decent comfort at the market price gets a high mark from me.
Thanks for reading my lengthy write-up.
