HIFIMAN HE-400 Planar Headphones Pre-order - Page 2  

While that may be true I find that all of the Hifiman cans that I have heard have been priced quite aggressively when compared to the competition but I guess I'll have to wait for some impressions at CES and hopefully get some insight on it then. I do like the HE300 and HE500 and was thinking about getting the HE4 again but I'll have to see how these pan out.

The HE-500's were recently reduced to $699, which is a pretty awesome price considering the price to performance ratio. I have a review sample very soon and I'll post my finn on impressions (like I did with the HE-300). I'm really hoping they sound good enough to earn a spot on my headphone rack next to the HD650's and Q701's. 

Awesome looking cans, hopefully I'll be able to afford them soon

I'm still hoping they have different color combinations. Don't get me wrong, I personally like the blue scheme a lot, but I'm sure there is at least one person on Head-Fi who wants these and is not fond of the blue color scheme.

Can they replace my beloved RS-1s for road cans? If they can be driven from a portable well (specs say they can), I will be offloading tubes, RS-1, K701 and becoming a full HiFiMan planar convert. I will never give up my HE-6 though for home use.

I like the color, my favorite color too! Any word on how it compared to the HE-500's or HE-6's?

The least expensive HiFiMan planars so far. Wonder if there's going to be a loaner program.

That's what I thought when I first saw them as well. So inexpensive for a pair of planers. I should have mine soon. Very eager to see how well (or not) these perform against some of the other headphones that I have in stock.

There has been discussion recently about a new velour earpad but from the photos, I am not sure these use the velour or the pleather.  Since the new velour are expected to sell for $30 a pair and the pleather sells for $20 a pair, it looks like these use the pleather but I could be wrong.  Does anyone know yet?

I've heard they ship standard with the pleather.

Way cool; more affordable planar magnetics.  Here's to hoping we may even see something to rival even the Fostex T50RP in the future.  (In fact, I wonder why Fostex doesn't make a better enclosure for their driver.)

 

Hifiman must be improving on how to deposit the metal trace (aluminum or whatever alloy) on the diaphragm (Kapton or Mylar, not sure what they use).  Or it might be better automation of the magnet mounting process.  That's incredibly difficult as well.

I was thinking about picking up the HE-500, but now with this price and the BLUE color to compliment my POYPULL HE-6, I can't resist.

Haha, i was thinking the HE-500 in blue with a nice flat/ or kumi braid wire. About 16 wire or something nice

 

They probably use copper. The 6 uses gold. There are newer materials that is thinner, lighter and have higher temperature than mylar for diaphragm. They can now bond the traces on the diaphragm without using glue. If only they can find a magnet that is stronger but lighter.

 

Perhaps he found a manufacturer within China that charges him for less?

 

Bring down the price and sell more, your revenue would be more overall. Just my opinion.

No, they don't use copper, they use aluminum.  Copper has four times the density of aluminum but only 1.5-2 times the conductivity of aluminum - making aluminum the clear choice for the lightest (and most efficient) diaphragms possible.  As far as I know, the only etched planar drivers that use anything but aluminum are the new Fostex drivers (which use copper) and the HE-6.  Infinity and all the clones of their EMIM/EMIT drivers use aluminum, as well as all of the rest of the Hifiman planar headphones.  I don't know why the HE-6 uses gold (given its high density and relatively low conductivity for its density), but it may explain their extreme inefficiency.  It may have been a manufacturing advantage in terms of the ease of depositing gold directly on the diaphragm - which Hifiman apparently hadn't mastered yet for aluminum.

 

Hifiman presumably use a polyimide (i.e. reverse-engineered DuPont Kapton) diaphragm - as you say, thinner, lighter, and more stable over a wide range of temperatures.  Magnepan has always used Mylar for their large panels; Infinity pioneered the use of Kapton in their diaphragms.  They also deposited the aluminum directly on the Kapton, like Hifiman now does.

 

I am assuming they're already using Neodymium magnets... There just isn't any stronger permanent magnet.  Yet, anyway.  Luckily, its patents (as well as Samarium Cobalt magnets) have since expired so they're not as expensive as they used to be.  Incidentally, Infinity also pioneered the use of both of these materials in planar speakers as well.

 

It's really interesting to see how different manufacturers build on top of one another in terms of technology.  Rarely (if ever) does anyone come up with a completely revolutionary idea and go all the way to a truly successful product with that idea - most of the time we take baby steps towards realizing it and improving it along the way.  Just like the guy who thought of the wheel and its potential probably didn't create the wheelbarrow too...