So, here is my long overdue review of my he-400i touring pair.
Some background. I work as an audio engineer in a theatre and am a musician who records in his home studio as well. In other words, I like and I need neutral! I don't have a ton of headphone experience but my home studio consists of very flat studio monitors (Neumann) and a very high quality audio interface (Prismsound) which doubles as my headphone amp so I have a very good reference for the kind of sound signature I'm after. I basically want the sound of my monitors but in headphone format to mix at night, which is not an easy thing to achieve.
I have owned technics phones, ultrasone, beyer dt250, akg k271 phones and currently own Sony mdr 7500, a 200$ pair so called monitor phones. I also own hifiman re400 in-ears which are my preferred sound signature of the bunch. I basically want those with a bit more bass and openness.
In Japan earlier this year I went to the coolest headphone shop ever where I also briefly tried almost all the high end cans from audeze, sennheiser, beyer etc, but only briefly and from my iPhone.
On to the he400i:
Build, packaging, comfort etc:
All very nicely done, except the cable is too short imo. When plugged into my sound card I cannot reach another guitar in my rack without taking off the headphones. Very frustrating. Comfort wise the phones are very nice. I'm usually not a fan of velours pads as I find them to be itchy but these are quite nice since they're not totally velours. The sound does bleed being an open can.
Customer service:
Hifiman has been great to deal with, even when my previous re400 broke. Very very nice and helpful people to deal with.
Sound:
Before my 400i testing I let them burn in for 150hours, playing my iTunes list randomly.
I know people say you need to get used to a pair of phones, but I always try to remember my very first impression since that usually ends up being my conclusion as well after the honeymoon phase. And in this case that impression was: "Very nice timbre, satisfying detailed bass and mids but somewhat veiled upper mids or lower highs, but I'm actually very impressed! I could get used to this!" There was no contest compared to my sony's which are very mid centric in comparison.
Soundstage was ok but not huge. I would have expected it to be a bit more spacious to be honest but nothing to complain about.
Attack from drums and cymbals were very crisp and pleasing and bass had enough power and speed for me, completely satisfied in that department. Separation was also really good with enough space for everything to breathe, if it was in the mix of course. I switched over to my sony's, re400's and monitors many times to compare.
But after prolonged listening, comparing and especially after listening to one of my own songs on my monitors and re400, switching to the he400i didn't quite translate as I had expected. I noticed that my mix just lacked a bit of presence in the vocals and electric guitars on the 400i, frequencies which are very important to me. To double check, I did my sine sweep test:
When I demo monitors or phones I always run a 60sec sine sweep from 20hz to 20khz through them with a spectrum analyzer on to see what their problems are. I listen if the volume of the sweep throughout the frequencies is consistent, looking for parts where it gets louder or quieter. This test revealed that the he-400i is for the most part fairly linear with minor fluctuations going up the bass and mids, until we arrive at the 1.8-2khz region, where it takes a considerable dip, which I had noticed in my mix and other songs before. You could say vocals and electric guitars although clear and defined, sound just a tad in the background, like 3db's, but 3 essential db's imo. Some could say it sounds veiled.
Oddly enough, I find the re-400 to be more neutral and upfront, which I prefer but didn't expect considering they are 100$ in ears.
After this realization I still listened to them a lot to get used to them, and my quarrels often disappeared after a while due to my brains adjusting, but I would still put more 2khz than necessary when mixing with them.
Conclusion:
Although the he400i has a very good sound texture and a reasonably flat frequency response, the dip in the 2khz range reveals their 'target market' imo, which is more for a listener looking for a neutral-ish set of cans that sound really great across the spectrum but which 'help out' a little by suppressing certain frequencies to combat potential sibilance issues. It's a listeners headphone, and not a mixing headphone.
With that in mind, I think hifiman did a very good job with these at this price point, but with a few minor faults that are sadly essential to me personally.
I bought the touring pair, but mostly because of the good deal and to be able to compare them when I order my paradox. If the paradox fixes the 2khz problem I will most likely sell them to a nice forum member here who wants 30% off
Cheers!
