Hifiman He400i vs Other Planar Headphones
Nov 23, 2015 at 9:49 PM Thread Starter Post #1 of 12
nokialover

nokialover

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I'm looking to upgrade to a pair of planars and am considering the Hifiman he-400i.  Now that the price as dropped is there anything else in this price point that can compare to it?   Any advice for any other potential open back planars around this price point?
 
Nov 23, 2015 at 11:18 PM Post #3 of 12
my experience with headphones, Beyer COP-not enough detail and muddy sounding, v-moda m-100-better detail than COP, but want more detail and bass is a touch too much, beyer DT-990-decent amount of detail but too bright for my taste.  I have heard the audeze lcd-3 and was truly impressed by the bass response and how smooth the whole headphone sounded, better than anything else I have ever heard before.  Now that the He-400i are on sale, and based on the reviews gets I might jump.
 
Nov 25, 2015 at 9:17 PM Post #4 of 12
I decided to get 400i when they went on sale this week for the price of the 400S. I have T50RP and HD650 to compare against. Excited to put these head to head against each other and find out if I like the larger planar transducers over the Fostex. They will replace my Senns for at home use.
 
Nov 26, 2015 at 1:37 AM Post #5 of 12
lowmagnet said:
I decided to get 400i when they went on sale this week for the price of the 400S. I have T50RP and HD650 to compare against. Excited to put these head to head against each other and find out if I like the larger planar transducers over the Fostex. They will replace my Senns for at home use.
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How would these headphones compare to the likes of an Audeze LCD 2.2f?  Would they around that level?  In my headphone progression i'm thinking that maybe going from the DT-990 pro to a LCD 2 might be too big of a jump and maybe should go for an in-between before then.  I was really impressed with a pair of LCD 3's that I heard so I am thinking that I would like the LCD 2 as they are essentially the same with some tweaks going for the LCD3. 
 
Nov 26, 2015 at 9:54 AM Post #6 of 12
nokialover said:
 
How would these headphones compare to the likes of an Audeze LCD 2.2f?  Would they around that level?  In my headphone progression i'm thinking that maybe going from the DT-990 pro to a LCD 2 might be too big of a jump and maybe should go for an in-between before then.  I was really impressed with a pair of LCD 3's that I heard so I am thinking that I would like the LCD 2 as they are essentially the same with some tweaks going for the LCD3. 
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While Audeze are a possibility in the future, I don't know if I could spend more than the cost of a pair of Magnepan MMG speakers on headphones. That is; I imagine they are probably REALLY GOOD, but $1500-2500 better? IDK.
 
Nov 26, 2015 at 10:05 AM Post #7 of 12
A couple of weeks ago I bought the HE 400S based on the review by Tyll in Innerfidelity. This week when I saw the HE400I was on sale for the same price I bought a pair of those as well. I'm very impressed with the 400S and imagine I will be impressed by the 400I as well. That's two sets of headphones for less than half the price of the LCD-3s.
 
Nov 26, 2015 at 10:30 AM Post #8 of 12
I'm in the same boat, I purchased the 400s back in August and now could not resist trying the 400i at the Black Friday price.
 
I received the 400i yesterday and I've only had a few hours with them but they are fantastic.  I'm not going to say they are all-around better than the 400s.
 
The 400s is the king of smoothness.  They are probably the least fatiguing headphone I've ever used.  That smoothness comes at the cost of some treble crispness and rolled off bass, not to mention a bit more of a homogenized sound from top to bottom.
 
The 400i has more detail overall, nice deep bottom and overall greater clarity.  Theses enhancements to the 400i sound character create a bit of, I hate to use the word, harshness.  When I use the term harshness I'm not implying something negative as the 400i are so much better sounding than most headphones I've experienced and that harshness in this context is in relation to a higher order of magnitude in terms of headphone quality.
 
At the moment I plan to keep both pairs as they do have a significantly different sound presentation.  I'll will wait until at least the used market recovers from this sale before I will consider selling the 400s.  I need to let the 400i break in a bit more before I make a full judgement too.
 
Nov 26, 2015 at 10:50 AM Post #9 of 12
bwcgrx said:
  I'm in the same boat, I purchased the 400s back in August and now could not resist trying the 400i at the Black Friday price.
 
I received the 400i yesterday and I've only had a few hours with them but they are fantastic.  I'm not going to say they are all-around better than the 400s.
 
The 400s is the king of smoothness.  They are probably the least fatiguing headphone I've ever used.  That smoothness comes at the cost of some treble crispness and rolled off bass, not to mention a bit more of a homogenized sound from top to bottom.
 
The 400i has more detail overall, nice deep bottom and overall greater clarity.  Theses enhancements to the 400i sound character create a bit of, I hate to use the word, harshness.  When I use the term harshness I'm not implying something negative as the 400i are so much better sounding than most headphones I've experienced and that harshness in this context is in relation to a higher order of magnitude in terms of headphone quality.
 
At the moment I plan to keep both pairs as they do have a significantly different sound presentation.  I'll will wait until at least the used market recovers from this sale before I will consider selling the 400s.  I need to let the 400i break in a bit more before I make a full judgement too.
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Good to know. I was hoping the 400I would have a different sound signature from the 400S. 
 
Nov 26, 2015 at 1:57 PM Post #10 of 12
lowmagnet said:
  While Audeze are a possibility in the future, I don't know if I could spend more than the cost of a pair of Magnepan MMG speakers on headphones. That is; I imagine they are probably REALLY GOOD, but $1500-2500 better? IDK.
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 The LCD 2 is 1000$, and if they have any B stock you can find them for 800$.  The LCD 3 is 2000.  ​
 
Jan 10, 2017 at 3:40 AM Post #12 of 12
nightf0xx said:
  So are the 400i's better than the t50rps?
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I  have the HE 400i's and really like them and don't find the highs harsh at all. They are better than my Sennheiser HD580's and I think they must be better than the t50rps though I have never heard those. They do like power to drive them and they do reveal the quality of a recording. They probably scale well with higher quality electronics.
 
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