[torta]

 

It is a great all-rounder open headphone and will definitely please many audiophiles.

Oh, jebus! They made a serious one! I want fun one!

 

[thug behram]

It would be great if someone makes a through comparison between HE-400i & HE-500. I consider HE-500 as my next buy but if HE-400i is better, there is no doubt that I will get HE-400i instead  

I hold them as equals. He-500 does soundstage better. He-400i does comfort better.

 

[mandrake50]

  Hifiman HE-400i Review and Comparison

Intro
The HE-400i is the latest headphone from Hifiman. It was released recently as a replacement for the popular HE-400. This write-up will give my initial impressions of the HE-400i as well as compare it to its predecessor.

I received my pair straight from Hifiman for reviewing and demoing purposes, here are my unboxing pics: http://imgur.com/a/04xke
soundstage, underwhelming bass, without the airy treble, overall spacious sound, or fun v-shaped sound signature. It’s a great headphone, and I may keep my pair, but it won’t be replacing my HE-400, even if it is “better”.

TL;DR: The HE-400i is a very comfortable, very balanced, easy-to-drive, Hifiman can with OK bass and a small soundstage. Not a true sequel to the HE-400.

Note: this is my first attempt at a proper headphone review and I’d love some feedback.

 I think the review was well done! Thanks for doing it. I am still trying to put something cogent together for my review. I am in the same situation. I have never done a full review of a headphone. I mostly just listen. Analysis and translating that into something readable and understandable to many is a lot of work.
 
A couple of comments. I have been trying to listen to the 400i without regard to the name or what it may have replaced in the HFM lineup. In that mode I can say that I have been enjoying it greatly. The things that you mention as strengths, including the nice smooth slightly (very slightly) forward midrange make it a very nice headphone to listen to. I have listened to a few other headphones that are reputedly more technically proficient (HD800 for one) that just did not make me want to keep listening. That is not a problem with the 400i. I tend to label it as not only being fairly close to neutral, but to my ears very natural sounding. When I am listening to music, just listening, the presentation overall is more important than the extremes of FR.
 
In comparisons to my HE-400, I put the HE-400i on for the first time and smiled at what I heard. With the HE 400, I asked myself why people were raving about them. I spent lots of time trying to equalize the 400. I got a set of Jergpads for them. I did grill mods and tried different cables. This was all to try to make them nice to listen to for me. With all of that, the He 400 is much better than it was at first, but, even with its big low end and emphasized "air" due to FR, it simply does not sound as nice to listen to as the 400i.
 
All of this is, of course, very subjective. For myself, I don't find the difference between the bass on the 400i versus the 400 to be a significant problem (if at all). When swapping between the two there is a difference, but I think the 400i wins with it's natural presentation and quite adequate output in the low end.
 
Bottom line for me is that, while the 400 does some interesting things with bass and "air" it seems quite artificial to me. For gaming and movie listening (with Dolby Headphone) it is very nice. For music listening, it loses out to the 400i by a significant margin.
 
One day soon I really need to throw all of this into a real review. I also want to compare the 400i to my Hd600 and HD650. Some have mentioned the 400i as being an HD600 with better base and extension on the top end with greater speed  and resolution. I think that this is a vast oversimplification. Even if I find that to be the case, I will be quite happy. There is still much to be said for the HD6xx series! I do think, after listening to the HD6xx for many years, that there is much more to it than that. I need to get more direct comparative listening done!

 

[money4me247]

lol, the reports of discomfort with the old he400 and he500 are greatly exaggerated. you use either of em for a week and you get used to the weight. wide headbands that evenly displace the weight and large roomy earcups. honestly the comfort is perfectly acceptable once you get used to the weight. I have worn my he400 for 8hrs+ straigt no problems.

tho it is true the new design is so improved & comfortable you can forget that you are wearing headphones.

 

[SoundDragon]

  Hifiman HE-400i Review and Comparison

Conclusion
Overall, the new HE-400i does so much right and so little wrong. It is a great all-rounder open headphone and will definitely please many audiophiles. It’s a very technically proficient headphone. What it isn’t though, is a true replacement for the HE-400. Instead of just refining the HE-400, Hifiman took all the weaknesses and overcompensated for them – and in turn killed all the attributes the HE-400 was known for. Fit kind of loose? Let’s make it clamp like crazy. Pads are too hard? Let’s give them the squishiest pads ever so your ears practically touch the driver. Upper mids and lower treble a little unbalanced? Let’s get rid of the upper treble airiness and push the mids all the way to the forefront. Now we’re left with a headphone with a small soundstage, underwhelming bass, without the airy treble, overall spacious sound, or fun v-shaped sound signature. It’s a great headphone, and I may keep my pair, but it won’t be replacing my HE-400, even if it is “better”.

 
Thank you very much for the great review and comparison between HE 400i and HE 400. This is very helpful as i am trying to decide which pair of HFM cans will best suit my taste.

 

[Grey Owl]

  It depends on what you want... From my understanding and experience with both HE-400 and HE-500 (but no HE-400i, so far), if you are after neutrality, treble smoothness and better soundstage, you should choose HE-500. HE-500 are considerably better at soundstaging in comparison to HE-400 (dimensionality primarily) so if HE-400i are worse then HE-400 in this regard, I would consider this as a fair warning.
 
HE-400i, on the other hand, could MAYBE have a bit tighter and quicker bass response and a bit more exciting FR... Of course, I would expect a very significant improvement in comfort over HE-500. I personally just chose HE-500 with jerg pads today as HE-400i does not seem to be as neutral in tonality and as consistent in soundstage. However, HE-500 are simply not very comfortable and therefore I would have to work it out somehow.

 I hold them as equals. He-500 does soundstage better. He-400i does comfort better.

Thanks Ron12 & canuckavelli.

 

[.Sup]

lol, the reports of discomfort with the old he400 and he500 are greatly exaggerated. you use either of em for a week and you get used to the weight. wide headbands that evenly displace the weight and large roomy earcups. honestly the comfort is perfectly acceptable once you get used to the weight. I have worn my he400 for 8hrs+ straigt no problems.

tho it is true the new design is so improved & comfortable you can forget that you are wearing headphones.

Not exaggerated at all. I have been using HE-500 for years and could not stand its weight giving pressure at the top of my head. In fact just yesterday I have received my 3rd fake HD555 headband padding foam that I attached to the HE-500 only then it makes it bearable. Now theres no more presuure on a specific point, its just heavy. I use that foam on all my headhpones.

 

[money4me247]

Not exaggerated at all. I have been using HE-500 for years and could not stand its weight giving pressure at the top of my head. In fact just yesterday I have received my 3rd fake HD555 headband padding foam that I attached to the HE-500 only then it makes it bearable. Now theres no more presuure on a specific point, its just heavy. I use that foam on all my headhpones.

hahaha okay. i guess it really is user-specific. honestly though I had a lot more comfort trouble with all my other pairs of headphones (except the sony mdr-1r which are the most comfortable headphones in the world hahaha that i have ever tried). my he-400 distributed the weight evenly over the headband, so I just got used to the extra weight.

 

[Yeswecan]

At last here a local distributor announces having HE-400i "in stock" and available for demoing, price 499 euros.

 

[Foolwolf]

Recent owner of the HE-400i, well two albums old - and so far I love it. Compared to Q701 I think most things got boosted a notch. Running with the NAD1050. While trying to sometimes switch with the iBasso DX90, I noticed that the iFi iCan Nano gives it a boost to the direction of fun and more vivid bass.
 
So far, I really like these headphones Happy I took the "leap of faith".

 

[conquerator2]

Well, the grill mod is done.
The fit/finish is still not perfect and pretty tight. The rings are obviously being pushed to the limits.
Anyway, for now the improvement for both the 560 and 400i is small. About 5% improvement in imaging/air/soundstage/treble clarity width for the 560 and similar improvements for the 400i.
Enough to squeeze a slight extra off either headphone but not nearly enough to make an obvious change or transform it into a different/lot better headphone.
Should any of this change, I'll make sure to mention it accordingly but this is certainly not something that'd warrant an extra comparison/review.
I am not sure it warrants the effort it took to make either... Maybe barely but this mod was pretty tough. Very little margin for error and to get the new grilles in there and make the 4 tabs click was a difficult endeavor [and the retaining rings still aren't lined up perfectly]...
 

 

 

 

[llcook51]

Originally Posted by canuckavelli 
 
Hifiman HE-400i Review and Comparison
 
 
Excellent review. It is evident that you took your time to get it right the first time. Thanks.

 

[money4me247]

  Well, the grill mod is done.
The fit/finish is still not perfect and pretty tight. The rings are obviously being pushed to the limits.
Anyway, for now the improvement for both the 560 and 400i is small. About 5% improvement in imaging/air/soundstage/treble clarity width for the 560 and similar improvements for the 400i.
Enough to squeeze a slight extra off either headphone but not nearly enough to make an obvious change or transform it into a different/lot better headphone.
Should any of this change, I'll make sure to mention it accordingly but this is certainly not something that'd warrant an extra comparison/review.
I am not sure it warrants the effort it took to make either... Maybe barely but this mod was pretty tough. Very little margin for error and to get the new grilles in there and make the 4 tabs click was a difficult endeavor [and the retaining rings still aren't lined up perfectly]...

 
If you grill modded both headphones, does that mean you are keeping both?!?!?!

 

[Vartan]

So the all moding is the size of grille? I'm right?

 

[conquerator2]

   
If you grill modded both headphones, does that mean you are keeping both?!?!?!

Probably not. One will be given the stock grills and returned or sold [400i still has three weeks left with me as part of the HiFiMAN demo tour and the 560 is mine]. I just want to use them for some time with the grill mod to see whether the difference I believe is there, is really there 

If the mods weren't reversible, I would probably only mod the one I keep but since they're, I wanted to give them both equal footing, even though the difference is small.