[Ithilstone]

So just received those (Thank you Hifiman):

It is international version - So comes with stealth magnets technology - There is another version
for Chinese market - confusingly under the same name... but with "normal magnets"
Also some claim that magnets are only one-sided but reports are conflicting each other- It is all a bit confusing if you ask me!
From what I was able to find out - the way to recognise international version is by this sticker on the box.

Inside of the box, plastic insert (no cloth!)

Cable is also new - Looks and Feel OK - a bit stiff and 3.5 stereo end has a bit strange shape
also those plugs have basic looks and feel - It works though and I do not think that there is anything to complain about
in that price
+ 6.3 jack adapter is included.

Silver cups and yokes and black synthetic leather headband (same as most of latest HPs from Hifiman)

Nice cardboard with basic info about stealth magnets

and magnets themselves - on both sides of diaphragm:

Inside

And outside

Sound impression will be coming after I spend more time with them - just for now and very quickly:
Comparing to HE400i 2020, new HPs are less sensitive but that was expected due to double sided nature of construction compared to one sided 400i 2020
also soundstage is a bit bigger - that the 2 differences except tonality that are obvious in 2 minutes I spent comparing them ;][

More to come....

 

[jamess71]

Looking forward to your impressions. Are there any obvious differences in the bass between the two?

 

[bluesaint]

can pre-order $150 USD only it seems: https://store.hifiman.com/clearance...3rgF_N_DhlHOZUAYeXD0iQcSA22zefPxoCa80QAvD_BwE

 

[Fegefeuer]

46 Dollars shipping?

 

[Ithilstone]

46 Dollars shipping?

Well I guess some will have to wait for their local distributor to stock them.

 

[Ithilstone]

Looking forward to your impressions. Are there any obvious differences in the bass between the two?

Still early days but I would say in quality more than in quantity.

 

[Ithilstone]

Full review is coming - so for now couple of thought.

It is relatively hard to drive - what I mean is 400i 2020 can be powered by phone ( OnePlus 3T) it will not sound it best but it will be OK
where 400se needs more juice - not even talking about loudness ( as loudness is distortion) up 80% volume is phone is managing but it will be
low volume - anything over and phone starts to running out of puff and start to distort.
Cayin i5 on the other hand has no problems driving them on H-Gain (on volume 35-40) - those do sound nice and powerful, but i5 is known to cope well with modern planars.

Can we call 400se portable source friendly then - yes if you have good dap or amp ;] More amps and DAPs will be used later.

Cable - from audio point of view - cable is OK - compared to other Hifiman cables and some 3rd party ones - and there is nothing wrong with 400se cable sonically BUT...
I have never experience - full size headphone's cable to be microphonic! - Cable itself looks good (plugs are on the cheap looks and feel thought) It is rather stiff and when those two bits going to cups from where Y splitter should be ( but there is non) they rub on each other and that creates sound and vibration that are transferred along the cable to the cups - it is very audible and really annoying as hell.
To be fair and continue to use and evaluate 400SE with supplied cable I had to do something about it - and there it is:

A bit of sleeving and some heat-shring and it is usable again ;]

 

[pk4425]

Cable - from audio point of view - cable is OK - compared to other Hifiman cables and some 3rd party ones - and there is nothing wrong with 400se cable sonically BUT...
I have never experience - full size headphone's cable to be microphonic! -

Guess you don't own the Sennheiser HD 560s. A fantastic headphone for the money, but the included cable is microphonic as hell.

Very eager to read your comparisons of the sound of the 400i and 400SE. Thanks.

 

[Ithilstone]

Guess you don't own the Sennheiser HD 560s. A fantastic headphone for the money, but the included cable is microphonic as hell.

Very eager to read your comparisons of the sound of the 400i and 400SE. Thanks.

True that - do not currently have any Sennheiser's and never owned ( or heard ) HD560 - my limited experience with them was limited to HD 600, 650 and 800 fact that I do not own any of those tells something ;] Well I only own 3 dynamic HPs ;] Superlux HD681EVO - as it used to be one of the best bang for the buck at the time , Beyerdynamic DT990Pro 250Ohm for TV ( best coiled cable ;] ) and AKG K1000 - no need to explain that one I think.

Back to topic:
The more I listen and compare to 400i (new and old) I think 400SE is better and cheaper version of mostly same sound - slightly bigger soundstage and faster bass ( when amped properly) - and very similar in most of other aspects - if we not taking that cable into consideration (as mod costs beer money or replacement can be bought for couple of $) then It looks like buy well worth recommendation.
Just a side note I had big angled pleather pads on 400i (old) and that changed the sound a lot - but when I reverted to stock pads differences mostly despaired - Once again pads rolling is best thing after sliced bread in alerting sound signature without physically modding those cans

 

[pk4425]

Got the HE400se with stealth magnets today from Amazon and am only an hour into them, so VERY, VERY early impressions.

-- Good sonic balance across the spectrum. Nothing feels too hot or overemphasized. As Thom Yorke sang on "Kid A," everything is in its right place.
-- I'm not sure what I'm supposed to hear with "planar bass," as this is my first planar. But I'm not getting anywhere near the slam I get with my warm, bassy Meze 99 Classics. Even my Sennheiser HD 560s have more present bass. Not punchy, but present.
-- Average detail retrieval. My Sennheiser HD 560s are a touch more detailed.
-- Soundstage much more narrow I imagined. My Meze 99 Classics (closed back) and Sennheiser HD 560s both put the sound further out on my shoulders than the 400se. The sound with these is very much inside the head. I expected more from a planar, even an entry-level planar.
-- Very nice imaging. There is nice separation among the instruments. Maybe just a touch behind the Sennheiser HD 560s.
-- Clear mids. These cans definitely don't have any veil on the mids.
-- VERY comfortable. Tons of room in each ear cup. Nice velour padding. Headband also padded in the right spots.
-- The stock cable provided is janky as f*ck. I've seen $40 IEMs with better cables. This cable works fine, but it looks about as durable as a strand of tinsel on a Christmas tree.
-- Don't believe HiFiMan for a second that these cans can be properly driven by a phone. I'm running these with a TempoTec Sonata HD Pro tricked into high-gain mode by using a 3.5-male to 3.5-female adapter, and comfortable volume for me is about 60 percent up my iPhone 12. You'll need to almost max out an iPhone to get proper volume out of these cans. Maybe a more powerful Android, such as an LG, will work better. But I would think an amp is almost mandatory for these cans due to their low sensitivity.

These are extremely impressive for $149 cans. But I can't call them giant killers, especially with the Sennheiser HD 560s at $199. The 560s seem to have better detail and soundstage. But the HE400se are a bit warmer, more musical and a bit less clinical, if that makes any sense.

Again, VERY early days, but I think the 560s is better at detail retrieval and sound stage and probably has a more present and accurate bass.

More impressions to come. Feel free to ask any questions!

 

[jamess71]

Got the HE400se with stealth magnets today from Amazon and am only an hour into them, so VERY, VERY early impressions.

-- Good sonic balance across the spectrum. Nothing feels too hot or overemphasized. As Thom Yorke sang on "Kid A," everything is in its right place.
-- I'm not sure what I'm supposed to hear with "planar bass," as this is my first planar. But I'm not getting anywhere near the slam I get with my warm, bassy Meze 99 Classics. Even my Sennheiser HD 560s have more present bass. Not punchy, but present.
-- Average detail retrieval. My Sennheiser HD 560s are a touch more detailed.
-- Soundstage much more narrow I imagined. My Meze 99 Classics (closed back) and Sennheiser HD 560s both put the sound further out on my shoulders than the 400se. The sound with these is very much inside the head. I expected more from a planar, even an entry-level planar.
-- Very nice imaging. There is nice separation among the instruments. Maybe just a touch behind the Sennheiser HD 560s.
-- Clear mids. These cans definitely don't have any veil on the mids.
-- VERY comfortable. Tons of room in each ear cup. Nice velour padding. Headband also padded in the right spots.
-- The stock cable provided is janky as f*ck. I've seen $40 IEMs with better cables. This cable works fine, but it looks about as durable as a strand of tinsel on a Christmas tree.
-- Don't believe HiFiMan for a second that these cans can be properly driven by a phone. I'm running these with a TempoTec Sonata HD Pro tricked into high-gain mode by using a 3.5-male to 3.5-female adapter, and comfortable volume for me is about 60 percent up my iPhone 12. You'll need to almost max out an iPhone to get proper volume out of these cans. Maybe a more powerful Android, such as an LG, will work better. But I would think an amp is almost mandatory for these cans due to their low sensitivity.

These are extremely impressive for $149 cans. But I can't call them giant killers, especially with the Sennheiser HD 560s at $199. The 560s seem to have better detail and soundstage. But the HE400se are a bit warmer, more musical and a bit less clinical, if that makes any sense.

Again, VERY early days, but I think the 560s is better at detail retrieval and sound stage and probably has a more present and accurate bass.

More impressions to come. Feel free to ask any questions!

Great to hear your first impressions. I wonder if your impression of them will change over time? I'll be looking forward to some more reviews.

 

[pk4425]

Great to hear your first impressions. I wonder if your impression of them will change over time? I'll be looking forward to some more reviews.

Very possible! I'm quite impressed with them. They're very easy to hear, with no offensive frequency ranges to me. That's important to me.

Quick update on the comfort after wearing for two hours. Plenty of depth and room in ear cups, even for the protruding pinnae in my right ear.

But the head band -- ooof. I had a damn dent in the skin of my bald skull, with a red hot spot, after wearing for two hours. I'll try to adjust the headband, as maybe I had the cups too low on my ears, forcing the band to do too much work.

Otherwise, I'll need Dekoni Cubes or some sort of Velcro headband wrap for these.

 

[pooor]

Guys need your opinion, there's an deal/offer on 400i 2020 so i'm getting 400i cheaper than 400se(international, as newly launched its overpriced here), which one should i go with?

 

[Ithilstone]

Guys need your opinion, there's an deal/offer on 400i 2020 so i'm getting 400i cheaper than 400se(international, as newly launched its overpriced here), which one should i go with?

Depends on what you will be using it with - if mostly phone or small dap then definitely go for 400i - you will only get benefit of 2 sided magnets if you will be using powerful DAP or desktop amp and then I would go for 400se - those scale up nicely with better amps and unfortunately are less sensitive and work poorly on phones small DAPs

 

[Ithilstone]

Got the HE400se with stealth magnets today from Amazon and am only an hour into them, so VERY, VERY early impressions.

It was quite opposite for me - I found them thin and harsh for the first 30min or so.
After that It become smoother and fuller ( I had 3 songs on repeat and listened for 30 sec. at the time every 5 min )

Planar bass is about clarity and speed - It can be very powerful but only if it is on the recording - It will not be emphasised as on some other HPs- even HE6s that has one of the most powerful bass with so called physical slam - will only show what the can if bass is present in recording ;] no fake bass elevation etc.
Try listen to stuff that's has loads of it like (from 3:14)
This is a very good example - as all the bass is artificial and do not behave like natural occurring bass from acoustic instruments most dynamic HPs have problems reproducing it without smearing - with planars you can follow all of it - frequencies do not blend with each other etc

or something that goes very low like (from 3:27) and then compare it
I have heard dynamic HPs that there was almost silence where with HE400 (all of them) you cab clearly hear that rising rumble

Meze 99 Classics is very boomy in comparison - haven't tried hd560so will not comment

Also 400SE scale up very well with better amps (more powerful) what are you using it with? If your only amp is TempoTec Sonata HD Pro the I could understand
your comments about lack of bass and sub par details retrieval. Do you have access to decent desktop amp?

Bass gets faster and better defined ( more control) and there is planty of details

Cable is truly crap ;]

I haven't seen Hifiman claiming those are good for portable - but if they do then yes - 400SE are NOT suitable for weaker portable sources!