PACKAGING and Build:
The HE-400I shipped in a very nice box, with black foam insert, that holds these amazing cans in place. Also in the box was the cord and 1/4th adaptor. The did not like the cord it was stiff, a tad short, and the adaptors were a bit awkward, for my numb hands, to attach to the headphones. Once I got the cans out of the foam insert I was amazed at elegant they look and feel. 880 found these headphones to be neo-spartan, exquisitely functional, yet elegantly beautiful. The crew at HIFIMAN, using high qualities plastic resin, leather, metal and chrome have created a headphone that is light and very comfortable to wear. Although I did find the stock pads to be a touch warm, to my ears. I would sometimes puts these cans on and forget I was wearing g them, just getting lost in the the music.
SOUND:
BASS:
The bass on these headphones, was the best I have heard so far. I found the bass to be full and textured, the sub bass seemed deep and impactful. I really like the way the bass sounded playing rock like Led Zepplin or Frank Zappa. On a ranking of 1 to 10, I would give these cans a 8.
TREBLE:
The treble on the HE-400i's is very nice, after listening to these cans, I now found my Alpha dogs a touch sibilant.
SOUNDSTAGE:
I found the soundstage to be intimate. The vocals seem to right in front of you, and the instrument seemed closet together than I though a open backed set of cans. Most musical genres sounded fantastic with this sound intimate, slightly forward soundstage. However I found the instruments in classical music seemed a tad congested at times.
SUMMARY:
The folk at HIFIMAN have rally created a great headphone for the money. These cans look great, are so light and comfortable wear. And most importantly these headphones sound great. They play most musical genres well,. Vocals, either female or male, sound great, very crisp and clear.
EQUIPMENT USED:
Kenwood Multiple compact player into a pioneer Reciever, from the Reciever to my Schiit Audio Lyr 2 powered with Gold Lions.
Music used for the review:
Frank Zappa's one size fit all.
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
Chesky's Ultimate Demonstration Disc.
Tomita Planets.
Mozart's Oboe Concerto.
Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.
Led Zepplin's Bron-Y-Aur Stomp and Kashmir.
Henry the V.
Green Jelly Cereal Killer.
Negativeland Pepsi.
Talking Heads Stop Making Sence.
Eric Clapton Crossroads.
Dave Bruebeck.
Charles Mingus.
Thelonious Monk
The Residents The Tunes of Two Cities.
The HE-400I shipped in a very nice box, with black foam insert, that holds these amazing cans in place. Also in the box was the cord and 1/4th adaptor. The did not like the cord it was stiff, a tad short, and the adaptors were a bit awkward, for my numb hands, to attach to the headphones. Once I got the cans out of the foam insert I was amazed at elegant they look and feel. 880 found these headphones to be neo-spartan, exquisitely functional, yet elegantly beautiful. The crew at HIFIMAN, using high qualities plastic resin, leather, metal and chrome have created a headphone that is light and very comfortable to wear. Although I did find the stock pads to be a touch warm, to my ears. I would sometimes puts these cans on and forget I was wearing g them, just getting lost in the the music.
SOUND:
BASS:
The bass on these headphones, was the best I have heard so far. I found the bass to be full and textured, the sub bass seemed deep and impactful. I really like the way the bass sounded playing rock like Led Zepplin or Frank Zappa. On a ranking of 1 to 10, I would give these cans a 8.
TREBLE:
The treble on the HE-400i's is very nice, after listening to these cans, I now found my Alpha dogs a touch sibilant.
SOUNDSTAGE:
I found the soundstage to be intimate. The vocals seem to right in front of you, and the instrument seemed closet together than I though a open backed set of cans. Most musical genres sounded fantastic with this sound intimate, slightly forward soundstage. However I found the instruments in classical music seemed a tad congested at times.
SUMMARY:
The folk at HIFIMAN have rally created a great headphone for the money. These cans look great, are so light and comfortable wear. And most importantly these headphones sound great. They play most musical genres well,. Vocals, either female or male, sound great, very crisp and clear.
EQUIPMENT USED:
Kenwood Multiple compact player into a pioneer Reciever, from the Reciever to my Schiit Audio Lyr 2 powered with Gold Lions.
Music used for the review:
Frank Zappa's one size fit all.
Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.
Chesky's Ultimate Demonstration Disc.
Tomita Planets.
Mozart's Oboe Concerto.
Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas.
Led Zepplin's Bron-Y-Aur Stomp and Kashmir.
Henry the V.
Green Jelly Cereal Killer.
Negativeland Pepsi.
Talking Heads Stop Making Sence.
Eric Clapton Crossroads.
Dave Bruebeck.
Charles Mingus.
Thelonious Monk
The Residents The Tunes of Two Cities.