HIFIMAN HE400i Over Ear Open Back Magnetic Planar Reference Studio Headphone with 3.5mm Crystalline Cable

Something to note... The seller (HIFIMAN) was supposed to provide me the 3.5mm (latest) version of the headphones. They provided the 2.5mm version. This was disappointing but for the price ($179) AND the included 'fancy' cable ($129 value) I decided to keep them. I did reach out to the seller, no response. Okay, enough about that.HIFIMAN, congratulations, you make a good headphone. I will be lenient on the review of the sound as I have not quite surpassed the steep burn-in period as recommended by HIFIMAN (150 hours). I'm pretty close to that though, they sound good. If they get no 'better'...'different'...whatever, I will remain quite pleased. Sound is highly subjective so I will retain my personal ramblings. If you're interested, at the current price, there's no need to worry. Unless... you're rough with headphones. These are not built to withstand more than the occasional, seated at a desk, use. They are VERY lightweight and the intent, it would seem, would be to use these as portables. I recommend you don't.

This is a very clear sounding headphone build quality is superb. The sound quality was good but I wasn’t knocked off my feet. I guess there is a point of diminishing returns for me, it did not blow away a 60 dollar pair of Sony earbuds that are reliable. Don’t get me wrong the Hifiman can do things in the upper frequencies that the Sony earbuds can’t, but you have to listen at high volumes and listen deeply. I really wanted to like this headphone enough to keep it, but the sound could not justify to 200 dollar price tag.

I had the 3.5 mm audio connection and used it with a IFI nano BL DAC/AMP. This is an excellent sounding headphone. I listen to classical music and the 400i provides a lot of clarity. It is very close in sound to the Sandara.

These are the first open back and first planar headphones that I have owned, I mostly use them for gaming and some for movies and I do like them , they are very comfortable even though they are fairly large but I don't mind . Also they do sound pretty dang good even though they don't have as much Bass as I would like . All in all I'm fairly happy with them .

Supposedly these can be powered by a phone, but are better with an amp. Having tried it both ways, I was just flat disappointed. I have a planar system on my home system, a darn good one. So I was looking for a headphone that would give me something somewhere close to being similar when I need to be quiet for the needs of others. But my needs were just not met. Although I like a slightly elevated bass, if it is spot on, I'm fine. Accuracy above exaggeration... but there is a difference between flat and under represented. A flat performance is fine if the dynamics and accuracy are there, but it wasn't. Lackluster performance even when amplified by Yamaha, Crown, or Carver. I know what my Maggies sound like on the above, and this was a disappointing comparison, period. Back to Sennheiser headphones I guess.