"Editors' Choice Award Winner" 2012 - Sound+Vision Magazine

"The Dynamics are Fantastic"

HiFiMan's HE-400 is an extremely responsive headphone at an affordable price. It uses planar magnetic drivers, which are like a scaled down version of electrostatic panel speakers that fit your head. They are lightweight and boast 92.5 dB efficiency, allowing the HE-400 to be driven by virtually any source component, including an iPod.

"Tight and Well-Defined" Bass

"There’s a lot of high-frequency articulation," notes Brent Butterworth, who heads a review panel auditioning the HE-400 for the February 2012 issue of Sound+Vision magazine. "You really hear the pluck of the guitar strings and the consonants of speech… The bass of the HE-400 sounds tight and well-defined… The dynamics are fantastic…"

Sound+Vision was so taken with the HE-400 that the magazine honored it with an "Editors' Choice Award" in its January 2013 issue, calling the HE-400 "involving and exciting, with high-end clarity, a vibrant midrange, and plenty of oomph in the bass."

"Electrostatic-like Performance"

"These phones are so accurate that I took them with me to use as monitors while I recorded a jazz sextet live in a bar/restaurant setting," reports George Graves in Volume 15, Number 2, 2012 of The Audiophile Voice. "Here then is a pair of mid-priced headphones featuring electrostatic-like performance in a versatile, comfortable, and beautifully made package."

"Easy to Recommend"

"HiFiMan's HE-400 are the cheapest and easiest-to-drive planar magnetic headphones the audio specialist has made yet," notes Andrew Willilams in a TrustedReviews.com review for January 16, 2012. "Selling for just a third the price of the top-end models, while offering a similar sonic personality and build quality, they are easy to recommend for an audition."

The HE-400 has the familiar HiFiMan sonic signature, which means that it sounds very detailed, yet warm. This makes it ideal for digital music sources, which can often benefit from a hint of warmth. It delivers wideband frequency response of 20 Hz to 35 kHz. The high-quality detachable 10-ft. OFC copper headphone cable contributes to the fine performance.

• Planar magnetic drivers
• Warm, detailed sound
• Comfortable fit
• 10-ft. high-quality detachable OFC copper cable

• Frequency response: 20 Hz to 35 kHz
• Sensitivity: 92.5 dB
• Impedance: 35 Ohm
• Weight: about 440 gram or 14.5 Oz

"Editors' Choice Award Winner" 2012 - Sound+Vision Magazine

"Of all the headphones we’ve tested recently, the HE-400 and HE-500 got the most uniformly enthusiastic responses from our listening panel. Our reactions ranged from 'like a lot' to 'love,' with no major complaints."

"There’s a lot of high-frequency articulation… You really hear the pluck of the guitar strings and the consonants of speech."

"The dynamics are fantastic… Strings and percussion have great realism and delicacy."

"The bass of the HE-400 sounds tight and well-defined."

- Brent Butterworth, Sound+Vision magazine, February 2012

"These phones are so accurate that I took them with me to use as monitors while I recorded a jazz sextet live in a bar/restaurant setting."

"Here then is a pair of mid-priced headphones featuring electrostatic-like performance in a versatile, comfortable, and beautifully made package. They require a bit of 'running-in' as the Brits would say, before performing at their best, but once that is done, I think that you will find, as I have, that these headphones deliver the kind of sound for which Stax would charge you lots more."

- George Graves, The Audiophile Voice, Volume 15, Number 2, 2012

"HiFiMan's HE-400 are the cheapest and easiest-to-drive planar magnetic headphones the audio specialist has made yet. Selling for just a third the price of the top-end models, while offering a similar sonic personality and build quality, they are easy to recommend for an audition."

"Presentation is forward… detailing is excellent and bass is thoroughly well-handled."

- Andrew Williams, TrustedReviews.com, January 16, 2012