HIFIMAN - HE400SE Stealth Magnets Version

Three recommendations here - these are easily the most comfortable headphones I have, and all run well under the $200 mark: 3. Koss Portapro with Yaxi Pads - classis listening experience. Retro vibes. Decent bass for the size and EQ well. Easy to pack and travel with. Spring for the Yaxi Pads which are larger than stock for more comfort (and some say better sound). Also get the Koss hard case for it - the drawstring bag they give you with it is terrible. Whole thing should run you under $100. 2. Sennheiser HD599 - I describe these to people as a hug for your head. Less clamp force and softer cups than the HD6XX (I also have those, but can't wear them as long as the 599). Chill sound, a little warmer than the 6xx and great for listening - less bassy than the other two recommendations, but Sennheiser audio quality. These ring in at \~$150. 1. This is highly subjective, but I'm wearing them right now comfortably listening to a lo-fi playlist - Grado SR60x. People seem to either love them or hate them, but the style and sound will take you back to the vinyl/cassette era easily. The tip I followed was to get the G pads - whether the Grado or a well reviewed online retailer. They're huge, and place a large amount of surface area on the side of your head, but the clamp force is light and the sound and comfort are fantastic. I liked them well enough with the stock pads, but the G pads really turn them into something special. This will run you \~$100 for the headphones and between $11 and $50 for the pads (the Grado official pads are pricey). Special mention: Hifiman H400SE - If you don't have a set of planars, this is the gateway along with the Massdrop HE-X4. These will run heavier than the others and come in about $110.

I bought the Hifiman HE400se, near the end of April, 2025. The right Ear randomly stopped working 3 days ago, been researching how to fix.(I tried different sources and 2 different cords, balanced, non-balanced). It is cleary a driver issue. And cause of the algorithm I never once saw all the posts on how bad Hifiman's QC was, but now I found alot of posts confirming this. Feeling really disappointed, for now my iFi Zen DAC v2, is a paper weight. From what I have read is that they will not ship replacement drivers. Which is really stupid, for it would take all of 10-min to swap drivers myself, literally 2 screws. Now I'm debating to get more Hifiman headphones or another brand, for I think I really like the Planar Sound. Or posting on marketplace to see if anyone has a broken left ear then splitting the cost of a new pair of HE400se's so each of us can fix our headphones. Anyone have any suggestions? Anyone try the Clearance/Refurb section of Hifiman's store? It has some good deals, or a recommendation around the max of $300cdn($215ish USD)? Thank you.

To me they were garbage. But a lot like them so fair enough. The mods do help a lot and arent hard to do which is good. Poor build quality as well sadly

Nice job! A few issues/criticisms I can see with some arguments here: > The HiFiMAN HE400se at $79 gives you a planar magnetic driver, the same technology that costs $5,500 in the Susvara for under $80. I don't think I'd view planar magnetic as a premium technology. It's just another driver type. Just like a silk/metal dome tweeter vs a ribbon tweeter. One isn't inherently more premium than the other and there is a massive range of quality and prices of dynamic, planar, and electrostatic headphones. I'll also add that planar magnetic headphones tend to be a bit more fragile than dynamic headphones, which is worth considering when talking about products for the masses. Something like pushing a closed-back headphone tight on your ear and creating a large amount of pressure is more likely to cause issues with planars than it is with dynamics. > The ATH-M50x that every "studio headphone" list recommends? 62.5%. The term "studio" headphones is annoyingly misunderstood. The most common use of headphones in a studio is not mixing, mastering, or other tasks where you're doing critical listening. It's tracking (listening to other musicians and/or the tracks you are playing along to). You need something with reasonably good audio performance for that of course, but I'd argue that durability and reliability are more important than sound quality for this. Yes, headphones are used for critical listening as well, certainly more now than they used to be as headphones are better now, far more common, and you see a lot more amateur/home "studio" work, but monitors are still by far the primary listening medium for critical listening. > Reddit doesn't actually like the headphones that the mainstream keeps pushing. I'd say that's often the difference between products that target enthusiasts or professionals vs mass market products that you see everywhere. It's often that people genuinely don't know these higher-end or professional options exist until they start looking into these communities. Just like with headphones (or high-end audio in-general), you often don't come across these products, including entire brands, until you look into these communities or specialized retailers/distributors (so not general places like Amazon, Home Depot, etc.). > My honest advice based on going through all 40, start under $100. Figure out if you like warm, neutral, or bright. Figure out if you need open-back or closed-back. Then upgrade intentionally. Don't start at $300 because a YouTube review told you to. Absolutely! I often recommend people start with something that has a fairly neutral tuning so that they have a point of reference in figuring out what they like. Also realize that your own tastes will likely change with time and experience, and that's totally fine. And I completely agree on not just following the advice of others. I will also give a big bit of advice: if you are able to, to find a place where you can demo gear yourself. Ultimately, no one has your ears and your taste (you can never eliminate the subjective part of audio). Keep up the good work!

HE midSE Objectively claustrophobic, subjectively the most boring headphones in the price bracket

Nothing can beat them at the price tag of 60€ (even 50, on sales) for V1 or 80€ for a stealth version in Europe. Nice sound out of the box, great with EQ unless you're addicted to bass. Flaws : - need a comfort strap to stay in place when I'm moving. - cables are awful, I replaced them with balanced ones, I'm not sure if it's about cable quality or balanced things, but it sound better with my new cable. I'm listening it through Qdelix 5K and FIIO K11.

As someone who has owned the HE400SE before, the timbre is pretty strange and they're quite uncomfortable, not to mention the build quality. 560S, DT880 if EQ, AD900X, X2HR are all better options (I have owned all of these at some point).

>Yo por ejemplo juegos donde necesito oir los pasos, juegos como Counter-Strike, Pubg o Arena Breakout ¿Que me sugieren y que debo mirar? Un auricular que de sonido decentemente. >Y si, lo pregunto con mala leche porque es mas facil armar una PC que elegir auriculares. Es más fácil de lo que imaginas elegir auriculares, es como cualquier otro producto: Huirle a marcas generalistas que gastan todo en marketing, y comprarle a marcas que se dedican hace décadas a especificamente eso. >¿Es coaa mia o el audio está tan roto en los juegos que si no tenes auriculares de estudio musical no podes oir un carajo? Los auriculares gamers no tienen ni medios ni agudos, que justamente son las frecuencias de "presencia", o sea, donde se escuchan cosas como tiros o pasos. Por eso no escuchas nada, tienen solo graves, y de los malos que saturan y te tapan el resto del ruido. Olvidate de los inalámbricos, son más caros, peor calidad de sonido, además totalmente inútil algo inalámbrico para usar sentado, es como comprar un powerbank para atornillarlo a una mesa de tu casa y usarlo siempre ahi, pierde todo el sentido que es la portabilidad. El tema de auriculares es que depende para que quieras usarlo y tus preferencias de sonido te puede gustar mas uno u otro, no es como un mouse o teclado que podes leer las especificaciones y decir "este es mejor porque tiene switches de mejor gama" o algo así, la única forma de saber si un auricular es bueno para vos es probandolo. Los auriculares son algo totalmente sensorial, se compara más a la comida por ejemplo que es puramente sensorial, no a todos les gusta lo mismo, pero si la mayoría distingue entre comida chatarra y comida de calidad. Y no es caro tener un auricular bueno. Si vas por in-ears, un Kiwi ear Cadenza de 30 dólares le hace el ocote a cualquier auricular gamer caro como los Logitech pro X, G522, o Razer Kraken o Barracuda. Over-ear, los Superlux HD 681 y HD 330 rondan los 90k-100k y son buenos. Afuera los Hifiman HE400se salen 60-70 dólares y para muchos es endgame. También salieron hace poco los Kiwi ears Altruva por 70 dólares.

Just got my hifiman he400se headphones this week. Audio gear made for people who actually care about audio quality is such a gigantic upgrade it's crazy.

400se, especially if you're playing them in a way you can add a little EQ.

Not really; it’s a challenging tier to find anything that stands out. The 400se is as good as anything I’ve heard in that tier, but everything at that price point has trade offs.