HE400SE Stealth Magnets Version

I think recent Skullcandies are the best bet You got in the IEM side lots of stuff, for example for good sounding stuff there is the 7hz X Crinacle Divine (haven't tried em) or the Diablo, Slightly V shaped and bass head stuff on the other hand respectively Sennheiser are more audiophile stuff which is nice but yeah, while not super megaduper expensive they aren't cheap :P The issue is that if go wireless then it is a different thing, there is a lot of wired stuff that is nice. Still wired but i think the He400se if you can get them at a decent price somewhere (because tarrifs in the US) plus a TRN Black Pearl would be nice, the thing doesn't really have bass but you can use the TRN thing (it is a dongle dac btw, Amplifies and converts digital to analog) to EQ it and get that sub bass that has a roll of in the lower end and to get that bass up in a more nice way because the dongle dac will provide this EQ Does he plays videogames?, if he does like what kind, movies? music? is he a basshead? has he used more audiophile stuff? The most context the best answers you can get haha :)

Bright Neutral with sub bass rolloff. He400se works well.

Currently running Hifiman Arya stealth + ef500 combo. Genuinely beautiful sound across the board. Used to run h400se which are much cheaper and definitely good enough.

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.

IMO you need an amp to drive these, I was running them off an Apple dongle and they were too quiet for my liking