Allow me to preface this write-up by saying, this review has taken a while to materialize largely due to personal reasons (busy time in my life with graduate school deadlines).

I decided to embed my notes about potential modifications within the review rather than make a separate post or thread about it, as they are in my opinion fairly straight-forward mods that don’t need their own personal spotlight.

Hope everyone has an enjoyable read.

Durability, Design, & Ergonomics

HE1K is made from a premium set of materials. Its headband assembly is fully brushed steel and aluminum. The headband strap is genuine leather, while the headphone cups are a combination of aluminum and relatively thick shaped wood veneer. The pads are either lambskin or premium grade pleather, it feels very good either way. The finish on these cans is commendable especially when looking back at older Hifiman cans. Everything on HE1K lines up in symmetry, all gimbals and pivots are smooth, the brushed finish on all the aluminum parts are nice and even, the wood is 99% seamless to the adjacent metal on the cups, with the veneer edge being only a bit frayed near where they shear off at the connectors; I do contemplate getting some wood wax to help preserve the wood in the long term though, as that is not included. Personally, I am quite satisfied with these earpads, they are impeccable, and certainly a lot nicer-finished than the Focus pads that go with HE400i/560.

As far as I can tell, I don’t see any weakpoint in the physical build of these headphones, it’s a very robust design from top to bottom. Even the connectors are 2.5mm plug-n-play stereo jacks rather than the old SMC screw-on connectors favoured in the past by Hifiman; meaning if you accidentally yank the cables hard, they should give way before damaging the connectors. As long as the drivers with nm-thin diaphragms themselves hold up the test of time, I think these headphones will last a good long while.

With regards to ergonomics and comfort, I am for the most part, floored. Beta testers including myself raised the issue with headband not accommodating smaller sized heads, and that was remedied in production units. Other than that, these are share the top spot for most comfortable full-sized cans I’ve ever tried, alongside HD800s (the HE1K headband is more comfortable than HD800’s, on my head) and HE-audio Jades. HE560s are already quite comfortable, but HE1000s improve the comfort on 2 fronts: 1. The headband is full of perforations which keep the head cooler over long sessions, 2. The sheer size and reverse-teardrop-shape of the cups mean my ears have plenty of space.

Now let’s get on the sound…

Sound Quality Analysis

Treble

HE1K’s treble is ultra-detailed, tonally neutral with moderate smoothness. It possesses great treble texture, which is shown through the ability for me to discern the physical nuances of vocals (the rasp, the smack of the tongue and lips, the wheeze of the airway and lungs, etc) and instruments (crunch and ribbed texture of guitar strings, crystalline twang of the piano keys, metallic sounds, etc) in critical listening on these headphones.

However, I do think HE1000 sometimes shows a slight loss of treble cohesion, especially apparent with some vocal tracks at loud volumes. This lack of constant treble coherency is the only tangible gripe I can come up with HE1K’s sound.

Modding angle

A way I found even tracing back to HE560 modding, was that the spashiness / incohesion of treble in the case of that headphone (and homologously, of HE1K) is at least partly due to some form of chamber resonance. The shelf-liner mod works quite well here also, to dampen the treble “splashiness” without attenuating or filtering out treble detail.

Simply trace out the driver onto a template, and trim out a shelf-liner disc using this template, be sure to trim the disc ½-inch smaller around the circumference, to compensate for the baffles (you want to tuck the shelf liner disc under the baffles, so that the earpad clips will lock down the disc).

The type of shelf liner? Check my HE560 mod details (signature).

This modification readily reduces the splashiness that is sometimes present in HE1K’s treble, enough so that it’s no longer a point of contention to my ears.  At the same time, the tonal balance stays exactly as is, the shelf-liner does not seem to be reducing or boosting specific frequency ranges.

Midrange

The midrange on HE1Ks retains the classical Hifiman house sound (flat in the low mids, dips somewhat in the low~mid midrange (at 2kHz), and increases again at the upper mids and beyond) in midrange tone, but stays fairly close to neutral. Subjectively, HE1K’s midrange tuning strikes a balance between being full-sounding and spacious/ethereal, which to my ears is a very likeable tonal compromise.

Now this ties into the Imaging/layer separation section, but the sheer ability for HE1K drivers to effortlessly discern layering in music grants the midrange great presence and realism

Bass

The driver/earpad enclosure is able to produce large-sounding bass that succeeds in extending out of the headstage, almost subwoofer-like in projection, has its own presence independent of the rest of the frequency range.

HE1Ks have fantastic control in bass / sub-bass tautness. It presents really superb physicality, and is able to play its own part cleanly in complex layered tracks, while still seamlessly blending into lower midrange in more cohesive music. Personally this is the most enjoyable bass response I have heard from any headphones; simply put, these cans do bass great justice in all genres of music.

Modding angle

By modifying the earpads so that they are more angled (described in detail in the next segment – Imaging & Headstaging), it does in part allow the drivers to be distanced slightly further from the ears; as well as increase the firmness of the earpads to a small extent which improves the fit and seal. The first factor contributes to a slightly punchier bass (more mid-bass grunt). The second factor adds a tad more control and groundedness to the lowest frequencies (more sub-bass conduction and better seal).

Imaging & Headstaging

HE1K’s 3D imaging is spectacular in some aspects, interesting in others. It possesses a very clean diagonal and lateral imaging, but frontal imaging is slightly fuzzy.

These drivers boast one of the most competent layer separations I’ve heard from headphones, accentuated by the physicality of HE1K’s sound signature.

The headstaging is convincingly out-of-the-head, but biases toward stronger lateral than frontal projection of audio cues.

Modding angle

A simple modification to increase the angling of the earpads is to trace the outer- and inner-edges of the undersides of the earpads onto 1/16-inch creatology foam, and trim out the back-facing half of the foam. This foam insert can further be tweaked in terms of its thickness (you could trim out another foam crescent and glue to this, for instance) as well as coverage (whether you want more or less of the earpad circumference elevated by this foam insert).

This earpad-angling mod allows for a more natural angling of the HE1k drivers facing toward the user’s ears, which I find helps with centre-staging, and makes lateral imaging more natural – rather than audio cues biasing toward the far left and right, now they have more dimensionality panning diagonally to the ears.

Dynamic Range, Transient Speed, & Misc. Capabilities

Synergistic with its exquisite layering capability, HE1K has a very respectable dynamic range, observed both from tracks with quiet / loud segments, and complex tracks with simultaneous low/high volume information.

Their drivers are extremely fast in terms of speed, sounds and cues simply materialize and disappear on a dime; this trait contributes greatly to the naturalness and believability to HE1K’s presentation.

It has a well-rounded transient edge (stronger ‘attack’ than most headphones I’ve owned or tried), but retains a sense of sweetness to the sound that allows for comfortably long listening sessions as well. Midrange transients feel stronger than treble transients. The end result is a somewhat relaxed but technically top-tier sound

I Find HE1K’s drivers to have good power-handling, and largely holds its beans together when I crank the volume way up. Bass and mids simply ramp up in volume without much strain in the SQ, as does the treble though maybe with a slight loss of treble cohesion.

Summary & Conclusions

What do I feel about HE1Ks after several months of listening and tweaking? Simply put, it is the most “safe” and “assuring” flagship headphone in my personal experience to date.

These headphones in stock form do not possess attributes, sonic or physical, that beckon doubt from me. Every aspect and trait of the headphone ranges from at worst exceptional, to at best unmatched. With some relatively low-effort mods, the headphones are further pushed up the chain to a degree of sonic finesse that I no longer need to listen to the headphones and analyze and admire the sound quality, instead, I can actually enjoy the music with zero insecurities about the performance of the transducers.

My mods are performance-driven, and I have a hyper-critical ear for sonic performance, and it’s rare that I can put on a pair of headphones and go, “I’m utterly okay with these now!” HE1Ks with a few simple tweaks are actually that.

Jerg

Sept. '15