If a serious music lover asked me what open-back audiophile headphones to buy and wanted to spend less than $500, I’d recommend the HiFiMan HE400S. These aren’t cheap, yet emerged as the favorite when our panel of audio professionals spent 60 hours evaluating 29 open-back and semi-open-back headphones—nearly every model available for less than $500. Among those, the HE400S headphones were the only ones that we all agreed deserved a high ranking.
Our pick
HiFiMan HE400S
Unbelievably spacious and natural sound—along with unusual versatility—makes these the only open-back headphone all of our panelists loved.
The HE400S cans sound unbelievably spacious and natural, meaning they don’t boost any particular part of the bass, midrange, or treble—a rare quality in headphones. Listen to a recording of a live concert and it’ll seem like you’re hearing sounds echoing off the walls and ceiling of the actual performance space. In your favorite recordings, you may hear more lifelike detail—the scrapes of a guitarist’s pick against the strings, a singer’s breaths, the little clicks of a saxophone’s keys—than you’ve ever heard before.
Open-back headphones avoid the acoustical effects and resonance of the closed enclosure of typical headphones, producing a sound that many audiophiles and headphone enthusiasts prefer—spacious, natural, and not too bassy.
Most serious listeners plug headphones like this into the headphone jack of a stereo receiver, or into a special amp designed just for headphones. The HE400S will likely sound better when used this way, but this model can deliver great sound even when plugged straight into a smartphone—a big plus. Most open-back headphones aren’t practical for portable use—they have low sensitivity, which means a smartphone or tablet may not be able to deliver adequate volume through the headphones even when cranked all the way up, and they let in too much sound from the world around you, but when you want to sit down at home for some focused music listening, they’re the best thing going.
Why you should trust me
I’ve been writing reviews of audio products professionally since 1989, working for websites such as SoundStage and Home Theater Review, as well as magazines, including Sound & Vision and Home Theater. I’ve participated in almost all of the headphone tests on The Wirecutter, conducted numerous headphone listening panels for Sound & Vision, and review high-end headphones for SoundStage. Thus, I’ve had the chance to evaluate several hundred headphones. I’ve also tested a couple thousand speakers and amplifiers and similar types of audio equipment, spent a few years recording jazz and folk artists in New York City, and still play occasional gigs and jam sessions as a jazz bassist, so I have a pretty good idea of what instruments and voices—and therefore audio products—should sound like.
I also own a full suite of lab measurement gear for testing headphones and other audio products, and keep up with the latest research on the topic in publications such as AES Journal. Plus, I worked for a couple of years as a marketing director for Dolby Laboratories, which gave me some insight into the way audio products and technologies are developed and sold; you could say the experience gave me a first-class BS detector.
Throughout my career, I’ve championed the use of listening panels to evaluate audio products. I’ve conducted far more of these than any other audio journalist in North America (and maybe the whole world), starting with my first one back in 1991. Thus, I know what works well in these tests and what doesn’t, as well as what conclusions are safe to draw from the results. No audio product test is perfect, but at least in ours you get the perspectives of multiple listeners who have all evaluated hundreds of headphones, as well as many other types of audio products.
I had help on this test from three other veteran listeners. Lauren Dragan, The Wirecutter’s headphone editor, has probably listened with more of the headphones currently on the market than anyone else in the world. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music performance and audio production from Ithaca College; spent several years in terrestrial radio; and currently works as a professional voice actor in Los Angeles. Lauren was joined by Geoff Morrison, writer for Forbes and CNET and A/V editor here at The Wirecutter, and John Higgins, who holds a master’s degree in music from USC and works as a session musician in Los Angeles, and is a music and audio teacher at The Windward School, a private high school in LA.
What are open-back headphones? And why would you want that style?
Open-back headphones have an open grille on the back, so the sound from the backs of the headphone drivers (the little speakers inside the headphones) can escape out into the air. Most headphones have closed backs, which trap the sound coming from the back of the driver and also blocks most sound from the outside from entering your ear.
It can be a little shocking to hear a good set of open-back headphones for the first time, because the sound is so much more like what you hear in a nightclub or concert hall. That’s because you’re not hearing the acoustical effects and resonance of the enclosure formed by a closed back. It says a lot that most headphones that are priced higher than $500, and almost all of those that audiophiles praise most highly, are open-back models.
It can be a little shocking to hear a good set of open-back headphones for the first time, because the sound is so much more like what you hear in a nightclub or concert hall.
But open-back headphones have disadvantages. Because the backs are open, sound from outside can come in. Use open-back headphones on an airplane or subway, and you’ll get near-zero relief from the noise. Sound tends to leak out of the headphones, so you probably wouldn’t want to use them in bed while your significant other is trying to sleep. Open-back headphones almost always have less bass than closed-back models. Almost none of them include a cable with an inline microphone or remote.
There are also semi-open-back headphones, which have smaller grilles or vents. They block more sound from the outside and tend to have more bass than open-back models. There’s a wide variance here, though. Some semi-open-back models are closer acoustically to open-back models, and some perform more like closed-back models.
An open-back model probably shouldn’t be an average listeners’ first choice in headphones, because that isn’t practical for portable use. But if you’re a serious music lover who likes to sit for hours at home listening to music, a set of open-back headphones is a great investment. That’s especially the case if you listen to acoustic music such as classical, jazz, or folk. Those types of music tend have a more natural sound that especially benefits from the open-back design. Also, those genres rarely require robust bass reproduction.
How we picked which models to test
The first decision we made when we decided to test open-back headphones was to limit the maximum price to $500. The way we see it, anyone spending more than $500 on headphones is a serious enthusiast who has specific tastes in sound; probably participates in online audio forums; is likely to try as many headphones as possible at retail outlets and hi-fi and headphone shows before buying; and may well own half a dozen or more headphones. Not exactly the average person. Also, for practically all models priced higher than $500, there are numerous reviews already available online, which isn’t true of some of the models we tested here, especially the lower-priced ones.
With that limitation in place, we still had plenty of headphones to consider. I read reviews on all the models I could find. Unfortunately, the more expensive models had mostly good or downright glowing reviews, so that didn’t help narrow it down much. And most of the inexpensive models had only a smattering of reviews, usually customer reviews on retail sites. Considering that there was no clear consensus on which models were best, we requested samples of any model for which we could find at least a couple of good reviews. Having all of these headphones available for comparison was a rare opportunity—one I haven’t seen duplicated elsewhere.
The open-back and semi-open-back headphones we tested, with the four over-$500 reference headphones hanging from the microphone stand in the back.
How we tested
I gave each set of headphones 24 hours of break-in time, playing music from a Los Angeles rock radio station at a fairly loud volume. Some higher-end headphones specify a break-in time of up to 150 hours. However, this wasn’t practical considering how many headphones we were testing, and the need for such a long and specific break-in time isn’t supported by any scientific evidence I know of. After breaking in the headphones, I separated them loosely into two groups, the under-$100 models and the over-$100 models. The panelists all provided their own music for testing.
Because these headphones are primarily designed for in-home use, and because some of them couldn’t achieve full volume from a smartphone, all of the panelists used separate amplifiers to drive the headphones. Lauren and I used units that combine a headphone amp and a digital-to-analog converter into a single unit—in my case, an Aurender Flow, and in Lauren’s case, an Oppo Digital HA-2. John and Geoff both played music from their smartphones through separate headphone amplifiers—in John’s case, a Rane HC-6, and in Geoff’s case, a Musical Fidelity V-Can.
The panelists were free to listen to any headphones for as long as they wished, in any order, and to pit any pair against any other pair. To see how these relatively affordable headphones compared with some of the audio industry’s top models, I provided four high-end models for the panelists to use as a reference: Audeze LCD-X, HiFiMan HE560, HiFiMan HE1000, and Oppo Digital PM-2.
I use my HP laptop and an Aurender Flow headphone amp/DAC to test some of the higher-priced open-back models.
Why we probably didn’t pick your favorite headphones
Considering that open-back headphones are typically used more by audiophiles and headphone enthusiasts, they tend to inspire strong opinions. Of course, we can recommend only a few of the many models we tested, so if you already have a favorite, mathematical odds are that it’s not one of our top picks. Please don’t take this personally. It’s almost certain that at least one of our panelists likes, and maybe even loves, your favorite headphone. We just didn’t agree on it.
The task of each individual listener is to find a favorite pair of headphones. But ears and tastes differ, and your favorite headphones might not be the next person’s favorite headphones. Our task is to find the headphones that we feel are the most likely to give the most listeners a satisfying experience.
Neil manages to sleep through John’s testing of open-back headphones.
What you get by spending more
One can spend as much as about $50,000 on a set of headphones now. This may seem crazy when you could buy a cheap motorcycle for the same price But our panelists thought all of the higher-priced models we used for comparison were better than the HE400S.
Typically, what you get by spending more is a more tonally natural sound. The sonic spectrum—the bass, midrange, and treble—will likely be more evenly balanced. Voices will sound more like they do in real life, and less like they’re coming through a megaphone or out of a cardboard box. The sound likely will be more spacious and ambient, too; that “concert hall” feeling that many of our tested headphones provide will be heightened.
Most higher-end headphones include or have the option of being equipped with cables that connect to headphone amps with balanced output, where the left and right earpieces each have their own electrically separate amplifier and cables. Enthusiasts generally consider this upgrade worthwhile, although its improvements are subtle. You’ll probably also get a nice presentation box and perhaps two sets of cables: a long, fat one for home listening and a short, skinny one for on-the-go use.
Is it worth it to spend an extra $500 or $1,000 or $4,500 on your headphones? That’s a decision only you can make. If you’re curious, the forum Head-Fi.org puts on regional meetups and shows across the US and in many other countries where you can go hear many of these headphones, and many can also be heard at consumer hi-fi shows such as Rocky Mountain Audio Fest.
The HiFiMan HE400S headphones were the only ones of all those we tested for this guide that every panelist agreed was worthy of our recommendation. Not only do we feel it (arguably) matches or exceeds the performance of any under-$500 headphone we tested, it’s comfortable to wear and it’s relatively affordable for about $300.
Like most of HiFiMan’s over-ear models, the HE400S headphones use planar magnetic drivers, which use a thin sheet of plastic film embedded with wire in place of the dynamic drivers used in most headphones (Inner Fidelity’s Tyll Hertsens has an excellent article on the technology). We tend to like their sound; our pick for the best under-$400 closed-back headphones, the Oppo Digital PM-3, also uses them, as do the Fostex T50RP mk3 and T20RP mk3 cans we recommend in this guide.
The HiFiMan HE400S headphones were the only ones of all those we tested for this guide that every panelist agreed was worthy of our recommendation.
Our panelists agreed on the HE400S headphones because they delivered the big, ambient live sound that the open-back style is known for, without the drawbacks we found in so many competitors. “It has that huge sound and fast attack typical of open-back planar magnetic headphones,” Geoff commented. “It’s a little hyped-up sounding, but it has good presence and depth compared with the others,” Lauren said.
The HE400S has a decent amount of bass compared with most of the other open-back models; it’s probably not what heavy metal or hip-hop fans would want, but very nice for this type of headphone and enough for average listeners. (John even thought it made kick drums sound a little too loud.) Also, unlike many open-back models, the HE400S headphones play at a fairly loud volume when connected straight to a smartphone. Even if you do most of your listening through a separate amplifier, it’s nice to be able to plug your headphones directly into your phone or computer when you just want to give something a quick listen.
Unlike many open-back models, the HE400S headphones play at a fairly loud volume when connected straight to a smartphone.
Lauren and Geoff both picked the HE400S as one of the more comfortable models we tested, Geoff noting that his glasses didn’t interfere with the fit. The earpieces fold flat, making it easier to slip the HE400S between a couple of shirts in your suitcase. The cable is easily detachable and replaceable in case you damage it.
Our panel picked the HiFiMan HE400S as our top recommendation for under-$500 open-back headphones based on their sound quality, comfort, and low price.
How this pick compares with top picks in other categories
Geoff and I had a chance to compare the HE400S with two top-ranked closed-back headphones, the Oppo Digital PM-3 (our current pick for best under-$400 closed-back headphone) and the NAD Viso HP50. For this test, we took the extra step of performing live for each other (Geoff on guitar, me on ukulele), recording the performance, then repeating the live performance and comparing it with the recorded performance played back over the headphones. Even though the PM-3 and HP50 rank among my favorite headphones, Geoff and I thought the HE400S sounded more like the live performance than either one. Its sound is not only predictably more spacious, but also more even and natural through the entire audio range.
Even though the PM-3 and HP50 rank among my favorite headphones, Geoff and I thought the HE400S sounded more like the live performance than either one.
Flaws but not dealbreakers
The HE400S headphones, like other open-back models, isn’t as versatile as closed-back cans. Though you can use them with a smartphone, because they let outside sounds through to your ears, they’re basically useless on an airplane and questionable for use on a bus or subway. They’re much bulkier than most listeners will probably prefer, either for traveling or just for basic comfort.
Sonically, the bass from the HE400S is understated compared with what you hear with almost any closed-back headphones. It has a little bit of treble emphasis, so cymbals might seem a little too loud and a tad too sizzly, but this is typical of headphones voiced for audio enthusiasts, and it’s toned down quite a bit from what we’ve heard in many other open-back models, such as HiFiMan’s HE400i.
With a 7¾-inch hat size, I have a larger-than-average head, so headphones tend to grip my head more tightly. That’s probably why I found that the HE400S earpads placed a little too much pressure below my ears. I also found the velour earpads a little itchy in a prickly heat sort of way. After about an hour of listening, I needed a break. I expect I’d be more comfortable with the leather earpads HiFiMan sells.
The HE400S headphones don’t come with a carrying case, but HiFiMan offers one for about 30 bucks.
What others say
The HE400S headphones had been out for only a couple of weeks when this guide was written, so there weren’t many reviews available. However, CNET’s Steve Guttenberg had already weighed in, concluding, “The HiFiMan HE400S set a new benchmark for sound quality for $300 headphones.” Marshal Rosenthal of The Examiner seems to agree, stating, “HiFiMan is well-known for the quality and ‘listenability’ of their headphones. With the HE-400S, not only is this maintained, but the price makes them accessible to an audience who haven’t known what their hearing has been missing.”