Under The Radar (Part 4) Massdrop Hifiman HE-4XX Ortho-dynamic Headphone

This post is the final post about "under the radar" headphones that sound great.

But I make a drift. This post doesn't count because this Massdrop Hifiman HE-4XX is a recent headphone and quite popular. The reason why I choose this is because after 2 weeks try to finding the cheap vintage headphones that almost no body aware of, then come to my conclusion that the Yamaha HP-1 is a cheap and good vintage headphones for a desktop audio system only.

So to end this series, I wonder how newer ortho-dynamic headphone can compete with the vintage headphone. The newer technologies will absolutely more efficient and have better tolerance, but will it sound better?

I had the similar type headphone like this before, it is Hifiman HE-400 here. It was sold long time ago and I forget about the sound preference of it. The reason I sold it because I prefer the sound quality from the Sennheiser HD600 headphone.

Then in this review, I keep searching the new available and affordable ortho-dynamic headphones to compare with the vintage Yamaha HP-1. Then I found this good looking Massdrop edition Hifiman HE-4XX to become a great comparison.

First of all, anyone who looking at this Massdrop Hifiman HE-4XX will immediately falling in love by the design.

This headphone looks really solid because it using high quality material including the steel and the leather. It is big in size and also have a big opening area at the steel mesh on each drivers. Yes, this is the open back headphones that naturally brings the wider sound stage to the music.

I wear it and it is very comfortable. This headphone is light and I don't have any issue at all with this big headphone. For the small head, I guess this headphone simply too big for them.

When I wearing this headphone for long period of time, my sweat start to accumulate on the leather pads. This problems is common for the leather headphones pad that are fully closed around the ears, especially if there is no breather holes on the leather pads.

The cable connection on this Massdrop Hifiman HE-4XX is using a detachable cable. Both of each driver have 3,5 mm mini jack socket. At the end of the cable is also a 3,5 mm mini jack to connect to the amplifier or player. This is very common for recent headphone to use this kind of connection.

I compare the size of the HE-4XX with the others headphones in this "under the radar" series post.

Those are:

Beyerdynamic DT-100

Yamaha HP-1

And my coffee mug during listening session

Okay, let's go straight to the sound quality of this Massdrop Hifiman HE-4XX Vs. the Yamaha HP-1.

The Yamaha HP-1 sound performance really depends on the high power amplifier to drive this headphone. In contrast, the Hifiman HE-4XX doesn't need high power amplifier to drive it well.

When I using the Bottlehead Crack amplifier to drive HE-4XX, it is easily distorted at high level output. This distorted sound occurs because of the over powered power amplifier connected to it.

The Hifiman HE-4XX with Bottlehead Crack headphones amplifier sounds V-shape. The high frequency striking very intense and mostly having so much peaks. This is also impacting to the female voices that become so noisy. This is annoying.

While the mid range frequency on Yamaha HP-1 is natural with smooth and slightly warm sounding headphone, this HE-4XX mid range sound thin and boring. I later check this HE-4XX impedance and this is only 35 ohm. No wonder it is not suitable for high power amplifier like this.

So I will connect to the lower power output headphone amplifier like this hybrid vacuum tube op-amps amplifier that I made last year.

With this hybrid vacuum tube op-amp amplifier, I get the same sound characteristic same as when using the Bottlehead Crack amplifier. But using this hybrid vacuum tube op-amp amplifier make the sound more thin, less airy and with the same V-shape sound characteristic. I am quite disappointed with this headphone.

I just fully stop this review!

Whenever I tried to point something good in the sound quality of this HE-4XX, I simply couldn't find any. The Yamaha HP-1 wins for the smooth and more natural sound quality.

So in this desperate result, I do last trial by connect it directly to my iPod touch. The low impedance like this Hifiman HE-4XX sound better and driven well with the iPod internal amplifier. The V-shape sound is not too much striking like when using the amplifier. It is more enjoyable to listen the music in this way. The overall sound presentation is a little bit thin and laid back but it is really okay. Sound characteristic of this headphone is natural and bright. It is definitely far from warm sounding headphones like the Yamaha HP-1.

So, my conclusion with this Hifiman HE-4XX is cannot compete directly to Yamaha HP-1. Not because HE-4XX is worse sounding headphones but because the difference in impedance between both drivers are simply cannot comparable.

While the Yamaha HP-1 should driven with external high power headphones amplifier, in contrast with this HE-4XX sounds better with only a small wattage amplifier.

I can conclude this HE-4XX more suitable for simple portable audio setups. It is nice looking headphone with super material quality.

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