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Showing 1 of 281 reviews about:
Drop + HIFIMAN HE-X4 Planar Magnetic Headphones
KevinCroshan
1
Mar 4, 2023
It takes time
Coming from my Grado SR60i which have been by rock and daily drivers for the last 9 years, it was hard to get used to Open Back Planar FR. It sounded so flat, boring and distant, unlike the grados which are very open, but has some nice bass, albeit a rolloff in the lower frequencies. It took a while for the drivers and my brain to "burn in", but on some songs the X4 is just better than the Grados. I would say I have lost the enjoyment of listening to music with these headphones, as they make any poorly mastered tracks sound like garbage.
Turning up the bass and gain on "Opera House" by Cigarettes after Sex, the sub bass really makes an impression and gives a ward hug to the ears, something I've never experienced before. Listening to "Lose yourself to Dance" by Daft Punk (RAM is such a good album to test headphones), the bass guitar definitely tamed, but the snares, details and imaging shines through. It's cleaner than the Grados, but altogether not as fun. "Snake Eater" by Donna Burke is a fav of mine for the soundstage and female vocals, and her sweet voice is reproduced so cleanly with excellent separation of instruments, but the soundstage is lacking and again, less enjoyable.
All in all, I'm really happy with the purchase as these drivers are excellent and give a very different listening experience compared to my Grados. Is it gonna stay in my possession for long or will it go the way of the 58x which I sold after 3 years? I'm unsure at the moment. Outside of listening to music, the HE-X4 is a set of comfortable (soft memory foam, 3.5 knuckle, deep pads), well built headphones with excellent planar drivers. It looks the part and is built like a tank. Consuming content and games is great. It features two detachable 3.5mm jacks on each earcup, so I might try some higher end cables in the future. The main caveat, is that while it has a 32 OHM rating, the sensitivity is low and will need a proper amp to drive it to comfortable listening levels.
TLdr, for 99$, worth the try if you have a good amp, but will probably not as fun to listen to as your existing dynamic headphones.
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Would recommend to a friend.
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KevinCroshan
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Teee
35
Mar 6, 2023
KevinCroshanVery good review. I've had mine now for nearly two years and your observations are spot on. The one thing I will say after my ownership time is that they are very comfortable (I've modded mine in a couple of minor ways--oval pads and a headband pad) are very clean sounding, almost like open studio monitors and, at least my set, like you say, built like a tank.
(Edited)
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KevinCroshan
1
Mar 7, 2023
TeeeThank you! What amp would you recommend for these?
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KevinCroshan
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Teee
35
Mar 10, 2023
KevinCroshanKevin--I'm using a Schiit Magni2 Uber for desktop and for portable a Topping NX7. I got the NX7 fairly recently for the harder-to-drive cans like the HE-X4 and Senn HD-6XX's, etc. as I do a lot of portable listening. The Schiit has 1.5W@32 Ohms and the Topping has 1.4W@32. These were/are both inexpensive amps but they do a pretty good job and you're not breaking the bank.
As I'm sure you know, with these HiFiMan planars (I also have the Edition XS), the more wattage the better. That said, my Shanling M6 Pro 21 with 760mW runs both pretty well too. Beyond that I don't have much experience in the higher wattage area. A couple of good threads that have amp discussion are the Edition XS threads over on headfi.org https://www.head-fi.org/threads/hifiman-edition-xs-launched.960155/
and the XS thread on Audio Science Review https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hifiman-edition-xs.27903/
Running these planars at 2W@32 Ohms minimum is probably a good idea but they'll run decently with half a watt or more IMO. Amp or amp/DAC offerings by Topping (in the 2W+ range) come up a lot as you get a lot for the price. I think my HE-X4's really do noticeably scale up with the NX7; the bass starts to really rumble and they sort of come out of their shell. Anything over 2 watts I can't imagine what kind of giant slayers they might be. Good luck and happy listening!
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