Launched in 2018, the HiFiMAN HE1000SE are among the most coveted high-end headphones out there. They pair HiFiMAN’s house sound, with its distinctive slight brightness, with a high level of detail and superb technical ability. The company has recently slashed their price from the original $3,500 to $1,699, which completely changes its market placement – and all considerations on value, too.
Disclaimer: I got this unit, which had been used for demos, directly from HiFiMAN (thanks, Mark!). Additional info on the official website.
Packaging & Accessories
The HE1000SE come in traditional HiFiMAN packaging, with a twist: given the high price, the company decided to make the packaging look high-end, too, and wrapped the box in faux leather. They also put a metal plaque on top with the model. The inside is lined with a satin-like fabric and contains the headphones, plus three cables: one with a 3,5 mm jack, one with a 6.3 mm jack and one with an XLR4 (though I only got the latter in the box).
Design & Comfort
The design of the HiFiMAN HE1000SE is very similar to that of the Arya and the Ananda: the earcups are shaped like an upside-down drop, with the top larger than the bottom. They’re large enough that my relatively large ears fit perfectly well inside. Just like the Arya, and unlike the Ananda, the HE1000SE feature a suspended headband; the main difference with the other two is that the headband itself is made of perforated leather, which makes it even lighter and more breathable.
The frame of the headband is made of thin steel, like the gimbals (although I have to admit I was fooled into believing they were made of plastic by the sound they make when tapping on them) and the outside of the earcups, too. The side is covered with a thin veneer of wood, to make them look more refined – a very convincing effect indeed!
Build quality is overall very high: the various materials are used with the intent of making the headphones solid while keeping the weight down. The fact that all moving and structural parts are made of metal makes the HE1000SE overall solid. The headphones are deceivingly light for their size, as they weigh 455 g – which isn’t a light weight in general, but feels less than it could be given the size of the headphones and the materials they are made of.
I quite like that the gimbals allow for adjustment on both the vertical and horizontal axes; this means you can get the headphones to follow the shape of your head perfectly. In fact, the HiFiMAN HE1000SE are very comfortable, even for someone like me who normally struggles with full-sized headphones due to having an extremely sensitive scalp. I can wear the headphones for over two hours and barely notice it. There is a very good mix of support from the headband, which is wide and distributes the weight very well, and from the lateral clamping pressure, which makes the earpads press firmly on the side of your head without that ever becoming uncomfortable.
Isolation is, as expected, almost non-existent; there is a tiny bit of reduction in high-frequency noise, but it is negligible. On the other hand, listening at high volume will be audible from the outside as there is nothing stopping the sound from leaking outside.
The cable is similar to the infamous ones provided with high-end headphones for a while – with a thin core inside and a much larger semi-transparent plastic sleeve around it. The difference here is that HiFiMAN put a fabric sleeve on top of the plastic one, making the cable much more visually appealing. The fact that there’s mostly empty space inside the cable is due to a deliberate design choice, so that the cable can bend without kinking (and therefore damaging) the actual metallic core inside. It definitely looks and feels very good!
Sound & Specs
I tested the HiFiMAN HE1000SE using various amplifiers, including the SMSL DO400 and the Drop THX AAA 789.
HiFiMAN HE1000SE |
| Frequency response | 8 – 65,000 Hz |
| Impedance | 35 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 96 dB |
At just 35 Ω and with a sensitivity of 96 dB, the HE1000SE are relatively easy to drive and don’t require a super-powerful amplifier. In fact, you need just a few mW to make them sound louder than is advisable: with just 25 mW of power they go up to 110 dB! Although you don’t strictly need a powerful amplifier, they generally benefit from having some power available as they become a bit faster – though the extent of this difference is very small and the effect is therefore barely noticeable.
Soundstage is wide and offers very good lateral space, though it has little depth. Imaging offers pinpoint-like placement of instruments, which happens throughout the whole left-right spectrum and has solid central placement. Instrument separation is superb and you can distinguish between all the various instruments easily, even in complex and crowded tracks.
Bass is right where it should be, with a clear presence that extends to sub-bass with ease. It is perfectly neutral, which means it’s clearly audible and present in the mix without being overwhelming. It hits the sweet spot whether you’re listening to Moonsorrow’s intense metal or Miles Davis; it has the necessary strength if you’re listening to The Prodigy, but it also doesn’t dominate over the rest if you’re listening to an acoustic piece. It is also relatively flat, so there’s no area which is preponderant over the others; this means that all the parts have equal weight in the mix, leading to great layering. It is very fast, so transients are convincing and accurate and there are lots of details and micro-details.
The mids are almost perfectly neutral, except for the region at the border with treble where there is a small dip. This doesn’t have an overall large impact on the signature, though, which remains on the neutral side. This means that anything you throw at the HE1000SE will be rendered with great accuracy; whether it is trumpets, violins, pianos, guitars or voices, be they female or male, the headphones will render them (almost) impeccably. You might notice a little lack of zing in instruments such as trumpets and violins, but it’s overall minor. Just like with bass, detail is very good and there’s an abundance of micro-detail, too; transients are very fast and this makes percussions and plucked instruments very convincing.
While it is in HiFiMAN’s tradition that treble has some emphasis, the HE1000SE display quite a bit of it through the whole upper area. There is a few relatively small bumps in the lower region, followed by a deep trough at the start of the middle area where we find multiple significant peaks. The upmost area is the most intense, as there are major spikes. Overall, the HE1000SE are very treble-intense and are definitely not for the treble-sensitive folks out there. This tuning makes it so that treble will often feel intense, although not overwhelming; it will sound in front of everything else in many occasions, though, especially if the track you’re listening to already has a large amount of treble. Quantity aside, treble is very detailed and offers lots of micro-details, too, which emerge very clearly in the mix also thanks to the added emphasis on the region.
Final Thoughts
The HiFiMAN HE-1000SE are revered as great headphones and it’s easy to see why. They offer astounding sound quality, with a level of detail and speed which is first-class. Bass is superbly linear and impactful, which really helps bring tracks to life, while the midrange is almost perfectly flat. The only possible issue is treble, which is quite emphasised and won’t be to everyone’s liking. Overall, though, the HE1000SE deliver such a great sound that it’s easy to forgive their treble-heavy presentation.
When you consider that they’re incredibly comfortable and that they’re super well built into the mix, and that they’re quite the looker as well, you get headphones which still very much hold their own as some of the best on the market years after launch. The original price of $3,500 was indeed very steep, but you can now easily find them for about half of that – $1,699. While that is still a considerable amount of money, it is commensurate to what’s on offer – which is a sound so good that it will make you close your eyes, tap your feet and forget everything else.
