HIFIMAN HE1000SE HEADPHONE; THE KING OF CLASSICAL AND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC?
HIFIMAN HE1000SE HEADPHONE; THE KING OF CLASSICAL AND ORCHESTRAL MUSIC?
Hey friends, good to see you again! If this is your first time checking out the website, my name is Marcello. In this article, I will be reviewing the Hifiman HE1000se, otherwise known as the HEKse!
Hifiman was founded in 2007 by owner Dr. Fang in New York. The HE1000se, or as I will refer to them occasionally throughout the review as the HEKse, sit near the very top when writing this review of the Hifiman Planar magnetic Headphone offerings with only the Susvara currently above them.
For this review, I will be utilizing several headphone amps and digital-analog converters to draw my conclusions about the sound of the HE1000se, as well as comparing the sound signature primarily to 2 other headphones I had on hand during the review, the ZMF Verite Open Desert Iron Wood Limited Edition and the Rosson Audio Rad-0.
I will discuss my audio chain throughout the review and list the gear used in the video description attached at the bottom of the article and throughout the article to check them out. As with all my audio reviews, I will also provide the music playlists I used to evaluate the headphones so you can listen along. I am not being compensated for this review, and all thoughts and impressions are my own.
The review will cover five main areas. Build Quality and Comfort, Quality of Sound, including Bass, Mids., and Treble; Tonality; Imaging and Soundstage; and lastly Synergy and Comparisons. Then if stick around to the end, I will give my overall conclusions and comparisons to a couple of other headphones. So, let’s jump right in! First off, I want to thank Justin for sending me out the HE1000se for me to review! The support of great companies and individuals sending me products to review is a huge help to continue bringing you guys new content!
So, let’s talk Build Quality, Specs, Comfort, and Design. The HE1000se is an open-back planar magnetic headphone using a breakthrough core technology developed by Hifiman and the first of its kind in Headphone use. Hifiman uses advanced material for the diaphragm at only a nanometer-thick, providing a swift response with an exceptional dynamic range. The HEKse uses magnets made from Neodymium to provide incredible magnetic strength and what Hifiman calls Acoustically invisible stealth magnets to strive for an acoustically transparent sound. Hifiman states that these stealth magnets allow sound waves to pass through the magnet structure without generating interference that would normally degrade the sound quality.
The HE1000se includes a Patented “Window Shade” system for driver protection optimized for open back listening. The cups of the HEKse are Asymmetrical, following the shape of the human ear, and are very large, creating a very open sound. The HEKse uses 3.5mm user-replaceable connectors and includes three detachable cables, one with a 3.5mm jack, one with XLR balanced jack, and one cable with a ¼” jack.
The HE1000se has a metal structure using CNC milling, hand polishing and includes what looks and feels like a wood veneer on the cups. The pads on the HEKse are very comfortable and do not cause my ears any irritation or heat buildup. Of all the Hifiman headphones I have tried so far, this model has the best build quality and physical appearance. The HEKse has an impedance rating of 35ohms and a sensitivity of 96db. Their frequency response is 8hz-65khz, weighing in at only 440g. They are lightweight and very comfortable. Compared to the Hifiman Ananda, I find their build quality and overall comfort to be exceptionally better. The headband is easy to adjust, and the earcups have excellent swivel capability. Of all the flagship headphones I have demoed so far, the HE1000se is easily one of the most comfortable. The HE1000se comes in a sizeable pleather-wrapped box of higher quality than the Hifiman Ananda.
Next, let’s get into the Quality of sound! The HE1000se produced a highly transparent open sound signature that allowed me to hear more details from recordings than ever before. The subtle micro details like shifts in singers' voices or the sounds of instruments being played by musicians were more apparent than any other headphones I have listened to before.
The HEKse presents an exceptional amount of clarity from instruments, vocals, and the entire frequency range, from the lowest bass regions to the highest treble areas. The quality of bass on the HE1000se is excellent, allowing for the proper tones of deeper-sounding instruments like the Cello, for example, to shine through on recordings. The subass is very impressive, allowing from certain tracks such as Why So Serious from the Dark Knight soundtrack to enable me to feel the driver's vibration from certain portions of that song. The A90 headphone amplifier demonstrated this very well on many of my test tracks. The overall quantity, however, of bass from the HEKse to my ears sounds reasonably neutral. What I mean by this is that if you are a bass head or listen to music such as electronic, pop, or other genres of music that you may prefer to have more quantity of bass both from the sub and mid-bass regions, you will want to consider EQ or tone control to bring up those areas some in my opinion. However, for orchestral, classical, acoustic string instruments such as guitars with vocals, I found the quality and quantity of bass excellent from well-recorded music.
I found myself drawn heavily to orchestral music, classical, movie soundtracks, and new age music from artists like Enya when listening to the HE1000se. The HEKse allows these types of genres to sound very powerful and larger than life. I even created a ROON playlist using Tidal and Qobuz with tracks specific to these genres that wowed me when listening to the HE1000se. Leave me a comment in the video description below if you would like me to share that music playlist in the comments with you.
The midrange sounds neutral and pleasing to my ears. They were allowing most vocals and instruments to express natural from well-recorded music. I found that for some music genres or specific tracks, the HE1000se didn’t compliment the singer’s vocals in a way I preferred. One example of this is In Your Eyes from Peter Gabriel. His vocals came across as a bit thin sounding and less pleasing to my ears than some headphones that have a bit more warmth in the midrange.
The treble on the HE1000se provides incredible clarity and definition with a more forward, energetic presentation to my ears that works well with classical and orchestral music. However, this tuning may not be as ideal for rock, pop, and other genres of music that utilize some instruments that will sound a bit tonally off. Once again, this will depend on your preferences and audio chain. I didn’t notice any sibilance from the HEKse, which was a big plus. I should add that I most definitely preferred the HE1000se on Tube amplifiers such as the AmpsandSound Nautilus or ZMF Pendant vs. the solid-state headphone amplifier of the Matrix Element X or the Topping A90. The tube amplifiers helped relax the treble regions a bit with the HEKse, which was an excellent thing for my listening preferences.
The tonality of the HE1000se is again very good for Orchestral and Classical music but did not sound as natural for other types of genres of music when comparing the HEKse to the Rosson Audio Rad-0 and the ZMF Verité Open, which I will discuss more when we get into those comparisons.
So, let’s talk about the soundstage and imaging of the HE1000se. The soundstage of the HEKse is very airy and open sounding. I believe this is because of the physical size of the opening in the larger cups and the stealth magnets Hifiman uses. The precision and layering of images on their stage are up there with the Focal Utopia for accuracy and definition. Every instrument, every voice, every sound has its place on the soundstage when listening to the HEKse. Speaking of vocals, the HE1000se displays vocals in a very intimate and enjoyable way. On the track Love from Lana Del Rey, her vocals are presented very intimately while still maintaining the rest of the stage. I found this to be the case as well with many other recordings. The left to the right side of the stage is excellent, presenting sounds, instruments, and vocals to my ears in a very pleasing way with good overall size. The forward depth of the stage isn’t as deep, however, when compared to the width of the stage to my ears.
Searching for Synergies with the HE1000se, I found I enjoyed the AmpsandSound Nautilus paired with the Matrix Element X as its DAC, the ZMF Pendant with the Schiit Bifrost 2, or the Topping D90 as its DAC, followed by the Schiit LYR 3 paired with the Bifrost 2. Listening to the HEKse with solid-state amplification wasn’t my preferred pairing with these headphones unless I wanted to have a reference for their sound signature without tube harmonics. As I mentioned earlier in the review, I feel they benefit from tube amplification for my personal preferences. The solid-state amps I used to review the HE1000se came across a bit brighter sounding than I prefer for much of the music I listen to. However, suppose you are more of a solid-state analytical type of listener and want to hear as little distortion from your amplifier as possible. In that case, the very neutral, extremely energetic sound signature of the A90 may be a good fit.
A few comparisons to other Headphones I did while evaluating the HE1000se were with the ZMF Verité Open Limited Edition Desert Ironwood and the Rosson Audio, RAD-0.
So first comparing the HE1000se with the Rad-0 to my ears, I found the HE1000se to have more resolution picking up more detail and micro details on recordings. However, this was surprisingly closer than I thought it would be, as the RAD-0 have more resolution to see into recordings than I initially expected they would. As far as tonality, the Rad-0 with zero EQ or tone control has the better sounding timbre compared to the HEKse for most music to my ears, except classical and orchestral music, where the HE1000se are at their best. The Rad-0 is a warmer-sounding headphone than the HEKse, which in my opinion, allows the RAD-0 to play better with most genres without any EQ. Bass to my ears is a tricky one when comparing these two headphones. The quantity of bass presented is better from the RAD-0, and at the time of filming this review, the RAD-0 is one of my favorite headphones for bass. I will say, however, the HE1000se’s quality of bass and how it defines or separates the bass regions from all the other areas is better than the RAD-0. When paired with Orchestral music, Classical and some acoustic music, I preferred the bass of the HE1000se. The mid-range of both headphones to me sounds very good, with my preferences still leaning towards the RAD-0 as I listen to lots of genres of music as well as different quality recordings that benefit from a slightly warmer midrange. Vocals are presented with a bit more warmth and body when listening to the RAD-0 which can be a bit more forgiving on certain tracks. However, many of the string instruments that fall in the midrange sound stunning from the HE1000se. This will come down to your personal preferences and the types of music you listen to. Treble from the HE1000se seems to have more air and sparkle to my ears than the RAD-0, which again is brilliant for classical and orchestral music but not as good in my opinion for alternative, metal, rock, and a few other genres where the RAD-0 tends to do a better job. Again, this will come down to your preferences, audio chain, and whether or not you use EQ or tone control. Lastly, let’s compare the sound stages of the two headphones. The HE1000se has a more open and airy sounding stage with better accuracy of images on the stage and better layering of those images, in my opinion. The width of the stage is close, with the HEKse still having the wider stage to my ears. Forward depth is also pretty similar. Overall, what sets apart the stages between these two headphones in my mind is the accuracy, size of the images on the stage, and the open, airy sound of the HEKse, which allows it, in my opinion, to have a better stage when comparing to the RAD-0.
Comparing the HE1000se to the ZMF Verite Open, I found both headphones to be highly resolving and very close in performance regarding detail and micro-detail retrieval. The HEkse has a slight advantage in this category, but it’s closer than what I anticipated when comparing these two premium headphones. As far as tonality, the ZMF Verite Open to my ears sounds more natural and pleasing for all genres of music. It’s not a secret at this point that the house Sound Zach, Bevin, and their team at ZMF create is one of the best in the industry for headphone timbre in my humble opinion. The Verité is warmer sounding and presents Vocals far better, in my opinion, than the HE1000se does, and has the advantage of being able to pad swap to get a completely different sound signature without having to mess with EQ or tone control. Comparing the bass of the two headphones is interesting. The Verité sounds more dynamic, packing more of a punch as well as more quantity of bass. However, the HE1000se has that unique ability to define the bass more clearly from all other areas on track, allowing you to see through it on recordings. In addition, the Hekse’s bass reaches lower into the sub-bass regions to my ears. The Verité, in my opinion, however, will sound better in its bass presentation with most genres of music vs. the HEKse, unless you are going to utilize EQ or tone control for some tracks or genres of music. The midrange to my ears sounds better from the ZMF verité, with just the right amount of sweetness from string instruments and vocals. I prefer the midrange of the Verité Open to the Hifiman HE1000se for its added warmth for the majority of genres of music I listen to. Similarly, to the previous comparison, the HE1000se does tend to have more air and sparkle in the treble regions than the Verité Open, which may give it a slight advantage to some listeners depending on their preferences. However, for a purist who isn’t going to use EQ or Tone control, I prefer the treble execution of the Verité Open as it is a bit smoother and offers pad rolling capabilities to shape this region some.
Again, all these comparisons are subjective and based on my listening preferences. Every person hears a bit differently and has an overall preference for sound, so it’s crucial you get your ears on these products to formulate your own opinion; this way, you know which one is right for you. Finally, let’s talk about the sound stages of these two headphones. Again, the HE1000se has a more open and airy sounding stage. I have said it once, and I will repeat it; I love this quality about some of the Hifiman headphones I have heard. I first got a taste of this with the Hifiman Ananda and now with the HEKse. However, the Verité Open is no slouch for the soundstage and has a few tricks up it’s sleeve the HEKse doesn’t. The Verité Open’s overall width of sound stage and the slightly more enveloping and 3-dimensional presentation to my ears is a big plus. Both headphones are excellent as far as imaging on their respective sound stages, with the HE1000se having a touch more definition of the images, but again it’s very close. I vastly prefer the stages of the HE1000se or the Verité Open over the stage of the RAD-0.
As far as the comfort of the three headphones and which I preferred? The lightest weight headphone generally wins, and in this case, comfort did follow overall weight. With the He1000se feeling the most comfortable to me, especially for longer listening sessions over 1 hour, followed next by the Verité Open, and lastly, the RAD-0. When comparing the build quality of the three headphones, the ZMF Verité and the Rad-0 are my two favorites for both look and feel. Both headphones are uniquely one of a kind and feel like they would last a lifetime compared to the HE1000se.
So, which one should you choose? Well, that is entirely up to you, and it will significantly depend on your financial situation and listening preferences. I always recommend getting your ears on a pair, as only you will know what sounds the best to you. In addition, all too often, headphones are discussed, but the gear used to drive them is an afterthought. It’s equally as essential to pair a synergistic DAC and Amp with your favorite pair of headphones to get the best out of them. You wouldn’t drive a Ferrari and put terrible quality fuel in it, or crappy tires? So always keep this in mind when building your ideal audio chain. In my opinion, for the listener that prefers a more analytical sound signature, incredible resolution, and detail retrieval, along with an open, airy sounding sound stage, and outstanding comfort, the Hifiman HE1000se checks all those boxes.
In conclusion, the HE1000se is a technical marvel, with the best build quality so far of all Hifiman Headphones I have tried. Add to that their exceptional comfort and transparent sound. These might be a traditional audiophiles dream and possibly one of the best headphones in this price range, especially when talking about classical music and orchestral compositions.
Thanks again friends for reading! Please feel free to share this article with someone who you think would appreciate it. You can also support my efforts by donating below and buying me a cup of coffee or making a larger donation to help pay for hard drive space and new review gear. Until next time friends, MUCH LOVE!
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Music Playlists to test gear with:
