Hifiman HE600

The ‘Special one’ - Hifiman’s New Mid-Fi Benchmark

By releasing 4 new headphones late last Year, Hifiman has done something very interesting, with their complete midrange line up. Providing meaningful upgrades both to the sound but also to the comfort and especially the build qualty to all their classics. But before I get into the details of each of the new headphone lineup, I thought it would be worth a quick mention that in a typical hifiman fashion, they further reduced the prices of the ones they replaced ( so the Edition XS, Sundara and Ananda have all gotten meaningful price reductions) with these new introduction headphones; overall I feel it’s a great time to be getting into headphones with so many great options available at every price range.

But let’s get into what I have been calling ’the special one’ in this new lineup, the HE600.

These four arrived as a group roughly three months ago, and I owe Hifiman an apology for the time it has taken to publish these. The extended window gave me something a typical two-week review rarely does: a real, settled in sense with these headphones that I have really appreciated, so even while reviewing other audio products I have had to chance to go back and forth between these headphones for an extended timeframe.

Over those three months, these four headphones became like ‘friends’ sitting on my evening coffee table. If you will indulge the metaphor for a moment: the HE600 is unambiguously “the special one” — the headphone I kept reaching for, the one I found myself describing to people first, and hopefully without spoiling too much of the rest of the review, the one that has earned a permanent reserved spot on stands easily within arms reach. I already singled it out in my Hedd Audio HEDDphone D1 review as the ideal technical planar counterpoint to that warmer, more midrange-focused headphone, and three months of daily use has only reinforced that view.

I tested it primarily through the JDS Labs Element IV and the Topping DX5 II, with occasional sessions direct from a MacBook Pro when convenience mattered more than chain optimisation. But first, let’s take a look at what’s in the box.

Unboxing and Packaging

Hifiman’s packaging for the HE600 follows the same practical approach the brand has used for years — a firm outer box, shaped foam inserts, and a presentation that is clean without being particularly celebratory. The box carries the full specifications on the back panel, which I always appreciate over hunting for a separate spec sheet:

Inside, the headphones are nested in a shaped foam insert that doubles as a headphone stand once removed from the box — a characteristically clever Hifiman touch that costs the company nothing and gives you something genuinely useful from the first moment. The contents are deliberately minimal: the HE600 itself, a 1.5m 3.5mm headphone cable, and a 3.5mm to 6.35mm adapter. At $799, the absence of a carry case is a mild disappointment, but at least Hifiman’s foam-becomes-stand approach means you have somewhere to display them immediately.

The headphones sit snugly in their inserts before removal. Once unpacked, that same foam structure flips into a stable stand:

Design, Build Quality, and Driver Technology

The HE600 is a striking headphone in person. The earcups follow Hifiman’s familiar egg-shaped geometry, finished with a precisely machined grille pattern that lets the planar driver underneath breathe freely. The overall impression is of a headphone that has been designed with some care — the grille work is consistent and tight, the materials feel solid, and the front view reveals a product that has benefited from Hifiman’s accumulated build experience:

Up close, the driver grille work holds up to scrutiny. Four angles show the consistency of the pattern and the quality of the cup construction:

The headband mechanism is a genuine step forward over previous Hifiman designs, moving away from the older slider-and-click system toward a smoother, more premium-feeling adjustment. The underside of the headband is perforated for ventilation and comfort during extended use:

The earcups shown together with the headband open give a good sense of the scale and geometry of the headphone:

The earpads are generously sized, with good ear-to-driver clearance that helps both comfort and the headphone’s spatial presentation:

Neo Supernano Gen 2 Driver and Magnet System

The engineering story here is worth a dedicated moment. The HE600 uses Hifiman’s Neo Supernano Generation 2 diaphragm — an ultra-thin, highly responsive membrane designed for faster transient response and lower distortion compared to previous generation drivers. Equally notable is the revised magnet system, engineered to avoid rare-earth materials while still delivering high sensitivity. The result is a 28Ω, 94dB driver that is relatively easy to drive from a wide variety of sources:

The headphone does scale meaningfully with your equipment. From a MacBook Pro it sounds very good; from the JDS Labs Element IV it sounds more controlled and extended; and if you want to apply a deeper bass shelf via PEQ, something like the Topping DX5 II provides both the processing and the current to make that shelf feel effortless rather than strained.

Fit and Comfort

The egg-shaped earcup geometry sits wide and deep enough on my head that my ears are fully enclosed with good clearance from the driver. The revised headband distributes 389g across the crown in a noticeably better way than many previous Hifiman designs — including the Sundara that this headphone replaced on my daily-use stand. The stand that the packaging foam converts into proved immediately useful and is where the HE600 lives when not on my head:

After extended daily sessions over three months, this is one of the more comfortable open-back planars I have spent serious time with.

Sound Impressions

All impressions below were formed with no EQ applied, using the JDS Labs Element IV and Topping DX5 II as primary sources. The HE600 was the most-used headphone of the four Hifiman units across the review period.

Bass

The HE600’s bass is a textbook example of what a well-tuned planar low end should deliver. Extension is deep and linear — there is no mid-bass bloom artificially fattening the presentation, and sub-bass does not roll off prematurely as it can on some planar designs. The result is clean, controlled, and texturally honest. On “Way Down Deep” by Jennifer Warnes, the upright bass lines carry real weight and definition without bleeding into the lower midrange — the kind of precise, grounded low end that demonstrates why planar bass is consistently prized over dynamic alternatives at this price tier. Listeners who want more slam can apply a gentle sub-bass shelf; the HE600 handles it without strain.

Midrange

This is among the finest midrange presentations I have heard from any Hifiman headphone. Many Hifiman designs carry a noticeable dip in the 1–2kHz region that can thin vocals and push instruments slightly behind the mix. The HE600 is meaningfully more neutral here, sitting closer in character to the Hifiman Sundara — which always had an honest midrange — but with more body and presence. Vocals sit naturally, instrumental weight is convincing, and complex arrangements resolve without congestion. On “Private Investigations” by Dire Straits, the guitar, bass, and Knopfler’s vocal each occupy a distinct space, and the interplay between them is rendered with real clarity and patience.

Treble

The treble is the aspect of the HE600 that most clearly defines its character within this group. There is a carefully judged level of upper-frequency energy — enough to add definition, transient snap, and that micro-detail retrieval that separates instruments precisely — while stopping short of becoming sibilant or uncomfortable on well-recorded material. On “Tamacun” by Rodrigo y Gabriela, the percussive guitar attack and string harmonics come through with real presence and excitement, each note articulated clearly without edginess. The honest caveat is this: if your listening diet includes a significant amount of 1980s recordings where the mastering was already hot in the treble, the HE600 will amplify that character. For those listeners, the Edition XV with its more relaxed upper frequencies is likely the better match, or a small high-shelf cut via PEQ will take the edge off without compromising what makes this headphone engaging.

Soundstage and Imaging

The soundstage is more intimate than what the Ananda Unveiled delivers — of the four Hifiman headphones in this review cycle, the Unveiled’s open grille geometry gives it the widest, most diffuse spatial presentation, and the HE600 does not attempt to match it. Within its more focused stage, however, the imaging is excellent. Instruments sit in well-defined positions, front-to-back layering is clean and stable, and the centre image holds firm even in dense recordings. On “Hotel California” by the Eagles, the guitar intro and drum spread resolve precisely, each instrument occupying a distinct position rather than blurring into a generalised stereo image. I believe the HE600’s treble energy is directly responsible for that imaging precision — the upper-frequency definition acts as a positional cue that sharpens the sense of where each sound lives.

Comparisons

The HE600 is a natural step up from the Hifiman Sundara, which I have recommended as a mid-fi planar benchmark for several years. The HE600 improves on the Sundara in bass extension and control, treble resolution, headband comfort, and overall build quality. The Sundara remains excellent for its current price; the HE600 makes it feel like the clearly older design it now is:

Against the Hedd Audio HEDDphone D1, the comparison is genuinely close and best understood as complementary rather than competitive. The D1 has exceptional midrange clarity and a slightly warmer mid-bass, with a safer, more relaxed treble. The HE600 is more linear in the bass and more energetic in the treble. As I wrote in the D1 review, they occupy adjacent rather than overlapping positions — a warmer, midrange-focused dynamic driver alongside a linear, technically revealing planar — and owning both makes more sense than choosing between them:

The Aune AR5000 MK2 appeared across several listening sessions as a point of comparison. It is a well-built headphone with some genuine strengths — including a more linear bass response than most dynamic drivers manage — but it is not operating at the same level as these new Hifiman planars. The circular earcup design and its reach for a spacious presentation are interesting, particularly for a closed-back dynamic driver, but direct comparison with the HE600 makes the gap in control, extension, and upper-frequency coherence clear:

The second image here gives a sense of scale and company — the Aune alongside the Ananda Unveiled and Edition XV, three very different approaches to headphone design sharing the same table.

Specifications

Measurements

Channel matching on the stock HE600 is clean and consistent — left and right tracking closely across the full frequency range with no meaningful imbalance:

Against the Harman OE 2018 target, the HE600 shows a linear bass shelf that sits slightly below the target’s recommended bass elevation, a well-behaved midrange, and an upper treble region with more energy than the Harman curve prescribes. In practice, that extra treble energy is what gives the headphone its sense of resolution and precise imaging:

The comparison with the Sundara confirms the upgrade story clearly. The HE600 extends lower in the bass and carries more energy in the treble region, while the midrange characters are broadly aligned — both headphones favour a neutral, non-recessed presentation in the critical vocal range:

Two measurement positions against the Ananda show the consistency of the HE600’s response and the differences in treble character between the two headphones:

The Edition XV comparison illustrates the treble difference most clearly. The Edition XV sits softer in the upper frequencies — audible in direct listening and visible here in the measurements — which explains why it is the more forgiving choice for bright recordings:

The HEDD D1 overlay captures the complementary relationship I described in the listening section. Both headphones share a similar overall bass and midrange signature, but the D1’s warmer mid-bass and earlier treble roll-off are visible in the measurements — validating the two-headphone framing rather than a simple winner-takes-all comparison:

The name similarity with the Sennheiser HD600 invites comparison, and it is worth including here. The HD600 is a long-standing benchmark for neutral, accurate midrange in an open-back dynamic driver. The HE600 shares that neutral-midrange philosophy but extends bass further and carries more upper-frequency energy — reflecting the different driver technology and tuning priorities:

Distortion performance is clean throughout the frequency range. Both absolute and percentage distortion remain well controlled, with no problematic resonances or elevated harmonic distortion in the critical listening bands:

Rating Explanation

The Pragmatic Rating of 5 reflects a headphone that consistently performs at a level I associate with the $1,000–$2,000 price bracket. The Neo Supernano Gen 2 driver and revised magnet system produce a frequency response that requires no EQ for most listeners, and the distortion performance is exemplary. It is also a meaningful step beyond the Hifiman HE6SE V2 I reviewed previously — and that headphone carries a legendary lineage — so the comparison carries some real weight.

The Price Rating of 4 reflects an honest tension at $799. It is expensive, and the absence of a carry case or meaningful accessories at this price tier is a genuine omission. The rating also accounts for the fact that the Edition XV, with a modest treble boost applied via EQ, can get meaningfully close to the HE600’s sound for less money. That is worth knowing before purchasing. But for listeners who want the HE600’s treble character intact and uncompromised, there is no cheaper shortcut to it.

The Features Rating of 4 gives credit to the improved headband mechanism and the genuine engineering investment in the driver and magnet system, while acknowledging that the included cable is merely functional and the unboxing experience does not match the asking price. The Measurements Rating of 5 reflects excellent channel matching, clean distortion, and a frequency response shape — linear bass shelf, neutral midrange, well-judged treble energy — that is exactly what a well-engineered planar should look like.

Conclusion

José Mourinho called himself “the special one” when he arrived at Chelsea in 2004. It was confident, accurate, and ultimately impossible to argue with. The HE600 earns the same title in this group — not because it dominates every single metric, but because when you reach for it night after night across three months of listening, the choice makes its own argument. It is more precise than the Edition XV where precision matters, more revealing than the Sundara it replaces, and sits beside warmer headphones like the HEDD D1 as a complement rather than a competitor.

The Sundara was the headphone I recommended most consistently for several years running. The HE600 makes that recommendation obsolete for anyone who can stretch the budget. Seven or eight headphones live on stands in my listening space at any given time, and there are usually two or three Hifiman among them. The HE600 is the one with the permanent reserved spot. The Sundara goes back in its box.