THE HIFIMAN QUALITY CONTROL DEBATE - IS THERE REALLY A PROBLEM?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 26 ส.ค. 2024
- Are there, or has there ever been quality control issues with Hifiman Headphones. Why do some people have multiple driver failures, and others have none?
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The two ananda nano I had both had driver imbalance. One severely bad and one minor. They were incredibly uncomfortable as well.
Bought 3 Hifman headphones in last three years. Both new and refurb. Both open and closed Sundara and Ananda run on everything from Atom+ to $800 amplifiers with a variety of cables. I avoid the XS Edition type headbands. I don't think I paid $300 for any which were total bargains perfect for beginners or budget mined. I buy them years after release when they drop to like half price or less. I had zero problems and when I call to ask questions about models, years, changes about what they are shipping etc before I buy I get a live person eager to help. Nothing but good for Hifiman.
I have the hifiman HE-400i 2020, Sundara, HE-5XX, XS Edition and HE-400SE, the first of which I bought in 2020 and I have never had any problems with the build quality. The only thing I needed to change were the pads on the 400i. Fortunately, so far, only praise for the hifiman, either for the sound quality or for the build quality.
I just got the ananda nano, I hope they survive as long as my 4 year old dt 880s lol
Do you use cases for any of them?? I'm thinking of buying the Edition XS but properly storing and keeping it long term is my one concern
I ordered an Arya V1 for a friend (who gave me the money to buy it) and I tested it before giving her.
After about 0.5 to 1 second one driver failed. The other followed a few second later.
This was some years ago (I don't remember how long).
It was powered by an RME ADI-2 DAC and it was driven at a medium high level, but with no clipping what-so-ever.
I am quite sensitive to clipping at bass frequencies and even the Focal Clear OG clips at a much lower level than that Arya.
I guess the statistical explanation given by others here is correct.
If only even 1% of them are faulty or too weak, there would be tons of them breaking.
In the automotive industry, for example, a brand could go bust if 1% of their cars has a specific reliability issue.
Headphones of that price are not something that everyone buys. Usually audiophiles pay a lot more attention to quality than other customers.
If the problem was specific to the use case, then AKG, Sennheiser and many other manufacturers whose cans are lean on the bass would have suffered the same fate.
Maybe dynamic drivers are more reliable than planar ones.
If it happened so often to Hifiman and not so often to other manufacturers, there must be a reason.
I heard of similar issues on some Audeze cans, as well.
Hifiman produced some very hard to drive headphones, like the HE6 (and some people swear the old ones sounded better than the new ones), but even those had reports of failed drivers.
Many such headphones were connected to speaker amps, which definitely should have had enough power to avoid clipping, considering the high impedance of the headphones compared to speakers and the resistors in the adaptor used for the connection.
The fact is even a 1% failure rate is concerning enough for some people, but that would mean 99% of customers would still be happy.
My personal experience with Hifiman is limited to 1 item only, so it's not statistically relevant, but I hope Hifiman has sorted any issues and newer cans are immune to previous issues.
I lsot 2 out of 3 of my Hifmans. :( But they're still so good I can't buy anything else. HELP ME
Sorry to hear that, I got 5 HF headphones during the last 3 years and all working just fine.. so I like them and some Focals I have.. I’m about to get one more Hifiman.. that’s how much I like them :)
had the he500 for years, never had any issue with them
I contacted Hifiman customer service to get a Sundara headband replacement to make the 500 lighter, they responded extremely fast and they were very friendly. It was an amazing customer service experience lmao
Even if apparently they have some quality control issues with their headphones I'm totally willing to take the chance considering they have an amazing customer service, at least in my experience
Fostex in the other hand 🤮
Worst customer service I ever had to deal with
I respect the hell outta you guys for your GTA content. Keep it up. Got more respect from me knowing youre in the audio community too! Cheers
@@ZThunderFist Thx a lot 👍
The right speaker on my Ananda’s stopped working. I started searching for a fix on TH-cam and found this video 😂
QC is problems are very real
Glad to see your in good health William. I got a HE400i around 6/7 years ago, it still works with no problems, upgraded to an Ananda 3 years ago it too still works with no problems and picked up a Arya Stealth a few months ago which I'm using nearly daily. Hifiman has been a safe, high quality choice for me.
It's really hard buy high end headphones here in brazil, hifiman it's one of the few brands that we can find. Hopefully I already bought the he400se, arya SE and ef400 amp and never had any problems with quality control.
William great segment, I really enjoyed it!! Definite food for thought. I thought your underpowered amp and EQ bass boost theory was a sound one as well, as I’d have to agree that this COULD create a possible problem as you have indicated. I own 7 year old HE400S that has worked perfectly it’s whole life so far, I owned an HE1000V2 for 4 years that also worked perfectly but I sent it to HFM for the HE1000SE upgrade, and I’ve had the SE now for almost 3 years. I also have a new HE400SE stealth model, and I just got an Ananda BT. The ONLY problem I ever had with any of these headphones was with 1000SE where the right driver quit working. HFM customer service was nothing short of superlative though, as they quickly issued me an RMA and replaced my headphone fast with no questions asked, I was really impressed. I have never had any trouble with HFM customer service, as anyone I’ve ever dealt with has been totally helpful and kind. Kudos to them, I think the reason the driver actually failed was because a week before I had dropped the headphone on the ground, possibly loosening something. Regardless they replaced it fast, and the replacement one has worked awesome so far. I do NOT use EQ with any of my headphones. The way I see it if I need to EQ a $3500 USD headphone to make it sound good, maybe I bought the wrong headphone. I’d spend all day EQ-ing and forget to listen to the music lol. I know it’s always been a pretentious issue among audiophiles!
Anyways excellent job William, on tackling a rather mystifying subject although I think you may have come up with a plausible theory. Keep up the great work, and all very the best!!
Great video, William. Great, useful info. I haven't had any driver failures thus far, but I'll keep it in mind that boosting bass on some headphones has to be done very carefully and with the proper equipment, not just "any amp".
My hifiman i bought the edition xs headphones and after one year the left side went out completely stick to Sennheiser
Same happened to my ananda's. Right ear cup out of NOWHER just poof. Gone. Not working. £600 down the drain since it was just outside of warranty, never ever buying from hifiman again. They sounded incredible, but to get barely 2 years from something that costs £600 is, quite frankly, a fucking joke! Avoid at all costs, my HD650s are still going strong after 8 years and they've been dropped a few times ffs.
There's enough of an issue on these that Amazon has an alert on the page about it being a frequently returned item. Specific anecdotes like "mine works fine" are kind of irrelevant as the claim isn't that there is a 100% failure rate. Of course some of them work just fine. It's just there's a higher than normal percentage that do not.
My question is still, why some people have multiple driver failures with Hifiman headphones and yet others have had several Hifiman headphones with no driver failures.
I have now reviewed 17 Hifiman headphones and 2 IEM's, and so far have never had a driver failure. My HE500 is 12 years old and has Thousands of hours on it and is still working fine.
I have 3 models currently with no issues(Ananda OG, Arya V2, HE400i). I don't like their cables or their pads much, but they do work. I always upgrade those anyway. I bought a Deva Pro for my son that had a channel imbalance and distortion in the right driver only. The problem was only noticeable when using them in wired balanced mode. Using them wireless or with the single-sided/single-ended connection seemed to be fine. I sent the first back, got a new headphone from the seller and that one had the same issue. Hifiman support was unable to help without me paying to ship them in. I wasn't willing to do that so we just returned them and got something else. It's fine really. I just think we were using the headphone in a way that wasn't intended for it's primary use-case. I don't really think that they have an abnormally high amount of driver failures, but I do understand that a lot of people have had some bad experiences. Perhaps you are onto something here regarding clipping/amplification. I couldn't tell you how many hours are on my original Ananda by now. Definitely over 2500 hours WITH EQ with no issues. Now, to that end, I have always had and used an amp that would have no issue delivering the power required for the application.
my edition xs creak and make a metal springy noise when putting normal wearing pressure on the pads... my HD660s twice as old are like day 1... absolutly prestine. Hifiman does have a QC issue, there are too many complaints.
I have read of QC issues with hifiman for years, too. I wanted to buy the he1000se refurbished because it's a fantastic deal, but these QC made me weary. I found in a forum a guy saying he has always bought refurbished from hifiman with no issues. I am going to buy them. They have 3 years warranty, just like brand new ones.
I have had driver failures on a Focal Utopia and various DCA models. Never had that on a Hifiman. Have had mechanical issues with a Hifiman HE6 - not the driver. I never use EQ or boost bass and listen at moderate levels. EDIT - have always used amps with oodles of power.
I have three driver failure with Audeze but none so far with Hifiman. I think people make a big deal about is (especially) because Hifimans are made in China.
Yes, there's a sense of underlying contempt for Chinese made products, that's for sure. Not just in audio, but across all industries. There's a perception that corners are always being cut in Chinese manufacturing. I don't think those are unwarranted concerns, but they are largely a prejudice that people have about things made in China. I even share this sentiment to a degree. But then, a whole lot of things I own are made in China and work perfectly fine. People are wired to believe in categorical absolutes about things.
That is good to know
Not only Chinese products but also towards the people. When it comes to racism people talk about blacks. However, the largest percentage of the victims are in fact Chinese. Some stats say during the lockdown the racism against Chinese have increased by 400%
Right driver completely failed on my HE1000se set last week. I’d only owned them seven weeks at that point, and I’d bought them directly from Hifiman via Amazon. But my Arya Stealth set is just fine after about 19 months of moderate use …
Sorry to hear about your 1000SE driver failure. Contact Hifiman customer service. They seem to be pretty good about taking care of these things.
I had the sundara (I believe 2017) ananda (2017 to 2019) sold it and now own a ananda stealth 2023, and to be honest I only had a 13:38 Chanel fail on the sundara, and that was a known failure coursed by bad soldering (replaced in 5 seconds , I had the first ananda and played it every day for almost 2 years now problems even sold it and never heard any complaints, I think the problem in the headphone community is that a lot off people like to complain, I mean a lot off focal headphones in the past had driver failure,sennheiser hd800 is known for failure off the paint on the frame, still you hear nobody, but hifiman sells large numbers and yes there where times the qc was under par, but for now I think there fine, I only use it indoor because for outdoor I use inears or Apple pro earbuds
There are different versions of Hifiman headphones for different markets. There may be differences in built quality and QC.
I have demoed once Hifiman Arya v2 and focal clear. No the Hifiman where not worse made than focal. Of course focals have metal parts but they definitely felt no more solid. Also the plastic parts of Hifiman felt of better quality. Also as for drivers focal had many issues with clipping, balance ect. Also Audeze had many driver failures in the past. What I want to say is that it happens, and not only to one company. But what I want as consumer is the company to recognize the issue even if it is out of guarantee or to extent the guarantee for driver failures. Hifiman seems to help their customers from what I read here and there. But I disagree with what you said about distortion. Eq is part of the hobby and should not be an issue up to the limit distortion is easily perceived by the ear. If your assumption is true then Hifiman must solve the issue of such driver “delicacy” .
I think William did a good job explaining the potential problems that can arise with big gain boosts in EQ, and he is not being pessimistic, he was being realistic by stating some true facts, and the truth is that software and hardware manufacturers are not making everything failure proof, and pushing some manual changes in the settings of electronic equipment is responsibility of the technology user. So the fact that some software or devices offer up to +12 dB or even +30dB of frequency boosting on the equalizer, does not mean it is perfectly safe or that it is trivial. People can use it wisely as well as it can be heavily misused. He is not discouraging the audience from using EQ, but responsible use is recommended, as with everything
QC is a catch all term for these headphones breaking, but not all issues are because of quality control. Hifiman headphones in general are very dilicate. Regularly people report that they carried their pair in a bag and the diaphragm got punctured. Someone said that the jack got atracted to magnets and punctured the diaphragm or something similar. These headphones fail more often then others no matter what's the cause of it. Beyerdynamic seems to have problems too with their headbands and drivers.
Considering people have had their headphones break after a week idk
You're speculating what might fry them but let me give you real life experience. I lost both my Hifimans on powerful amps. HE6SEV2 blew both channels on a Schiit Ragnarok, and HE560V4 lost one channel on a Flux FA-10. Neither had bass boost. It was just kinda loud volume like 100dB for only a second or two and RIP. Hopefully third time is a charm and currently enjoying my Arya Stealth with no problems. I'm twice bitten thrice shy but Hifiman are just SO MUCH better than others for sound quality that I still have to stay with Hifiman.
Yes, my Edition XS have the well reported ‘buzzing’ at certain frequencies. Personally I think they’re over hyped and are nothing particularly special, but that’s just my opinion.
I have had two Edition XS where the headband adjustment failed on both within a couple of weeks, so I gave up on that model and switched to Ananda, on that one of the connection stopped working within a week, then I gave up on Hifiman and bought Sennheizer instead, I have now had a pair of HD600 and HD800s for about six mounths without the slightest problem.
I'm in a similar situation as you but without owning a single one of these headphones.
I want to get a new headphone because my old audio-technica ATH-M30 are falling apart after 12 years of usage and I mainly want to use the new headphones for listening to music, watching movies, streams and a little bit of gaming (but not pro gaming).
And here's the thing: The Sennheiser HD600 is a headphone that I was considering to get based on the good reviews of the audiophile community. But the problem is that Sennheisers are lacking in sub-bass and they are analytical. I mainly listen to metal (metalcore, deathcore), rock and sometimes a bit softer stuff so the Sennheisers aren't really suitable for that kind of music even if some people say they are.
Then someone told me that the Beyerdynamic DT 900 Pro X could be something for me because I tested the DT 770 Pro and the sibilance was too much for my ears. The typical beyer peak isn't there on the DT 900 Pro X. But I can't test them because the stores here don't have these headphones (sold out).
I personally like the sound of Hifiman headphones but I heard a lot of people saying they had dying driver issues and especially for the Sundaras who cost 300-400€ in my country this is a no go. I want to use my headphones for the next 10 years just like my old audio-technicas without having to worry that the drivers will die.
So I don't really know what other options are there for 300€ because that would be my budget.
@@makunouchiippo816pretty much same situation here. I had a Sennheiser hd 555 for +20 years that I want to replace. I'm pretty sure a new Sennheiser will be reliable but I really miss bass (I've always felt that with the hd 555). Did you buy new headphones?
@@shadowplay8477 Yes I have gotten the Denon Ah-d5200 and didnt regretted it ever since. Normally they cost 599€ but some websites are offering them for 399€ in my country. I had the oppurtunity to test them in a music store before buying them to make sure that i will like the sound signature of these headphones and I really like them. They are also great for watching movies. But the headband might be a problem for people with a big head. I have a small head so it's no issue at all.
Sennheiser 58X are affordable and have significantly nicer bass than 555. I still own them and enjoy them sometimes, but after going Hifiman, it's a notch above for most music. I do like the warm thick Sennheiser sound a little for some moods and some tracks though.@@shadowplay8477
I think it's not accurate to say it's power. It is to be more specific, voltage. Or the magnitude of voltage spikes/peaks sent to the driver. Characteristic of class d amplification. Therefore the reference to the Zen CAN is incorrect, as that's a class a amplifier so relies on current (amperes) more than voltage (which does the mentioned damage) to achieve the same output levels. Just fyi for your consideration. 🙂
Good video, but I absolutely dont understand concept of underamping. If my amp is too weak, headphones will just sound quiet, thats it, or no? I am confused please explain.
Just base on your statistic as a front end user & reviewer ,it's believable that HiFiman is a reliable company by history,& possible your deduction the failure due to user end.
Hi William, I saw few weeks ago that you got the HEKv2stealth, just wondering ido you are planning t review that headphone. Waiting patiently and a lot of people also wants to know the differences with the original He1000v2
Thank you in advance
Yes, I hope to get my first impressions of the HE-1000 Stealth out very soon. April and May are my busiest months of the year for my lawn care business. I have been working 7 days per week, and have been lucky to get in an hour of listening per day, at most. It really does take a lot of time to get organized enough to put a video together. Hopefully this week?
Even if 10% of all Hifiman headphones fail (and that would be a HUGE failure rate!) you'd still have 9/10 of them being totally fine. There's this loud discontented minority of people out there that have problems and they are giving everyone this unbalanced impression that you have a really big chance of having issues if you buy a Hifiman and so many people won't buy them because they think it's a huge risk. By the way, I use the IFi Zen DAC and Zen CAN, and many times I double the bass boost by pushing both XBass buttons, and run my Anandas through the 4.4mm balanced output with at least 6 db of gain and there's no distortion, ever. No cllpping. The headphone runs perfectly fine like that for hours and I have no concerns about it.
It’s the first issue I’ve had with any piece of hifi equipment in 40+ years. I guess I’ve been lucky. However based on what I’ve read regarding returns, I can’t even be bothered to send them back. The buzzing I experience is actually limited to a fairly specific set of frequencies, and isn’t present for most of what I listen to, so I’m prepared to live with it. However I’d be very reluctant to buy from them again. The fact that Amazon actually removed the Edition XS in my country for a period of several months (now reinstated with only 6 reviews) might be an indication of a fairly significant problem. Personally I think they’re nothing special anyway so I’d look at different brands for my next pair.
They're really special when working well. Sorry for you bad pair.@@doifeellucky
It shouldn't even be close to 10
@@doifeelluckymy edition xs broke
Do the hifiman drivers die or are the quality problems just related to the construction?
I would guess that more often than not the problem is at the cable connection. Maybe a solder joint inside the headphone?
@@theheadphoneexperience-wil2250 I loved your video, I subscribed to your channel, I live in Brazil and I intend to buy a Hifiman Arya to play on the PS5 and listen to music, I was thinking about getting the Audeze LCD GX for fear that the Arya wouldn't be as durable or ruin the drivers, but at least As you said, I can go without fear on the hifiman, I don't intend to do any EQ, much less listen to it at exactly high volumes
Is so funny how those reviewers never, NEVER mention the absolute shitshow that Hifiman quality control is, they say how the building is good (straight lie) and how the sound is good but they don’t mention that you will gamble you money on a product that has like 50% chance that it wont last a year, not mentioning the ones that already come dead or die after a month.
Hifiman is pure shit, if you’re not concerned about gambling your money on products with super shoddy qc go ahead.
Also, how can they charge so much in a pair of headphones that you cant even eq? 😂
I have now heard and reviewed 19 Hifiman headphones and have NEVER had a driver failure. I've had one cable go bad in 6 years of reviewing Hifiman Headphones. I have to wonder what people are doing to their headphones to have multiple driver failures.
My HE500 is now 12 years old, and still going strong.
I will NEVER buy from hifiman again. Absolute joke with their QC issues, my right earcup randomly died out of nowhere from only 2 years of use and my Ananda's were £650, out of warranty so thats £650 straight down the fucking drain to this awful company. Something that costs that much should be lasting a bare minimum of 5-6 years and even then I'd be extremely dissappointed if they died.. Really should be lasting 10 years. My HD650s are still going strong at 8 years now, sticking with proper brands like Sennheiser and Beyerdynamics not this complete and utter cheaply made garbage.
Hopefully I deter others from buying from this brand, trust me, you do NOT want to go through the pain of flipping a coin as to whether you got a properly made pair of headphones or not. HIfiman are known to have poor QC, I just wish I knew that over 2 years ago instead of now. AVOID. AVOID. AVOID. NEVER BUY FROM THIS BRAND!!!!!!!!!
Is it possible the problem is in the connection at the earcup? I assume you tried reversing the cable left to right to make sure it wasn't the cable?
@@theheadphoneexperience-wil2250 Yep I tried using different amps, different DACs, reversed the cables, even used the cable that was originally sent as that stayed in the box since day 1. I'm 99% certain it's not the cable or connector, I've had issues with faulty cables/connectors in the past and they at least tend to somewhat work when you wiggle the cable around a bit. But this just completely died out of nowhere, went from never having any connection issues whatsoever to completely dying. I googled this and apparently quite a few people have experienced the exact same thing, seems to be more common with Ananda's and Edition XS (the cheaper version of the Ananda's). I used a more than powerful enough amp for these headphones and never played them loud or boosted the bass. Unfortunately Hifiman just don't make reliable products at all.
I also forgot to mention that my dad owned the Edition XS and the EXACT same thing happened to his pair, earcup just completely died out of the blue after only 6 months... Thankfully they were still in warranty but Hifiman only have 1 year warranty on both XS and Ananda... I wonder why. They sound incredibly good, but they are cheaply made garbage sadly.
Never gonna buy any headphones from Hifiman
May I ask why?