Hifiman HE1000 WiFi 

Design

• Open back, open-cup design
• Mixed plastic and metal build
• Large supra-aural cups

The Hifiman HE1000 WiFi look almost nothing like the original HE1000 because these are actually more like a wireless version of the more recent HE1000 Unveiled. 

Hifiman has experimented extensively with this sub-series recently, which involves removing the grille to exposure the drivers for a more articulate sound. It makes the drivers a little more susceptible to damage from small metallic objects, and makes them look pretty odd, but the concept is sound. This pair also reduces risk by putting a more open grille over the drivers.

The first thing that struck me about the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi was something else, though. Since its earliest days Hifiman has been accused of sketchy build and QA standards. I’ve not had a bad experience yet, despite using a couple of pairs for years on end. But the HE1000 WiFI do raise an eyebrow. 

These are among Hifiman’s most expensive headphones but do not feel it, thanks to some fairly extensive use of plastics. The outer casing of the cups, bar the grille, is plastic. As are the buttons on the cups themselves. 

Hifiman has a decent excuse. These are meant to be headphones you wear while walking around, free of cabling, so lower weight matters more than ever. They also have to fit in far more components than cabled pairs — a battery, DAC/amp, wireless board and so on. But some parts could certainly have been improved. 

I can hear the button mechanism clicking on harder footfalls when wearing the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi while moving about. And I do not doubt some will be disappointed with the lack of gloss here, despite the headphones coming in a tough and elaborate presentation case. 

I do find the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi comfortable, though. Their clamping force is reasonably solid to offset the 452g weight, but the pleather-walled and fabric faced pads avoid too much face sweat or heat build-up. 

Features

• Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth tranmission
• App-free operation
• USB-C cabled connection

The Hifiman HE1000 WiFi are not ordinary headphones, even by the standards of Hifiman. 

Where most wireless sets rely on Bluetooth, this pair has both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. It lets the HE1000 stream directly from a source, like Spotify, rather than using your phone as a middle-man wireless node. 

One of the first of this kind I came across were the Hed Unity, which only came out in 2023. 

To get Wi-Fi setup, you connect to a hotspot network the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi creates. Then you enter an address in your phone or PC browser, which opens up a form to let you teach the headphones the login details of your home Wi-Fi network. 

Once that’s in place, you can send music to the headphones using Wi-Fi-based audio casting. Hifiman claims it works with “most online music platforms.”

It’s fine with Spotify. It works great with YouTube on my MacBook. But I’m yet to see the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi show up as a destination on the YouTube Android app or apps that use the Google Cast protocol, like Podcast Addict and Global Radio. It does support Apple AirPlay, though. 

This is one of the tricky areas of the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi. There’s a chance future back-end techy changes could break the pair’s Wi-Fi streaming support. Hifiman itself described the Spotify and Roon functionality as “unauthorized.”

For now, though, it works great with Spotify. I’ve seen it randomly pause music a couple of times early in testing, but that seems to have subsided. 

Wi-FI transmission allows for higher bandwidth streams, but the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi’s Bluetooth is well equipped too. They support LDAC, aptX and AAC codecs as well as SBC, and aptX HD is supported too, for higher-res 24-bit streams. 

I did some lip sync latency testing and saw significantly better results when using Bluetooth rather than Wi-Fi. Neither was dreadful, but the sync was noticeably slightly out over Wi-Fi. 

Your other alternative is audio transmission over USB. Hifiman supplies a USB-C to USB-A cable for that job, and charging. But I tested the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi with my MacBook, a Samsung Galaxy phone and a Motorola phone using a USB-C to USB-C. All work perfectly.

When you turn the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi on they default to the Bluetooth mode, and you switch between the three source modes using a longer press of the mode Button. It houses a little LED indicator. Green means Wi-Fi, purple is USB, while stays off during general Bluetooth playback.

There’s no app for the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi, but there is firmware. This can be updated during the process by which you teach the headphones your Wi-Fi login. It’s not the most friendly system around for tech novices, but does mean this is an unusually standalone solution that won’t become part-useless thanks to an app that stops working on phones due to a lack of updates. 

There’s nothing like the kind of gloss you’d expect from, say, Sony here — on the tech side. You have to wait a while for the Wi-Fi mode to start up each time, and as there are no audio prompts you have to rely on the on-cup multi-colour LED to tell which mode you’re in. And you can’t see that while wearing them of course.

Sound Quality

• Insightful and powerful sound
• Planar magnetic drivers
• Have additional low-mid “warmth”

Cards on the table time. I haven’t used the headphones on which the Hifiman HE1000 WiFi are based, the HE1000 or HE1000 SE. I have used Hifiman headphones consistently since 2008, though, and was slightly surprised by some of the tuning of these headphones. 

But let’s start with the basics. The Hifiman HE1000 WiFi are exceptional good at plenty of the more technical aspects of sound quality. 

Their sound field presentation is excellent, combining a sense of width and weight to the audio diorama they create. Sure, the Sennheiser HD800S series headphones may sound wider still, but there’s a somewhat more naturalistic presentation here that persuasively fleshes out arrangements in what comes across a nicely cogent 3D space. 

They have a lot more relaxed and smooth-sounding treble than other Hifiman pairs, but the perceived resolution of the sound is excellent. Detail doesn’t just come from putting a load of extra juice into the treble register.

Bass depth and punch is excellent. No bloat, no boom, just gut punch potential there for when it’s needed. 

My one issue with the sound is I think the these headphones have a little too much mid-bass or low mids. But it’s not an insignificant issue at this level. 

That extra padding, to my ears, downplays the otherwise fab sound separation the HE1000 WiFi otherwise have, and my immediate reaction is to want to EQ it out. You can of course do this, but not with Hifiman’s own tools as there’s no app here, no front-end for the software the pair run beyond what you use to teach the set your Wi-Fi details. 

Some folks may appreciate that extra serving of what’s often perceived as “warmth” but I believe the HE1000 WiFi don’t need it, and would fundamentally be better off without it. Let’s not go overboard, though — these headphones are not remotely close to being muggy or clouded. I just think this factor makes me double down on recommended an in-person audition. 

It’s probably also worth saying the cheaper Arya WiFi are also a bit more fun, with a more up-front, brighter sound that has more obvious punch and aggression. But, sure, they can’t tough the HE1000 WiFi for refinement and textural sophistication.

Should you buy it?