HiFiMAN RE-400 Waterline

HiFiMAN RE400

The HiFiMAN RE400 Waterline from HiFiMAN is a premium in-ear headphone that sets a new quality standard in its price range.

It is characterised by high wearing comfort and the use of high-quality components such as a titanium diaphragm, neodymium magnets and OFC copper wiring.

The cabinet itself is made of aluminium and is ventilated for better bass control. The Waterline is the threshold against which others must measure themselves. HiFiMAN is not an unknown name in the market for high-quality in-ear headphones. So it was quite a surprise for many fans of the products when four successful models were discontinued at once and only one model, the RE400, was announced as a new product. The reason for this unusual measure was a completely newly developed 8.5 mm titanium driver with neodymium magnet for the in-ear headphones. This also necessitated a new housing and meant such a big step forward in terms of sound that further production was simply out of the question. The new creation was sensitively developed further and can now be offered in large quantities.

The RE-400 Waterline is a neutrally tuned headphone. Unlike almost all other headphones in its price range, it is committed to natural music reproduction: It is neither annoying with clashing highs nor with exaggerated bass. Instead, there is a beguilingly genuine voice reproduction, a high frequency range full of details without metallic sharpness and a crisp, never too fat bass. The speaker is aimed at the more experienced listener who is not dazzled by a lot of booming and ringing and perhaps also enjoys acoustically recorded music and classical recordings. It is definitely the wrong listener for those who expect even more boom from hip-hop. The RE-400 Waterline has a very small housing and is designed to sit deep in the ear canal.

Included are several pairs of rubber (5) and silicone (3) ear tips to fit your own ear canal. It is recommended to aim for a deep fit to achieve good isolation from external noise and at the same time good bass response. In this case, the flexible supply cable can be worn either downwards or upwards across the ear. After the Y-piece, the feed cable is continued in additional insulation to reduce microphonic effects caused by zips or shirt buttons, for example. The 3.5 mm jack plug is gold-plated and fixed at a 45° angle. At this angle, the plug cannot be pulled out of the unit too easily, nor is the cable too extremely stressed under tensile load. The driver diaphragms are protected from foreign matter by small fabric filters, of which five replacement pairs are supplied for changing.

The RE-400 Waterline is easy to drive and its 32 Ohm impedance and 102 decibel efficiency at 1 milliwatt should not pose problems for any headphone output. However, it is important to note that it does benefit from high quality feeds. It is recommended to break in the headphones for about 150 hours, because only then the surround of the relatively large titanium diaphragm develops its full flexibility and the bass becomes noticeably more buoyant.

For HiFiMAN as a manufacturer, the Waterline is the dividing line between toys and real hi-fi headphones. The production takes place entirely in their own factory and they are happy not to be dependent on drivers from suppliers, but to be able to manufacture according to their own quality standards. From a sound point of view, the RE-400 are a special offer and an invitation to all those young and young-at-heart music listeners who want to move away from plastic sound and towards real hi-fi.