By aspect — in detail
Soundstage
Moderate · 10 srcThe one thing nearly everyone leads with: an open, out-of-head stage that reviewers repeatedly call class-leading for the money. The reservations are about depth rather than width.
“It offers a genuinely large sense of staging in terms of width and depth, with terrific spatial cues and imaging.”
Matty Graham, Headfonia
“I find soundstage to be more than decently wide, with a good space extending in both lateral directions, while depth is more limited.”
Riccardo Robecchi, Soundphile Review
“it has a much more even and filled-in soundstage”
Andrew Park (Resolve), Headphones.com
The sharpest split in the set, and it is not a small one: roughly half the sources hear a tamed, non-fatiguing top end, the other half hear a forward upper treble that etches consonants. Both camps are describing the same measured energy in the presence region — they disagree on how much of it there is and where.
Measured
Two rigs read the same region differently. On Resolve's GRAS 43AG standardized fixture the HE-5XX shows a 5.3 kHz peak he suggests EQing away; on purr1n's pinna-less flat plate coupler the trace is a downward slope with a dip at 6 kHz and a narrow rise at 8 kHz sitting no higher than the 1 kHz level.
⚠ vs. listeners — The measurement disagreement and the listening disagreement line up: a standard ear simulator and a flat plate resolve 5–8 kHz very differently, so the same headphone can honestly read as 'peaky at 5 kHz' or 'gently dark with a small 8 kHz rise' depending on what it was measured on — and on the shape of your own ear.
Where it splits
tamed and non-fatiguing — the peak is there but never bites42%
“The peak isn't significantly higher than the level at 1kHz, so it's not nasty. It's there, some sibilants will be enhanced, but not difficult.”
purr1n, Super Best Audio Friends
forward and etched — the most noticeable part of the tuning58%
“Treble surely is the most noticeable part of the sound signature, being quite forward in the mix.”
Riccardo Robecchi, Soundphile Review
Imaging
Contested · 10 srcSources split on whether the big stage is precisely populated or merely large. Several hear pinpoint separation; a measurement-side minority hears a wide, diffuse presentation with a soft centre. The split tracks amplification — the same listener reports better localisation off a stronger amp.
Where it splits
wide but diffuse, with a weak centre image32%
“very wide and diffuse, stuff pushed more to the side with classical recordings with a hole in the middle”
purr1n, Super Best Audio Friends
Extends further than HIFIMAN's older mid-tier and stays clean and quick, but it is not a slam machine — reviewers who wanted physical weight went looking for it and did not find it. Seal and amplifier both move the answer.
“the HE-5XX offers a well-extended and articulate, snappy bass that doesn’t tend to roll away until it reaches 40 Hz”
Matty Graham, Headfonia
“Bass extends well without any serious roll off and is realised with a linear and a neutral approach without a hint of extra boost or midbass bleed.”
Ichos, Head-Fi
“In fact, I want more of it and just find myself EQ’ing all the time to try to achieve more depth and thickness that never comes into view.”
Michael Piskor, Headfonics
Measured
purr1n's miniDSP EARS trace holds to roughly 30 Hz before dropping below the 1 kHz level, with a bump around 60 Hz he attributes partly to the hybrid pads' imperfect seal. On Resolve's rig, breaking the seal lifts and rolls off the bass at precisely the same point on the HE-5XX and the Deva — one of his strongest arguments that the two share a driver.
Broadly liked and free of obvious dips, but the upper midrange carries a lift that divides the adjectives: 'lively and present' for some, 'thin, stark, short on body' for others. Nobody calls it recessed in the V-shaped sense.
“This model from Drop has some clear midrange bloom effect that outperforms the low end by a significant margin in terms of quantity.”
Michael Piskor, Headfonics
“There is quite a bit of emphasis on upper midrange, which sounds quite bright and almost tinny (without actually getting there).”
Riccardo Robecchi, Soundphile Review
“The midrange feels a little withdrawn at the beginning, especially on sources with less power”
rev92, Head-Fi
Tonality
Moderate · 10 srcSources agree the overall balance is well-judged for the price, then describe its direction in opposite terms — 'bright, clear and open' from one desk, 'a dark tilt' from another. What they do agree on is that it is not the warm, heavy voicing of the HE-500 the name invokes.
“The immediate sense that the HE-5XX gives you when fed with a dose of music, is that it’s a bright, clear, and open-sounding headphone that favours speed and nimbleness over heft and slam.”
Matty Graham, Headfonia
“there's a small treble peak, and the dark tilt may be not amenable to people who like neutral or brighter heads”
purr1n, Super Best Audio Friends
“The HE5XX are tuned mostly neutral with a smidge of extra bass.”
billqs, Head-Fi
A revealing pattern: the reviewers who judged it against $220 rivals call the resolution excellent, while the two who measured it and had lived with the HE-500 place it at HE-400i level. Both are describing the same headphone from different reference points.
“This headphone is an excellent performer with technicalities that reach well above the price point in a manner that is truly surprising.”
Ichos, Head-Fi
“While the Deva/HE5XX is generally well-tuned, it simply doesn’t come remotely close to the technical performance of the HE500.”
Andrew Park (Resolve), Headphones.com
Measured
Cumulative-spectral-decay plots from two independent testers both show the diaphragm settling slowly across the band. purr1n describes the audible result as smearing rather than ringing — blunted micro-attacks and smoothed-over fine detail — and says the HE-5XX shows it more than an HE-400S.
Fast and light on its feet rather than physical. Listeners who prize speed are happy; those who wanted the old HIFIMAN slam consistently report it missing.
“The new is thinner feeling, the older is thicker feeling, but also hits much harder.”
Michael Piskor, Headfonics
“the 5XX have a great sense of dynamics that remind me of the dynamics in the Focal Elex or Clear”
billqs, Head-Fi
Genuinely contested, and the axis is head size. Most reviewers describe a headphone that disappears — 355 g with almost no clamp. A minority hit a hard wall: the headband bottoms out against the cups at its smallest setting, and the same feather-light clamp that makes it all-day for one person lets it slide off another.
Measured
355 g on Drop's spec sheet (Soundphile Review weighed its loaner at 338 g), against roughly 500 g for the HE-500 the name invokes — the weight reduction is real and is the single biggest reason the comfortable camp is the larger one.
Where it splits
weightless and all-day — barely any clamp64%
“The headband takes after the OG look, but is in fact way more comfortable with better quality padding.”
purr1n, Super Best Audio Friends
the fit fails you — too little clamp, and it won't go small enough36%
“Regardless of sound quality, the issues I had with fit were enough to send these back to Drop a day after receiving them.”
jaker782, Super Best Audio Friends
The closest thing to an even split in the set. One side sees an honest $220 build — light, no creaks, a standard dual 3.5 mm cable you can replace for pocket change. The other sees corners cut everywhere: a flimsy plastic gimbal-to-headband clip, a poor cable, and a teardown full of assembly slop. Both sides name the same clip.
Measured
A production-unit teardown on Super Best Audio Friends found raw uncoated ferrite magnets with weak pull force, a driver bolt seated over the cable connector leaving an unsealed air gap, and misaligned foam driver spacers — findings purr1n accepted as cut corners even while disputing how much they matter at the price.
Where it splits
corner-cut — cheap materials and a suspect headband joint53%
“The HE5XX look and feel like headphones designed and manufactured to cut all possible corners on the actual build side, so build quality doesn’t appear to be great.”
Riccardo Robecchi, Soundphile Review
fine for the money — light, solid enough, easy to re-cable47%
“I would rate the overall build as above average and into the good tier. Not great, but good.”
Michael Piskor, Headfonics
Isolation
Strong consensus · 3 srcOpen-back by design: effectively no passive isolation, and it leaks both ways. Expected for the type rather than a flaw, but it rules out offices, commutes and any shared room — and open mics.
“As you can expect from an open-back set of cans, the HE5XX offer no isolation whatsoever and they leak a good bit of sound as well, so your music is audible to those around you.”
Riccardo Robecchi, Soundphile Review
“The isolation is quite modest due to the construction.”
DallaPo, Head-Fi
The loudest disagreement in the set, and the one today's price changes most. In 2020 the majority called $220 a steal; a substantial minority — including the two most measurement-driven voices — said the same money buys a better-finished HD 6XX or the Deva it may simply be. With no new-unit channel left and HIFIMAN's own open-box listing at $119, the arithmetic now leans the other way.
Where it splits
fairly priced at best — the HD 6XX still wins42%
“At $220, in my mind the HE5XX is appropriately priced. Would I take it over an HD6XX? Probably not”
Andrew Park (Resolve), Headphones.com
