Phil's Superpower of Enthusiasm

1. I would still strongly suggest that anyone looking at Hifimans not buy directly from Hifiman just because of how bad their customer service is, but for me these were a lark, not something I will use regularly; if I’d ended up with a bad unit and had to fight with Hifiman about a return it’d be annoying but not super problematic. ↩︎
2. I score bass, mids, and treble on a two part scale: 1-5 for quantity (5 being the highest), and A-E for quality (A being best in class, E being laughably bad). For soundstage it’s also a two part scale, with the number representing the width and the letter the separation within it. ↩︎
3. For comfort/fit, my scale is A-E with A being disappear entirely into the background and E being I want to tear my ears off to stop feeling these headphones on my head. ↩︎
4. I’m a balanced skeptic, but XLR is just so damned satisfying to use that I default to balanced, even when a particular amp doesn’t have an XLR out. Rule of cool, y’all. ↩︎
5. But buy cables for quality of life (coilability, comfort, microphonics), not quality of sound. ↩︎
6. For example, the thiccc OEM Focal barrel-type connectors don’t fit on my unit. ↩︎
7. Again, buyers beware: https://daemonxar.com/2025/09/15/hifiman-how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-and-love-terrible-customer-service/ ↩︎
8. For anyone who doesn’t know, the HE-5XX is accoustically the same headphone as the Hifiman Deva (wired). ↩︎

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