If a serious music lover asked me what open-back audiophile headphones to buy and wanted to spend less than $500, I’d recommend the HiFiMan HE400S. These aren’t cheap, yet emerged as the favorite when our panel of audio professionals spent 60 hours evaluating 29 open-back and semi-open-back headphones—nearly every model available for less than $500. Among those, the HE400S headphones were the only ones that we all agreed deserved a high ranking.