I have spent a few months with the two products covered in this review, which is the most time dedicated to any review to date, and the upcoming HIFIMAN Susvara may best that count. In that sense, I have to express my gratitude to both HIFIMAN and Hapa Audio for allowing this luxury with items many can't ever justify buying, as I sought to make sure I provide enough information to help those who can afford these make an informed purchasing decision.

The tagline used for this review—premium brightness—is a double entendre as both the HIFIMAN HE1000se headphones and Hapa Audio KnØt cable are premium goods, but both are bright in different ways. The cable is basically sonic jewelry that is a work of labor and all sorts of overkill for most people. Yet in the price range of the HE1000se, I can truly see the customer base shell out the cash for an upgrade cable as custom and bespoke as possible, down to a proper consultation session to decide on colors, conductors, beads, and connectors, and even there Hapa Audio has open-ended options for a truly unique cable. This is effectively the custom IEM equivalent for cables, and Hapa Audio is not the first to enter the kilobuck range for cables. Indeed, there are some cables that cost more than three to four times as much, and people clearly still purchase them. It's quite stunning to look at and a tangible upgrade over the stock cables provided with the HE1000se, although I can't comment much on whether it actually improves the sound quality from the headphones.

This is mostly because the defining quality of the HE1000se is how overly bright it comes off. I feel confident it would feel this way for most people reading this review. Those who do not perceive the higher frequencies as much anymore do not have this issue, but I couldn't take long sessions with some of my preferred classical music pieces as I could with most other headphones. If you are familiar with the beyerdynamic treble presence, the HE1000se is similar, but with more detail for strong impact with all those transients. EQ did not help much either, which is a shame since these are otherwise fantastically detailed and great in the lower frequencies, with a clearly excellent technical driver. Perhaps testing these after the new Arya came out didn't help put them in a more positive light since I would rather save the money and get the Arya at $1300, or save up and talk to dealers for a good deal on the excellent Susvara or LCD-5 instead, although the LCD-5 admittedly isn't a like-for-like set. The HE1000se finds itself in a tough spot at $3500, even with street pricing significantly below that now. It's certainly an acquired taste, and I can only urge you demo it out extensively first if interested in one.