HiFiMAN Electronics is a Chinese manufacturer of high-end audio products including headphones, amplifiers, and portable audio players. Hifiman is more known for its headphone products, initially made under the brand Head-Direct but now only as Hifiman.
History
Founded by Fang Bian in late 2005, Bian started Head-Direct, both a web-store and Head-Fi (https://www.head-fi.org/) sponsor. He began use of the HiFiMAN brand in 2007. In 2010, he started a small-sized factory in China and moved its company to Tianjin, China in 2011.[1]
Early products and development
One of the company's early planar headphones was a model called the HE5. To avoid the cost of tooling, it was decided to make HE5's ear cups out of wood. Wood was also considered a sign of quality and was expected to help establish HiFiMAN HE5 as a higher-end headphone. However, its small and limited operations made that very difficult to manufacture. To make matters worse, the wood ear cups began cracking and received many complaints.
HE5 was then replaced by the HE5LE where the wood ear cup was replaced by cheaper plastic. This design was an early forerunner of HiFiMAN planar phones to come.