Hifiman HE-6

Nice! Velour right? I can't comment on pleather or leather but in general the frequency response with leather is not as uniform with more peaks and valleys due to the reflective nature.

Focus are the best without additional mods. The other pads I meantioned are better still but that's just preference. Some people like the HE-6 completely stock.

 

Actually, mine is the pleather...but I am going to order the velour pads to check them out...thanks

 

My HE-6 lost the right driver last night. I assume that Head Direct is the route to take for a replacement driver? Other options? Doe anyone know if the two drivers are the same? If so, I might consider buying another pair and having what's left of this one as a parts source. However, if the left and right drivers are different, my snake-bit luck says that the right one will fail again and I will have two SNAFU'ed HE-6's. Help please.

 

Someone is free to correct me, but I've taken my pair apart a couple times and I never noticed any kind of difference in the drivers. Don't know why there would need to be, considering how basic and symmetrical everything is.

I've heard anecdotes in the past of a driver repair being only a couple hundred bucks, which is way cheaper than a new pair. But who knows with them these days anymore

 

Well, the typical used outlets are dry of these right now, so repair is the direction I will head - hoping they still have parts to do so. It is a big disadvantage to be in love with an end-of-life item, but dammit nothing else gets there for me. If anyone has one with a single blown driver in their awe shit box, I'm interested.

 

Hifiman doesn't offer repairs anymore. They just outright replace the headphone for 220$ish. There is "matching" issues if you only get one replaced instead of both. This is why Audeze replaces both drivers in a failure. That being said, there is different HE-6 drivers. Prototype, 4 screw, and a 6 screw driver.

 

Different pairs have different resistances. They are matched.

 

When was this change made? The last time mine blew less than a year ago they very definitely replaced my drivers. Came back still in the four screw housing.

 

Rats. Hopefully they can get me fixed. Ohhgourami, your mods are what sent me over the moon with these cans. Before that, I was happy with modded HD650's. Thanks so much for that!

 

Btw when mine came back they glued the driver to the housing. Didn't bother me, I did my Blu tack mod on top of it, but if it would bug you you should make a note to them not to do it.

 

Sometime between September and December of last year. I got a replacement headband around September. Asked again at December and got a completely different response. Even after making a big deal of it and everything they still couldn't get me a headband. They have opted for a "replacement" fee support system. I think they are outsourcing their support as the earlier responses I got from Hifiman were much more informative and helpful. The new support is well.....



"I can locate Beijing and Hong Kong" LOL.... The previous support responses were much better but oh well. You maybe able to squeeze a repair quote out of them, but shipping is the hardest part for hifiman. I dont think I'd send my HE-6 to China with a 20$ USPS shipping again like I did with my he-500. No tracking number, no Insurance, HUGE time-frame for arrival. It was a mess. Luckily my HE-500 got there and back safely but no guarantees as Global shipping is prime ground for theft. Honestly I would just take the replacement fee they offer. If it's 220$ for a new-ish HE-6 it's worth it IMO.

 

@MiniMoose: Who do you deal with on the replacement, Head Direct or Hifiman China?

 

This is with [email protected]. I've had new headbands shipped, repairs, and quotes on replacements from this email address. They use [email protected] as their paypal account so I don't know who it is really. All I know it's the same email I've used for the last 2 years. Keep in mind that their support has been really wishy-washy as of late you won't be getting a replacement headband. There have been a few people on reddit who have tried and have been turned down even though this specific agent tried helping me. Their policies are up in the air, you gotta raise a stink online to get their attention. I did this by making a feable reddit post showing their price increase and lack of replacement parts. 4 hours later I got an email saying they would try sending me one lmao. Too bad I have a prototype he-6 so they gave up looking for the black-gimbels.

 

I just heard from Head Direct that they did not have an exchange pair of HE-6 phones to replace the dead set I sent them, so they are sending mine to China for repair. That will take a while, but I was glad to hear of that option. My fear was that they would just tell me I was SOL (a place I am very familiar with). Thanks to @Ray I have a new primary HE-6 and this busted set can return and be my spare. Life is good.

 

In a change of direction, Hifiman said they located an exchange set of HE-6 and sent them to me. I got them today and they are indistinguishable from new. I think I went into this with low expectations but I came out very well pleased with the communication as well as the product. The Customer Service person who handled it was Mark and he did a grrreat job.

 

So you have two sets of HE-6 right now?

 

I do. I wanted a spare because it is an end-of-life item that I greatly enjoy.

 

Did you notice any sonic differences between them or do you think they are tuned identically?
Besides the different screw numbers versions, I always wondered if they had as much variation as Audeze does with their planers from pair to pair.

 

I can't really judge that. My main pair are significantly modded and the replacement pair is box stock. They sound like I remember unaltered HE-6's to sound. Both are 6 screw, in fact, I have never auditioned a 4 screw set. Given the requirement for the drivers to be "matched" I would expect that unit to unit variations exist.

 

I posted this over on Head-Fi but I realize some of you don't go over, so I wanted to share here.

I just got the MrSpeakers Ether C angled pads and installed them. They are the best pads I've tried for correct tone and timbre. I have some custom back damping but stock damping works well too. Here's the frequency response with no damping material or grills, just pads:



This is the smoothest treble I've been able to get out of the HE-6 which normally has a peak at 10 kHz. The slight angle also helps with staging, pushing elements of the mix further back, making it more speaker like. I A/Bed them against my speaker setup and it's almost a perfect match! I'm super happy with these pads.