Hifiman HE-6

How did you fix these pads? Did you use the retaining rings or the doublde sided tape? Thanks

 

Retaining rings. I also have creatology adhesive felt rings fitted over the lower plastic with slots for the tabs to slide into, it holds them in place.

 

Here's a crappy pic of the adhesive rings

 

Anybody have recommendations for pads to help boost bass while retaining clarity? Currently running a 6-screw HE-6 with blutack, grill-less, audeze vegan pads, and the felt mod (aka ohhg's mods). I found the blutack mod, while greatly improving bass quality, lowered the quantity a bit much for my taste. I preferred full blutack to partial.

 

MrSpeakers Ether C angled pads are now the best pads I've tried, and I've tried...A LOT. They give great bass, excellent clarity, and there's no stupid 10kHz spike that gets fatiguing.

 

I saw the measurement you posted the other day - do you suppose the linear bass extension holds true using the Ether C angled pads with fully blu-tack'd drivers? I'm just missing some of the bass quantity although the quality is on point. I usually use a subtle linear phase EQ when listening on my digital rig, but I also like to use the HE-6 with my turntable.

 

I'm not sure, as I've never experimented with the blu-tack. I wish there was just a smidge more sub bass so I'm not planning on doing the mod. What pads are you currently using? I would expect the same reduction in bass compared to which ever pads you're currently using but I'm not positive on that.

 

I'm currently using Audeze Vegans. Also tried the whole assortment of HFM pads and Audeze lambskins. I've heard good things about ZMF cowhides and the HM5 angled pleathers, but haven't tried them myself. I suppose the best thing to do is simply try them all...

 

Just fixed the Ether C pads today and there is improvement in clarity compared to the Brainwavz pads I was using prior to that. Thanks @cskippy. I am able to hear more linearity in the sound across the FR.

 

Found a way to boost bass and even out some of the treble peaks on my modded HE-6, even with blutack and my old vegan pads. Seems like it's a relatively obscure mod, but it's been called the "bass lens" mod. The idea is that you place a piece of felt as large as the driver inside of each pad, with a small hole cut out of it.

I was a bit concerned imaging would become blurry with this mod, but I figured out that if the holes in the felt are closer to the face side of the driver, imaging is mostly if not entirely retained. I still want to try out the ZMF pads and the angled Ether-C's though.

But with the felt mod I get the bass quantity and extension of a non-tacked HE-6 with the quality of a tacked one. And it's customizable as well - just cut the hole different sizes to find the balance that matches your preference. Dream come true.

Thanks to whoever came up with the mod - for some reason I can't track down where I first saw it.

 

It might have been Lars on Head-Fi? I played around with this in the past and it's definitely a step in the right direction.

 

Just paid for a 4 screw HE-6 from headfi. Looking forward to finally hear this hp. Would a 300B power it OK? About 8W output. Any recommended output impedance? my amp got 8ohm and 32ohm output option.

 

My 300B amp drives the HE6 no problem with 8W. Have used other amps around the 8/9W range that also did the job just fine (V281 / Master 9 / 430HA). Also rigged the HE6 up to my 90W power amp - the difference is minimal from 8W to 90W. Perhaps slightly more punch in the bass, but it is pretty marginal.

IMHO some folks make far too much noise about the HE6 needing monster wattage. It just isn't so. Get to 8W and you are getting 98% of what the HE6 can do. The sticking point is that not many head amps go there. Auralic Taurus doesn't cut it IMHO. Never heard that GS-X Mk2, but the numbers don't look great for it. Maybe paired with a DAC with hot output like the Vega. Maybe.

 

Khragon that 300b will work fine, the he6 is a resistive load and its FR won't move much, if any, with a high output impedance.

However you likely won't get the best out of bass from a tube amp. It's still going to be good, mind you, but a good SS is recommended. Think Ohhgourami's Krell.

 

Or join the AHB2 club

 

I thought that was maybe not fitting the budget, armaegis, but yeah I concur heartily.

 

Thanks all,

I also have the iFi iCan Pro, hopefully that'll drives the HE6 to some satisfactory level too.

I may consider AHB2 or Krell when I get into serious speakers listening, for now having the young ones limit me yo headphones listening.

 

First Watt J2 sounds better to me for the HE-6 than the AHB2.

 

Do you mind elaborating Jozurr?

 

The AHB2 is a very clean sounding powerful amp yes. However, I felt it sounded thin in the bass region and did not have as good treble control as the J2 does. The AHB2 sometimes felt tizzy in the treble to me and the overall sound signature is not as involving to me. The J2 sounds more full sounding in the bass and the treble sounds glorious with the HE-6. The J2 is extremely musical. The bass hits hard and goes deep. The treble is very well extended without ever being sharp or harsh. The J2 also draws me into the music a lot and I can keep listening to it for hours. Imagine the cleanest sounding tube amp with gobs of power, without the hassle and cost of tubes. The HE-6 sometimes sounds sharp in the treble and J2 controls that extremely well. J2 feels like a match made in heaven for the HE-6. I sold my AHB2 after long elaborate side-by-side comparisons with the J2. I suppose it could be a preference between sounding very musical and involving vs sounding unreasonably clean. I even preferred the much cheaper Anthem MCA20, as did @bazelio, however, when he heard them I was using the Liquid Glass or ZDS as pre (both tube pre), but I dont know if using a SS pre would've changed that. It also says a lot about the Anthem MCA20.

I have been using the J2 with the Auralic Taurus MKII as a pre, which is a very clean sounding pre (I have a freya too, but I'm not sure if I'd be able to tell the difference between the two in ss mode).

My chain is Yggdrasil > Auralic Taurus as pre > First Watt J2 > HE-6. HE-6 is modded with open grills, outer frame lining foam, alpha pads, YFS superlitz30 cable.