Hifiman HE-6

You might have a hard time finding an all-in-one solution with enough power. An Odyssey Cyclops and Schiit BiFrost will run you $1500 brand new. That would sound killer with the HE-6, and all made in the USA. Your dollar will go even further on the second hand market.

 

Krell KAV-400xi

Had one, is good for the money. Bass is slightly disperse but luckily HE-6 is hard hitting.

 

Before I got interested in super low noise amping, the Odessy Kismet hybrid integrated was on a short list. I like the concept of having a quality tube pre stage matched/voiced to the amp, and you get Symphony Line components as a bonus. If the Benchmark AHB2 doesn't pan out like I'd hoped, I may revisit the Kismet, or a monoblock pair possibly.

Another amp that was short-listed is this thing: 140 lbs of Class A, dual mono, gold-planted PCB haters get wrekt audiophile steel. However, ordering major gear from China frightens me. And I don't really trust what a step-down transformer would do to the sound.

 

HiFiMAN HE6 Headphones will be shipped to XXXXX XXXXX XXXXX by Amazon.com.
Guaranteed delivery: Mar. 28, 2016

So I guess I post here now?

 

In all seriousness I finally got to hear the HE-6 today at a meetup, and honestly even in stock form I can tell it presents music in the way I like...reminds me tonally of my HD800 except it's got bass and jsut a meatiness to die for. Sold off a bunch of extra gear I had today and took the plunge on one of the last new ones off amazon. Will be poverty powering it off a Lyr 2 for some time until I can decide which way I want to go, but I enjoyed it well enough off my lyr 2 at the meet already. Like the mean , burly, inefficient bastard baby of the HD800 and LCD3.

 

Welcome to the club! Listen in stock form for a while but check out the common mods to bring the HE-6 to the next level.

 

I plan on it, my friend left me his spare Focus A pads to tool around with. I think in a few weeks a pair of Vegans are in order, because I can't ever leave well enough alone.

 

From a loudness standpoint you'll be fine with high gain. Off the Mjolnir 2, which has the same output at 5W 50 Ohms, 0 gain is too little, and high gain (+18dB) is good. If the Lyr 2 sounds the same as the Mjolnir 2 with the HE-6, you'll find it somewhat peaky in the highs (not sibilant), and the bass will feel emancipated, even as it is fast and tight. I tried some '74 Reflektor Silver Shields, and though it did produce some nice coloration that I found fairly pleasing -- I can't say that it helped imaging / soundstage any, although that pairing wasn't bad in that regard anyway. Soundstage was always intimate.

 

I did try them on my friends Mjol2 and my Lyr2, found the lyr2 to be a bit warmer sounding and I can confirm the elevated treble presence on the Mjolnir in comparison. Both powered them decently enough, though I know that a speaker amp of some kind is my eventual endgame. My time on his amp was pretty brief though, maybe 4-5 songs. Soundstage is kinda par for the course of all the orthos I've heard, I wasn't going into it looking for HD800 width, because I already have 800s. I want something to extract details at near the level of my 800s but with a nice thick ass.

 

Also tried them briefly on a Balancing Act, not quite enough juice IMHO.

 

Nice power amp plus my mods will give you a big out of your head experience.

 

So would my anthem 225 be safe to try off taps? Or should I really use a resistor box? If my calculation is corrects it looks like it could juice 30 some watts into 53, which sounds overkill city.

 

I run mine through a Krell Evo 302e straight off the taps. Watch the volume and you'll be fine. Yeah you better have a preamp.

 

It's actually an integrated I currently use in my stereo system, but I figured I could play around on it for fun and see how the 6s like big power.

http://www.anthemav.com/products-current/model=i225/page=overview

 

Then what are you waiting for? Get your mind blown already.

 

Well I'm waiting for my he-6 to show up on Monday , lmao. But yeah I'll definately give It a try, I need to find my tap cable adaptor I made back in my HE-500 days I think it survived the move.

 

So I found my taps cable and I nervously tried my sacrificial DT-990 beaters on the anthem and.......nothing exploded. In fact other then have way too much gain on them it sounded very good. Exceptionally clean zero noise at all in fact. I then tried my HD800s and it's not at all a bad driver for them and they give me a tad more knob to play with, I think it will be a winner for the HE-6 for the near future.

 

I use a Dyson Audio XLR to spade adapter I got off of eBay. I also tried the HE-Adapter box. I tried the HE-6 using using both into a 110wpc Pioneer VSX-816. I learned the HE-Adapter box is NOT to be used with solid state amps the hard way by making it super hot and producing an acrid-smelling smoke. Using either connection method, the VSX sounded like garbage; it just couldn't hold it together at higher pot and produced a lot of distortion. Experiences like that make me deeply regret having gotten rid of the M2. I'm dying to try my Black Dragon v2 on something doesn't suck...

 

Looks like it has an output Z of 10ohm(dampening factor 80, 8ohm/80df=10ohm out), which for an HD800 is tad on the high side and will bloat the bass a bit, is the HE-6 picky on output Z, I'm guessing not so much given the near ruler flat impedance of planars.

 

Behold my garbage pile trs to taps cable, so that I may harness the power of amps, and ride the high currents to planar nirvana.



and yes I am aware this is strictly for common grounded amps ONLY, I will re-terminate with 4 pin xlr in the future.