Hifiman HE-6

Quick and to the point, with everything combined. A little better center imaging, slightly tighter bass, a little less bitchy treble on certain
tracks, much more comfortable. I haven't done Ohhgourami's last little felt mod, but I like the highs a tiny bit aggressive than some folks, so I may not.

 

Took the plunge: HE-6 on the way. Going to run it from the taps on a Marantz integrated amp. I should probably read up a bit on modding it >.<

 

I think you'll be impressed with the stock sound, and modding brings it to another level in sound and comfort. Don't bother using the pleather if they're installed on it. Use the velour pads.

 

HE-6 people looking for a solid power amp for reasonable money, there is a guy on audiokarma selling an Odyssey Stratos Plus for $400 shipped.

You need to be a supporting member to see this subsection but you could try and PM him.

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?threads/fs-odyssey-stratos-stereo-plus.707426/

http://audiokarma.org/forums/index.php?members/safebet.42237/ Sellers profile for PMs.

 

I imagine that Odyssey amp will get picked up quickly. My recently purchased Stratos (relabeled ODL) is a version made by Klaus' one time sub-contractor, and still cost me $450. I'm waiting for my speaker taps to arrive, but tried the ODL with a pair of cheap Polk speakers, and it was scary good once warmed up!

HE-6 arrived a few days ago, and I've been enjoying them from a regular headphone amp (with all it's shortcomings) in the meantime. They sound good considering, so excited to see what a monster power amp will do.

Just ordered some Audeze vegan pads and a Lohb leather headband suspension strap, looking forward to maximized comfort! Not sure if I'll mod it further, I heard some guys modded HE-6 (alpha pads, fuzzor, and different front grill) at the CanJam and didn't like them much, the sound just seemed to lack weight and body. Then I put on a stock pair and they sounded fantastic. Both driven by a Cavalli Liquid Glass amp.

 

There was another person who had a pair besides me at CanJam?

 

Grill-less and with stock velour pads, bass seems more extended, and imaging seems more precise. The former does not seem OMG, but the latter is definitely noticeable even with suboptimal amping.

 

Yeah, there were a few pairs knocking around at CanJam. The stock one was owned by Cavalli and was at his table the whole time. What do you guys think of Cavalli amps with the HE-6? The thought the Liquid Glass drove them really well and sounded great. 6 watts in 50ohms, I think.

An audio retailer near me has a Moon Neo 430HA available for demo, which I may check out. Supposedly one of the best amps available for the HE-6, anyone here tried it?

 

I don't like any of Cavalli's amps. They all have some issue with the sound I don't like. Haven't heard the Tungsten but the others don't drive it that well either.
I think Source AV had one at CJ, though people I trust don't think the 430HA is anything special. So should be pretty far from being one of the best amps for it.

 

I had the 430 with me for a week. It's very smooth, but honestly it's just to polite. Lacks attack. I still think speaker amp is the route to take.

 

I picked up DrFindley's HE-6's w/ Bill-P mods and am really enjoying them thus far, but I'm starting to feel they are becoming a bit fatiguing and was wondering if maybe one of the mods is the culprit, or there is a mod I can do to tame/offset the fatigue. Here are the mods I know of and my set up:

Mods
Vegan Pads (no felt mod)
Bill-P mods (dampening to reduce resonance I believe, not exactly sure specifics)
Removed grills
Stock cable->Speaker tap adapter

Setup
Schiit Modi2 Uber
Schiit Sys
Emotiva XPA-2 Gen2 (300wpc x 2)

I have a sneaky suspicion that it's my setup, but it's just a budget setup where I got great deals on all the equipment (esp the XPA-2). Until I can improve my system, any ideas/input?

 

I've owned some emotiva (usp-1 and mini-x) gear before and they definitely tacked a bit brighter than neutral to me, though I haven't heard the XPA. The felt mod might work well for you. I installed it today, cost all of about $1.19 at Micheal's and maybe 10 min to do. I still think HE-6 post mod is tonally more like a musclebound HD800 than something laid back and lush like a HD650 or LCD is. If the felt is still not enough and you don't want to EQ. Might try a basic little tube buffer or a vintage affordable pre-amp with tone controls.

 

I'll try the felt mod tomorrow and I have no issues EQ'ing. I am already looking into MHDT R2R tube DACs. Something like the Atlantis looks like it might fit the bill.

 

Yeah if EQ is fine just try a parametric EQ with a mild roll off on the high end and see if that pleases you. I don't find my modded HE-6 off my Anthem to be overly bright but, I tend to gravitate toward lively sounding gear and I'm not nearly as treble sensitive as some. Most of the speakers I've owned and loved over the years have been horn designs, so maybe I'm not the best judge

 

Stock grills can take away some of the harshness around 11kHz. They make the treble slightly smoother sounding.

 

And completely collapse the soundstage. My guess will be from the reflections which the felt fixed. I'm quite insensitive to highs but reflections do give me slight fatigue.

 

A friend gave me his HE-6 in for modding. There is something inherent to the driver that annoys some people. I can hear it, but it doesn't bother me that much. My gf though hates these for that reason. So go figure, maybe your ears are just very sensitive in this spot.
R-2R or tubes won't fix it.

 

I bought some car grill material off amazon yesterday with bigger holes simply because I'm worried about having those internals exposed. Very pleased with how they opened up sound wise when I removed the stock ones. Took me a bit to adjust to the sound. Hopefully the bigger holes on the new grills don't affect the sound. Side note, has anyone uploaded pics here from an iPhone? I've had no success as it asks for a url. I'm not computer savvy at all.

 

I think you need to upload the photo to an offsite image hoster such as imgur, that's why, SBAF isn't bout handling the bandwidth of hosting. So just upload the picture to imgur, then copy paste the link into the "Insert image" popup in the post tool bar.

 

Do you have a direct link to the car grill you bought?

With uploading pictures, one way to do it is send the phone image to your email, save that to your desktop, create account with imgur.com, upload image by dragging and dropping into imgur, click on the image, copy the BBCode message boards & forums link for the image (seen on the right hand side), paste that link into your posting here.