In reply to myself, no better way to learn what works and what doesn’t than to try them out with everything at hand and then post findings.
So, with a pure class a it’s pretty nice, but I think the sweet spot is a powerful class a/b in the 150-200 wpc into 8 ohms.
High quality class d should work just as well (if it’s high quality)
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I usually like to try before I buy, but I have no place to audition them around my parts and I missed the Fujiya Avic Autumn HP Fest. I’m not even sure e earphone has them.
Yeah, typically most places have a he1000 or Arya or other high end hifiman (if they have hifiman stuff), but not often do I hear of a he6 or 6se being available to demo
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My pair arrives tomorrow. Just checking in to see if you got yours yet and, if so, how it was working out for you?
Also curious to see what you guys think and how it will react to amps
I’m going to be running it off an old Marantz receiver I own, but have my eye on some other upgrades down the road. I wasn’t planning on spending any more money on headphones this year, but I couldn’t pass this up at the price. Trying to talk my friend into selling me his Linn Klout
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That’s a pretty nice amp, should work plenty well if the marantz doesn’t work out (it should though)
At the very least I will bring the headphones to his house to hook them up. He has a pretty awesome vintage setup that he keeps saying he wants to modernize. I’m keeping quiet because I want to buy most of it if he does. I’d rather have his setup over a lot of the modern gear he’s been researching
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A good high end amp/speaker/turntable should still sound great today, so it’s a pretty safe bet too
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with any of his gear, but he’s tired of looking at it for the past 15 years
My pair arrived yesterday but I’m still out of town and anxiously awaiting the moment I can get home. The girlfriend said it looks like Christmas already at the house with packages/boxes stacked high and deep in the hallway awaiting me to tear into them💪. New cables, headphones, earpads, NOS tubes, and other little nick-knacks…I spent a few hours visiting Atlanta Hi-Fi in Ga. (they had a large selection of headphone products) https://hifibuys.com/ testing out different TOTL/hi-dollar headphone, amplifier and DAC combinations to attempt to get a feel for products I would otherwise have to purchase blindly, it was an awesome experience and really gave me incentive to look for a high-end shop within at least a few hours drive of my home. I’m really stoked to get home later tonight and tear into things this weekend, I doubt I’ll be getting much sleep before Sunday eve, LOL.
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how would you say these headphones compare to the Elex or the Aiva’s or the Edition X? Also whats the cheapest amp one could get to power them?
I would personally prefer the he6 to all of the above lol, but to get to that level you would be spending a fair about more. Not to sound elitist or anything but seriously to get them powered correctly and actually sound very impressive you might be looking at spending 1k on an amp or more, otherwise it would make more sense to get the elex/aiva/edition x
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So, these came in today, and they do NOT include the speaker amp adapter. When the 6se was announced it was “limited” to 700 pairs. I’m guessing when those initial 700 sold through, they reissued them without the adapter. I’d be annoyed if I spent the msrp of $1800, but at $700 I can justify an additional $100 to get the most of them. If I didn’t already have a compatible cable, I’d spend close to that to upgrade the laughably bad one this came with.
Here are my first impressions, knowing in advance that I’m not coming close to scratching the surface of what they are capable with until Monday when the adapter arrives. The build is good for Hifiman. They are heavy-ish, and I prefer the solidity of the round ear cups to the toy-like quality of their oval cups on the Edition XX. I swore off of Hifiman after my first Massdrop purchase of the HE 350. I don’t remember what they cost, but they felt and sounded way cheaper than what I paid, and they died right after the warranty period. I treat my gear well, and these felt built to fail. I’ve seen that complaint from a lot of people, so I decided to shop elsewhere after that and wrote them off for the last few years. I bought the 4xx for $130 on a warehouse sale before they dropped the price on their main site, and while I didn’t LOVE them, I felt they were a good value at the price and did some things pretty well. These look similar, but feel like higher build quality, and I prefer the suspension headband.
If these were $700 headphones, I’d feel pretty good about the purchase running them off my sprout100 se out. I had to max out volume, but for the most part the bass is good, not great, and at first everything seemed better than I expected them to sound knowing how hard they are to drive. Then I started noticing some weird quirks. Just playing my Tidal tracks on random I started noticing parts of songs so recessed that I didn’t hear them at all. On one track the lead vocals were normal but the background vocals were faint, and on another track I could barely hear the piano I knew was there. I have them running off my Mojo now at a higher volume than I’ve ever pushed it to before, and it’s a lot better. Again, at $700, these are not bad at all. But if I spent $1800 I’d have to start lying to myself to justify the purchase.
On the good tracks (rap, edm, and bass-heavy rock) they are very good already, almost great. They remind me of the LCD2 Classics where the bass is great, but mids and treble are veiled, and at $700 they would be in line with that type of headphone. I can get glimpses of greatness on other songs too, but because i am running my amps so loud I am dealing with some distortion that I expect will clean up running off my Marantz. I’m happier than I expected to be at this point after reading up on these, but more excited than ever for my speaker amp adapter to arrive on Monday because I have a feeling these can be really special if they have that much more room for improvement.
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FML, I wish I had not bought these… (Take into consideration that everyone has different tastes and appreciation of music is EXTREMELY subjective) About 10 hrs into these headphones and I have nothing but positive comments regarding the sound. I have managed to get these to play both loudly and with a sublime level of detail, and depth. I do not own any other headphone that does what these do. I enjoy every single other headphone but these are different and I’m still figuring out why.
The HE6se plays every genre of music with authority and a sound signature I am enjoying each and every time. So many others better describe the subtle differences, I am limited to just saying these really are cool and I am happy I managed to find them on sale otherwise I would never have dropped the kind of cash these usually demand.
As Mon has mentioned repeatedly these absolutely require powerful amplification but that can come from a variety of sources and I am still experimenting and learning what I can get away w/ and what I can’t. You will know it though when you hit a good combination, suddenly a smile will form on your face and you will just listen and then continue to listen some more. I want more things in my life that do this to me!
Seriously, someone tell me what they are, I want them!
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Wait so did you buy a speaker adapter or did it come with them?
I immediately ordered a speaker adaptor direct from Hifiman website you linked. These came with an extra set of pads and a funny feeling cable was all. Total spent so far $800.
The best way I can describe what these headphones do for me. They make me “feel” the way I felt 25 years ago when I got into a car with a badass custom, loud and clean stereo system. I wanted to sit in that son-of-a-bitch and play it till my ears bled.
Yup, it’s like a flagship with an actually fun sound