A serious amount of it is pads and to a lesser but still very meaningful degree, grills. When the drivers can move freely without resistance from pads and grill mesh, it significantly improves their overall dynamics (as in like doubles the dynamics). Original HE6 had velour pads. Completely velour, no leather outside. It brought out the resonance frequency of the driver and bumped up the slam really hard but you can accomplish the same thing with a pad that has enough inner volume and squish to accomplish the same thing as a seal break without sacrificing the tonality that comes with it like a treble bump (that I personally think is why a lot of people find them more detailed) and a really low end sub bass drop that the seal break creates instead of a flat bass extension. Iâve toyed around with literally dozens of pads and itâs wild how much you can change the capabilities of the HE6se v2 with a well matched pad. They change character with pad swaps like a beyer does.
@rottentreats Thanks for posting this headband cover for the Hifiman HE-R9. I have problems with the same headband for the HE6SE. Purchased one to try out!
Posting them here for anyone interested.
I tried one of those with some Hifimanâs⊠even at max extension canât wear them with it on, it presses my ears against the bottom of the pads, shame because it does seem more comfortable than their headband
what kind of pads are you using with them?
With the suspension headband from the Nan-6, I really like the AliExpress 115mm leathers but I did have to stretch the Nan-6 headband out to avoid overclamping but it wasnât a problem with the original headband. 120mm was too big, 110mm were too thin. 115mm were the goldilocks zone.
+1 for these pads, donât have them on a he6se but theyâre really good for the cost (i recently washed a dekoni choice suede pad and itâs actually just disintegrated into 3 seperate parts, theyâre super low quality for the price)
Yeah the leather is a nice combination of flexible but not too thick and theyâre suuuuper comfy on top of having a ton of inner volume and in combination with how soft the foam is, it kinda works like a seal break and expands the soundstage pretty significantly. I actually have a perforated version of the 110mm on my 177x and itâs pretty nice on them too. I bought a bunch at a time and got a price break to like $5.80 a pair so I just have a bunch of extras for when they wear out eventually but these ones have been doing great for like a year somehow.
I do. Thatâs how theyâre attached.
Are there any other pads you think are worth looking at?
I can use EQ. So if there was some great ones you passed on only because the tuning was somewhat off, let me know
The Brainwavz XL micro suede gaming pads work great but theyâre really touchy to seal amount. You get used to wearing them with pretty low clamp force which is a pain with the stock headband since theyâre so damn heavy. Suspension headbands can get set to work out well with them but theyâre still kinda touchy to seal amount. I swear dekoni made a suede pad at one point that was bigger than they have now, but I canât remember what headphone it said it was for but it wasnât the greatest, just suuuuper comfy like the huge AliExpress ones. Pads with tons of inner volume seem to work the best and something about the gel seal on the brainwavz does somethingâŠidk what but something. Maybe translates more bass to your head or something weird like that.
I see people looking to improve the bass on the HE6, this is a must for you!
I tried a bass port mod on the HE6se v2 and i am blown away by the results. Took me 5 minutes to complete the mod, just remove the pads, apply 2 layers of a thick double sided tape (i used gorillaâs) on top of the hooks and attach the pads back on using only the double sided tape glue.
This mod creates a gap between the cups and the pads allowing the membranes to move without the resistance from a seal, it is similar to what the Abyss 1266 does, not all planars have a resonance peak in the low end like these two but for the 1266 and the HE6 this works like a charm!
For real, if you like bass slam just try this! The bass on my HE6 now is only second to the 1266. Keep in mind this causes a big rolloff on subbass, so there is a tradeoff but i am happy to pay that price myself, it will depend on the style of music you listen to.
Here is how the frequency response looks like with and without the mod:
also the guy that sells nan-6 stuff on taobao has velcro pad adapters that kinda do the same thing. pretty nice bump to bass and i feel like it doesnât roll off that hard but idk maybe it does lol.
The thing with this mod is that it changes not only quantity but also character. I tried the same thing with EQ and i did get the same frequency response reading, but the bass delivery is totally different.
With the mod the bass slam is absurd, it hits your ears like a rock. LOL
I dare say it hits harder than the 1266, with less quality of course 
makes me wonder if doing something like the new raal circumaural headphone would be worth trying.
Do you also have a grill mod, or are they stock?
I appreciate what you are doing and understand whatâs happening however, that gap triggers my OCD.
I suppose its is the glory of us all being different, but Iâm happy with my HE6se v2 w/o any mods and with stock pads and for me it is doing a really nice job with the slam. I think my TH909 still has a slight edge and is more consistent across genre. I do really dig the HE6se donât take me wrong it is one of my favs and has actually been getting more play time than the TH909 recently. Only second to the Susvara, but that is on its own chain and source built around it soâŠ
Yep i do have the grill mod as well.
I also have the TH909 and the HE6 with this mod slams so much harder it is not even a competition
The HE6 with this mod has a bass presentation unlike any other set i have heard, the only similar one is the 1266 which share the same subbass rolloff when you wear it without a seal.
The result is probably not for everyone though, i am a bit of a basshead so i am super happy with the results, i no longer need EQ to get the bass where i like, and again, the slam character is unique.
have you tried just popping the grills off to see what itâs like with the honeycomb grills?
No, not yet. It makes me nervous to expose the driver like that - I guess you can use the factor foam though as a filter.