šŸ”¶ Hifiman HE6SE

I sent the HE6 back. It sounded fuller/weightier off my A100 than A30 Pro/G111/Asgard 3, but still sounded fairly disappointing from my expectations and memory of hearing it in shops before. Of course, doing the grill mod with grills you canā€™t find for sale anymore, and pad swaps, might help. I would go for an LCD over HE6, with these amps. Good luck! :crossed_fingers:

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I think my HE6se V2 mod is complete.

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Looks sick! Where did you get the honeycomb grills? Was it very difficult to disassemble for the paint job?

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The EBay guy that sells them put them back up for sale for me. Yes.

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They look absolutely stunning! Have you decided on which pads to settle down on? Would love to hear your preferred choice!

Yes I did. I went through many different pads and landed on the HIFIMan Palipad for both sound and comfort.

I liked these on my LP with the volume at about 2:00.

Yesterday I plugged them into my Violectric V220. In high gain at 12:00 I was underwhelmed. Then I realized that I had my EQ in the chain and turned it on. The music got louder and punchier. I am not a huge fan of EQā€™ing everything, but in this situation it really works. I think I might like this set-up better than the LP.
I will keep going for today and probably tomorrow.

On Friday, I will hook it up with the Pro iCAN and see whatā€™s up.

Before that I might have to hook it up the LP again. The LP seemed a little harsh a few times. I wrote that up to me adapting to a new sound signature and perhaps a few poor quality passages. Have to go back and confirm as I am now used to, and enjoying, the HE6 sound.

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Spending some time with the HE6SE. My overall verdict is definitely far from shaped, but I can definitely say it doesnā€™t move me on the G111. Seems a bit flat and lifeless to me. The Jot 2 is more engaging and adds some excitementā€“but Iā€™m still not sure the sound is for me.

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Please tell me you get paid to make photos of stuff. You do a great job showing the details of items in good lighting, and your angles are highly mindful of the audienceā€™s best point of view.

Thank you Dan. I actually do, but Iā€™m not a photographer. :wink: I am a Design Director for a design firm. I specialize in 3D visualization, but I enjoy doing just about everything design related. I enjoy the challenge. I also have to know Photoshop like the back of my hand to even think about doing all the rest of the stuff I do, so this photography thing attached to the audiophile hobby is actually very enjoyable and fun for me. :slight_smile:

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Yea when I first got the HE6SE and tried it on the G111, felt the same way. There really wasnā€™t much there. Once I upgraded to the Burson Soloist 3XP it really came to life for me.

I am actually listening to them now as I write this too lol. (playing the main theme from Jurassic Park OST)

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These are the pads that comes with HE6SE v1 right? Do you mind doing a quick comparison in terms of sound on the stock pads vs palipads?

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Fantastic. Makes sense :slight_smile:

Good design is good design.

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If youā€™ve been keeping up with HIFIMan, thereā€™s a lot of controversy over their silent revisions and pad changes. So depending on when a product was made will determine if you are using and older or newer design. My PaliPads were ordered directly from HIFIMan. They are different vs the stock pads, they are on mine at least. I believe the material in the pads may be different. I have no way of determining what pad or what pad revision came stock.

All I know for a fact is that I am using fresh 2021 PaliPads from HIFIMan. I preferred them to all the other pads tested for neutrality without EQ applied.

In addition to my own testing I referenced these measurements and impressions. I also used Andrewsā€™ suggested EQ as the basis of my own.

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Yea youā€™re right, all the silent revision is so confusing for everyone.

Thanks for explaining and sharing your opinions on the pads!

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Since today is my birthday, I decided to jump ahead and plug these into the iFi Pro iCAN. Wow, these are impressive headphones. While they were good with the other amps, these really shine with the iFi.

Very big/full sound and a pretty wide stage, IMO. The bass is present, but not overpowering at all. The mids are the same, present, but not forward. Just strikes me as well balanced headphones.
I am not a loud listener and starting off with high gain and volume ranged from 10:00-11:00. After a few hours I kept backing it down and ended up around 9:00. I then dropped to mid gain and raised it to about 12:00. Perfect.

It kind of reminds me of my Focal Elexā€™s. They are not a bassy headphone, they are not a mids monster and they are not real trebly. But they do the whole package very well.

I think these are a keeper. Very curious to compare them to Elexā€™s and Monoprice M1570ā€™s after I am finished A-Bā€™ing amps.

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After they burn in fully they settle into a really nice spot smoothness wise without losing any detail too. Macrodynamics on them really gives a nice realism and feel when paired right. Sounds like the big boy ifi is doing them some justice!

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Iā€™m glad you jumped the gun & listened to them on a better amp.

I havenā€™t tried them on a huge cross section of amps, but when I went speaker amp vs. Jot 2, I could see why you need the power. The Jot 2 did some things better, but you didnā€™t get that punch, those micro details. Itā€™s a good headphone but when it has that extra power a switch is hit and it becomes special.

It was to the point where although there were some characteristics I liked a little more with the Jot 2, Iā€™d miss a detail or that extra kick (not sure how to describe it). I just couldnā€™t shake what was missing and sold the Jot 2 right away.

EQ makes it better, too. I have some profiles Iā€™ve dug up from forum searches if you are interested. I think Iā€™m using Oratoryā€™s EQ with a little more bass (Iā€™m an unrefined child, what can I say) for what Iā€™m currently listening to.

Enjoy and look forward to hearing more of your thoughts on them. For me, they cured looking for that next thing, that better headphone.

Edit: Happy Birthday!

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I think it will be harder to go back to the other amps, but I want to get a feel for all three.

I am not sure about the EQ. The Vio V220 needed it. Might play with the LP, but honestly the iFi is sounding pretty good as is. I donā€™t feel that anything is really lacking or coming on too strong. It is early days yet though.

After thinking about it, I should clarify that I have bass boost and 3D maxed out, so theyā€™re not really lacking EQ. :grin:

Yeah itā€™s funny, the burson opamps are like their own EQ and pads are as well. I use no real EQ at all now and couldnā€™t be happier with them. I do pop on atmos gaming performance mode for gaming though.