Loving the thread.
I was going for something like this, but for speakers, amps, the whole 9 yards and their respective can of worms 
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why mention the screws? i dont get it
Yes I like the HEX v2 - it’s not perfect but only has two flaws IMO. It’s short of dynamics (all big cup HFM suffer that a bit - in the low bass). and even with a pure silver cable it’s a bit short of details in the mids/highs. OTOH I find most SS equipment and transducers to overly favor the treble and ‘definition’. Now we get to the two best things about the HEX v2. It’s got an excellent ability to transmit harmonics and warmth - like a tube amp might). It’s also amazingly cohesive. It’s the best early morning or late night can I have heard (outside of the E2).
The Anada is bright to me, in the way SS amps can be bright, and somehow does seem to lack the harmonics and cohesion the HEX v2 has in spades. Not a bad can. They could be selling used for $425 inside of a year, and its better than a host of cans for that. I like the Arya better much better although it is bright around 5 kHz, its well more transparent, more insightful, better definition, better bass.
They were silent revisions and the sound of them changed. The 4 screw was brighter and a more detailed headphone, where the 6 screw was a bit more fun sounding with better bass impact and a bit fuller sound imo. People just like to call them 6 and 4 screw, it’s just what they are commonly referred to
Yeah all the larger HFM seem suffer from some compression at louder volumes
I really liked the Arya but ended up selling it (actually for the he6se, but I also ended up getting another large hifiman). I had a hex v2 before the arya and enjoyed it as well
What about the Massdrop Hex? is that the same as the HEX v2?
No, the edition xx is not that similar to the hex v2, it is more closely related to the ananda
Wow im intrigued. I discarded this headphone cause i heard it was warm and lacked detail. Now i want to hear it
Whats the E2?
MrSpeakers Ether 2
20c
Learning too much too fast. =P My head hurts…
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Store it away in your brain for later perusal. like a chipmonk stores food in his cheeks
Back to the 6SE. I just looked at the oratory1990 numbers. I’ll play the game and set it like they have it, but I seriously doubt it’ll apply to my copy.
I personally don’t use eq but that is a fairly good eq to try out, almost as a starting point
I also picked up the Adorama sale version, and after unsuccessfully trying to run it off of my lesser sources, I found my 1974 Marantz 2325 was the best option for me. I use the speaker adapter off of it, but when I’m feeling lazy, I even enjoy it from the headphone output knowing full well that it’s not giving me everything it’s capable of. I’m usually never so picky that I EQ unless I feel like something is totally broken, and both options seem to do the trick for me. The Marantz really deepens the bass and gives it almost a tubey sound quality I don’t get from anything else in my arsenal
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Going back to the discussion of how amps effect sound and the average qualities of headphones for a sec. I found that zeos review on the stellias were half right tbh. They are heavily amp dependent in a way I was genuinely surprised to find out for a set of 32 ohm cans, but they’re not limited in what you can listen too. I found the low end heavier and more present if you have a high quality amp running in high +8/9 db gain. The little extra juice feeds into the bass real nice. Sounds great testing with Igor and Watch the Throne. I found out most of my problems listening on them was caused by replaygain in audirvana.
Also the focal listen professionals are like 400 cad and are really good. I recommend them.
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What is they say about high end sport cars. You gotta feed them high octane or they’ll die on you. I can see why the stellias would sound like crap on zeos’ 789 but great on his cayin.
I dont know to be honest why it’s like this. By all accounts power is power but I guess it’s a matter of how that power is handled in the headphone amp and how it affects the sound
haven’t owned/used an eq since 1978. But my 6SE has about a 10-15 db peak at 4 kHz, and I can’t enjoy the can that way.
Marantz 2325 nice piece. I had a SAE 31B back then, then a pair.
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I haven’t looked at any FR curves, but I definitely don’t hear anything that spiky on my pair. 10-15db at any range would definitely be the thing I would call broken that would make me want to dust off my Equalizer APO skills
I personally think it’s a power/amp thing as well, very picky
I have seen one graph with +15 db relative to 500 Hz and another +13 relative to 1 kHz and +11 relative to 500 Hz. I can’t say for sure it’s +10-15 w/o measurement, but it has to be at least +7. It leaves behind earaches worse than the HE5LE (killer ringing all over the place), and an unmodified HD-800.
Basically my listening seems to support use of 4 cans; I’ve got 3 in place, the 6SE is supposed to be the 4th.
HE-500 (mods) warmish mid centric with very nice bass and treble
HEX v2 cohesive, gentle, great early morning & late night can
HD-600 timbre king, classical king
HE-6SE truth telling with impact - but at least 40% of my listening is female singers - so that peak, no good.