Head-Fi.org › Forums › Summit-Fi (High-End Audio) › High-end Audio Forum › HifiMAN HE-6 Planar Magnetic Headphone
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

HifiMAN HE-6 Planar Magnetic Headphone - Page 11

post #151 of 8800
5/30/10 at 6:46pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacedonianHero View Post




Oh great...now I'll have to stop by plans of building my "perpetual motion machine".


bummer, huh? 

Reply

Gear mentioned in this thread:

post #152 of 8800
5/30/10 at 6:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwkarth View Post




bummer, huh? 


In the end, it's all just physics!

Reply
post #153 of 8800
5/30/10 at 6:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MacedonianHero View Post




In the end, it's all just physics!


yup.

Reply
post #154 of 8800
5/30/10 at 7:18pm

the future is Bone Phones.  That's the direction I'd like to see head-direct go.

Reply
post #155 of 8800
5/30/10 at 7:23pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rhythmdevils View Post

the future is Bone Phones.  That's the direction I'd like to see head-direct go.


Wish that were true, but alas....  bones are too lossy @ HF.

Reply
post #156 of 8800
5/30/10 at 7:29pm

yeah that's true bones are a bit lossy, calcium is not the best when it comes to bass response.  That's why, anticipating head-direct's HE-7 Bone Phone, I had my check bones replaced with titanium alloy

Reply
post #157 of 8800
5/30/10 at 7:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwkarth View Post



Stats have some serious design limitations that are not shared by planar magnetics.  IMHO, there will never be an ultimate stat that out does an ultimate planar magnetic. particularly with the best of today's materials available.  Can't get around the physics of the things.
 

on a more serious note though kwkarth, could you go into a bit more detail on whats those design limitations are? cause arent stats technically faster? i would think that the bias voltage would have something to do with it.

 

Reply
post #158 of 8800
5/30/10 at 8:22pm

 

Quote:
Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva View Post



on a more serious note though kwkarth, could you go into a bit more detail on whats those design limitations are? cause arent stats technically faster? i would think that the bias voltage would have something to do with it.

 

Until very recently, stats were indeed, faster than the best ortho dynamics.  The best of today's materials have changed the ground rules however.

It is now possible to create planar magnetic diaphragms with similar mass to that of stats.  On top of this, PMs can take advantage of neodymium based stators, giving them much stronger and more linear fields in which to operate.  To create equivalent field strength in a stat, one encounters arcing and ionization problems, not to mention good dust magnets.  etc, etc.  Dynamic range will always be a genuine limitation of stats, not to mention issues of overall efficiency, stator field generation, dust collection, and impedance matching.  Good PM's are a purely resistive load, and technically a much easier load for an amp to drive stably.  Their diaphragms can also be designed to have greater P-P range of motion than that of a stat diaphragm.  

 

As far as I know, O2s still hold their own, but I predict it won't be long before top of the game planar magnetics take the crown away from stats.
 

Reply
post #159 of 8800
5/30/10 at 8:27pm



 

Quote:
Originally Posted by kwkarth View Post

 

Until very recently, stats were indeed, faster than the best ortho dynamics.  The best of today's materials have changed the ground rules however.

It is now possible to create planar magnetic diaphragms with similar mass to that of stats.  On top of this, PMs can take advantage of neodymium based stators, giving them much stronger and more linear fields in which to operate.  To create equivalent field strength in a stat, one encounters arcing and ionization problems, not to mention good dust magnets.  etc, etc.  Dynamic range will always be a genuine limitation of stats, not to mention issues of overall efficiency, stator field generation, dust collection, and impedance matching.  Good PM's are a purely resistive load, and technically a much easier load for an amp to drive stably.  Their diaphragms can also be designed to have greater P-P range of motion than that of a stat diaphragm.  

 

As far as I know, O2s still hold their own, but I predict it won't be long before top of the game planar magnetics take the crown away from stats.
 


thanks for that :) but i think im gonna have to come find you at canjam and wring some more of that knowledge out of you, so as not to derail the thread
 

Reply
post #160 of 8800
5/30/10 at 10:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by kwkarth View Post

As far as I know, O2s still hold their own, but I predict it won't be long before top of the game planar magnetics take the crown away from stats.


From a business pov, seems like the first wave of new orthos paved a way to bigger othro market, now that Audeze and HiFiMan know people will actually pay for these things. 

Reply
post #161 of 8800
5/30/10 at 11:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by SoupRKnowva View Post



 


thanks for that :) but i think im gonna have to come find you at canjam and wring some more of that knowledge out of you, so as not to derail the thread
 

Fair enough!  See you there.
 

Reply
post #162 of 8800
5/30/10 at 11:05pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ypoknons View Post


From a business pov, seems like the first wave of new orthos paved a way to bigger othro market, now that Audeze and HiFiMan know people will actually pay for these things. 

I think you're right, but I really don't know what stopped the likes of Yamaha from producing them when they did.  Just the same, I'm glad someone else is thinking outside the box!
 

Reply
post #163 of 8800
5/31/10 at 1:40am
Quote:
Originally Posted by immtbiker View Post
 

Maybe, after the HE-6 makes it's debut, he can have another go at an electrostatic. In my opinion, the Jade still outperforms most stats, and can have better quality control under the watchful eye of the owner. He has not mentioned anything about producing a new stat, But I feel that this is a good direction to go in after the orthos and dynamic headphones have been perfected.

 


I would tend to agree, and I love my Jade electrostatic headphones.  All I desire from my pair would be a tighter fit and a deeper soundstage.

 

But, if the HE-6 can match or exceed the Jade performance while being able to run on any normal amplifier, and not need a less commonly found stat amp to drive them, then I just might consider selling the Jade to buy an HE-6.  Out of my Woo WES amp the Jade sound wonderful, and sometimes I like them more than my O2 for their treble sparkle that the O2 lack.  But I still use the Jade more in my bedroom rig where it is more convenient than heading down to my basement to listen thru the WES.  This means using the Jade with either my HEV70 amp or an SRD-7 Pro (until my eXStatA is completed), and that is not going to wring the best performance out of the Jade.  But an HE-6 with most of the dynamic amps in my bedroom stands a good chance of outperforming the Jade on an inferior amp. (note, my ZDT amp is in the basement with the WES)

 

Good dynamic headphone amplifiers are a lot easier to come by (off the shelf) than good but affordable stat amps (unless you stick with vintage amps).  And they can be found in a lot more places where you can simply plug in and listen - in the form of full size amps, transportables, or portable amps.  When one goes into stats, the options for driving them are much more limited.  You can't just bring a stat over to a friend's house and expect that they'll have an amp that you can plug into.  Switching to orthodynamics makes listening in a variety of places easier and more flexible, while retaining most of the speed and detail of the stats (which are also planars).  Sure, most people will be listening to HE-6 with a full size high quality amp; but being able to drive them with an easily obtainable $300-400 amp will allow more people to acquire and enjoy them, while they continue their journey to obtain the best amp they can afford when they can better afford it.

 

So, I'd suspect from this point forward that Fang with focus his energy on making the best orthodynamic headphones that he can, and maybe he'd only continue the Jade as a special order item for the few people who want them.  If an affordable stat amp like the eXStatA or something similar becomes available commercially, then I think the demand for an easy to drive stat like the Jade would go up.  At that point I can see Fang thinking that it's a more viable market and putting more effort into it.  So I think that it's not so much an issue of focusing on stats once the HE-6 is out, but more of an issue of how many affordable amps are out there to drive the stats which will then drive the demand of the headphones.  Of course I have not spoken with Fang about this and I could be completely wrong.  

Reply
post #164 of 8800
5/31/10 at 10:57am

So there will be a $499 HE-4 Planar, too, it appears.  That will be one serious line-up of planars!

Reply
post #165 of 8800
5/31/10 at 11:23am

Great! Fantastic work by Fang to release these two new orthos :-)

 

I think it shows some determination and courage to release a new planar headphone at the $1300+ level, and it's also great to see a new ortho in the $500 range that's been empty for a long time now several weeks. 

 

Photos as soon as some one see them, please :-)

 


 

Quote:
Originally Posted by Skylab View Post

So there will be a $499 HE-4 Planar, too, it appears.  That will be one serious line-up of planars!

Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: High-end Audio Forum

Gear mentioned in this thread:

Head-Fi.org › Forums › Summit-Fi (High-End Audio) › High-end Audio Forum › HifiMAN HE-6 Planar Magnetic Headphone