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preproman said:

Shahrose,
 
So what would some of the differences be in a 4 channel fully balanced Beta  than a 3 channel single-ended - in sound sig that is?

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Unfortunately, I've never heard a 4-ch Beta so I can't say for sure. The MO of the Beta won't change though. It's still the same amp; we're just talking about the differences between SE and balanced here.

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skylab said:

I also still really, really enjoy the HE-6. I'm down to four headphones now, and the HE-6 are still getting regular use. I have the Q-Audio Cable for them, and I use them with my 85 wpc Marantz 2285 receiver - and it is truly excellent.

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My HE-6 get regular use in my main rig too, but I really wish that either my head was bigger or I could adjust them to offer a smaller fit.  Although I prefer the huge soundstage of my HD800 I use the HE-6 much more often, with either ZDT amp or EF6 amp.  The HD800 sometimes leave me feeling fatigued after an hour of listening, but the HE-6 don't ever get tiring.  I alternate between a Silver Dragon V3 cable and the stock cable, depending on which one I want to use with the HE-500 up in my bedroom rig.  I think the stock cable is actually fairly good.
 
My Stax SR-009 are still my favorite in the main rig, but switching from the Stax to the HE-6 doesn't leave me feeling empty.  So, the SR-009 and HE-6 get the most use in the main basement rig, and HE-500 and LA7000 get used the most in the bedroom rig.  The LCD-2, Stax SR-007 and Senn HE-60 only come out occasionally now...

Wow. That is indeed some high praise for the HE6. I haven't heard the Stax 009 but agree that the HE6 are special.

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kremer930 said:

Wow. That is indeed some high praise for the HE6. I haven't heard the Stax 009 but agree that the HE6 are special.

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The Stax SR-009 are very special too, whether with my Woo WES or DIY KGBH amp.  They're a little faster and more transparent, with more micro-detail and soundstage, but the HE-6 are very good for a non-electrostatic headphone (when properly driven).  Sometimes a person can listen to the SR-009 for a while and adjust to the sound, and then switch to another headphone and immediately be struck by how less detailed, sparkly, spacious, or transparent the new phones are in contrast.  
 
Switching from SR-009 to the HD800 sometimes leaves me feeling like the upper mids of the HD800 are a little recessed and less full, with a little more grain to the sound.  But otherwise the contrast between the two phones is not bad.  But switching to the HE-6 doesn't leave me feeling like there is a big drop in quality or an increase in coloration, and doesn't reveal any big gaps in frequency response.  
 
I think that it's the contrast of switching to another phone after acclimating to the sound of a previous headphone that often reveals the biggest differences.  The HE-6 soundstage does feel smaller in comparison to the SR-009 (or HD800), but it's still fairly large on it's own.  And changing from the SR-009 to the HE-500 or LCD-2 is a little more dramatic in the contrast between the phones, while the SR-009 and HE-6 seem to have less flavor of their own and reveal the source more accurately.
 
The reason the LA7000 get used so much in my bedroom rig is that they are closed and prevent the sound from leaking out and bothering my wife.  And, my particular LA7000 sounds a lot like a closed HE-500.  I love the HE-500 but the treble isn't as sweet as the HE-6, and the soundstage is just a little more forward sounding.  But the more efficient HE-500 work well in my bedroom rig where I am powering them with a DACmini or SR-71b balanced amp.  The HE-6 want more power than those, so they stay in the main rig with the ZDT and EF6 amps.

I can't say the same. My SR-009/SRM-727 combo blows away my HE-6 and HD-800's in every way. 
 
However It's nice to know if my Stax rig goes south I have the HE-6's as a back up, and two great amps to power the HE6's or my HD-800's. 

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headphoneaddict said:

Switching from SR-009 to the HD800 sometimes leaves me feeling like the upper mids of the HD800 are a little recessed and less full, with a little more grain to the sound. 

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I'm going from memory here, as I haven't had the HD800 in a while, but they seemed rather picky about their upstream, most notably the amp. While I liked my #1 pair of HD800 with SPL Phonitor, my #2 pair with Woo's WA22 had a rather bothersome mid and upper range, downright fatiguing with certain material. Having said this, and again stressing the fact that I'm going off memory wrt HD800, I wouldn't say their mids were recessed or thinner when compared to the SR-009. I know it's been said that the SR-009 can be a tad bright, but in my particular setup I haven't detected such.
 
I also wish I had the opportunity to listen to a good HE6 setup, but I'm not aware of any in my local area. Perhaps if I go to RMAF later this year I'll be able to spend a few minutes, though that's hardly an evaluation environment.

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sillysally said:

I can't say the same. My SR-009/SRM-727 combo blows away my HE-6 and HD-800's in every way. 
 
However It's nice to know if my Stax rig goes south I have the HE-6's as a back up, and two great amps to power the HE6's or my HD-800's.

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Same here. The WA5-LE/HD800 combo and the DS/HE-6 combo are great but the SR009/SRM727II is in a different league.

As it should. You're talking about thousands more. You could buy two separate he6/hd800 combos and still be out less money. I would love to hear those 009s though. I've always been a fan of stax. As much as I love my he6, I thought the 407s I use to have was just a notch behind. And we're talking about a 600.00 can here. I can only imagine how good the 009s sound. But I will say, I've listened to pretty much everything else, and I haven't heard better than the he6. And that includes the likes of l3000, r10 etc. So for the price, I think they still are pretty special and you have to spend close to 5 times more on a can to get a significant better sound.

I  listened to the Stax SR-009 and it definitely lacked the dynamics of my HE-6/Marantz 84D combo and also there was no contest in favor of the HE-6 in the treble in direct comparison.  That left me quite a bit disappointed. Was expecting more  as I have owned different models of Stax since the 80s including several pairs of  Stax SR-007s.
 

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gurus said:

I  listened to the Stax SR-009 and it definitely lacked the dynamics of my HE-6/Marantz 84D combo and also there was no contest in favor of the HE-6 in the treble in direct comparison.  That left me quite a bit disappointed. Was expecting more  as I have owned different models of Stax since the 80s including several pairs of  Stax SR-007s.
 

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What amplifier was powering the SR009 that you listened to?

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musicman59 said:

 
What amplifier was powering the SR009 that you listened to?

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It was a one of a kind custom amplifier made for the head-fier who owned the the SR-009s.  Al I know  is that the owner is a record producer and he had this state of the art amp made to drive the SR-009s for (maybe) studio monitoring. He agreed with the above assessment.

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sillysally said:

I can't say the same. My SR-009/SRM-727 combo blows away my HE-6 and HD-800's in every way. 
 
However It's nice to know if my Stax rig goes south I have the HE-6's as a back up, and two great amps to power the HE6's or my HD-800's. 

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Well, if you go back you'll recall that I did post that the SR-009 and KGBH are better in several areas, but switching from that $8000 combo to a $4000 HE-6/ZDT combo doesn't make the HE-6 sound bad, just not as good (my ZDT has $ upgrades). While doubling the price doesn't give 2x better sound, it does give me better sound than any other headphone rig that I've tried/owned.  
 
On the other hand, for half as much money I'd be perfectly satisfied with the HE-6 rig if I couldn't afford better.  The contrast of switching from 009 to the HE-6 (or O2 Mk1/HE-60/HD800) after acclimating to the 009 isn't as dramatic as switching from SR-009 to something like HE-500, LCD-2 r1 or HD600. Switching down to the HF-2 is an even bigger "Yikes!"  
 
Note - my the ZDT and EF6 are the best amps I have in terms of HD800 synergy since they're so picky, and with my other amps the HD800 would be ranked a bit lower and more on the level of the HE-500 or LCD-2 r1.
 
If I ranked my personal phones right now I might put it this way:
1. SR-009
2. HE-60
3. SR-007
4. HE-6
5. HD800
6. HE-500/LCD-2 r1/Lambda Nova Signature - tie
7. LA7000/HE-5 LE - tie
8. HD600/HE-300 r2 - almost a tie
9. HF-2
 
That can change tomorrow, and depends on source and amp.  Any of those above except maybe the HF-2 could be someone's one and only phones, but my desert island phones would have to be the 009.  Of the phones that I don't own, I might have put the K1000, Beyer T1, or PS-1000 at or near 6th or 7th...  Also, my ES5 custom IEM sounds a little like a cross between the HE-6 and SR-009, which is quite good.  So I'd be happy with those on a desert island too.

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headphoneaddict said:

 
Well, if you go back you'll recall that I did post that the SR-009 and KGBH are better in several areas, but switching from that $8000 combo to a $4000 HE-6/ZDT combo doesn't make the HE-6 sound bad, just not as good (my ZDT has $ upgrades). While doubling the price doesn't give 2x better sound, it does give me better sound than any other headphone rig that I've tried/owned.  
 
On the other hand, for half as much money I'd be perfectly satisfied with the HE-6 rig if I couldn't afford better.  The contrast of switching from 009 to the HE-6 (or O2 Mk1/HE-60/HD800) after acclimating to the 009 isn't as dramatic as switching from SR-009 to something like HE-500, LCD-2 r1 or HD600. Switching down to the HF-2 is an even bigger "Yikes!"  
 
Note - my the ZDT and EF6 are the best amps I have in terms of HD800 synergy since they're so picky, and with my other amps the HD800 would be ranked a bit lower and more on the level of the HE-500 or LCD-2 r1.
 
If I ranked my personal phones right now I might put it this way:
1. SR-009
2. HE-60
3. SR-007
4. HE-6
5. HD800
6. HE-500/LCD-2 r1/Lambda Nova Signature - tie
7. LA7000/HE-5 LE - tie
8. HD600/HE-300 r2 - almost a tie
9. HF-2
 
That can change tomorrow, and depends on source and amp.  Any of those above except maybe the HF-2 could be someone's one and only phones, but my desert island phones would have to be the 009.  Of the phones that I don't own, I might have put the K1000, Beyer T1, or PS-1000 at or near 6th or 7th...  Also, my ES5 custom IEM sounds a little like a cross between the HE-6 and SR-009, which is quite good.  So I'd be happy with those on a desert island too.

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Very interesting list. I would actually place these headphones in a similar order myself, aside from the HE-60 which I've never heard. The only swapping i might do is moving the HD800 down, but my opinions of those change so heavily based on the amplifier I head them with. 

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elwappo99 said:

Very interesting list. I would actually place these headphones in a similar order myself, aside from the HE-60 which I've never heard. The only swapping i might do is moving the HD800 down, but my opinions of those change so heavily based on the amplifier I head them with. 

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Yep, that's what I said...
 
 
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Note - my the ZDT and EF6 are the best amps I have in terms of HD800 synergy since they're so picky, and with my other amps the HD800 would be ranked a bit lower and more on the level of the HE-500 or LCD-2 r1.

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If I'm using my preferred "LCD-2 tube set" in my Woo WA6 then the HD800 drop even lower (Sylvania VT-231/Sophia Princess 274b).  At that point the LCD-2, HE-500 and LA7000 become more enjoyable than the HD800.  With the right source, amp and tubes the HD800 can really shine, but with the wrong combo they can be a little fatiguing.  I don't really enjoy the HD800 with any of my current bedroom amps, but my HE-6 sound good with my EF5 and balanced SR-71b in the bedroom, in addition to the ZDT and EF6 which sound good with both phones.

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headphoneaddict said:

 
Yep, that's what I said...
 
 

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I was agreeing  
 
Interesting tangent for my curiosity: have you ever gotten the LCD-2 to sound as open as the HE-6, given the right tubes? That was one of my big problems with it. It just never sounded as open as the HE-6.