That's why I haven't hardwired mine yet, I bought it Nov. '10 when they first came out for sale.
HifiMAN HE-6 Planar Magnetic Headphone
- Thread starter JIGF
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I bought mine in May 2011. More than anything, I've thought about the hard wiring to get rid of the damn mini-coax connectors - too many heart-stopping moments where I thought a driver died.
Mine sometimes has a rattling on the right as if something is loose. I heard it yesterday but its not there tonight, bizarre.
sluker
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Yeah, I would love to rewire mine. These are the only headphones in my collection without the 4 pin mini xlr's but I don't want to void the warranty.
We should petition Fang to let us do it or authorize someone to do this without loosing warranty on the drivers and the assembly.
it would be so easy to rewire these with mini xlr's and would not require touching the drivers at all as the leads are already there.
We should petition Fang to let us do it or authorize someone to do this without loosing warranty on the drivers and the assembly.
it would be so easy to rewire these with mini xlr's and would not require touching the drivers at all as the leads are already there.
Steve Eddy
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drez
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Quote:
Zeus are pretty cool - very low reactive impedance and OCC wire. I tried a ROCC cable and the stuff is very tricky to work with - you can easily end up with one wire being too long after twisting , difficult to keep even twist rate etc. Plus for hard wiring you want bulletproof strain releif - you don't want the wire to pull off the solder pad. Unfortunately for me shipping to and from the states adds a lot of time and money to such an exercise so I think I will stick with removable cables for now.
Hard wiring will definitely void the warranty with HifiMan though.
Zeus are pretty cool - very low reactive impedance and OCC wire. I tried a ROCC cable and the stuff is very tricky to work with - you can easily end up with one wire being too long after twisting , difficult to keep even twist rate etc. Plus for hard wiring you want bulletproof strain releif - you don't want the wire to pull off the solder pad. Unfortunately for me shipping to and from the states adds a lot of time and money to such an exercise so I think I will stick with removable cables for now.
Hard wiring will definitely void the warranty with HifiMan though.
preproman
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Silent One
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I'm with preproman and believe Robert will honor his work and stand by the HiFiMan warranty. Not only is he a dealer but works on headphones as well. He's in a great position to cover.
Doesn't hurt to check, just fired off an email inquiry...
I'm with preproman and believe Robert will honor his work and stand by the HiFiMan warranty. Not only is he a dealer but works on headphones as well. He's in a great position to cover.
Doesn't hurt to check, just fired off an email inquiry...
IEMCrazy
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My HE-6 has arrived, I'm officially part of the club now!
My version seems to be the nearly-opalescent high-gloss piano black with the black gimbals. Very sleek. Initial impressions of the build compared to HE-400: It seems significantly less "rough Chinese" in manufacture. The gimbals are smoother action and more free floating, fit & finish is cleaner, The gloss on the paint is a much higher grade, the leather of the headband seems to be a higher grade leather, or at least is finished and treated more nicely. Everything about it exudes higher quality despite being nearly identical construction, and sitting across from each other on a Woo double stand, it's easy to pick out the nicer of the two. That's a nice treat, I was kind of getting mixed feelings about picking a summit headphone that looked almost identical to one of my normal cans. Despite being technically identical, visually it's not.
I was also impressed, for being supposedly much heavier than HE-400, it doesn't feel at all heavier. In fact it somehow sits better on my head than either of my HE-400s with just the right amount of clamp. It's comfortable!
The date on the original box shows it was made in September, so it should be a current enough addition. I certainly have no fit & finish gripes about it. The swivel on the right cup is stiffer than the free floating left, but it's much better than the HE-400's that don't really swivel but instead are "adjustable" into fixed positions, though technically it's an identical joint. I do have a set of pleathers in the box but the mounted velours are the old style velours.
A comment on the old velours (which may be more appropriate for the current pad discussion in the HE-400 thread of the headphone forum.) IMO, the old velours are far superior to the new ones. I've had several sets of new ones and was shocked at the old ones, having just seen them for the first time. The velour material is much softer on the old ones, the pads seem a bit thicker, and generally more comfortable. My ear still hits the inside of the cage, but my experience with HE-400 has taught me, that quarter piece of damping you guys were talking about a few pages ago. Are you certain that's actually damping? I strongly suspect it's a pad so your ear doesn't yell out in pain from touching the metal grating inside. I assume this because it's located at exactly the same spot my ear contacts the grating inside the HE-400 that spawned the pad ranting going on in the HE-400 thread. The HE-6 lacks that ear contact issue not because the pad is thick enough but because of that quarter piece of pad right in that spot.
However, I intend to remove this nice, comfy superior pad as soon as I can, despite that I'll probably never get to try it again due to that horrendous pad mounting system these old ones had. yeah, it has the clear tabs. On one hand I want to keep it as long as I can since I'll never get to have it again. On the other hand, I don't want to get used to my HE-6 with a pad that I'll never get to hear again, I want to get used to it with the way I'll normally get to hear it!
I'm impressed with the stock cable, at least in terms of it being air light, very flexible, and rather pretty. I will be replacing it, almost certainly with a Q (Hi Steve, I see you're in the thread!), the stock is surprisingly nice for a stock cable though. I almost wonder if there could be much sound difference over it, though I do know from HFM's other cables the solder isn't the best....
The box is nicer than I thought...coated in what I believe to be the same pleather as the pleather pads...or something similar. It marrs more easily with fingernail marks though. As-is there's no way the cans could fit in the box again with cables attached. Or aftermarket pads. But I suspect it can be modded easily enough, it's only about six inches foam rubber inside, to be a nice storage chest for the headphones. I do NOT want to keep my summit cans out on the stand gathering dust when not in use! And an otherwise nice box like that shouldn't be wasted in storage somewhere just because some "fun foam" gets in the way!
FIRST impressions on sound, this is mostly via skimming a random mix of music. No serious full album listening just yet. I was working for a while rigging up the new amp, moving my gear around, running cables, then finally got a chance to listen. For those not following, the amp is a Marantz PM6004 over speaker taps (stock cable plugged into a Moon Black Dragon XLR->banana adapter.) For most of the test I left out tone controls and kept on on the "source direct" bypass of any tone. The amp does have the "warm Marantz sound." I would call it "SS in the key of Mullard"....the tonality of Marantz reminds me a lot of my Mullard tubes. Very bumped in the midrange, very mids centric at the cost of some treble sparkle a bit of rolloff in the low bass region. That's always been the Marantz sound, and holds true for the headphone jack as well. The tone controls of course could compensate that.
Given that, my first impression was extremely positive. Some have indicated that HE-6 is in the T1/HD800 mode of bright treble. It's brighter than HE650, but it, thankfully, does not appear to be truly bright in that sense. It could be on a bright amp, but to my ears, "transparent" is the order of the day. It seems very neutral/natural and does whatever the amp tells it to do (more on that later.) Rather than the bright over sparlkiness of some dynamics it has what I was hoping for, that full bodied weight and realism that planars project was what I got, but with more detail retrieval, and a smoother tonal balance then, say HE-400.
I know Tyll measured it as being treble accentuated, and I can appreciate that. The low end reminded me of K702 but with lower extension. It's there, it's solid, and it extends VERY low. But it's presence and impact are very thin in contrast to HE-400, and even HD650 of which the huge midbass hump still provides the feeling of impact. I anticipated and even desired that going in, but it's worthy to note, that, yes, the shift is away from the bass, though the solid bass is certainly there and wickedly detailed. But the tilt toward bright doesn't feel to me to be as severe and HD800-ish as Tyll's measurements, maybe because I have a mid-centric amp it kind of flattens out the mids into the highs to, in effect, created a slightly bottom-shelved bass, but everything else ends up relatively flat. Thus far I don't find them to be fatiguing at all, though I've found myself listening at a slightly higher volume than average due to "new headphone volume boost syndrome." Very smooth and balanced, a little bass lean at times, but that could easily be fixed with tone controls. It depends on the recording though.
Music selections were varied. Lang Lang plays Rachmaninoff was a standout...I could hear every cough, echo, and chair squeak in the background. The reverb of page turns was spectacular. This album was always phenominal on HE-400 as well. But it really cleans up in terms of presentation and clarity on HE-6. Both present it as live sound. There's just a little more articulation on the HE-6 similar to sitting up close. HE-400 presents it from further back in the balcony.
Solo violin, fantastic as well. As someone who's spent time behind a violin, I could pick out how lovely the wood was in that piece. Up louder the treble got a little harsh to my ears...but for solo violin, that's a good thing, A violin up close *IS* harsh. Particularly strung at soloist tensions, which is almost always chosen for it's bright presentation live as well.
A capella vocals. Extremely natural sounding. Fantastic separation and presence. Very natural voices.
The Chieftains, Celtic Harp. It sounded like a harp in the room, a fantastic band, fantastic presentation. All lifelike.
Lord of the Rings: Complete Recordings (Two Towers): One of my default test tracks, a studio recorded orchestra. The dynamics are excellent, the details are excellent, because it's not a live hall orchestra recording it doesn't have that background reverb of micing the hall, the instruments are well insulated, but it also is a great test for pure instrument sound. Great sound. It lacks the power at the low-end for the ramp-up that some headphones provide, but it's very natural sounding, and part of that may, again, be the amp that tapers both ends. A little tone boost to bring the midbass up would probably help if needed. All in all, a choice pick.
Electronic/pop-electronic: This headphone would not be my choice. At all. It sounds good, don't get me wrong, but it's a detailed, though full bodied and lifelike unlike most "analytical" type dynamics, Electronic type music needs something like HE-400 or D5k. It needs that smear of darkness over it to give it more edge than synthesized instruments really have. From Koop to Sa Dingding to Portishead, the emphasized thump of the low-end is intended to drive the music and it needs the toned down mids of a v-curve; it craves a surreal experience, and HE-6 is all about the real in my opinion. As it should be for a summit headphone. It's suppsoed to recreate reality as best as possible, not enhance the surreal. Of course EQ/tone could compensate that well enough. These cans, I think could handle any EQ curve with ease given the absence of really weird peaks and sags. It sounded good, but it wouldn't be my first pick can for those tracks, nor did I buy these to use with those tracks. But if you crave electronic: buy something else.
Rock: Especially hard rock soudned great. The crunch of the tube distorted amps sounded stage-like. Articulate. Extremely nice. Vocals sounded powerful, but clear. A few tracks from Fuel (alternative/hard/pop) sounded more detailed and cleaner than I've heard them before. Dave Matthews (studio albums) sounded as badly recorded as ever (these are NOT forgiving headphones, but they're not as harsh as some of the dynamics), REM Try not to Breathe, I was finally able to interperet what on earth Stipe is jumbling together.....and THAT is a statement!
Reggae & Salsa: Bob marley sounded better than ever, very small details on the electric guitar that were previously not visible to me were present. Salsa is as treble-happy in the horns as ever. Very good, very clear, and it sends one racing for the tone controls. Not much unlike the real thing....
Jazz, my random mix didn't give me too much jazz. One selection was a Rudy Van Gelder modded Stanley Turrentine....goes without saying it's poorly recorded and mastered...
But it sounded as good as an RVG mix can sound. I got some better more modern jazz studio albums later...but none of the stuff I was hoping to test. First impressions are fantastic though.
Obviously all that is pre-burn in, and if HE-400 shows anything it's that HFM planars DO burn-in. I expect, if HE-400 is any indication, the bass to tighten more and for the upper mids to relax a bit over the first week or two of usage.
One final note: Lyr does not suck with HE-6. I gave it a try. Honestly I'm not sure what all the fuss was about, it sounds fine! Tone was different since I have some more neutral Tungsram tubes in there at the moment, not Mullard. I had to crank it to 11:30 or so for normal volume. But it sounded balanced, didn't sound like it wasn't getting ennough power, sounded good. I think it's a headphone more able to reveal the flaws in Lyr's performance than my others, not so much by sounding BAD but by not being AS detailed as it is on the Marantz. Part of that is SS vs tube. Part is just that the Marantz is a superior amplifier overall, not in power but in performance. And it should be! It compares in price much closer to Mjolnir than to Lyr. It's not really a fair comparison to compare a $450 amp from a small scale of economy company to a $700 amp from a huge scale of economy company, especially while the small company also has a $750 amp. I suspect the Schiit statement gear would be more than enough for HE-6 when it comes out, and will probably outclass the Marantz. For Lyr's price class, it's as good an amp for HE-6 as any. HE-6 scales further than Lyr, certainly, but that's something that hopefully anyone looking at a $1300 headphone would be aware of before reading this
And there, is my initial impression, placed here where it's appropriate, but included also for all those folks I PMed and pestered during my purchasing decision who were interested in my results!
My version seems to be the nearly-opalescent high-gloss piano black with the black gimbals. Very sleek. Initial impressions of the build compared to HE-400: It seems significantly less "rough Chinese" in manufacture. The gimbals are smoother action and more free floating, fit & finish is cleaner, The gloss on the paint is a much higher grade, the leather of the headband seems to be a higher grade leather, or at least is finished and treated more nicely. Everything about it exudes higher quality despite being nearly identical construction, and sitting across from each other on a Woo double stand, it's easy to pick out the nicer of the two. That's a nice treat, I was kind of getting mixed feelings about picking a summit headphone that looked almost identical to one of my normal cans. Despite being technically identical, visually it's not.
I was also impressed, for being supposedly much heavier than HE-400, it doesn't feel at all heavier. In fact it somehow sits better on my head than either of my HE-400s with just the right amount of clamp. It's comfortable!
The date on the original box shows it was made in September, so it should be a current enough addition. I certainly have no fit & finish gripes about it. The swivel on the right cup is stiffer than the free floating left, but it's much better than the HE-400's that don't really swivel but instead are "adjustable" into fixed positions, though technically it's an identical joint. I do have a set of pleathers in the box but the mounted velours are the old style velours.
A comment on the old velours (which may be more appropriate for the current pad discussion in the HE-400 thread of the headphone forum.) IMO, the old velours are far superior to the new ones. I've had several sets of new ones and was shocked at the old ones, having just seen them for the first time. The velour material is much softer on the old ones, the pads seem a bit thicker, and generally more comfortable. My ear still hits the inside of the cage, but my experience with HE-400 has taught me, that quarter piece of damping you guys were talking about a few pages ago. Are you certain that's actually damping? I strongly suspect it's a pad so your ear doesn't yell out in pain from touching the metal grating inside. I assume this because it's located at exactly the same spot my ear contacts the grating inside the HE-400 that spawned the pad ranting going on in the HE-400 thread. The HE-6 lacks that ear contact issue not because the pad is thick enough but because of that quarter piece of pad right in that spot.
However, I intend to remove this nice, comfy superior pad as soon as I can, despite that I'll probably never get to try it again due to that horrendous pad mounting system these old ones had. yeah, it has the clear tabs. On one hand I want to keep it as long as I can since I'll never get to have it again. On the other hand, I don't want to get used to my HE-6 with a pad that I'll never get to hear again, I want to get used to it with the way I'll normally get to hear it!
I'm impressed with the stock cable, at least in terms of it being air light, very flexible, and rather pretty. I will be replacing it, almost certainly with a Q (Hi Steve, I see you're in the thread!), the stock is surprisingly nice for a stock cable though. I almost wonder if there could be much sound difference over it, though I do know from HFM's other cables the solder isn't the best....
The box is nicer than I thought...coated in what I believe to be the same pleather as the pleather pads...or something similar. It marrs more easily with fingernail marks though. As-is there's no way the cans could fit in the box again with cables attached. Or aftermarket pads. But I suspect it can be modded easily enough, it's only about six inches foam rubber inside, to be a nice storage chest for the headphones. I do NOT want to keep my summit cans out on the stand gathering dust when not in use! And an otherwise nice box like that shouldn't be wasted in storage somewhere just because some "fun foam" gets in the way!
FIRST impressions on sound, this is mostly via skimming a random mix of music. No serious full album listening just yet. I was working for a while rigging up the new amp, moving my gear around, running cables, then finally got a chance to listen. For those not following, the amp is a Marantz PM6004 over speaker taps (stock cable plugged into a Moon Black Dragon XLR->banana adapter.) For most of the test I left out tone controls and kept on on the "source direct" bypass of any tone. The amp does have the "warm Marantz sound." I would call it "SS in the key of Mullard"....the tonality of Marantz reminds me a lot of my Mullard tubes. Very bumped in the midrange, very mids centric at the cost of some treble sparkle a bit of rolloff in the low bass region. That's always been the Marantz sound, and holds true for the headphone jack as well. The tone controls of course could compensate that.
Given that, my first impression was extremely positive. Some have indicated that HE-6 is in the T1/HD800 mode of bright treble. It's brighter than HE650, but it, thankfully, does not appear to be truly bright in that sense. It could be on a bright amp, but to my ears, "transparent" is the order of the day. It seems very neutral/natural and does whatever the amp tells it to do (more on that later.) Rather than the bright over sparlkiness of some dynamics it has what I was hoping for, that full bodied weight and realism that planars project was what I got, but with more detail retrieval, and a smoother tonal balance then, say HE-400.
I know Tyll measured it as being treble accentuated, and I can appreciate that. The low end reminded me of K702 but with lower extension. It's there, it's solid, and it extends VERY low. But it's presence and impact are very thin in contrast to HE-400, and even HD650 of which the huge midbass hump still provides the feeling of impact. I anticipated and even desired that going in, but it's worthy to note, that, yes, the shift is away from the bass, though the solid bass is certainly there and wickedly detailed. But the tilt toward bright doesn't feel to me to be as severe and HD800-ish as Tyll's measurements, maybe because I have a mid-centric amp it kind of flattens out the mids into the highs to, in effect, created a slightly bottom-shelved bass, but everything else ends up relatively flat. Thus far I don't find them to be fatiguing at all, though I've found myself listening at a slightly higher volume than average due to "new headphone volume boost syndrome." Very smooth and balanced, a little bass lean at times, but that could easily be fixed with tone controls. It depends on the recording though.
Music selections were varied. Lang Lang plays Rachmaninoff was a standout...I could hear every cough, echo, and chair squeak in the background. The reverb of page turns was spectacular. This album was always phenominal on HE-400 as well. But it really cleans up in terms of presentation and clarity on HE-6. Both present it as live sound. There's just a little more articulation on the HE-6 similar to sitting up close. HE-400 presents it from further back in the balcony.
Solo violin, fantastic as well. As someone who's spent time behind a violin, I could pick out how lovely the wood was in that piece. Up louder the treble got a little harsh to my ears...but for solo violin, that's a good thing, A violin up close *IS* harsh. Particularly strung at soloist tensions, which is almost always chosen for it's bright presentation live as well.
A capella vocals. Extremely natural sounding. Fantastic separation and presence. Very natural voices.
The Chieftains, Celtic Harp. It sounded like a harp in the room, a fantastic band, fantastic presentation. All lifelike.
Lord of the Rings: Complete Recordings (Two Towers): One of my default test tracks, a studio recorded orchestra. The dynamics are excellent, the details are excellent, because it's not a live hall orchestra recording it doesn't have that background reverb of micing the hall, the instruments are well insulated, but it also is a great test for pure instrument sound. Great sound. It lacks the power at the low-end for the ramp-up that some headphones provide, but it's very natural sounding, and part of that may, again, be the amp that tapers both ends. A little tone boost to bring the midbass up would probably help if needed. All in all, a choice pick.
Electronic/pop-electronic: This headphone would not be my choice. At all. It sounds good, don't get me wrong, but it's a detailed, though full bodied and lifelike unlike most "analytical" type dynamics, Electronic type music needs something like HE-400 or D5k. It needs that smear of darkness over it to give it more edge than synthesized instruments really have. From Koop to Sa Dingding to Portishead, the emphasized thump of the low-end is intended to drive the music and it needs the toned down mids of a v-curve; it craves a surreal experience, and HE-6 is all about the real in my opinion. As it should be for a summit headphone. It's suppsoed to recreate reality as best as possible, not enhance the surreal. Of course EQ/tone could compensate that well enough. These cans, I think could handle any EQ curve with ease given the absence of really weird peaks and sags. It sounded good, but it wouldn't be my first pick can for those tracks, nor did I buy these to use with those tracks. But if you crave electronic: buy something else.
Rock: Especially hard rock soudned great. The crunch of the tube distorted amps sounded stage-like. Articulate. Extremely nice. Vocals sounded powerful, but clear. A few tracks from Fuel (alternative/hard/pop) sounded more detailed and cleaner than I've heard them before. Dave Matthews (studio albums) sounded as badly recorded as ever (these are NOT forgiving headphones, but they're not as harsh as some of the dynamics), REM Try not to Breathe, I was finally able to interperet what on earth Stipe is jumbling together.....and THAT is a statement!
Reggae & Salsa: Bob marley sounded better than ever, very small details on the electric guitar that were previously not visible to me were present. Salsa is as treble-happy in the horns as ever. Very good, very clear, and it sends one racing for the tone controls. Not much unlike the real thing....
Jazz, my random mix didn't give me too much jazz. One selection was a Rudy Van Gelder modded Stanley Turrentine....goes without saying it's poorly recorded and mastered...
Obviously all that is pre-burn in, and if HE-400 shows anything it's that HFM planars DO burn-in. I expect, if HE-400 is any indication, the bass to tighten more and for the upper mids to relax a bit over the first week or two of usage.
One final note: Lyr does not suck with HE-6. I gave it a try. Honestly I'm not sure what all the fuss was about, it sounds fine! Tone was different since I have some more neutral Tungsram tubes in there at the moment, not Mullard. I had to crank it to 11:30 or so for normal volume. But it sounded balanced, didn't sound like it wasn't getting ennough power, sounded good. I think it's a headphone more able to reveal the flaws in Lyr's performance than my others, not so much by sounding BAD but by not being AS detailed as it is on the Marantz. Part of that is SS vs tube. Part is just that the Marantz is a superior amplifier overall, not in power but in performance. And it should be! It compares in price much closer to Mjolnir than to Lyr. It's not really a fair comparison to compare a $450 amp from a small scale of economy company to a $700 amp from a huge scale of economy company, especially while the small company also has a $750 amp. I suspect the Schiit statement gear would be more than enough for HE-6 when it comes out, and will probably outclass the Marantz. For Lyr's price class, it's as good an amp for HE-6 as any. HE-6 scales further than Lyr, certainly, but that's something that hopefully anyone looking at a $1300 headphone would be aware of before reading this
And there, is my initial impression, placed here where it's appropriate, but included also for all those folks I PMed and pestered during my purchasing decision who were interested in my results!
jerg
Headphoneus Supremus
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Quote:
Thanks for the detailed impressions! Very nice read, and the first one about HE6 that I can relate to (since you refer frequently to the HE400s).
Thanks for the detailed impressions! Very nice read, and the first one about HE6 that I can relate to (since you refer frequently to the HE400s).
sphinxvc
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Congrats!
Elysian
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Quote:
Congrats on your HE-6s
Glad you are enjoying it. I was listening to my pair all last night, and it still surprises me with how great it is.
It's not that the HE-6 sounds bad with a lesser amp. I've heard it out of a b22 and S7 and I was thinking to myself 'this is pretty good'. Then, I plug it back into the First Watt and then it's like 'oh, the headamp was nowhere near as resolving as the First Watt'. It's like all the micro-detail was truncated. You don't miss it until you've heard it side-by-side. It's still very listenable and most HFers would be very happy with it, but the HE-6s can be pushed to be more resolving than most people realize. The HE-6s scale very well with gear. It's probably the best non-Stat I've heard in that regard, but I haven't heard the TOTL Sonys yet.
Congrats on your HE-6s
Glad you are enjoying it. I was listening to my pair all last night, and it still surprises me with how great it is.It's not that the HE-6 sounds bad with a lesser amp. I've heard it out of a b22 and S7 and I was thinking to myself 'this is pretty good'. Then, I plug it back into the First Watt and then it's like 'oh, the headamp was nowhere near as resolving as the First Watt'. It's like all the micro-detail was truncated. You don't miss it until you've heard it side-by-side. It's still very listenable and most HFers would be very happy with it, but the HE-6s can be pushed to be more resolving than most people realize. The HE-6s scale very well with gear. It's probably the best non-Stat I've heard in that regard, but I haven't heard the TOTL Sonys yet.
ZorgDK
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Thanks for the impressions, a nice read, and congrats with your new toy. Sounds like the PM6004 is pairing nicely with the HE-6 - Good to know!
Sounds like the PM6004 is pairing nicely with the HE-6 - Good to know!
preproman
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Quote:
Elysian,
I agree with you 100% on this. The key points here are "side by side" comparison and the HE-6s scaling ability.
Congrats on your HE-6s
It's not that the HE-6 sounds bad with a lesser amp. I've heard it out of a b22 and S7 and I was thinking to myself 'this is pretty good'. Then, I plug it back into the First Watt and then it's like 'oh, the headamp was nowhere near as resolving as the First Watt'. It's like all the micro-detail was truncated. You don't miss it until you've heard it side-by-side. It's still very listenable and most HFers would be very happy with it, but the HE-6s can be pushed to be more resolving than most people realize. The HE-6s scale very well with gear. It's probably the best non-Stat I've heard in that regard, but I haven't heard the TOTL Sonys yet.
Elysian,
I agree with you 100% on this. The key points here are "side by side" comparison and the HE-6s scaling ability.
sluker
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Quote:
Tone controls rule.
The bass on my HE-6 is tight and punchy straight out of the HO of my SX-1250, but when I add 2.5 at 50Hz and 2 at 100Hz these headphones come to life. I used to own both the D7k and the D5k (too bloated) and once adjusted just slightly and fed with enough power the HE-6 are far superior in the bass department.
I am not sure if I am giving up any resolution with the tone controls activated (with more sensitive headphones the noise floor and backround is slightly impacted) but I can not hear a negative impact with the HE-6.
Tone controls rule.
The bass on my HE-6 is tight and punchy straight out of the HO of my SX-1250, but when I add 2.5 at 50Hz and 2 at 100Hz these headphones come to life. I used to own both the D7k and the D5k (too bloated) and once adjusted just slightly and fed with enough power the HE-6 are far superior in the bass department.
I am not sure if I am giving up any resolution with the tone controls activated (with more sensitive headphones the noise floor and backround is slightly impacted) but I can not hear a negative impact with the HE-6.
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