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HifiMAN HE-6 Planar Magnetic Headphone
Nov 2, 2012 at 1:10 PM Post #7,141 of 21,860
iemcrazy said:
Interesting statement from Pass, and spot-on I think.
Also, glad to see you weathered the storm!  :beerchug:


Are you talking a real performance difference, or do you think it may just be that you prefer the Yamaha sound?  The MJ puts I believe 5W into 50ohms and should be relatively low gain, so from a performance standpoint, that's surprising.  But no question the Yammy sound is unique!


Here's an interesting question.  We all know that the HE-6 is capable of heating up (there was a report in the HFM support thread where the foam quarter pad behind the acoustic cloth had melted, and HFM confirmed that if doing excessive burn-in it may heat up enough to do that.)  Have you found that the efficiency changes as it gains heat?  Typically increased heat tends to mean higher resistance when talking about an entirely resistive load in AC terms, but I almost have a suspicion that for various reasons these become more efficient as they warm up.  This is based on throughly subjective means and could be entirely wrong, namely they seem to get louder after the first 15 minutes of running or so.  While it could be ear fatigue, I've also noticed that if I go back to listen later after leaving them powered, the phenomenon does not recur.   It seems pretty repeatable, but I figured it was my imagination or it could be the amp warming up as well.  But since you mentioned variable resistance between samples, and knowing the driver do thermally increase with use, it makes me wonder if there's a resistance difference from cold to hot and thus efficiency?
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From the years of using my setup, the foam is still soft and pliable. Good suggestion though. If someone is cooking a 6, perhaps there was a defect in them like a shorted panel or hitting it with a hard surge, shorting the panel to the input post. I will do a pre and post measurement to see what impact use has later tonight. I believe it's been commented on that small differences in impedance are not a problem. I'd not think the panels would heat up or our ears would feel it.
 
Nov 2, 2012 at 1:18 PM Post #7,142 of 21,860
Quote:
sphinxvc said:
 
Yes, my area's not so bad, it's high up I think, hope you didn't get hit too hard?  Some of my colleagues in New Jersey have absolutely flooded basements, up the ceiling, others I know in Long Island have to have floors redone, 6" of flooding up to the ground floor.  
 
I just picked up the last item in my retooling-audio-equipment-to-focus-on-speakers venture, an Odyssey Audio Stratos Plus power amp.  Same output as the Dark Star into an HE-6 load.  Hmmm.  =]
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I think you very narrowly scathed the flood waters...lucky!  Here we're not near coastal waters so we didn't have to worry about the flood surges, but the winds were punishing.  History records worse winds have occurred....100 years ago or so. Strangely we got virtually no rain.  It was a lot, but it was spread out, so no real inland flooding unlike last year where we got shockingly little wind but more rain than we've ever seen and extensive inland flooding.
 
If they don't already know, be sure to tell those folks with the fully flooded basements to drain them slowly in small increments over days and weeks.....doing it fast ruins the foundation! Hopefully we'll never see the likes of that again in our lifetimes!
 
Where you are, you probably have any variety of audio gear floating down past you...  
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   I was using the 800's last night, thinking "wow, these may have been rescued from NY just at the right time!"
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Good catch on the Stratos!  Intriguing idea that it has similar power to the Dark Star.  Told you you'd be back to headphones....didn't think the temptation would start so soon though!
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Nov 2, 2012 at 1:21 PM Post #7,143 of 21,860
Quote:
happy camper said:
From the years of using my setup, the foam is still soft and pliable. Good suggestion though. If someone is cooking a 6, perhaps there was a defect in them like a shorted panel or hitting it with a hard surge, shorting the panel to the input post. I will do a pre and post measurement to see what impact use has later tonight. I believe it's been commented on that small differences in impedance are not a problem. I'd not think the panels would heat up or our ears would feel it.
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It seems to be a known quantity that in time they do heat up since HFM confirmed it would happen with excessive burn-in.   My unknowing guess would be that the person in question left them playing "slightly louder than listening level" music for a day or so to "burn them in", and the otherwise slow accumulation of heat over that period of time may be became excessive given the large amounts of power and time, and the fact that the protective cage is a thermal conductor
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Nov 2, 2012 at 2:51 PM Post #7,144 of 21,860
I'd be interested in knowing what the db level is to heat them up. Perhaps one with nothing to do would mind doing a db/temp run. [COLOR=FF00AA]We all know if a little works,more works better. [/COLOR]
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 2:16 AM Post #7,146 of 21,860
Quote:
sphinxvc said:
 
Yes, my area's not so bad, it's high up I think, hope you didn't get hit too hard?  Some of my colleagues in New Jersey have absolutely flooded basements, up the ceiling, others I know in Long Island have to have floors redone, 6" of flooding up to the ground floor.  
 
I just picked up the last item in my retooling-audio-equipment-to-focus-on-speakers venture, an Odyssey Audio Stratos Plus power amp.  Same output as the Dark Star into an HE-6 load.  Hmmm.  =]
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Do you plan to try the Odyssey with the HE-6 also ?  Thanks
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 9:18 AM Post #7,148 of 21,860
Quote:
sphinxvc said:
 
Yes, my area's not so bad, it's high up I think, hope you didn't get hit too hard?  Some of my colleagues in New Jersey have absolutely flooded basements, up the ceiling, others I know in Long Island have to have floors redone, 6" of flooding up to the ground floor.  
 
I just picked up the last item in my retooling-audio-equipment-to-focus-on-speakers venture, an Odyssey Audio Stratos Plus power amp.  Same output as the Dark Star into an HE-6 load.  Hmmm.  =]
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Love those Odyssey amps.  The Odyssey amps + some Maggies are a great match.
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 9:30 AM Post #7,149 of 21,860
sphinxvc, what speakers did you get? It looks like you finally went off and got into speakers. That's something I doubt I will ever get into.
 
I had a late night session with the HE6. They are quite amazing.
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 9:39 AM Post #7,150 of 21,860
Given the size of the diaphram, and the amount of heatsink It seems reasonable to think that you
need more than 5 watts rms to damage the headphones, probably a lot more than 5 watts.
However if you have a much lower power amplifier, and its clipping very hard into the headphones
then the real power being delivered could be way more than 5 watts, and do even more damage.
So you need an amplifier that won't clip, but also does not have the voltage swing necessary
to do damage. On these headphones it seems to be a fine line.
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 9:44 AM Post #7,151 of 21,860
zeinharis said:
Would it be damaging the drivers?


Anyway, does it happen also on HE-500??
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Let me be clear, I was making a joke of myself. I'm the pied piper of speaker amps. Don't take the more is better statement too seriously. The 500s won't take power the way the 6s do. And the 6s haven't found the ideal power rating. I know our 100w+ amps are too big. We take great care to insure the volume is minimum and the player volume is minimum when turning on. Every time I turn mine on, I feel apprehensive turning the volumes up until I hear music playing.
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 9:45 AM Post #7,152 of 21,860
Quote:
happy camper said:
Let me be clear, I was making a joke of myself. I'm the pied piper of speaker amps. Don't take the more is better statement too seriously. The 500s won't take power the way the 6s do. And the 6s haven't found the ideal power rating. I know our 100w+ amps are too big. We take great care to insure the volume is minimum and the player volume is minimum when turning on. Every time I turn mine on, I feel apprehensive turning the volumes up until I hear music playing.
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Ahhh, my bad for asking.. Sorry
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Nov 3, 2012 at 9:51 AM Post #7,153 of 21,860
zeinharis said:
Ahhh, my bad for asking.. Sorry :D
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Not at all. Your question cuts through some humor to ensure your gear is safe. IMO, the 500s do perform better with more power than a typical headphone amp but they need nowhere near the power of say the 6s or the K1000. I ran them on a 40 watt tube amp and while not all the power was used, they sounded very good compared to my SP amp that outputs .5w.
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 5:14 PM Post #7,154 of 21,860
I just came back from friend and tried HE5LE from speaker taps of Xindak MT-3. DAC was his DIY DAC, very good and also Audio Note DAC2. Wasnt impressed at all comparing to my Headamp. i know this is HE6 thread but you also mention HE500 which are still less difficult than HE5LE to drive.
 
Nov 3, 2012 at 5:19 PM Post #7,155 of 21,860
Quote:
zibra said:
I just came back from friend and tried HE5LE from speaker taps of Xindak MT-3. DAC was his DIY DAC, very good and also Audio Note DAC2. Wasnt impressed at all comparing to my Headamp. i know this is HE6 thread but you also mention HE500 which are still less difficult than HE5LE to drive.
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Is this it?
 
http://www.xindak.eu/Contents/Products_TubeAmplifiers.asp
 
 
The question is synergy 
 
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