HE-6 Loaner Program - Page 34

Many of us also have speaker setups so using our speaker amps is no big deal. It's actually kind of intriguing thinking of speaker amps that would work well for headphones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Maxvla 

Many of us also have speaker setups so using our speaker amps is no big deal. It's actually kind of intriguing thinking of speaker amps that would work well for headphones.

Yeah, the difference in performance of the HE-6 out of my ZDT or SAC KH1000 amp for K1000 vs my 55-watt Yamaha receiver is pretty remarkable.  I will do all my listening from the Yamaha when I get a pair.

Of course I will be on the look out for a smaller amp that I could connect to my Apogee, HDP or PWD DAC's in my headphone rig (which are also preamps, so the amp doesn't need a volume control).  I'd love to hear impressions from someone with an RWA 30.2 or an Firstwatt F1 speaker amp.  I hoping that Sherwood would have brought his F1 to the Colorado meet, and then we could have tried the combo with the HE-6 while Asr had them.  Those amps are out of my price range right now, but it would still be good information to have.

Quote:
Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict  


" Yeah, the difference in performance of the HE-6 out of my ZDT or SAC KH1000 amp for K1000 vs my 55-watt Yamaha receiver is pretty remarkable.  I will do all my listening from the Yamaha when I get a pair.
Of course I will be on the look out for a smaller amp that I could connect to my Apogee, HDP or PWD DAC's in my headphone rig (which are also preamps, so the amp doesn't need a volume control).  I'd love to hear impressions from someone with an RWA 30.2 or an Firstwatt F1 speaker amp.  I hoping that Sherwood would have brought his F1 to the Colorado meet, and then we could have tried the combo with the HE-6 while Asr had them.  Those amps are out of my price range right now, but it would still be good information to have."


If Fang would make a nice little 20 watt solid state amp about the size of the Auditor and package it with the HE-6 I think he'd have a hit.

Knowing that a relatively high powered speaker amp is required to bring the best out of the HE6 is clear. A 2A3 flea amp, which I tried, did not work well at all. Using a 307A did not either. But I found the HE6 to be magical with my Aragon Palladium monoblocs.

I guess what I am trying to say is that there isn't much sense to evaluating these headphones on amps other then higher watt speaker amps because that is what makes them sound the best...by a lot. I have never heard a low end from any other headphone approach the HE6 (O2Mk2, HP2, K1K, HD600, HD650, Jade) but it took the monoblocs to bring it out and it was really something. And as Maxvle pointed out most of us have speaker amps.

So, I would encourage those evaluating these headphones to eventually hook them up to a decent speaker amp and then form your conclusions, which I dare say will be more meaningful, because we already know they don't perform that well with headphone amps, whether we like it or not. I, however, am very curious to try the LCD-2 since I am hearing so many good things about them.

I have a good 12v power supply already so I used this loaner program as an excuse to order one of these from 32 Ohm Audio just to see how a $150 t-amp (20wpc) made for speakers compares with a $1900 balanced headphone amp driving the HE-6. I also have a few other amps, receivers, and headphone amps laying about, but I was curious.

Interesting knob!

Quote:

Originally Posted by grokit 

I have a good 12v power supply already so I used this loaner program as an excuse to order one of these from 32 Ohm Audio just to see how a $150 t-amp (20wpc) made for speakers compares with a $1900 balanced headphone amp driving the HE-6. I also have a few other amps, receivers, and headphone amps laying about, but I was curious.

That looks super. I cant wait for your impressions with the T amp.

Quote:

Originally Posted by HeadphoneAddict 

...  I'd love to hear impressions from someone with an RWA 30.2 or ...

Larry, if the stars align themselves right I should have the updated 30.2 by the time the HE-6 is in. For those looking for an alternate amp you may wish to find a vintage Marantz, Pioneer, Technics, etc from the mid '70s or even earlier. These older units sound superb and can be had for under $100 delivered, good luck.

So you recommend listening to them straight from a power amp, or with your receivers speaker terminals?
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by monsieurguzel 

Yeah, I kind of find it a shame that they have such high power requirement since it will alienate pretty much all head-fiers out there with their existing headphone amps.  I know that people build dedicated stat rigs just to listen to their Stax O2s, but there is much more of a following for Stax than for Hifiman in order to do such things.

Well I haven't tried them on anything very powerful, but it seems to be the consent that you need to find the highest power output amp (30-50+WPC) that is of highest quality possible.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by kool bubba ice 

So you recommend listening to them straight from a power amp, or with your receivers speaker terminals?
 

 

For those of you worried about size

• "Excellent sound!

• Single 12V supply Operation (max 14.7V). Stabilized power not required.

• Works very well of a 12V battery

• Typically 0.05% THD+N @ 2x13W 4Ω, 14.5V
  2x25W @ 4Ω, 10% THD+N
  2x14W @ 8Ω, 10.0% THD+N

• High Efficiency:
  88% @ 13.5W 8Ω
  81% @ 25W 4Ω

• Dynamic Range = 100dB

• High power supply rejection ratio

• Over-temperature protection shutdown

• Turn-on and Turn-off pop suppression
• Over-current protection shutdown"

• No affiliation to them but I do like the Tripath chips and have built a couple of the amps.

• ..dB

the amp32's sound is not bad, though I wouldn't go as far as agreeing it being "excellent".

Quote:

Originally Posted by AudioCats 

the amp32's sound is not bad, though I wouldn't go as far as agreeing it being "excellent".

i'll be giving my amp4 a whirl.

using battery power, right? (battery power still sounds the best to my ears, even when comparing to the raved sigma-22)

Quote:

Originally Posted by monsieurguzel 

Yeah, I kind of find it a shame that they have such high power requirement since it will alienate pretty much all head-fiers out there with their existing headphone amps.  I know that people build dedicated stat rigs just to listen to their Stax O2s, but there is much more of a following for Stax than for Hifiman in order to do such things.

Thousands of people did it for K1000's. If you finally get the money,and buy a nice speaker amp for their 2 channel, then you have to pony up for better interconnects, pc cord, and a power conditioner or regenerator. We've spent our entire hobby (some more than others) moving upwards, and then surrounding it it with better "upwards" stuff.

     Quote:

Made in the eyes of man.