Amps that can drive the HiFiMan HE-6 planar headphones - Page 38

Thank you once again. Shall remember to use the 8ohm tap but will be using Hifiman's adaptor for ease of use :) 

Shameless plug for my FirstWatt F2 clone, which has been listed for sale/trade in the classified here. It seems to be overkill in terms of power for my LCD-2s and low listening level (average around 80 db). The power-hungry HE-6s should benefit more from this speaker amp designed by Nelson Pass.

Anyone here try the HE-6 with the Mjolnir? I'm interested in hearing feedback on this pairing.

Fellow member wotts is groovin' to this pairing as I type! Now, if we could just get his attention for a moment...

Right now I'm powering the HE-6 with a Nuforce Icon2 (not to be confused with the udac2) through a speaker tap. 

Any impressions on performance through the mjolnir?

 

Thought I'd follow up with a pic...

 

headphones: Pioneer HDJ-2000, HiFiMan HE-6, Fostex T50rp

iems: VSonic GR07 and NuForce NE-770X

The Sim Moon Integrated amps sound simply stunning with these fantastic headphones.

So today was an interesting lesson in synergy. I've tried several different amps (feeding a speaker tap) with the HE-6 now, mostly of the vintage variety. My old Harmon Kardon definitely added some thump in the bottom end for a somewhat coloured but fun sound. The Hitachi offered more headroom and clarity and dynamic range, erring on the more neutral side. A beastly Mitsubishi amp with 100W x2 actually sounded the worst, with a congested and grainy sound, as if the signal was shoved through a compressor and lost all dynamic range. My reference point was my Nuforce Icon2 via speaker out, which had the least power and was also the coolest sounding, but perhaps had the best dynamic range. 

All those people who just say "you have to use a speaker amp with the HE6's" are just wrong.

 

The HE6's have to be matched to the RIGHT speaker amp just like any headphone has to matched with the right headphone amp.

 

The HE6's need power, quality and synergy not just power.

Nigel,
Can you recommend a few amps ,then?

 

You could substitute any number of headphones for 'HE6' - thats as generic a recommendation as I've seen anywhere. Specific amp recommendations are what's needed here. 

And what kind of minimum power output are we looking at to meet the headphone-amp synergy as closely as possible?

Same as the K1000, look for > 6wpc @ 50 ohms.

 

Agreed BUT I was replying to those people who think that you can put ANY speaker amp in front of the HE6's and it will automatically sound brilliant and better than any headphone amp can.  

 

The only speaker amps I have heard with the HE6's are an old Rotel and old Nad amps providing 50-80wpc and a new Virtue Sensation M451 Tripath amp with tube buffer and battery power supply and my Audio-gd Master-6 is in a different leauge.