[aqsw]

From my perspective, from the meets I went to., the He-6 properly amped was way better . The 500 was very inferior. JMO

I gave my daughter my 500s after about month of ownership. She likes them With her tablet.

 

[Terja]

From my perspective, from the meets I went to., the He-6 properly amped was way better . The 500 was very inferior. JMO

I gave my daughter my 500s after about month of ownership. She likes them With her tablet.

 
WHAT CAN ONE SAY !
 

 
 

  The high and mid of HE-500 continues to improve as more hours has been put on.  I have also tried the pleather pads and definitely not my choice since it increases the reflection and cause "confined" sound. So I quickly switched back to velour pads. 
 
And tonight I pulled out my Rotel integrated amp RA-970BX so that I can amp both HE-500 and HE-6.  I can only compare the high and mid freq since Rotel is not a Pass Lab.     And I can clearly hear the advantage of HE-6 in the high/mid.  It just has much nicer harmonic and sonic resolution.  Using spectroscopy as an example, the HE-500 has lower resolution so that nearby freq components were smeared together.  However, HE-6 provide richer variation in tonality and texture among different frequencies which was certainly more interesting and pleasing to the ear.  
 
Still, I can happily live with HE-500 considering its much lower cost for relaxed listening session.  

 
If you haven't already, you should try the new focus pads on the 500, definitely brings some focus and sharper imaging for the HE-500. Not sure what they do for the HE-6s since I haven't tried it.

 

[Tobes]

  If you haven't already, you should try the new focus pads on the 500, definitely brings some focus and sharper imaging for the HE-500. Not sure what they do for the HE-6s since I haven't tried it.

 
I probably sound like a broken record, but I didn't like the new focus pads on the 500's. While they did provide more focus it was at the expense of soundstage width, but worse than this (to me) they messed with articulation of detail making the 500's sound somewhat boring - which they definitely are not. I tried them several times with different amps, but always the same result.
FWIW I didn't like the focus pads with the he6 either - for similar reasons.
 
In regard to the topic of this thread, I find myself leaning to the affirmative. While I think the he-500's are great headphones (and I thoroughly enjoyed them) I think the he6's are significantly better. Greater purity and articulation in the highs, better separation and focus, tauter and harder hitting bass - overall more realism because they unravel more tonal complexity. After comparing, I sold my he-500's.
I also just sold my Violectric v281 (which I used to compare the 500's and 6's) and I'm now using the 6's connected up to my Odyssey Khartago speaker amp - very happy with the results.

 

[Terja]

Thanks for doing the comp and for the update; very helpful.Liked this line about the HE6s > they unravel more tonal complexity . . . Just what I'm really looking for in an end-game headphone.

 

[preproman]

I went with the Pass Labs INT-30A over the INT-150 for all my headphones (excluding Stax).  Can't wait to put the HE1000 on this as well.
 

 

[Terja]

Nice! Are you going to be pitting the HE1000 against the HE6 on it? I can foresee another thread sprouting soon "Is the HE100 clearly a league above the Hifiman HE-6?" And really there should be simply because the HE6 has been the stallion of the Hifiman stable so far. Perhaps the HE1000 won't prove to be a league above it, who knows. Looking forward to those impressions trickling in.

 

[Tobes]

  Thanks for doing the comp and for the update; very helpful.Liked this line about the HE6s > they unravel more tonal complexity . . . Just what I'm really looking for in an end-game headphone.

Another note on the balance of the he6 compared to the 500. The 6 has more upper mids - and this can place more emphasis on sibilants etc - but the quality of the 6's highs is very good and this is only likely to be an issue with brighter/lower quality material.
FWIW these headphones bracket the upper mids of my Harbeth speakers - the 6's having more, the 500's having less. 
 
Curiously the balance of the he6's upper mids sounds best/fine with my Odyssey Khartago - though I'm not totally convinced this is primarily due to higher power available (~20wpc/50ohms), perhaps more to do with the signature/quality of the amp (and can be adjusted to some extent by the cable used).
For instance I'll note that my Grace m903 (1.5wpc/50ohms) will drive the he6's and can sound quite ok in isolation - without that lethargic lack of energy which can occur when seriously underdriven. Many of the he6's virtues are apparent, though some of the upper mid issues intrude on some material - still not bad, even in the bass. On good acoustic material though the Grace's (comparative) lack of tonal sophistication means that instruments sound less like themselves i.e. less realism. 
 
EDIT: Actually with further listening and comparison the m903 does a lot better with the he6 than I indicate above. It has a slightly lighter sound than the Khartago, but otherwise doesn't give away that much. I think matches rather well with the Grace, giving it focus, punch, sparkle and liveliness that it lacked with the he500 - and the Grace sounded very nice with the 500 (but, no surprise, the v281 was a better match for the he500).  
 
I'm sure the he-1000 will be a handy step up from the he6 - unfortunately the price here in Australia is $4300 - about $3K more than the he6. I'm sort of interested in the Ether as well, but that costs $2200 in Aus - $800 more than the he6. It will certainly be interesting to read more comparisons of these headphones. 
 
Preproman, that Pass Int 30A should sound excellent with the 6's - expensive though!

 

[preproman]

   
Preproman, that Pass Int 30A should sound excellent with the 6's - expensive though!

 
 
Not really if you go through Reno HifFi...  He (Mark) will always work with you.

 

[catspaw]

The HE-6 I am guessing is sort of like a HD800: Only worth the cash if everything works well for it.
I can understand why Fang may not want to concentrate on gettig a successor for it since not many people will buy the a HP that cost so much and invest in an expensive dac/amp.

 

[Shure or bust]

Will a Schiit Asgard 2 power a HE-6 ?

 

[MalVeauX]

Will a Schiit Asgard 2 power a HE-6 ?

 
To an extent yes. You will be able to listen to it on high gain with the volume knob turned up quite high.
 
But will it be fully driven? Maybe not. The Asgard 2 is more appropriate for the HE500, or successors to that particular line. Or any modern Hifiman, as they're more efficient these days.
 
Very best,

 

[Usagi]

Just coming back to the Head-fi world after a hiatus. I was enjoying the LCD3 for some time, but when I pulled out my Hifiman-HE-5LE out from the vault, I found the detail to be rich and intoxicating; those highs! . It was a welcome departure from the LCD3's presentation. The last few days with the HE-5LE has renewed my curiosity in the HE-6. This thread has belabored the point with majority consensus stating that the HE-6 surpasses the > HE-5LE > HE-500 > HE-5, et al. provided the HE-6 are paired with adequate amplification.
 
The question is this. Will the HE-6 outperform the HE-5LE or HE-500/HE-560 from a Schitt Mjolnir & Gungnir (soon Multibit upgrade) providing 5W per channel? The days of the HE-6 are numbered so this a now or never consideration.   

 

[Kaixing]

I think HE500 is much easier to drive so it will make a better sound even with a ipad. On the other hand, I got my He-6 but still did not get the best sound of it yet!