[cskippy]

Any difference without the BHA-1? So, m920 as pre->F6->HE-6?

 

[Tobes]

Haven't tried that yet.
A bit more mucking around since I've got to take the lid off the m920 and change jumpers to convert the s/e out back to volume controlled.
That makes it tricky to do a quick comparo - but I'll probably try it at some stage.

 

[cskippy]

Oh, gotcha. Yeah, that's a pain.

 

[bosiemoncrieff]

Has anyone else experienced the particular pleasure of the portal panache? It drives he6 so well.

 

[Tobes]

Haven't heard of the Panache before - but it looks like a nice amp for the HE6.

My own amp trials with the HE6 continue.
I've found the little Parasound Zamp (which I was previously using to drive the HE6 via the m920 pre) sounds really good with the BHA-1 pre out.
The Zamp is super practical for my situation too because its gain can be adjusted so that the listening level with the BHA-1>Zamp>HE6 matches the BHA-1>Utopia - meaning I can swap directly between these 2 headphones without having to adjust anything. Not possible with the F6 clone which has a fixed lower gain.
Love this, because it was something I was able to accomplish with my previous m920/zamp setup and I sorely miss it.

 

[jelt2359]

Penned a review on two amps with the HE6 here. The Pass Labs XA25 (25 wpc at 8ohms) and the First Watt F7 (20 wpc at 8 ohms). Both designed and sold by Nelson Pass.

theheadphonelist.com/pass-labs-xa25-vs-first-watt-f7-the-two-newest-nelson-pass-amplifiers-go-head-to-head/

 

[Moochibond]

Hey guys,

Please may I have your advise?

Tomorrow (all going well) the front door bell will ring and a delivery driver will hand me a box containing an HE-6

Included in the box is a cable that will allow me to connect the HE-6 to the speaker taps of my old Arcam AVR 350. In Direct (2 Channel) Mode the Arcam will push 120W into 8ohms.

After reading up (here in this thread and the HE-6 thread) I'm 99% certain I can connect my HE-6 directly to the Arcam's speaker taps and as long as I'm mindful of the volume control (my DAC also has volume control) the HE-6 will suffer no ill effects.

Is this correct?

 

[Clemmaster]

It is correct.

Start from volume 0 and work your way up.

Tube amps require parallel resistors to drop the impedance closer to the desired 8 ohms.

Series resistors can be used to drop the output level on noisy amplifiers, too.

 

[musicman59]

I just got a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP. It is an integrated tube amp with a headphones output that uses the same circuits and tubes than the speaker tabs just with resistors to lower the power. It has more than enough power to drive anything including the HE-6.
Headphone Out 11.4 watts (32 Ω, 1% THD)
6.56 watts (64 Ω, 0.70% THD)
3.05 watts (150 Ω, 0.60% THD)
1.58 watts (300 Ω, 0.60% THD)
0.82 watts (600 Ω, 0.60% THD)

 

[Jozurr]

I just got a PrimaLuna Dialogue Premium HP. It is an integrated tube amp with a headphones output that uses the same circuits and tubes than the speaker tabs just with resistors to lower the power. It has more than enough power to drive anything including the HE-6.
Headphone Out 11.4 watts (32 Ω, 1% THD)
6.56 watts (64 Ω, 0.70% THD)
3.05 watts (150 Ω, 0.60% THD)
1.58 watts (300 Ω, 0.60% THD)
0.82 watts (600 Ω, 0.60% THD)

How do you like it compared to your other amps?

 

[Tom Blake]

I just acquired a pair of HE-6's and am quite happy with my iFi iCAN Pro's ability to drive them on the M or H gain setting via XLR output. I LOVE the HE-6's and am happy to be in the club now. Not sure my LCD-2's will be around much longer.

 

[jerick70]

I just picked up a Musical Fidelity Dual Mono A3cr Dual Mono power amp on a whim from a head-fier. It was a Stereophile class A rated component in 2000. This is an incredible amp. It was very affordable too. It's brought new life to my HE-6s. Very impressed so far.

 

[Thenewguy007]

Tried the HE-6 through speaker taps with a banana plug adapter, but the noise floor is way too high on a 250 watt power amp.

Would the Hifiman HE adapter box lower the noise floor if I bought one? I know it has resistors in it.

Also can a cable adapter have a resistor in it to lower the gain/noise floor? How would that be possible?
Any schematics for cables like that anywhere online?

 

[Jozurr]

These resistors and hfm boxes usually lower SQ. It's better to get a quieter power amp.

 

[Armaegis]

Yes, the hifiman adapter box would lower the noise floor. However, I would really suggest just finding an amp with lower gain/power/noise floor instead.

Cable adapters can have resistors in them, and there are several configurations which can be used. The simplest is just a resistor in series on the positive of each channel. The next adds another resistor in parallel with the headphone load, commonly known as an L-Pad.

But seriously, skip the whole thing and just get a lower powered amp that doesn't have audible noise floor with the HE-6.