I'm going to throw the emotiva stealth 8's into the ring. I was looking for something similar and although I haven't listened to many of those speakers in your list (just the Kef's and the Elacs), I'm very fond of the stealth. The bass is pretty incredible, very punchy with lots of bite and I...

Man, that makes me wonder how far that extends. I'm really liking the ifi ican pro now, but can't help but wonder how it would sound with a speaker amp. Just don't have one, and not sure if there are any sub $500 options out there that would be worth it

I wish I could help ya, but honestly, I don't have access to either: I sort of gave up on speaker amps a few years back and now just use my powered Stealth 8's (and probably will continue on this powered monitor bend for the future - I like how much it simplifies my system).  There are a bunch...

I mean, if the ican pro is all class A (right?), and can put out like 14w with a bunch of added stuff in it, why couldn't the add on be class A and put out maybe 20-40'ish? I'm figuring they can make some extra room without all the knobs and plugs

Duly noted. For a myriad of reasons I just don't agree with what you say. But lets keep this on topic and not get into a whole dac vs amp discussion

For clarification, there are a few people in this thread that have not had issues with the HE-6. There was only  1 issue, which appeared to be an electrical issue either in the house or with the unit, as it was purchased in the UK but used in the US:       As for myself, I don't feel as...

I know this was touched on briefly, but I don't understand the point of having the volume knob control the volume level on the preamp out. I mean, this is supposed to be a high end headphone amp, which also has a bunch of preamp features in it, which seems crazy to me because it just doesn't...

Yeah, I would hope thats the case. However, that was not the information that was presented, so worth mentioning that in the future, specifics and actual information are necessary parts in a discussion such as this.

    Wait hold on, he never actually said he has tested them side by side (or even heard both), or what the circumstances were and on what system. Could you provide some more details or is this just regurgitating what is being said in other threads?

If your interested in something, get it, listen to it. That's the only way to tell. This guessing and virtual comparison does no one any good - just takes up space. There are plenty of people in this thread that say the ican pro is good. If you believe them and want to hear it for yourself, great.

I think its a bit unfair to compare a unit that just came out that you haven't heard to another unit that just came out that you also haven't heard, based solely on tech specs.   I have the ifi ican pro and its great. For the price you could have 2 mjolnirs or 1 ragnarok and that right there...

Weird. Doesn't happen to me and my he-6. Sounds like it's defective or cant pull enough power from your mains. How stable is your house electricity?

  I think on one of Michael Fremer's shows he mentioned one of them was actually mastered at the wrong speed or something like that, huge engineering mistakes were made (though since corrected, I believe)   Just a quick note: after half a year of hand wringing and adding components to...

I will say I just received a second hand pair with the Ohhgourami mods, and the HE-6's are absolutely amazing. Right now they are driven by my ifi ican pro, and the sound floors me (even with junky pop music mp3's). Of course, I don't have any other amp or high end headphones to compare to, but...

Just wanted to drop a note about my new he-6 and the ifi ican pro. I just got both last night and this far the ican pro seems to have no issue with the he-6. Right now I'm using the 9db gain setting and the volume is at 11 o'clock (plenty of volume left). Granted I haven't heard these cans on...