[TheWuss]

I want to know what the adapter does as well.
I listened to the he-6 directly from speaker amps, and found the sound edgy, shouty, and the noise floor unacceptably high.
Of course, we all hear things differently, but i much prefer the he-6 under-driven from a good ol' head amp...

 

[sunneebear]

Two other amps that I really like with the 6.
 

Counterpoint Solid One.  Smooth and fluid in character when paired with the 6.  So smooth that it still sounds very good without the adapter.
 
 

NAD 7155.  Great all rounder amp when ever the 6 is not used with a dedicated amplifier.

 

[sunneebear]

Quote:

I want to know what the adapter does as well.
I listened to the he-6 directly from speaker amps, and found the sound edgy, shouty, and the noise floor unacceptably high.
Of course, we all hear things differently, but i much prefer the he-6 under-driven from a good ol' head amp...

 
Man you're such a wuss. 

 
The adapter takes away that edgy shouty sound you are describing although there are amps that don't need the adapter to smooth out the sound.  Then again there are some amps that shouts louder then others.  I agree that the 6 does sound very good out of some headphone amps but the headroom and dynamics from a speaker amp is addictive for me.  That addiction is so easily and cheaply fed with old power amps and receivers.

 

[Loevhagen]

I don't have the cable to tap the HE-6 direct from the speaker terminals. If that would make the HE-6 sounds more "treble focused", I'm glad I have the adapter. 
 
Quote:

How does it sound without the adapter?  Fang said the 6 can safely handle 70w so if it sounds better then set it free.

 

 

[fabio-fi]

Guys anyone have experience with the HE-6 and the HA-160D? 

 

[DarkWolf]

OK, I want to know more about the Audio-GD NFB-10SE! I can't seem to find much for info/reviews. If it is what people seem to be saying... And for $500? Seems too good to be true. I don't want to thread jack and ask too much about one product without contributing something new, but I'm really curious about this thing! I'm a ways off from picking up any orthos, (I do want some!) but an AMP/DAC combo that will work well with my 32ohm Grado's and Senn's that will also do a great job with any phone I throw at it later would be very appealing!
 
I had been starting to get pretty interested in the Schiit Lyr too. I listen to all kinds of music, and would really appreciate the tube sound where it works, but I also listen to a lot of pop and electronic and need speed! If it's got enough speed I might really like it though! I don't know what a discrete DAC (or the DAC in a good amp) will do to improve upon my Auzentech sound card. Probably something though.
 
EDIT: Of course, maybe I'm being crazy. My current setup is far from bad, and maybe I should just find a way to audition orthos on $20 receivers when I decide I'm ready for a pair!
 
EDIT: My bad on the brand name.

 

[estreeter]

Quote:

I had been starting to get pretty interested in the Shiit Lyr too.

 
OK, we've pretty much exhausted the toilet humour around the brand name, and the manufacturer certainly seems to find it endlessly entertaining, but there is definitely a 'C' in there somewhere. The men behind the brand dug up an obscure German name to give their new product 'instant recognition', and it worked - not the same as being lumbered with an unfortunate name from birth:
 
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gregor-****a/102174299824574
 

 

[Chianti]

Just received a set of speaker cables and 4 pin XLR to HE 6 cable from Steve Eddy (q-audio).
That's connected to the Hifiman HE speaker adapter box into a NAD M2, source is a Squeezebox touch via coax digital into the M2 (M2 is an integrated DAC/power amp, an interesting and unique concept, 250W into 8Ohm).
 
First impressions:
- Soundstage has better focus than with my Liquid Fire (#14, stock tubes, Berkley Audio Alpha DAC, Logitech Transporter). This is a big deal as the LF is struggling with keeping things in focus sometimes (I am driving the LF between 10am and 3pm range on the volume scale typically with the HE-6, using the top (high impedance) headphone out).
- HE-6 on the M2 has a very coherent sound, better than on the LF (bass, mids, high). Excellent for long time listening (as non fatiguing as the LCD 2 v2 on the LF, but better genre bandwidth). Not sure if eventually I'll start complaining about the sound being "too relaxed", I'll switch the speaker cables to SR Tesla Precision and see how much that impacts the chain.
- compared to the LF combo (and other headphone like HD800 on the LF), there is less "sparkle" with the HE-6 on the M2 (but this is after very few hours on the HE 6 and mere minutes on the q-audio cables, so I'll see if that changes later). I will play with the speaker impedance compensation on the M2 as that impacts this aspect of the overall sound. Again, flipside of "laid back, non fatiguing" is that you can't have showy-flashy at the same time ...
- definitely nothing "harsh" or bright going on, I am super sensitive to that, no complaints. At any volume, including low volume (the true challenge when connecting the HE-6 to speaker taps), the amp is driving the phones with great detail and ultra black background (most of the amp chain is in the digital domain and NAD put in some proprietary magic to even compensate for power line noise algorithmically before converting the signal to analog).
- the Hifiman HE adapter box is a must for this amp because it's class D (don't want to try and put the phones directly on the speaker out).
 
To come: I am upgrading a bunch of things on the LF rig, including switching interconnects to SR Apex RCAs and upgrading power cables all around (SR Hologram As and Ds).
I plan to report back findings in a while, expect 2 weeks of burn-in on the M2/HE-6 before I'll put the rigs next to each other and do some real critical listening.
Too bad i missed the Seattle meet (was on vacation), would love to bring this combo to the next one and compare vs. that RSA HE-6 amp and other favorites. While a good choice, I didn't feel that the Liquid Fire is the be all and end all for the HE-6 and so rather than buying another TOTL DAC plus a LF I gave the NAD M2 a chance, specifically for use with the HE-6. So far, looking promising but not yet sure if it will keep me away from Stax forever

 

[brobilly]

how about audio-gd master 6?
 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Just received a set of speaker cables and 4 pin XLR to HE 6 cable from Steve Eddy (q-audio).
That's connected to the Hifiman HE speaker adapter box into a NAD M2, source is a Squeezebox touch via coax digital into the M2 (M2 is an integrated DAC/power amp, an interesting and unique concept, 250W into 8Ohm).
 
First impressions:
- Soundstage has better focus than with my Liquid Fire (#14, stock tubes, Berkley Audio Alpha DAC, Logitech Transporter). This is a big deal as the LF is struggling with keeping things in focus sometimes (I am driving the LF between 10am and 3pm range on the volume scale typically with the HE-6, using the top (high impedance) headphone out).
- HE-6 on the M2 has a very coherent sound, better than on the LF (bass, mids, high). Excellent for long time listening (as non fatiguing as the LCD 2 v2 on the LF, but better genre bandwidth). Not sure if eventually I'll start complaining about the sound being "too relaxed", I'll switch the speaker cables to SR Tesla Precision and see how much that impacts the chain.
- compared to the LF combo (and other headphone like HD800 on the LF), there is less "sparkle" with the HE-6 on the M2 (but this is after very few hours on the HE 6 and mere minutes on the q-audio cables, so I'll see if that changes later). I will play with the speaker impedance compensation on the M2 as that impacts this aspect of the overall sound. Again, flipside of "laid back, non fatiguing" is that you can't have showy-flashy at the same time ...
- definitely nothing "harsh" or bright going on, I am super sensitive to that, no complaints. At any volume, including low volume (the true challenge when connecting the HE-6 to speaker taps), the amp is driving the phones with great detail and ultra black background (most of the amp chain is in the digital domain and NAD put in some proprietary magic to even compensate for power line noise algorithmically before converting the signal to analog).
- the Hifiman HE adapter box is a must for this amp because it's class D (don't want to try and put the phones directly on the speaker out).
 
To come: I am upgrading a bunch of things on the LF rig, including switching interconnects to SR Apex RCAs and upgrading power cables all around (SR Hologram As and Ds).
I plan to report back findings in a while, expect 2 weeks of burn-in on the M2/HE-6 before I'll put the rigs next to each other and do some real critical listening.
Too bad i missed the Seattle meet (was on vacation), would love to bring this combo to the next one and compare vs. that RSA HE-6 amp and other favorites. While a good choice, I didn't feel that the Liquid Fire is the be all and end all for the HE-6 and so rather than buying another TOTL DAC plus a LF I gave the NAD M2 a chance, specifically for use with the HE-6. So far, looking promising but not yet sure if it will keep me away from Stax forever

I'm not surprised, as there is a huge difference in power output between those two amps and the HE-6 really responds to power. THe LF is perfect for the LCD-2/HD800 but not the HE-6 power-wise. It looks like the DAC/ADC section of the NAD is outstanding as well. What DAC are you using with the Cavalli?
 

 

[Chianti]

I am using the Berkely Alpha Audio DAC with the LF / LCD 2v2 / HD800 combo.
Got my Tesla Apex RCAs today for that setup, making the race really interesting again between the best of breed vs. "crazy speaker amp + HE-6" teams.
 
HE-6 on NAD M2 still burning in. Quite unique sound, definitely solid state, but works really well for all the music i tried. Including some real trouble makers, like "Nobody does it better" (Carly Simon, from the 2008 "Best of Bond" CD: Her voice sounds a bit tinny, some sibilance, all my phones are sufficiently revealing to punish that poor quality. HE-6 still somewhat less painful to listen too than HD800 on this track, similar league as the LCD 2v2. Ultimately the recording is beyond salvage, but a good borderline test case ...).
Another test: There are some differences that I can hear between 24bit versions and red book versions of the 2008 Beatles albums. Evident on the NAD-HE6 chain, not so on lesser systems (e.g. HD650 on RSA Raptor).

 

[Loevhagen]

Switched to a Primare I32 today to drive the HE-6. The Primare sound is there, no doubt. The soundstage got better depth / layer than compared to the Abrahamsen, but the Primare sounds a tad less engaging on "rock music". For jazz, etc. the neuances and layers presented are quite fascinating via the ultra clean sounding Primare. And, no, ultra clean does not imply "harsh" nor "bright".
 
The Primare I32 has the possibility to set a max. volume. Nice safety feature when it comes to driving the headphones from the speaker outputs via the HE-adapter.
 

 

 

[sunneebear]

Man you sure got some slick amps to play with.

 

[sillysally]

Quote:

Just received a set of speaker cables and 4 pin XLR to HE 6 cable from Steve Eddy (q-audio).
That's connected to the Hifiman HE speaker adapter box into a NAD M2, source is a Squeezebox touch via coax digital into the M2 (M2 is an integrated DAC/power amp, an interesting and unique concept, 250W into 8Ohm).
 
First impressions:
- Soundstage has better focus than with my Liquid Fire (#14, stock tubes, Berkley Audio Alpha DAC, Logitech Transporter). This is a big deal as the LF is struggling with keeping things in focus sometimes (I am driving the LF between 10am and 3pm range on the volume scale typically with the HE-6, using the top (high impedance) headphone out).
- HE-6 on the M2 has a very coherent sound, better than on the LF (bass, mids, high). Excellent for long time listening (as non fatiguing as the LCD 2 v2 on the LF, but better genre bandwidth). Not sure if eventually I'll start complaining about the sound being "too relaxed", I'll switch the speaker cables to SR Tesla Precision and see how much that impacts the chain.
- compared to the LF combo (and other headphone like HD800 on the LF), there is less "sparkle" with the HE-6 on the M2 (but this is after very few hours on the HE 6 and mere minutes on the q-audio cables, so I'll see if that changes later). I will play with the speaker impedance compensation on the M2 as that impacts this aspect of the overall sound. Again, flipside of "laid back, non fatiguing" is that you can't have showy-flashy at the same time ...
- definitely nothing "harsh" or bright going on, I am super sensitive to that, no complaints. At any volume, including low volume (the true challenge when connecting the HE-6 to speaker taps), the amp is driving the phones with great detail and ultra black background (most of the amp chain is in the digital domain and NAD put in some proprietary magic to even compensate for power line noise algorithmically before converting the signal to analog).
- the Hifiman HE adapter box is a must for this amp because it's class D (don't want to try and put the phones directly on the speaker out).
 
To come: I am upgrading a bunch of things on the LF rig, including switching interconnects to SR Apex RCAs and upgrading power cables all around (SR Hologram As and Ds).
I plan to report back findings in a while, expect 2 weeks of burn-in on the M2/HE-6 before I'll put the rigs next to each other and do some real critical listening.
Too bad i missed the Seattle meet (was on vacation), would love to bring this combo to the next one and compare vs. that RSA HE-6 amp and other favorites. While a good choice, I didn't feel that the Liquid Fire is the be all and end all for the HE-6 and so rather than buying another TOTL DAC plus a LF I gave the NAD M2 a chance, specifically for use with the HE-6. So far, looking promising but not yet sure if it will keep me away from Stax forever

Why are you using the High imp Jack on your LF for your HE6's, you really should use the low Imp jack otherwise you will loose some detail and depth.  I don't know how you can go as low as 10pm with your LF/HE6's,
I am at 12:30 to 3.00pm always. Also you need to have at least 200 hours on the LF and about a 100 hours on any Nos set of tubes you are using, what you will hear is a increase in the volume level and over all AQ coming from your HE6's.
 
Anyway the best thing you can do for your LF/HE6's is get a really nice nos Quad set of Siemens E88CC=6922, but beware of who you are getting the nos Siemens from and how they test out at.
 
I use a W4S DAC1 with upgraded caps (don't use USB) only SACD's (MCH) or Bly Ray MCH disc's, for the most part. I run a HDMI cable (1M) out from my source player to my Realiser then use a Supernova 6 TOSlink Eclipse 6 (.5M) out to my W4S DAC for the D/A conversion then out to my LF using a pair of Eclipse 6 interconnects (.5M).

 

[Loevhagen]

I'm tearing the home theater and stereo room apart, so these are "left overs" from these setups. I haven't watched a movie, nor listened to my full size speaker rig, since I fell in love with head-fi.
 
I sold a tube amp from Danish manufacturer Copland (the CTA 405). I wish I hadn't sold that fantastic tube amplifier. I would have liked to hear it on HE-6.
 

 
Quote:

Man you sure got some slick amps to play with.