[labrown]

  Anybody use a switch after the speaker taps?
 
I have a pair of HE-5LE's on the way; not HE-6's but a similarly difficult drive.  Lower impedance tho, 38 ohms.  I plan to run these off of the 16 ohm speaker taps on a DIY tube amp, push-pull 2A3 that puts out about 12W into 8 ohms (actually 6B4G, 6.3v filament octal base version of the 2A3).
 
I might get by without a parallel resistor (reflected impedance the tubes would see might be inside "normal" curves), but I'll start out with a 30 ohm.  Should give me 16 ohms load on the output transformer.  A little more than half of the power will be dissipated by the resistor so I should get roughly 5-6W (8 ohm equivalent) power on the phones - just about right I would think.
 
My issue is switching between the headphones and the speakers.  I need a switch.  As much as I loath junk in the signal path,  swapping cables every time between speakers and phones isn't a viable option.  Speakers are on the 8 ohm tap, not sure it that will make the solution easier or more of a mess, haven't thought that through...
 
Any ideas?  DIY is no problem.

Adcom has a couple that would work. They are on sale at the moment. http://www.adcom-usa.com/speaker-selectors

 

[rlawli]

 
... I've been thing about selling my F1J and getting one of these:  Pass Labs XA-30.5 stereo power amp  

You should definitely get it home for an evaluation and, at the very least, report back.

 

[talmlikeabalm]

How is the He6 with the WA22?

 

[ALRAINBOW]

Absolutely not suitable for those headphones.

 

[talmlikeabalm]

That ends my temptation then haha the wallet has been saved for today!

 

[ALRAINBOW]

I own the amp. It is a really good amp for many other headphones especially the hd800. And tha headphone was difficult to please. It's not enough power for the HE 6.

Now the WOO WA 5 is tremendous with the HE6. and others as well.

Al D

 

[talmlikeabalm]

Thanks for the info, Al.  Perhaps I'll look into trying the HD800 with my WA22 if I see a good deal pop up.  Right now I'm enjoying it with the T1 and I have an LCD2 on the way.  I plan to stick with my current amp/dac setup for a while so it doesn't look like I'll be adding the HE-6 to my stable.

 

[NZtechfreak]

All set here, HE-6 are here and my speaker taps adapter. Will be trying them on a Topping TP60 on the weekend, hopefully that pairing will be good enough to tide me over until February when I'm in Melbourne to audition ALL THE THINGS.

 

[Silent One]

 

[zenpunk]

I have used the HE6 and Topping TP60 for a while and that is a very enjoyable and smooth pairing.

 

[NZtechfreak]

  I have used the HE6 and Topping TP60 for a while and that is a very enjoyable and smooth pairing.

 
Yeah, I read this thread twice (as in the whole thread, twice) and saw your feedback about this particular pairing
 
Thanks!

 

[preproman]

   
Yeah, I read this thread twice (as in the whole thread, twice) and saw your feedback about this particular pairing
 
Thanks!

 

 So tell me.  What did you take away from reading it twice?

 

[NZtechfreak]

   

 So tell me.  What did you take away from reading it twice?

 
Well the first time was when I last had the HE-6 a number of months ago, so this second time was a refresher
 
Definitely feel the revision helped solidify my knowledge and understanding in relation to the HE-6 and speaker amps, thanks to you all!
 

 

[NZtechfreak]

So I tried out the TP60 today, purchased it after about 10 mins trying out a few different CDs in store.
 
Pretty good first experience running the HE-6 off speaker taps I must say, felt strange with the volume sitting between like 9 and 11 o'clock given the Reference 10 is close to maximum volume at all times. The salesman was gratifyingly perplexed when I produced a pair of headphones to connect to the amp
 
The bass was the main thing I noticed in comparison to how I've been accustomed to hearing the HE-6. Better extension, better weight, better texture while still being fast, tight and without any bloom or bleeding over other frequencies. I already liked the bass from the HE-6, so was frankly quite surprised to hear it improve so noticeably. I can safely say I have absolutely no regrets about selling my LCD-2 yesterday - while I already preferred the bass sound overall in the HE-6, I now feel like those areas where I'd given the LCD-2 what I thought was a fairly healthy lead are now so close I don't feel I'm giving up a lot. I know many here adore the LCD-2 for all styles of music, but for my ears their genre bandwidth was very limited. The HE-6 on the other hand sounds good for everything and especially adept at rock and metal which are key for me. 
 
The most daunting challenging exciting thing about all of this is knowing the HE-6 can still potentially sound a fair bit better than this...

 

[Silent One]

For my HE-6 loving sisters and brothers... my cans had a date with vinyl earlier Friday night.