[Happy Camper]

The second best find in the hobby was when I took spare equipment out to try the HE-6 on. I've heard better but at a lot higher cost. The best find was performing the mods on the 6. Speaker presentation in a headphone. In my journey, I found an amp is not an amp, meaning there is sound differences in them. Most are too 2-d in presentation. Opening the stage up and keeping it open at low volume has been a goal. The blocks give great separation and imaging like balanced amps. Not quite the equal but close enough that the cost justified the difference to stay with what I had in storage But yes there is better available for the hobby stalwart with a strong budget.

 

[LarsHP]

(...) The best find was performing the mods on the 6. Speaker presentation in a headphone. (...)

Amen to that! ...

 

[Silent One]

 

(...) The best find was performing the mods on the 6. Speaker presentation in a headphone. (...)

Amen to that! ...

+1!

 

[CaptainCB]

Could you elaborate or show a pic of what this "block" modification is of the HE-6?
 
Noob- question perhaps... trying to learn

 

[LarsHP]

The modification(s) most HE-6 users seems to have done is:
1. "Fuzzor" mod, which is putting felt on the inside grill. This tames down the treble and increases soundstage and resolution.
2. Grill mod, which basically is removing the stock outer grill, fibres and foam. Then putting on a much more open grill/net. This opens the sound and brings back a little treble.
3. Changing ear pads. Many use Audeze pads, some the Focus pads and a couple Stax pads.

The "blocks" are the mono block amplifiers Happy Camper uses if I am not mistaken...

 

[CaptainCB]

Thanks Lars
 
I am definitely way far away from modifying headphones. And the "block" reference does make sense considering what HappyCamper was explaining that he was doing with those amps. Seems like it would be difficult to get that setup to truly be balanced... tweaking two individual amps. I have never owned monoblock amps and maybe am just not informed enough to know how they are set up. May have to search around and see if these guys have another thread discussing the setup for questyle stuff.

 

[LarsHP]

I don't think he modified the amps at all. Mono blocks are just a stereo amp in two separate boxes.

 

[CaptainCB]

Gotcha Lars. I do understand the part about them being separate amps. What I can't get is how to dial in the volume of two separate amps. Is it controlled by one preamp? Or one source unit like a DAC? And you set the amps at what sounds balanced to you and then the master volume is in the device up the chain a step?
 
And now I see that I am derailing the importance of this thread entirely. I apologize for that. Was sparked by the discussion of the enthusiasm for the Questyle amps being used as Monoblocks for the HE-6... which I don't own. But I would like to invest properly in an amp that will not suffer in the future due to the next HE-6 level of difficulty.
 
Again... sorry for the derail. Feel free to jack-slap me and I will start a new thread if this is worthy of further discussion.

 

[Armaegis]

Monoblock speaker amps are typically power amps without a volume pot, so a preamp or volume controlled dac are required.
 
The few headphone specific monoblocks out there do happen to have volume pots on them, though typically you'd leave them set at max or some other specified level and control the rest through the preamp or dac.

 

[NZtechfreak]

  Monoblock speaker amps are typically power amps without a volume pot, so a preamp or volume controlled dac are required.
 
The few headphone specific monoblocks out there do happen to have volume pots on them, though typically you'd leave them set at max or some other specified level and control the rest through the preamp or dac.

 
Yes, this. I'm getting the CMA800R (just picked the first of the pair up this morning in fact!) and will probably be matching their volumes at 80% or so and then using the Vega's volume control to attenuate the volume. The Vega can only attenuate so much without bit loss/truncation though, so will have to see what the ideal level is on the CMA800R with the HE-6 to allow for volume control via the Vega (hopefully can just max it at the amp, but I suspect that won't leave enough play on the volume control).
 
Interestingly the CMA800R has pre-outs, so I envision a setup like this is in the future:
 
Vega --> CMA800R --> SE or balanced out to headphones or,
Vega --> CMA800R --> pre-out --> power amp --> HE-6 or speakers
 
Given the CMA800R has two SE outputs it'll make for a fantastically versatile set up.

 

[CaptainCB]

NZtechfreak - I understand your first chain... but the second one looks like it's reducing the questyle to a preamp only. Using a separate power amp to drive the HE-6... or speakers. What am I missing?

 

[Silent One]

  Monoblock speaker amps are typically power amps without a volume pot, so a preamp or volume controlled dac are required.
 
The few headphone specific monoblocks out there do happen to have volume pots on them, though typically you'd leave them set at max or some other specified level and control the rest through the preamp or dac.

 
That's precisely what I do, max volume on both monaural amps and use the Pre. A beautiful sound emanates thru the HE-6 fed by the Shindo Laboratory F2a Sinhonia blocks.

 

[NZtechfreak]

  NZtechfreak - I understand your first chain... but the second one looks like it's reducing the questyle to a preamp only. Using a separate power amp to drive the HE-6... or speakers. What am I missing?

 
In the second chain yes, the Questyle are pre-amp only. The HE-6 are not the only headphone I have, the Questyle will remain for things like my incoming Ethers

 

[guido]

Can someone comment on whether the speaker taps on this integrated would possibly drive the HE-6s well?
 
http://www.altason.it/s1_integrato.html
 
 

Scheda Tecnica
Caratteristiche Costruttive​
Trasformatore​	Toroidale Audio Grade Custom​
Controllo Volume​	Motorizzato con Protezione sui diffusori​
Telecomando​	Selezione sorgente, controllo volume, Mute, Stand-By​
Selettore Sorgenti​	Manopola o Telecomando con Led d'indicazione​
Classe di Amplificazione​	AB High Polarized​
Ingressi/Uscite​
Ingressi​	4 Stereo (DAC, CD, Tuner, AUX)​
Sensibilità d'Ingresso​	1,1Vrms (@ full power 4Ohm) ​
Impedenza Ingresso DAC​	100 Kohm sensibilità 250 mV.​
Impedenza Ingresso CD​	100 Kohm sensibilità 250 mV.​
Impedenza Ingresso TUNER​	47 Kohm sensibilità 150 mV.​
Impedenza Ingresso AUX​	25 Kohm sensibilità 350 mV.​
Ingresso Amp-in​	1 (viene esclusa la sezione Pre e l'apparecchio diventa un finale)​
Ingresso Cuffie​	1 (in automatico l'audio viene escluso dai diffusori)​
Uscita Pre-Out​	1 (viene esclusa la parte finale e l'apparecchio è solo Pre)​
Uscite di Potenza​	2 coppie (canale destro/sinistro)​
Specifiche Tecniche​
Potenza RMS 8 Ohm​	200 + 200 Watt​
Potenza RMS 4 Ohm​	350 + 350 Watt​
Risposta in Frequenza​	15 Hz - 70 Khz​
THD + Noise​	< 0,02% (@ 4 ohm 1Khz)​
Damping Factor​	> 250 (10 - 400Hz @ 4 Ohm) ​
Rapporto Segnale Rumore​	> 104 db​
Crosstalk​	> 70 db​
Rated Voltage Output RMS​	35 Volt​
Rated Voltage Output RMS (Max)​	65 Volt​
Input CMRR​	> 80 db (1 Khz.)​
Filter Storage​	32.000 uF​
Max Current out​	30A (full power @ 2 ohm)​

 

[rlawli]

More than enough to drive the HE-6s. Be careful to start with minimum gain and turn up slowly. I'd also turn the amp back to 0 before turning it off.