[MrTie84]

I've been very very impressed with my Anthem MCA 2 which came with my speakers. This is true big boy performance. Can be had for under $800 used.

 
I used the anthem i225(basically an integrated MCA225) before switching to firstwatt stuff, and it was a very nice sound. Anthem makes great bang for buck stuff.

 

[Armaegis]

Hypex Ncore amplifiers are also very very good at driving the HE-6. Many of them are DIY builds, but one really nice commercially available option is the NAD M22.

 

[ambchang]

I just got the HE6 about a month or so ago and is trying to get an amp that can drive it properly. The problem is that all I could do was spec hunting and is generally looking at amps with more than 2w output to 32ohms.

Currently using the geek pulse infinity SE but is planning to recable the HE6 to balanced to take advantage of the higher power output. Honestly, with the way the HE6 is being driven right now I'd say it's not that much better than the he500.

Some amps imlooking at include the beta22, sansui au-xx00 vintage amps, jotunheim. It are there other suggestions? I don't want to spend a boatload and I'm definitely opened to getting used equipment to save a few bucks.

Thanks.

 

[weasel1979]

I am really interested in how the schiit jotunheim can drive the HE-6. It could finally be a rather unexpensive way to drive the cans. Is there anyone who already tested this?   

 

[rlawli]

Currently using the geek pulse infinity SE but is planning to recable the HE6 to balanced 

Some amps imlooking at include the beta22, sansui au-xx00 vintage amps, jotunheim. It are there other suggestions? I don't want to spend a boatload and I'm definitely opened to getting used equipment to save a few bucks.
 

 
Definitely put your HE6 back to its original balanced configuration. The Geek Pulse Infinity may be a decent DAC but its headphone amp is simply inadequate for the HE6s. Virtually any speaker amp will be an improvement. A Sansui is a good place to start. If your budget is $400 (Jotunheim), used Parasounds from the Zamp v.3 ($100 up used) to their bigger amps, the Yamaha M40, 45, 60, 65, 80 and 85s can all be found in this range with the Yamahas having from 10W to 30W of class A power and considerably more AB power. Look through these pages for endless suggestions. Find a friend with a speaker amp and try it out: forget headphone amps. 

 

[Gneiss]

  I am really interested in how the schiit jotunheim can drive the HE-6. It could finally be a rather unexpensive way to drive the cans. Is there anyone who already tested this?   

 
I have tried it. I was able to max out the volume knob. Bass definitely seemed less impactful than with low cost speakers amps I have tried.

 

[Oregonian]

   
I have tried it. I was able to max out the volume knob. Bass definitely seemed less impactful than with low cost speakers amps I have tried.

What speaker amp have you tried?  If you haven't yet, try a vintage speaker amp straight from the speaker taps via a XLR--->speaker tap adapter and you will never call the HE-6 bass less impactful.    Fed right it is the most visceral and impactful bass I've experienced. 
 
Seriously - even my Pioneer SA-7500II amp @ 45 wpc makes them sing and thump.  And on my primary system -with a 250 wpc Pioneer Spec 2 amp as the centerpiece - the bass is so visceral I've given up thinking any headphone can surpass the mighty HE-6. 
 
Find it appropriate that my 5000th post was about vintage speaker amps! 

 

[Gneiss]

 
What speaker amp have you tried?  If you haven't yet, try a vintage speaker amp straight from the speaker taps via a XLR--->speaker tap adapter and you will never call the HE-6 bass less impactful.    Fed right it is the most visceral and impactful bass I've experienced. 
 
Seriously - even my Pioneer SA-7500II amp @ 45 wpc makes them sing and thump.  And on my primary system -with a 250 wpc Pioneer Spec 2 amp as the centerpiece - the bass is so visceral I've given up thinking any headphone can surpass the mighty HE-6. 
 
Find it appropriate that my 5000th post was about vintage speaker amps! 

 
 
Maybe you misunderstood, HE-6 has the best bass on a headphone that I have heard. I just did not like it through the Jotunheim. 

 

[GuyUnder]

Joutenhiem: Big NO from me. Auditioned it for a while, and while not bad by any means, it was only barely up to the task of amping the HE-6. Also, it was markedly less dimensional than the Ragnarok.
 
Ragnarok: Suffers from an annoying hash/noise/distortion in the upper mids during demanding passages. I finally sold it after listening to my TH900 out of a Deckard that compared favorably to the HE-6.
 
Deckard: Lol, NO. It isn't capable of amping the HE-6 and trying makes it sound like garbage.
 
Mjolnir 2: I have an up-and-down relationship with this amp; when I first got it lost year, I was driving it with a single-ended DAC, and because of that you needed high gain to get a nice loud volume that I like, but with some quality NOS tubes it sounded pretty good! I ended up sending it back -- just to buy it again, and now that I have a much more mature source chain with a balanced DAC and good power products it's a pretty good match all around. The strong balanced output of the X20U helps maintain a good volume.
 
Surprise dark horse contender: Teac AI-301DA! This is an integrated speaker amp with a built-in DSD dac, single-ended, and it uses an ICEPower amp module that is pretty alright -- not a real challenge to my M2 with cryo-treated Reflektors, but when I connected the HE-6 to the speaker taps using an XLR adapter you can find on eBay I was surprised to find that it could amp the HE-6 just fine, and didn't sound awful doing it. That's $350 on Amazon.

 

[Jozurr]

Any decent speaker amp will trump most headphone amps. You really have to hear some speaker amps on the HE-6 to believe it. I find it pointless to spend dough on headamps for the HE-6. Get cheaper speaker amps instead.

 

[Armaegis]

Matching speaker amps with the HE-6 is a bit of a cheat in some ways, since the HE-6 is so inefficient it masks a lot of potential noise issues that would be absolute dealbreakers with "normal" headphones.

 

[Oregonian]

   
 
Maybe you misunderstood, HE-6 has the best bass on a headphone that I have heard. I just did not like it through the Jotunheim. 

I did, my apologies. 

 

[Keithpgdrb]

Matching speaker amps with the HE-6 is a bit of a cheat in some ways, since the HE-6 is so inefficient it masks a lot of potential noise issues that would be absolute dealbreakers with "normal" headphones.

? What?

 

[Armaegis]

? What?

 
Most speaker amps have a noise floor which would be utterly unsuitable for running headphones. Luckily, the HE-6 has a low enough sensitivity that we can't hear the noise floor.

 

[Keithpgdrb]

Ah. I see your point. Not really a cheat though. It's just the kind of amping these cans require. That's kind of like saying it's cheating to use low power tube amps on really efficient speakers. It's just what works. The he6 have insane requirements for a headphone. But they offer quite a lot in return. Imho.