Amps that can drive the HiFiMan HE-6 planar headphones
Nov 15, 2012 at 12:54 AM Post #691 of 6,061
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I'm just saying that you don't necessarily have to get a speaker amp to make the HE-6 shine; for many, it really is overkill. Of course the HE-6 are power hungry, and speaker amps do drive them easier than almost all head amps; but I don't want to discourage people in the community from getting HE-6 because they want to use a headphone amp. I also heard the best out of these headphones on speaker amps, but I would not want a beast of an amp to drive my headphones and not have speakers...

 
I think if you have a variety of headphones and you have a Mjolnir, then great! But if you're looking at amping the HE-6 the money of the Mjolnir can be much much better spent. 
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 12:59 AM Post #692 of 6,061
Quote:
I'm just saying that you don't necessarily have to get a speaker amp to make the HE-6 shine; for many, it really is overkill. Of course the HE-6 are power hungry, and speaker amps do drive them easier than almost all head amps; but I don't want to discourage people in the community from getting HE-6 because they want to use a headphone amp. I also heard the best out of these headphones on speaker amps, but I would not want a beast of an amp to drive my headphones and not have speakers...

We agree on that first part. I've found the Schiit stack to be much preferred to many speaker amps thus far. Although, I too have heard
the HE-6 sound its best from a speaker amp. But of course, that level of performance comes with diminished returns (as with most everything in the hobby) but most especially for a 1 headphone type of rig..
 
It seems if you've got speakers then anything can be an added bonus. If not, I too feel that a speaker amp is inconvenient just for 1 headphone.
 
And I've felt if you're going to put together a headphone rig (multiple cans), then something like Mjolnir would be great. It has enough power for the HE-6 and sounds
great with a ton of other cans. And if not, then yea, you can get better value out of a speaker amp on the cheap.
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 8:16 AM Post #693 of 6,061
Quote:
I'm just saying that you don't necessarily have to get a speaker amp to make the HE-6 shine; for many, it really is overkill. Of course the HE-6 are power hungry, and speaker amps do drive them easier than almost all head amps; but I don't want to discourage people in the community from getting HE-6 because they want to use a headphone amp. I also heard the best out of these headphones on speaker amps, but I would not want a beast of an amp to drive my headphones and not have speakers...

 
That there my friend would be highly debatable and in some cases your right.  However, "shine" to me means it reaches it's fullest potential or close to it.  The BHA-1 just could not get it there IMO.  I'm a former BHA-1 owner.  I can't speak on the Mojo.  Now the BHA-1 is a killer amp with the LCD-2.2s I mean one of the best I heard it with.  However, I sold the BHA-1 because my βeta-22 outperformed it with the HE-6 and all other headphones except the LCD-2.2s.  IMO my βeta-22 is just a more all round amp than the BHA-1.  Plus the new GS-X v2 is on it's way.
wink_face.gif

 
To me the BHA-1 is a tad bit on the bright side compared to the βeta-22, the beta having a slight coloration that works well for enjoyable listing with the majority of my headphones.
 
Power wise there was no comparison.  My βeta-22 has dual sigma 22 power supplies with nice sized dual transformers in a separate enclosure.  The BHA-1 to my knowledge has one PSU and one transformer.  This showed as the BHA-1 had less headroom then my βeta-22 and also started to struggle with more complicated tracks before the βeta-22 did.  
 
The problem with comparing amps to DIY βeta-22s is there are about 3 different configuration of βeta-22s (2 channel, 3 channel and 4 channel).  This matters because of the different power ratings each one has.  
 
Anyway, both fail short of "ALL THE SPEAKER AMPS" we tried the HE-6s with.  Granted we had lots of powerful amps to play with at the time and the quality of the amps was I would say were good.  Good being better than some and not as good most.  Again we had:  βeta-24, UPA-1 mono blocks, UPA-2 and Rotel RMB-100 mono blocks.  Then we went on to try lower powered amps but much higher quality, again the difference showed putting a gap between the first set of speaker amps and the second set of speaker amps.  
 
I'm just saying..  all of the speaker amps we tried was a few levels above of all the headphone amps we tried.  No contest.
 
There are a few people on here (MikeK200 and elwappo) who has the mini X and the Mojo both (mike has both - elwappo owns the mini X and heard the Mojo - I think). They both preferred the mini X with the HE-6 over the Mojo.  Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
 
It's perfectly fine if you want to settle on a headphone amp for the HE-6 - nothing wrong with that at all.  However, let it be known there are much better options out there.  As reported by others even the mini X and Trends amps are subjectively better at a lower cost.
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 8:20 AM Post #694 of 6,061
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Sure this may not drive the HE-6 to potential, but it sure drives them well to me! I think the bha-1 is a level above the mojo in performance, and it does take better control of the HE-6 surprisingly. (i.e: fuller sound, more airiness, better bass extension and especially extension in the highs).
 
 

 
 
Is this just with the HE-6 or is this with all headphones IYO?
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 11:02 AM Post #695 of 6,061
Is this just with the HE-6 or is this with all headphones IYO?

The bryston is a better amp, pretty much on all levels but it can get bright. Therefore, i do not recommend with 800's/t1. But, because the mjolnir is a bit more forgiving/ versatile, I've decided to keep that

I will be getting a speaker amp soon, I just remembered about my psb imagine B's, so at least I can get more than one use out of a speaker amp. My bryston is leaving, trading for lcd3's, so I can have a he6 rig at my mother's and an hd800/lcd3 with mojo/gung rig at my dad's; i think things would be covered that way.

Also just for fun, I tried the mojo/bha-1's pre outs into my Neumann kh-120's, and man is that what I would call neutral sound. But fantastic
 
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Nov 15, 2012 at 11:46 AM Post #697 of 6,061
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Nov 15, 2012 at 12:33 PM Post #698 of 6,061
Quote:
 
There are a few people on here (MikeK200 and elwappo) who has the mini X and the Mojo both (mike has both - elwappo owns the mini X and heard the Mojo - I think). They both preferred the mini X with the HE-6 over the Mojo.  Please correct me if I'm wrong here.
 
It's perfectly fine if you want to settle on a headphone amp for the HE-6 - nothing wrong with that at all.  However, let it be known there are much better options out there.  As reported by others even the mini X and Trends amps are subjectively better at a lower cost.

Mike has said he prefers the Schiit stack to his Emo. Whenever he gets his head out of the clouds, I'm sure he'll give some impressions.
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 12:48 PM Post #700 of 6,061
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This is with the HE-6 - correct?
 
Did he pull the old switch aroo on us?

Yes, it is. He says the Mojo/Gungnir combo has more instrument separation and detail than the Emo/Gungnir.
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 2:09 PM Post #702 of 6,061
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Mike has said he prefers the Schiit stack to his Emo. Whenever he gets his head out of the clouds, I'm sure he'll give some impressions.

Well,its all your fault..you've been pushing me to get the stack ,for months.{tnx Para}.,will give more impressions,after I have about 150-200 hours on the stack
Right now,..I'm real happy,& wrote to Jason & told him so.
A truly outstanding product,.. at a very affordable price.
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 3:10 PM Post #703 of 6,061
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Well,its all your fault..you've been pushing me to get the stack ,for months.{tnx Para}.,will give more impressions,after I have about 150-200 hours on the stack
Right now,..I'm real happy,& wrote to Jason & told him so.
A truly outstanding product,.. at a very affordable price.

 
Sure is, I'm enjoying the MJ with HD800.  I haven't tried the HE-6 on it yet, though.  They're still enjoying the power amp, though MJ as a balanced preamp to the balanced power amp is oh so tempting
evil_smiley.gif

 
Nov 15, 2012 at 3:14 PM Post #704 of 6,061
Quote:
Well,its all your fault..you've been pushing me to get the stack ,for months.{tnx Para}.,will give more impressions,after I have about 150-200 hours on the stack
Right now,..I'm real happy,& wrote to Jason & told him so.
A truly outstanding product,.. at a very affordable price.

Well look at you pointing the finger. 
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 Glad you're enjoying the combo.
Quote:
 
Sure is, I'm enjoying the MJ with HD800.  I haven't tried the HE-6 on it yet, though.  They're still enjoying the power amp, though MJ as a balanced preamp to the balanced power amp is oh so tempting
evil_smiley.gif

Hey you! Hush!!! Stop slacking off and move some furniture already. 
 
Nov 15, 2012 at 3:29 PM Post #705 of 6,061
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Hey you! Hush!!! Stop slacking off and move some furniture already. 

 
tongue_smile.gif
  But the sound of all that dragging furniture could harm my delicate little audiophile hears!
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