[screwdriver]

u can dig and look it up in the whole he6 thread .

 

[fejnomit]

u can dig and look it up in the whole he6 thread .

In the thread's opinion then... i just don't deal in absolute statements like that.

 

[TheDecline01]

Actually, it's kinda pity because you truly can get magnificent results out of old but tried and tested amps at a fraction of the price and footprint of the beasts that are mentionned here.
I'm not saying, and never will, it can replace toe for toe a Viva Egoista, but for people like me living in medium-sized apartments, having decent but not over-the-top income and willing to listen to my HE-6 almost everywhere inside, that's a must.

Besides, I honestly like more the couple Hiby R8/Alo rx Mk3b+ then an Audio-GD Master 11. No sense of loss anywhere.

Continuing the portable amplification road with no less than... Brise Audio's Tsuranagi (just a loan unfortunately However, it happens to be that my banker is quite happy about this situation).

Well, it's only been a day (even less than that) so I won't dive into details. Just one thing I can say: it does move the HE6's butt. Actually, past midway, I cannot stand the loudness. Of course, that would be of complete futility if it was not done with sound mastery.
I want to absorb the signature first, and then I'll compare to the oldies Alo Mk3b+ ans RSA SR-71b (spoiler: size-wise, they win hands down).

 

[forestitalia]

Ok, now we going somewhere right

 

[ardilla]

Ok, now we going somewhere right

Oh, I've been wanting to try Cyrus with HE-6 for ages. Is it great??

 

[Happy Camper]

Monoblocks work great! Not stupid at all!

I strapped some measly Rotel monoblocks to the HE-6 after seeing the designer hook them up to a 100w speaker amp and my world of headphones were never the same.

 

[Happy Camper]

It was a about 8 years ago now I built two one stock 19V supply and one with a 24V pover supply sorry but can't rember the bias of each. I've had my he6 around 8 or 9 years tried loads of different amps the ACA worked really well imo.

As a project you can just buy the ACA PCB and use second hand heat sinks off of eBay you can build one pretty inexpensively under $100 I would guess, attach the heat sinks to some cut down chopping boards etc and you have a nice sounding amp that will drive difficult cans as well as sensitive speakers.

Just rember never to turn a speaker amp on or off or even switch between inputs with the headphones connected just to be safe.

I may have damaged a couple pair that way and Hifiman was very gracious to replace them. The last event several years ago I sent back and they got lost in the mail sending them back to China. Again Hifiman honored a repair by sending me a pair of SE. Eight months later I receive a severely tattered box with a murdered pair of damaged HE-6. The gold traces vaporize at the input with too much current applied. A jumper applied to the traces would repair it but getting the magnets apart to get to it is not an easy task. They now sit in a shoe box for the day I shake my head and toss them. The SEs are still going strong and I enjoy them out of my DAC headphone jack.

 

[forestitalia]

Oh, I've been wanting to try Cyrus with HE-6 for ages. Is it great??

Yes, for me is very good. Compared to headphone amplifier the sound is much 'big', soundstage, extension, bass is natural, everything.
Note, I do not recommend to anybody to use speaker ampiflier. It has risks, better think twice before, and not do it.

 

[JamieMcC]

I may have damaged a couple pair that way and Hifiman was very gracious to replace them. The last event several years ago I sent back and they got lost in the mail sending them back to China. Again Hifiman honored a repair by sending me a pair of SE. Eight months later I receive a severely tattered box with a murdered pair of damaged HE-6. The gold traces vaporize at the input with too much current applied. A jumper applied to the traces would repair it but getting the magnets apart to get to it is not an easy task. They now sit in a shoe box for the day I shake my head and toss them. The SEs are still going strong and I enjoy them out of my DAC headphone jack.

I had tube fail on my valve preamp which killed one of my he6 drivers. I also had superb customer support from hifiman.

 

[bagwell359]

Yes, for me is very good. Compared to headphone amplifier the sound is much 'big', soundstage, extension, bass is natural, everything.
Note, I do not recommend to anybody to use speaker ampiflier. It has risks, better think twice before, and not do it.

There are issues that suggest themselves using larger speaker amps on the HE-6:

Impedance matching
Condition of the amp (45 yr old amp w/ leaky caps/unstable power supply - for instance to be avoided)
Sudden transient control (don't drop tone-arm, turn on/off thumps, electrical storms, playing music too loud)

No need for fear, just management of the isues. That being said:

This whole cult of big amps to drive the HE-6 was due to no/virtually no desktop amps that put out say 4 wpc@50 ohms in 2010. The growing availability of such amps of that and beyond that capability has removed the actual need for large (200 wpc@8 ohms that scales down to ~25 wpc @ 64 ohms).

I've had the 6 screw on my Rag 1. 10 wpc@50 ohms gets you to about 94 db which is my absolute peak. Mr. ASR needs over 1000 wpc@50 ohms to get to his 114 db listening level. That would end the HE-6 then and there.

 

[forestitalia]

.....This whole cult of big amps to drive the HE-6 was due to no/virtually no desktop amps that put out say 4 wpc@50 ohms in 2010. The growing availability of such amps of that and beyond that capability has removed the actual need for large (200 wpc@8 ohms that scales down to ~25 wpc @ 64 ohms).....

On paper we have a lot of power, but I am afraid that all those number are very 'optimistic' ( actually are BS), because I just had an amplifier supposed to put 7w at 50 ohm balanced that can't drive any planar. An old Arcam with real 25 watt is way much better, to my ears of course.
It occured almost all the time with chinese stuff, but not exclusively.

 

[bagwell359]

On paper we have a lot of power, but I am afraid that all those number are very 'optimistic' ( actually are BS), because I just had an amplifier supposed to put 7w at 50 ohm balanced that can't drive any planar. An old Arcam with real 25 watt is way much better, to my ears of course.
It occured almost all the time with chinese stuff, but not exclusively.

Interesting. There are it seems always exceptions. My situation is a bit of a cheat since my amp is both a speaker amp and headphone amp rolled into one. I have heard the Violectric v281 and Bryston BHA-1 both drive versions of the HE-6 with no trouble (3 and 2 respectively) and they have lower stated watts but are probably quite flush on the current side (I know the v281 is and I suspect the same of the BHA).

As usual the ears are the final proof.

 

[TheDecline01]

What has always swirled my mind is how on Earth a 650mW @32ohm rated Alo Mk3b+ can drive an HE-6 just as well as a 8W @50ohm Audio GD Master 11...
Or that a relatively small 1W @32ohm Enleum Amp 23RM can drive them (almost) to their absolute full potential.

 

[monkey4054]

Interesting. There are it seems always exceptions. My situation is a bit of a cheat since my amp is both a speaker amp and headphone amp rolled into one. I have heard the Violectric v281 and Bryston BHA-1 both drive versions of the HE-6 with no trouble (3 and 2 respectively) and they have lower stated watts but are probably quite flush on the current side (I know the v281 is and I suspect the same of the BHA).

As usual the ears are the final proof.

Both those are high current amps. So just looking at the output watts doesn't tell the full story. They are more powful than the number of watts would indicate.

 

[bagwell359]

Both those are high current amps. So just looking at the output watts doesn't tell the full story. They are more powerful than the number of watts would indicate.

That's pretty much what I wrote: "and they have lower stated watts but are probably quite flush on the current side". So we agree. Planar speakers and headphones always seem happier with high current in a way that doesn't seem the same with estats or dynamic drivers.

My problem with honking big amps, integrated amps, and receivers is along the lines of age of vintage equipment (so leaky/dry caps), Is the power supply/output transistors stable into high loads (> 50 ohms) if the headphone is being run off the speaker taps w/o a resistor network to cut the load, and the disasters that can happen with turn on thumps, or cartridge drops with an amp of very high power (UE).

It's also a factor with something like the HD-600. Yes you can run it with anything, but don't expect it to max out unless there is good current available at 300 ohms.