Amps that can drive the HiFiMan HE-6 planar headphones
Jul 16, 2012 at 9:58 PM Post #513 of 6,061
Quote:
o sorry, hadnt thought to go back to see if youd added anything -_- thanks for the impressions! seems to be a solid amp for very little money for the HE-6

 
I actually added the details after you posted asking for impressions 
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,  I posted again so you would see the update 
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I'm definitely keeping it. Fantastic little amp. Even with speakers, it really sounds amazing! 
 
Jul 16, 2012 at 10:03 PM Post #514 of 6,061
Quote:
 
I actually added the details after you posted asking for impressions 
wink.gif
,  I posted again so you would see the update 
biggrin.gif

 
I'm definitely keeping it. Fantastic little amp. Even with speakers, it really sounds amazing! 

 
any quick words on how it compares to the amps you already had? i see in your profile you have a NFB10 and a LD MKVI+
 
Jul 16, 2012 at 10:51 PM Post #515 of 6,061
Quote:
 
any quick words on how it compares to the amps you already had? i see in your profile you have a NFB10 and a LD MKVI+

 
Definitely better than the pioneer SX-990 I have. Much more power and clarity than the NFB-10. MKVI+ should be a fair match up for it. The MKVI+ has a much warmer presentation, but this a-100 has a much more open soundstage and clearer bass. 
 
Jul 17, 2012 at 4:04 PM Post #516 of 6,061
I've tried many amps with the HE-6 including a Eddie Current Balancing Act, Conrad Johnson Premier 11a Amp, Headroom Portable Desktop Amp, Nakamichi TA-4A Receiver, Threshold S/200 Amp and Emotiva XDA-2 Amp. My favorite 2 amps are a Pioneer M-22 that I had rebuilt by Amplifier Surgery and a Atma-Sphere S-30 MK II OTL tube amp. I use a HiFiMan HE 4-pin XLR adapter on the Pioneer and a Moon Audio speaker to 4-pin XLR adapter on the Atma-Sphere. Both of these drive the HE-6 beautifully with complementary sound signatures. Surprisingly the Atma-Sphere with all of the tubes runs cooler than the Class A Pioneer. A close second place amp is a rebuilt Pioneer A-27 Integrated that has a headphone jack tied directly to the speaker outputs. I've also kinda liked a Audio Research V70 tube amp hooked up to a ASL UHC signature headphone adapter but while the amp drove the HE-6 well I thought it was a little too lush in the midrange so I don't really use it for the HE-6.
 
I agree with all here that a quality amp drives the HE-6 best off the speaker taps. I no longer am interested in buying or even trying headphone amps now that I've been using power amplifiers with the an adapter.
 
Jul 18, 2012 at 3:01 AM Post #517 of 6,061
Jul 19, 2012 at 2:30 PM Post #518 of 6,061
So after reading through well over half (the second half) of the HE-6 thread, I remembered something from my listening with the HE-6 comparing the B24 and the Dark Star. The pair of HE-6s that i listened to on the Dark Star I'm pretty sure were stock, whereas the pair of HE-6s that i listened to the B24 with, were hardwired. So I'm wondering if maybe getting rid of the SMC connector in the headphone is maybe what caused the major differences that i heard between the two amps, and that it wasn't the amps at all. I don't want to say either way though, as I couldn't be sure till I had another chance like that to compare them
 
Jul 19, 2012 at 5:23 PM Post #519 of 6,061
Quote:
So after reading through well over half (the second half) of the HE-6 thread, I remembered something from my listening with the HE-6 comparing the B24 and the Dark Star. The pair of HE-6s that i listened to on the Dark Star I'm pretty sure were stock, whereas the pair of HE-6s that i listened to the B24 with, were hardwired. So I'm wondering if maybe getting rid of the SMC connector in the headphone is maybe what caused the major differences that i heard between the two amps, and that it wasn't the amps at all. I don't want to say either way though, as I couldn't be sure till I had another chance like that to compare them

 
 
How much of a difference would that really make?
 

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