[gjc11028]

Quote:

in a perfect world I would like to have the accuphase a-65 pure class a stereo amplifier. 60 wpc in pure class a. 14 000 dollars new in north America and about 10 000 dollars from pricejapan.
 
i have been reading all night about nelson pass and first watt amps and pure class a amplifiers. i have to admit that it has struck a chord in me. the first watt products interest me a lot but i d'ont know if the current models have enough juice to drive the he 6. i am particularly interested in the j2 and m2 models. pure class a and not that expensive.
 
also can i just plug the he 6 directly on the terminals with these amps?

 
Hi.  The M2 drives the HE6 just fine.  I had one and enjoyed it (particularly for the price) but had to return because there was an issue with it. Some of the amps that you and others have listed a pretty different sounding and they appeal to different tastes. For the first watt stuff, the folks are reno hifi are real nice and helpful in sorting out the differences among the first watt products.  The m2 is a bit soft on the attack and has a round sound while the j2 has more emphasis on the front of the note but has a cleaner and leaner sound. 

 

[preproman]

Quote:

 
the folks are reno hifi are real nice and helpful in sorting out the differences among the first watt products.

 
+1 Reno Hifi is a top notch place.   Highly recommended.  

 

[PAM005]

Hello, this is my first post on Headfi. I hope i can add a lot of experience to this forum some time... But reason for this post is I wanted to know if it's safe to connect HE-6 with Hifiman connector box to 2x 250Watt Mosfet amp. I have already tried, sound is beautiful but amp is really running hot after some time. But maybe that's also because of amp design. Thanks!
 

 

[budx3385]

I'm the guy using the 4wpc Fi 421A and HE-adapter with the HE-6. Gorgeous, but 13 month lead time. I placed my down payment in January 2012, and I received the amp in February 2013. Well worth the wait, and Don is the real deal, but you might not wish to wait so long.
 
I used my HE-6 in the meantime off the speaker terminals of an Odyssey Cyclops Max integrated, approx $1700, and Klaus is great. Only a few months wait. Not enough microdetail, though.
 
The Modwright 200 and the Hegel 300 are the other ss integrateds I looked into, but only reading. Both have top-notch recommendations.
 
I did audition the First Watt J2 and SIT-2 for the HE-6 and decided not. I did not own the adapter at the time. The SIT-2 in particular didn't let much bass through. With the adapter it might be real sweet, though. The J2 was simply too fast and hard on the transients for my aging ears.
 
FWIW, last week I borrowed the new $5K JPS Abyss planar from TheCableCo and tried it on all of my amps. It was happiest on the Stratus with EML solid plate 2A3s, but ultimately I decided I prefer my Fi - adapter - 6 combo. Much more natural and realistic tone quality, IMHO.
 
Hope that all helps.

 

[PAM005]

Hi Budx3385,
 
Thanks for your reply, so what you're saying it's safe to use powerfull (integrated) amps with connectorbox and HE-6.  That's nice to hear... I really am impressed by staging, slam and details. I don't want to go back to a dedicated headphone-amp for HE-6. I did use it with BHA-1 before, ofcourse it was a good couple but i did like a bit more of slam... With this combo it does sound spectacular. Well done Hifiman !

 

[erikfreedom]

Quote:

I'm the guy using the 4wpc Fi 421A and HE-adapter with the HE-6. Gorgeous, but 13 month lead time. I placed my down payment in January 2012, and I received the amp in February 2013. Well worth the wait, and Don is the real deal, but you might not wish to wait so long.
 
I used my HE-6 in the meantime off the speaker terminals of an Odyssey Cyclops Max integrated, approx $1700, and Klaus is great. Only a few months wait. Not enough microdetail, though.
 
The Modwright 200 and the Hegel 300 are the other ss integrateds I looked into, but only reading. Both have top-notch recommendations.
 
I did audition the First Watt J2 and SIT-2 for the HE-6 and decided not. I did not own the adapter at the time. The SIT-2 in particular didn't let much bass through. With the adapter it might be real sweet, though. The J2 was simply too fast and hard on the transients for my aging ears.
 
FWIW, last week I borrowed the new $5K JPS Abyss planar from TheCableCo and tried it on all of my amps. It was happiest on the Stratus with EML solid plate 2A3s, but ultimately I decided I prefer my Fi - adapter - 6 combo. Much more natural and realistic tone quality, IMHO.
 
Hope that all helps.

the hegel 300 is an incredible integrated. before yesterday I had no clue about this company. and yesterday I was in a shop buying cables and the guys in the shop showed me some hegel stuff. dacs and amps. and there was a hegel 300 rig. it was hooked up to a pair of monitor audio platinum pl300 tower speakers.  very nice stuff.

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

Hi Budx3385,
 
Thanks for your reply, so what you're saying it's safe to use poewerfull (integrated) amps with connectorbox and HE-6.  That's nice to hear... I really am impressed by staging, slam and details. I don't want to go back to a dedicated headphone-amp for HE-6. I did use it with BHA-1 before, ofcourse it was a good couple but i did like a bit more of slam... With this combo it does sound spectacular. Well done Hifiman !

Just to clarify he's saying quality > quantity.
 
The Fi 421 is a very very well regarded amp, yet it's only 4WPC, and is better than amps many times more its output in his experience. You'll need to be ultra-careful whenever you plug into anything more than 200WPC though, resistors or not.
 
I like the Fis, but the 421 tubes price is too much 

. I'm gonna try some GM70, 845 or 211 monos in the coming month though.

 

[PAM005]

And when quality = quantity, do you think I still have to take care or should HE-6 works without problems with these amps?
Doesn't the resistorsnetwork protect amp design?
 

 

[khaine1711]

Quote:

And when quality = quantity, do you think I still have to take care or should HE-6 works without problems with these amps?
Doesn't the resistorsnetwork protect amp design?
 

Resistor protects tube amp only. Two ways to damage a tube amp without knowing: 1. run it with a load much higher than 8 ohm (i.e. He-6) 2. Run the tube amp with no load at all.
 
SS amps don't need any protection, a rule of thumb is if you plug the He-6 into anything more than 100WPC, pay attention to the volume - even when you have your He-adapter or your own resistor network.

 

[PAM005]

Hi Khaine1711,
 
Thanks for your explanation! That's something I can use... My amp is a powerfull Mosfet amp (SS), so when keeping volume level in control, it should work fine with HE-6? I'll keep that in mind.
 
Thanks again!
 

 

[khaine1711]

Generally most amp works fine with the He-6. It is in some extremely rare case that the amp distorts/oscillates wildly when driving unintended load. I did try a few hybrid stuff (tube amplification stage + output FETs) with no problems whatsoever. I think many of the First Watts/Pass Labs that people use with the He-6 is a mosfet design too.

 

[PAM005]

I was always convinced Bryston BHA-1 was a good match with my HE-6. But following these postings made curious to see if my home-amp would drive HE-6. As said I really liked the result, but I was afraid i would damage my home-setup!
 
But listening to this combo, I'm know convinced HE-6 should be used on speaker-tabs... Ofcourse powerfull headphone-amps could be an alternative, but HE-6 needs a lot of (quality) juice to sing!
 

 

[tigerkg13]

I wanted to purchase a speaker jumper cable from an an audio store which a lot of you guys recommend. I wrote an email with these instructions:
 
 
"My enquiry is regarding the speaker jumper cable. Please let me know how much it will cost to make a speaker jumper cable of 1ft with 4 banana-banana plugs on each side. Also how do I make the order?"
 
--------------------------------------------
The owner promptly replied as follows:
 
 
Please visit: http://btg-audio.com/webstore.htm#ecwid:category=3351504&mode=product&product=14641214
 
You can purchase the adapter there.
 
--------------------------------------------
 


I visited the site but could not find a clue as to how I should make the order. Can I actually convey what I want and make the order from that site? And were my instructions about what I want to the store clear? I thought "speaker jumper cable" is a technical term that should be clear enough. 

I am hoping someone can help me. Much appreciated.

 

[khaine1711]

BTG audio makes headphone cables - jumper cable is mostly used in speaker land (bi-wire, convert banana to spade). Just tell him you want custom cables: Length of the jumper cable to your liking; banana/spade on each side - again, to your liking. You'll need 4 jumper cable (2 black 2 red). You can also tie wire directly to from binding post to binding post to save money =p.
 
Oh and send him this image - picture is better than a thousand words
 

 
 
 
To be honest though, jumper cables are hella easy to make, and you can save lots of money doing it yourself. Get 8 Banana plugs (screw on type, so you don't have to solder - also sound a wee bit cleaner to me). Then just get 4 short wire and make it yourself - you can even use fancy bi-wire cable to your liking too. Arrow bi-wire, cheap and effective 
 

 
or Chord Odyssey (bling bling and expensive)
 

 

[tigerkg13]

Khaine 1711.Thanks a lot, very helpful advice. Yes, the pictures do help a lot. If I am brave enough I might even try to make one myself . . . Here in HI there is only one hifi store as far as I can tell and the person does not do custom jobs.