[Slim1970]

I can believe that. It is almost makes me tempted to go for the Fluxlab FA-10 and cash out the difference. I can tell the potential that these headphones have. I think I just started with a poor synergy off the bat. Throwing a V6 Vivid pair back in the buffer stage also helps a bit (I've been using the SparkoS in both spots).

Love the HE-6se’s on my FA-10. Not only them, but any of my Hifiman headphones plays nice with the FA-10. It has a warmer tone, a fuller sounding midrange, and the notes have more weight to them. This adds body to neutral, open sounding like the HE6se’s and HD600’s.

 

[Sam Spade]

Got it in today (HE-6SE V2) and.....I'm hoping there's some burn-in/brain adjustment that needs to happen because my first impression is underwhelming, to be honest. It's a little brighter in the highest frequencies but still kind of warmer overall than my HD-650 (Modded). It's almost like there's some kind of distinct frequency suckout (maybe more than one) relative to my HD-650. It also feels more dynamically constrained. The Soloist 3X gets loud enough on high gain, but it might still be underpowered in terms of current delivery compared to a speaker amp. I owned the OG HE-6 many years ago and so far, this is nothing close to how I remember the old ones. I'll give it some more time and see. Some other users have reported positive results with removing the felt behind the drivers. I may try that later. It just sounds more muffled and laid back than I was expecting. Better recorded tracks fare a little better, but I was just expecting to be a little more wowed to be honest. On the plus side, they're actually fairly comfortable and seem lighter than I remember the original HE-6 being.

Jwhal you seem to be a compulsive gear switcher . Do you ever feel like you've been burnt by making a decision you regret? Not trying to give you sh*it its a genuine question. Also how do you work out whats a fair market price is for 2nd hand gear, thats buying or selling. I'm working on selling a stack of stuff including some 2019 LCD3s i got in jan 2020. They've seen very light use due to my purchase of LCD4s and LCDxcs. So I'm assuming resale value varies drastically in this case from pre fazor LCD through to recent release. PM me if you dont want to give away any trade secrets cheers sam

 

[JWahl]

Jwhal you seem to be a compulsive gear switcher . Do you ever feel like you've been burnt by making a decision you regret? Not trying to give you sh*it its a genuine question. Also how do you work out whats a fair market price is for 2nd hand gear, thats buying or selling. I'm working on selling a stack of stuff including some 2019 LCD3s i got in jan 2020. They've seen very light use due to my purchase of LCD4s and LCDxcs. So I'm assuming resale value varies drastically in this case from pre fazor LCD through to recent release. PM me if you dont want to give away any trade secrets cheers sam

No worries, no offense taken. I wouldn't say that I've felt burned by any purchasing decisions. I've officially been a member here for almost 10 years, but have lurked since around 2005. Over time, I've gotten pretty good at parsing out others' impressions based on correlations of similar interests. That's why I always try to make direct comparisons with other equipment in reviews so there are points of reference. The more things I'm able to try for myself means more data points that I can draw correlations from.

The other end of that is that over the 10-15 year time-frame, competition in the market and thus quality has continuously improved. Nowadays, it's rare that even affordable equipment is outright bad, although budget gear can certainly be upgraded and improved upon. It does make writing credible reviews more challenging because too many positive reviews can make a reader think the reviewer is uncritical, even though the reviewer may be genuinely impressed in a repeated fashion as a function of that market improvement as a whole.

In the case of the HE6se, my earlier impressions were a little harsh, but I'm warming up to them. Using both pairs of SparkoS in the Soloist and the Neo iDSD was just a bad synergy. Using one pair of the V6 Vivid and the Modius is a much better configuration with them. They seem like they are abnormally sensitive to changes in upstream components, likely due to their resolving power. There are still occasions where a trumpet blast is just a little too intense and makes me wince a little bit, depending on the volume level. I thought it was strange because I was getting better dynamics with at least one V6 Vivid in the amp, versus both SparkoS, but this was only noticeable with the HE-6SE. I did try both pairs of V6 Vivid, but I still prefer one of each.

The closest I've come to being "burned" is just with the HE4xx, but they're pretty affordable anyways. I just really didn't like them, regardless of how they were driven. I was hoping it would capture the Hifiman "magic" at an affordable price-point, but alas, there is no free lunch.

Regarding gear switching, I have actually slowed down quite a bit over the past 2 or 3 years. I've owned the HD-650 now longer than any other headphone, simply because despite their faults, they don't have any faults that are egregiously offensive. Lots of the upper flagships will do one or two things really well, but at the expense of some other annoying or distracting flaw. The owned gear on my profile looks like a lot simply because it's spread out over a 10+ year period. In a perfect world, there would be a nearby store I could go to and try lots of headphones and source equipment at once, and thus find an ideal long-term setup. In absence of that, it is a slow and iterative process as I gradually zero in on equipment that best fits my preferences and budget. And part of the fun of the hobby is the journey, of course.

As far as classifieds selling, I usually just start slightly below what an open box retailer price would be, or I will search old ads for the same item and see how much an item has sold for in the past. Usually though, I end up having to drop my asking price lower than typical market value since I don't use PayPal and so that shuts out a lot of potential buyers. It's really only my long-standing trader reputation that's allowed me to continue to make sales in the classifieds section when I need to.

 

[Sam Spade]

No worries, no offense taken. I wouldn't say that I've felt burned by any purchasing decisions. I've officially been a member here for almost 10 years, but have lurked since around 2005. Over time, I've gotten pretty good at parsing out others' impressions based on correlations of similar interests. That's why I always try to make direct comparisons with other equipment in reviews so there are points of reference. The more things I'm able to try for myself means more data points that I can draw correlations from.

The other end of that is that over the 10-15 year time-frame, competition in the market and thus quality has continuously improved. Nowadays, it's rare that even affordable equipment is outright bad, although budget gear can certainly be upgraded and improved upon. It does make writing credible reviews more challenging because too many positive reviews can make a reader think the reviewer is uncritical, even though the reviewer may be genuinely impressed in a repeated fashion as a function of that market improvement as a whole.

In the case of the HE6se, my earlier impressions were a little harsh, but I'm warming up to them. Using both pairs of SparkoS in the Soloist and the Neo iDSD was just a bad synergy. Using one pair of the V6 Vivid and the Modius is a much better configuration with them. They seem like they are abnormally sensitive to changes in upstream components, likely due to their resolving power. There are still occasions where a trumpet blast is just a little too intense and makes me wince a little bit, depending on the volume level. I thought it was strange because I was getting better dynamics with at least one V6 Vivid in the amp, versus both SparkoS, but this was only noticeable with the HE-6SE. I did try both pairs of V6 Vivid, but I still prefer one of each.

The closest I've come to being "burned" is just with the HE4xx, but they're pretty affordable anyways. I just really didn't like them, regardless of how they were driven. I was hoping it would capture the Hifiman "magic" at an affordable price-point, but alas, there is no free lunch.

Regarding gear switching, I have actually slowed down quite a bit over the past 2 or 3 years. I've owned the HD-650 now longer than any other headphone, simply because despite their faults, they don't have any faults that are egregiously offensive. Lots of the upper flagships will do one or two things really well, but at the expense of some other annoying or distracting flaw. The owned gear on my profile looks like a lot simply because it's spread out over a 10+ year period. In a perfect world, there would be a nearby store I could go to and try lots of headphones and source equipment at once, and thus find an ideal long-term setup. In absence of that, it is a slow and iterative process as I gradually zero in on equipment that best fits my preferences and budget. And part of the fun of the hobby is the journey, of course.

As far as classifieds selling, I usually just start slightly below what an open box retailer price would be, or I will search old ads for the same item and see how much an item has sold for in the past. Usually though, I end up having to drop my asking price lower than typical market value since I don't use PayPal and so that shuts out a lot of potential buyers. It's really only my long-standing trader reputation that's allowed me to continue to make sales in the classifieds section when I need to.

Why dont you use paypal? I figure the small cost is worth the protection for both parties. But i could be wrong

 

[Sam Spade]

I have had $400 sennheisers 30 years ago which were great with my 30yo marantz CD80 and PM80. Was selling hifi at the time and got to listen to the legendary sony MDR- r10s on the best top end marantz gear. CD12LE and PM95. worth looking up. It is beautiful gear. Must have been $20k of gear in 1990 dollars and ran any speaker you threw at it too.

We had $10k nakamichi 200 watt pre power and their top end cassette decks too. $10k dali and spendor speakers.

My sennheisers are dead now the marantz CD80 and PM80 gear is still awesome. With upgraded burson opamps and low jitter digital clock and caps. Ive had various AKG and sonys and sennheiser over ear and IEMs and sports specific for running. But the AK70 with my older Shure 530SE really blew my mind. Then the Burson conductor 3x ref and LCD3s with a cambridge audio 840C took it to the next level. The AK SP1000M upped the performance for portables it is unbelievably good. With a balanced cable it drives my new LCD4s really well and anything else i throw at it and its a great source for my home and top end carfi system. Everyone said portables were no good for LCDs. Wrong. And now i have LCDxc which are really close to LCD3s in performance, far closer than price difference suggests. And a pair of closed back is really handy and they are top notch. And the burson is in my home hifi AV system with Dali towers and 200wpc rotel RB1080 Power amp.

The burson replaced my musical fidelity nuvista preamp. Never thought id part with that but the burson sounds better and has a headphone output. https://hometheaterreview.com/musical-fidelity-nu-vista-preamp-reviewed/amp/

I havent sold it yet it's a piece of history that performs so well.

Upstairs a chord Qutest and Sparko Aries in my home office with the 30yo marantz and 30yo dynaudio bookshelf 2 ways.

With the LCD4s and LCDxcs i dont need the LCD3s. So im selling those.

The only time ive got burnt is the LCDi3. They sound great but open back IEM kinda defeats the purpose of IEMs. I'm seriously tempted to try the new Audeze Euclids though.

We now have a local shop thats an Australian chain with all the top brands. Ive mail ordered from them lots in the past. I'm afraid to go in to the new shop. I love my current gear and its hard to imagine something seriously topping the LCD4s and most gear will struggle to keep up with the LCDxc with the burson or qutest/aries. But if anything did I'd probably blow more cash.

Almost by accident i matched my gear well to my needs. In my main system i want remore/wifi/usb/ blutooth and the burson has it all. In my home office i dont need any of that and the Qutest/sparko sound perfect but are lo tech so im not paying for features i dont need, just performance.

 

[qsk78]

Posted this at the Diana thread, but I guess it’s relevant to do it here as well. Brilliant sounding combo

After 100 hours of burn-in time...Sounds awesome!
Transparent, detailed, and DYNAMIC.
Driving my Snorry NM-1 (pre-production unit) perfectly.

 

[JWahl]

Why dont you use paypal? I figure the small cost is worth the protection for both parties. But i could be wrong

Long story short, I was permabanned (maybe 7 or 8 years ago now?) for reasons which they never explained. I'm guessing because I had poor credit at the time and was considered a risk despite never having a complaint on a sale. Their overly broad terms of service allow them to do this and also freeze any PayPal account funds for up to 180 days, effectively giving themselves an interest-free loan. Most people just never read the terms of service. Even if I could get them to reverse it now, I have no desire to agree to their terms of service. It is my personal opinion that their business practices are unethical, even if they may be legal. It's even more frustrating because it even effects PayPal guest checkout, which only allows up to (i think) $500 of use on a card before requiring a customer to use a Paypal account. This is why I also couldn't take advantage of Burson's pre-order discount since they use PayPal as their processor. Ended up just waiting to buy it from a domestic vendor via Amazon.

 

[Sam Spade]

Long story short, I was permabanned (maybe 7 or 8 years ago now?) for reasons which they never explained. I'm guessing because I had poor credit at the time and was considered a risk despite never having a complaint on a sale. Their overly broad terms of service allow them to do this and also freeze any PayPal account funds for up to 180 days, effectively giving themselves an interest-free loan. Most people just never read the terms of service. Even if I could get them to reverse it now, I have no desire to agree to their terms of service. It is my personal opinion that their business practices are unethical, even if they may be legal. It's even more frustrating because it even effects PayPal guest checkout, which only allows up to (i think) $500 of use on a card before requiring a customer to use a Paypal account. This is why I also couldn't take advantage of Burson's pre-order discount since they use PayPal as their processor. Ended up just waiting to buy it from a domestic vendor via Amazon.

well that sucks dog's balls! Future negotiations with Burson or any reliable supplier isn't such a problem. But private buyers are more complicated.

I'm pretty sure that Burson would accept credit card if they knew about your Paypal problem. Their pre-release offers are great.

 

[Sam Spade]

Hi ishmaelk , just stumbled across your question I hadn't answered properly.

The back story is the owner of Cardas has a daughter who is a sound engineer? and she kept wrecking OEM cables through wear and tear. So he made her a new cable and the Parsec was born.

Hi, Sam.
Just curious, how much did you spend on those cables?
Thanks.

From addicted to audio and 99.9999999% that's AU$
All of the items from order ATA-92190 have now been shipped:

Item Details

Qty	Item	Price
1 x	Cardas Parsec Headphone Audeze 5.0M 4XLR	$469.00	$42.63 GST
1 x	Cardas Parsec Headphone Audeze 2.5mm 1.5M	$259.00	$23.55 GST

Not the cheapest but I got the exact terminations and length I wanted. Really well made.

The covering PVC? sleeve isn't limp and flexible like the stock OEM cable but it is flexible enough. My 5kg+ 2yo cat is adorable, mischievous, affectionate and playful, but with the brain of a kitten so I can't just leave delicate things lying around. So the cables are great. I am a bit of a cable sceptic, but these do the job.

cheers
Sam

 

[normie610]

For anyone who’s using the Composer + Soloist stack, have you tried to set them up this way: Composer as pre-out, and Soloist as pure headphone amp?

I tried for the first time today, and it seems the volume is so much louder in this setup and I need to change Soloist gain to medium. Usually when the Composer is set as DAC and Soloist is set in normal mode, I’m using high gain for both Soloist and Composer. I also notice that the sound becomes even more dynamic (and V-shaped) and slightly more spacious at the expense of naturalness. Note edges becomes a bit rougher, not as “round” as the normal setup. I think the easy way to describe it is that it sounds more digital. In the end I prefer the normal setup.

 

[godmax]

I tried for the first time today, and it seems the volume is so much louder in this setup and I need to change Soloist gain to medium.

That is probably due to the fact that the Composer 3XP has specified different output impedance for Pre Out / DAC Out: 10 Ohm / 25 Ohm.
So far I only used the Composer 3XP in DAC output mode (fixed).

 

[normie610]

That is probably due to the fact that the Composer 3XP has specified different output impedance for Pre Out / DAC Out: 10 Ohm / 25 Ohm.
So far I only used the Composer 3XP in DAC output mode (fixed).

Ah that explains. Yes I reverted to DAC mode for Composer.

 

[raphaelchan]

For anyone who’s using the Composer + Soloist stack, have you tried to set them up this way: Composer as pre-out, and Soloist as pure headphone amp?

I tried for the first time today, and it seems the volume is so much louder in this setup and I need to change Soloist gain to medium. Usually when the Composer is set as DAC and Soloist is set in normal mode, I’m using high gain for both Soloist and Composer. I also notice that the sound becomes even more dynamic (and V-shaped) and slightly more spacious at the expense of naturalness. Note edges becomes a bit rougher, not as “round” as the normal setup. I think the easy way to describe it is that it sounds more digital. In the end I prefer the normal setup.

my experience seems to be opposite of yours. I found using DAC out is much louder. When you said using Soloist as pure headphone you meant bypassing the volume control of Soloist. I tried that and found that composer pre out and Soloist with volume bypass is the loudest combination. my preference is using composer as pre out, soloist retains volume control and this set up sounded most natural for me. Did I miss something?

 

[normie610]

I tried that and found that composer pre out and Soloist with volume bypass is the loudest combination.

Yes this is exactly what I experienced

 

[qsk78]

Did you guys play with 3rd party power supply units, either switching or linear?