[mikek200]

A friend of mine,has offered to lend me his HD800,with the possibility of a future purchase?
I will have them about 1 month.
 
Does anyone have a link,or,has used the hd800 & the He-6's,and could you give me some feedback ,and their differences
 
My current setup is the mjolnir/gungnir combo...will this be enough power,& might it be too bright?
 
My music preferences are: --classical,smooth jazz,acoustic guitar,80's rock,some opera
No metal,no punk.
 
If anyone could give me their impressions,or,send me to a link,it will be greatly appreciated
 
Thanks
Mike

 

[qqexpress]

The gungnir/mjolnir combo is more than powerful enough to drive the HD800. I turn the volume knob to approximately the 9-10 o' clock positions for my HD800. In my opinion I find that the gungnir/mjolnir stack really works well with the HD800 providing  really nice depth, soundstage, clarity, and detail. It is not too bright at all, but characteristically I wouldn't say that the schiit stack really provides a lot of warmth to the analytical HD800's. 

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

A friend of mine,has offered to lend me his HD800,with the possibility of a future purchase?
I will have them about 1 month.
 
Does anyone have a link,or,has used the hd800 & the He-6's,and could you give me some feedback ,and their differences
 
My current setup is the mjolnir/gungnir combo...will this be enough power,& might it be too bright?
 
My music preferences are: --classical,smooth jazz,acoustic guitar,80's rock,some opera
No metal,no punk.
 
If anyone could give me their impressions,or,send me to a link,it will be greatly appreciated
 
Thanks
Mike

Tonally wise I felt that they both shared some similarities. Both are a bit on the brighter side of neutral (though not much). Both offer great deep bass and very liquid mids. 
 
Both are very hard to drive properly. The HD800s need quality power that is also synergistic and can be very hard to get them just "right". The HE-6s on the other hand need MOAR POWER and MOAR POWER. The Mjlonir would be the bare minimum I'd recommend for them. A good Class A speaker amp (like a vintage Pioneer or McIntosh would be ideal IMO).
 
Now into the nitty gritty, the HD-800s image quite a bit better and I feel that they extract the micro details a bit better from recordings and in turn offer a cleaner window into the music. That said, the HE-6s are no slouch themselves and are in the top 5-6 headphones I've ever heard. Can't really go wrong with either one, but that said, I did own both for about a year, but I still own the HD-800s. 

 

[mikek200]

QQ;Mac,
Thanks for your replies.
 
I was under the assumption that the MJ/Gung will drive the hd800's just fine??..guess I was wrong
For my he-6's..I do have emo speaker amp,which I use...sometimes,but to my ears the MJ/Gng seems to work fine
I really dont think,I will be investing into another amp/dac setup ,until the Schiit Signature gear come out.
Should I consider using the emo to drive the 800's?;or,would that be overkill?
 
Mac-are you saying that the hd800 is close in sound quality to the he-6's?,or,that they just have similarities
Are we talking  about a huge difference?
Right now,I can listen to the he-6's,6-8 hours at a clip..not sure I will be able to do that with the hd800
Also,I've gone through maybe 200 pages of the hd800 thread,& this brightness issue keeps rearing it's ugly head.
 
Guess once I get them,I'll have to do some serious listening,with both amps
QQ & Mac...if you had to choose what genre of music is best suited for the hd800;what would it be?
Also,let me ask this...with all the different cables out there,which one would you use to get the best SQ,....copper,copper/silver,or,pure silver?
 
Mike

 

[paradoxper]

He's saying both headphones are hard to drive in general. You can drive both. The HE-6 will always benefit from an speaker amp.
 
Peter also said that both headphones are in his top x list. It really does come down to preference.

 

[mikek200]

Tnx Para,
I understand that.....
I dont want to go threw the headache I got ,with trying to drive the he-6's,.. all over again-the emo was a quick,easy,small desktop solution
 
If the MJ/GNG doesnt make the grade,I'll have to pass on the 800's,in the meantime,I have 30 days to find out.
 
I need to get to a meet as you suggested...soon
 
Tnx
Mike

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

Tnx Para,
I understand that.....
I dont want to go threw the headache I got ,with trying to drive the he-6's,.. all over again-the emo was a quick,easy,small desktop solution
 
If the MJ/GNG doesnt make the grade,I'll have to pass on the 800's,in the meantime,I have 30 days to find out.
 
I need to get to a meet as you suggested...soon
 
Tnx
Mike

I've heard very good things about the Mojo and HD800 combo. The HE-6 is the biggest PITA , but it can be rewarding.
Still, it comes down to preference. I prefer the LCD-3 to the HE-6. Like wise, you may prefer the HD800 to it.
 
Hopefully you'll spend some good time listening to the HD800 as I think you're really going to like them.
 
Yes you do! 

 

[mikek200]

With my darker genre of classical music,I dont think I'm going to have a brightness issue
These just may work for me
You know I love my he-6's...by the by,you were the one who told me to try them,remember,once I got them,the lcd-2's started to collect dust
I pick up the 800's on Friday night..so will post some early impressions,after 48 hours.
 
Tnx

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

With my darker genre of classical music,I dont think I'm going to have a brightness issue
These just may work for me
You know I love my he-6's...by the by,you were the one who told me to try them,remember,once I got them,the lcd-2's started to collect dust
I pick up the 800's on Friday night..so will post some early impressions,after 48 hours.
 
Tnx

Yep. I listen to mostly metal and they were horrific for me. But I think they're going suite you very well.
 
Hope you skip out on work Friday and jam! 

 

[olor1n]

Mike, the Mjolnir will not be the component that hampers the HD800. It'll be the Gungnir.

 

[qqexpress]

^ I agree with the head-fi'er here. The mjolnir is a very capable amp and has been compared to the likes of the Bryston BHA-1 (which is nearly twice the asking price). At best the gungnir is an alright dac, and I would say that most people would get the gungnir in order to match its mjolnir counterpart. 

For me, the best type of music that suits the HD800 has got to be classical, any symphony or orchestra lets you really take advantage of the clarity and detail that the hd800 has to provide, and getting good quality lossless/flac or even 320kbps files will let you enjoy the great depth and expansive soundstage.

 

[mikek200]

Guys,
Tnx for your replies & advise..
 
Yes,all of my files are loosless files,and I use foobar,most of the time
 
I will just have to do a serious testing this weekend...

 

[MacedonianHero]

Quote:

QQ;Mac,
Thanks for your replies.
 
I was under the assumption that the MJ/Gung will drive the hd800's just fine??..guess I was wrong
For my he-6's..I do have emo speaker amp,which I use...sometimes,but to my ears the MJ/Gng seems to work fine
I really dont think,I will be investing into another amp/dac setup ,until the Schiit Signature gear come out.
Should I consider using the emo to drive the 800's?;or,would that be overkill?
 
Mac-are you saying that the hd800 is close in sound quality to the he-6's?,or,that they just have similarities
Are we talking  about a huge difference?
Right now,I can listen to the he-6's,6-8 hours at a clip..not sure I will be able to do that with the hd800
Also,I've gone through maybe 200 pages of the hd800 thread,& this brightness issue keeps rearing it's ugly head.
 
Guess once I get them,I'll have to do some serious listening,with both amps
QQ & Mac...if you had to choose what genre of music is best suited for the hd800;what would it be?
Also,let me ask this...with all the different cables out there,which one would you use to get the best SQ,....copper,copper/silver,or,pure silver?
 
Mike

 
Quote:

He's saying both headphones are hard to drive in general. You can drive both. The HE-6 will always benefit from an speaker amp.
 
Peter also said that both headphones are in his top x list. It really does come down to preference.

 
Exactly right Cory. Both are great headphones and amongst the very best I've heard. I'd give the slight technical edge to the HD-800 and my preferences as well. 
 
Just to clarify, I in no way meant to infer that the MJ/GR combo was a poor match for the HD-800s, just that getting an upstream rig to work really well with them can be quite a challenge. But when you get it right...they do reward you for the effort!

 

[preproman]

I'm interested in what olor1n said.  Just how good is the gun as a DAC outside the Shciit stack compared to the PWD2, m51, Mytek, A D2?

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

I'm interested in what olor1n said.  Just how good is the gun as a DAC outside the Shciit stack compared to the PWD2, m51, Mytek, A D2?

I found it comparable to the M51 and Mytek. Not as far as feature set, but purely based on SQ. The PWD2 is among the top DACs I've heard. 
And I'd consider it in another class.