HE-6 Loaner Program

[rhythmdevils]

It's a rare and highly contagious ear fungus which grows very happily in velour and foam, but Cryo should take care of it. 

 
No just kidding, it's something I've been battling for a few years now, started during an 8 month trip to India 3 years ago.  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome it seems.  It's just gotten worse all of a sudden.  If it was contagious even a little bit, I wouldn't have wanted to be part of the loaner program.  I don't mean to derail the thread, I just thought I'd offer some assurance. 

 

[JIGF]

Is cryo safe for headphones?
 
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Makes me want to have the cans cryo-treated for a week before I put them on, that should help the SQ and take care of any bugs that are in need molecular alignment...
 

 

[MuppetFace]

Aren't Airbows "cryo-treated" Stax Lambdas supposedly?

 

[immtbiker]

A nice full headphone dip in 10% bleach solution will kill everything except amplicons from DNA splitting. For that, you would need to use a 3% hydrogen peroxide dip.

 

[Frank I]

Aaron LMAO it will also kill the headphones.
Quote:

A nice full headphone dip in 10% bleach solution will kill everything except amplicons from DNA splitting. For that, you would need to use a 3% hydrogen peroxide dip.

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

Is cryo safe for headphones?

 
Just make sure that they are brought back up to room temperature slowly, otherwise they will disintegrate into billions of nanobots bent on destroying the world. Other than that they should be fine.
 
 
Quote:

A nice full headphone dip in 10% bleach solution will kill everything except amplicons from DNA splitting. For that, you would need to use a 3% hydrogen peroxide dip.

 
Hmm, nanobots vs. amplicons for the win; humans lose big time in this reality!

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

I spent time comparing the HE-6 to the HE-5LE using four different amplifiers.
 
For the HE-6, I used 1) a MacIntosh solid state amp, 2) a VTL tube amp and 3) a SimMoon Audio 3.3 SE solid state integrated amp.  Each amp was 100 watts per channel.
The HE-5 LE was powered by an EF-5 amplifier.
The type of music was rock with a wide range of vocals and instrumentation.
 
For some reason the combination, VTL tube amp and VAC tube preamp did not bring much life to the HE-6.
The MacIntosh solid state preamp and amp sounded better with the HE-6- but still did not sound as musical as the HE-5LE /EF-5 combination. 
The HE-6 and SimMoon Audio I3 SE integrated amp however had excellent synergy: full range, excellent soundstage and realistic musical detail with really powerful bass and sparkling trebel- the type of presentation that made me forget that I was evalutating equipment and just started enjoying the music. It was a far better combinaton than the HE-6 and NAD C316BEE that I had heard this Summer at the NJ meet
 
I found the following diferences between the HE-6 (SimMoonAudio) and HE-5 LE (EF-5):
While both Headphones had very similiar sound signatures, the HE-6 exhibited slightly more resolution and expanded sound stage. The HE-6 was more neutrally balanced
The HE-5 had slightly more emphasis in the mid and lower mid range with less detail and more centered soundstage but in a very musically pleasing way.
 
I can see how different people might prefer either Headphone. If you use the analogy that you can zoom into and sharpen a photograph to the point with the individual pixels overwhelm the illusion of the overall photo image, the HE-5LE does not resolve as well as the HE--6, but still achieves an excellent balance that creates a very realistic musical image.
For those listeners who want more emphasis on the mid and lower mid range, they will prefer the HE-5LE. For those who prefer, more neutrality, detailed resolution and wider soundstage, they would prefer the HE-6.
Both headphone combinations were excellent to my ears..

Great impressions - thanks!

 

[jageur272]

I have just received the Eastern HE-6 loaner.  Will test with a variety of amps.  First impressions are that they sound great!  A complete beast to drive though, I can get them pretty loud straight out of my headphone out, but the bass oomph I was expecting isn't there.  I'll post my impressions next Saturday.

 

[rhythmdevils]

Fang, how do you feel about posting pictures of the driver?  I've got a nice goldie here but thought to ask first. 

 

[Nankai]

Hi rhythmdevils, You can post any pics you want to post. Thanks.

 

[immtbiker]

As a field engineer (wanna-be R&D engineer) I would love to see what makes these puppies tick.
 
Picture away!

 

[rhythmdevils]

I've already shipped the HE6 up to Alaska, and the most I did was take the pads off for a picture of the driver.  It would be cool to show the back side too, and someone here posted a picture of gold showing through the back, but the model here had some dampening material in front of the grill.  I'll post the pictures soon!

 

[immtbiker]

I am driving to Fang's house tonight to borrow a production model HE-6 until RMAF. 
 
Fang said the new revisions allow it to be driven by my Luxman or an EF-5. That out to make a huge difference for most people on the fence. 
If you're going to sit on the fence, you might as well make yourself helpful and give it a nice coat of paint 

 

[grokit]

 
Quote:

I am driving to Fang's house tonight to borrow a production model HE-6 until RMAF. 
 
Fang said the new revisions allow it to be driven by my Luxman or an EF-5. That out to make a huge difference for most people on the fence. 
If you're going to sit on the fence, you might as well make yourself helpful and give it a nice coat of paint 

 

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It will be very interesting to hear your impressions of any changes, or lack thereof, to the sound signature and/or frequency spectrum of the HE6 as a result of these changes to its efficiency.
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[MuppetFace]

 
Quote:

Fang said the new revisions allow it to be driven by my Luxman or an EF-5. That out to make a huge difference for most people on the fence. 
If you're going to sit on the fence, you might as well make yourself helpful and give it a nice coat of paint 

This is fantastic news. I had a sneaking feeling the "speaker amp only" mantra wasn't going to end up being as solid as some claimed it would be.