[Fearless1]

Would Gustard H10 be able to drive HE6 properly?

Nope. It will drive them, but no where near what they are capable of.  (great amp for the money though)

 

[mysticstryk]

Based on that statement, you should probably take this opportunity to break the cycle of endless mid-fi side grades, and upgrade to a higher level model. In that case, I'd highly recommend checking out the Enigma Acoustics Dharma D-1000, because it's going to give you everything you are asking for and more.

I quite like the top end of mid-fi. I don't have the money to go for summit-fi grade stuff. I'm very happy with my hd650 and 400i. I'm just looking for something that would be great for my metal tastes specifically.

 

[bavinck]

Oh man, you guys talking about the Garage amps got me thinking. I am listening to my Project Starlight (cheap) with stock tube and my sr80e with mod 1 dac. For metal and rock this combo gives my HE400i/Gustard stack a serious run for its money. For a $350 combo this things sounds amazing!!!

 

[bavinck]

I quite like the top end of mid-fi. I don't have the money to go for summit-fi grade stuff. I'm very happy with my hd650 and 400i. I'm just looking for something that would be great for my metal tastes specifically.

 IMO midfi is where its at. Sounds incredible and I don't need to get a second job to fund

 

[Hansotek]

  @Mardrommar and other who listened question about HE6 and forward and agressive mids. I have HE 560 and i dont think mids are forward and agressive and frequency response graph of HE6 looks quite simmilar to HE 560. IMO HD 600 have forward and agressive mids and that is the reason i sold it.
I just love HE 560 i think its perfect i would only like some more bass impact. But maybe im not driving it properly i have gustard H10 on the way so i hope that amp will help.
So my question would be how simmilar are mids of HE6 and 560? Would Gustard H10 be able to drive HE6 properly?

 
Several things:
 
1. The main differences between the HE560 and the HE6 won't be found on an FR chart. It really has way more to do with the presentation. The HE6 is more impactful, punchy, tactile, etc. It pretty much sits on your head and kicks the snot out of you. It is a violent and unruly beast made to cause severe neck injuries to any poor dark soul with an inclination toward headbanging. Strap it on and clear the room of all breakables, because you're about to have a mosh pit with yourself.
 
2. As far as I know the Gustard H10 will not drive the HE-6. You must be prepared to invest in amping it properly. This is the one major drawback of the HE-6. I know, it's lame, right? There's really no way around it, as far as I know... you're basically looking at a $2K investment to really get it done. Hence, why the headphone was never as popular as it's quality would suggest.
 
3. On the HE560 - I'm pretty experienced with modding Hifimans. May I suggest a quick mod that may help you get some more bass impact out of your headphone?
 
Step 1:
Get some of those pieces of adhesive picture mounting squares... like the kind you would find at Walgreens for $2.99. Cut them down to about the size of the metal eraser mount on a #2 pencil. You'll want 4-8 of these total (depending on how open you want the port to be). I stack 2 on top of each other (so 8 total):

 
Step 2:
Get some double stick tape and use it to line the FRONT 3/4 of the underside of your pad. (Feel free to do a neater job than me, lol.)

 
Step 3:
Apply the mounting squares on either side of the rear-most mounting bracket.

 
Step 4:
Clip it back on to the headphone and smoosh it down so the tape seals to the headphone. The back sides should now look like this:

 
Voila! You now have a sealed chamber with a single side vented. Subwoofer physics FTW! And more bass impact for you and your HE560.
 
Hopefully, that helps!

 

[YtseJamer]

  Oh man, you guys talking about the Garage amps got me thinking. I am listening to my Project Starlight (cheap) with stock tube and my sr80e with mod 1 dac. For metal and rock this combo gives my HE400i/Gustard stack a serious run for its money. For a $350 combo this things sounds amazing!!!

 
It's good to know.  I will probably buy the Starlight if I don't like the Vali 2 with my Grado 225e.

 

[Russian1]

  I just love HE 560 i think its perfect i would only like some more bass impact. But maybe im not driving it properly i have gustard H10 on the way so i hope that amp will help.

I have HE-560 and I do love them. For 90% of my music their bass is excellent. 
But for other 10% of my music it ... isn't. 
They don't have enough bass (drive) for metal mostly. 
For that purpose I bought an amp "ifi ican micro" for them. Works fine for me, I mean their X-Bass feature (bass boost) - highly recommend. 

 

[YtseJamer]

   IMO midfi is where its at. Sounds incredible and I don't need to get a second job to fund

 
X2.
 
I promised myself I will never ever spend more than $500/$600 for a pair of headphones.

 

[The_Blood_Raven]

So since there doesn't seem to be a good alternative to the HE-6 for my tastes I've been looking into it. I probably won't have much more than $1k to spend, so it will be a tight budget.

Levap was nice enough to recommend the ART SLA2 as a decent amp for it. However, I uhh can't figure out how to connect the headphones to the thing. Anyone have ideas? It says it has "binding posts" as outputs.

 

[bavinck]

   
It's good to know.  I will probably buy the Starlight if I don't like the Vali 2 with my Grado 225e.

No gain setting, volume at max is just above 1/4 the pot, and much less I get channel imbalance. Sweet spot for my tastes is 1/4or just shy, so it is not ideal for the grado impedance. I have a project solstice a while back and liked it better, more bass impact and detailed as I recall. Never tried it with grados though. It does have gain settings so I would go for that one instead if you can afford it. I have emailed Jeremy to see if I can do anything about the gain setting on my Starlight. THX00 has the same volume problem. My starlight is setup for hd600, so maybe when  you order it he can custom it to your grados.

 

[d4rkch1ld]

@Hansotek thx for the answers man and i will try out your mod.

 

[YtseJamer]

  No gain setting, volume at max is just above 1/4 the pot, and much less I get channel imbalance. Sweet spot for my tastes is 1/4or just shy, so it is not ideal for the grado impedance. I have a project solstice a while back and liked it better, more bass impact and detailed as I recall. Never tried it with grados though. It does have gain settings so I would go for that one instead if you can afford it. I have emailed Jeremy to see if I can do anything about the gain setting on my Starlight. THX00 has the same volume problem. My starlight is setup for hd600, so maybe when  you order it he can custom it to your grados.

 
Thanks for the advice.
 
Yeah someone told me that the Project Solstice is a match made in heaven with the Grados.

 

[Hansotek]

So since there doesn't seem to be a good alternative to the HE-6 for my tastes I've been looking into it. I probably won't have much more than $1k to spend, so it will be a tight budget.

Levap was nice enough to recommend the ART SLA2 as a decent amp for it. However, I uhh can't figure out how to connect the headphones to the thing. Anyone have ideas? It says it has "binding posts" as outputs.

You will need a female 4-pin XLR to speaker tap adaptor like this one:

 

[Hansotek]

@Hansotek
thx for the answers man and i will try out your mod.

No problem. Any time, dude!

 

[bavinck]

Can anyone comment on the Alpha Dogs or Alpha Primes for use with metal?