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My HE-6 Order history: From China to Chicago
- I ordered my HE-6 on December 4th 2010 via the Head-Direct website shopping cart.
- Got a confirming / 'What is your phone number' email on Dec. 5th, to which I replied.
- Got an email with a DHL tracking number on Dec 7th, says "It will take about 3-4 days to be input into tracking system. " But, in fact, it was already in the DHL system, showing the parcel was in DHL's hands on Dec. 7th and was already moving between DHL sorting / routing hub facilities in Hong Kong.
- DHL tracking shows the parcel leaving Hong Kong on Dec. 8th headed for Franklin, IL USA (this could be a DHL center in Franklin , IL which is a teeny tiny town outside downstate Springfield or it could- more likely- be the fairly large DHL facility in Franklin Park, IL which is on the southern periphery of O'Hare airport. O'Hare has direct flights from Hong Kong, which take about 15 hours. It is probably in the air right now. What a world we live in!)
- Showing as having arrived and being processed (customs?) at a DHL hub in Cincinnati in the USA during the early hours of DEC 9th
- Delivered to me 9 AM Dec 9th in perfect condition (and including a spare earcushion)
This has all been extremely orderly and well-coordinated. Hats off to HiFiMan.
So they came, I heard, they conquered. (To turn a phrase.)
SOUND: Very clean sound with a high frequency emphasis in the 4 kHz region. This differs from the LCD-2 which is ruler flat from ~15 Hz to 1 kHz and then has the highs slightly below 0 dB on their amplitude plot, but with roughly equal level from octave to octave above 1 kHz. Also differs from the HD800 which sounds to me like it has a larger high frequency peak than the HE-6 and the HD800 peak is higher in frequency too, more like 7~8 kHz. This makes the HD800 emphasize vocal sibilance more than the HE-6. HE-6 has treble emphasis but it is mild enough to tame sibilance excess, if you follow me. This treble response gives a very "open" sound, which is also a characteristic of the HD800. To me the LCD-2 sounds very neutral - could I say brutally neutral? Which is to say for some people it won't offer enough detailed insight into the sound. This is not to say that the LCD-2 lacks detail; rather it presents it's detail in a more subdued way. The LCD-2 offers detail- the HE-6
showcases it.
The thing about these planar drivers that is so wonderful is their fantastic behavior in the time domain. If you look at a waterfall plot of the LCD-2 you can see it is nearly perfect. There is no overhang or energy storage, even at low frequencies. I suspect the HE-6 also shares this characteristic. As far as I can tell, the sonic result of this tightly controlled time-domain behavior is a lack of "smearing" between sounds in the mix. The individual sounds that have been recorded and reproduced sound more cleanly separate, more like individual sounds than like a blend. This is also what draws me to my Quad ESL-57 speakers - aside from good frequency response and low harmonic and intermodulation distortion, superb transducers like the ESL-57 and these planar headphones really delineate the sounds in the recording from each other. These HE-6 offer that hard-to-describe "resolution" or "clarity" that comes when the transducer starts moving when the signal starts, and stops moving as soon as the signal stops, with minimal continuation of vibration.
The other thing these planars can do is produce BASS. Electrostatic headphones, coupled with the right electronics, also have good waterfall plots indicating good time-domain performance. But you run into trouble when you try to give an electrostatic diaphragm a lot of excursion. Get the diaphragm too close to the stator and you're going to have arcing, so you really have to watch it. You don't have that problem with planar drivers. If the diaphragm actually touches the magnetic stator due to a huge excursion, you'd get a "slap" or buzz sound, but no sparks. So, you can engineer greater excursion into planar-magnetic drivers than ESL's- for a given diaphragm size a planar magnetic driver can have better bass than an ESL. The HE-6 is no exception to this. There is deep, controlled and impactful bass. Bass is different from the LCD-2 because the voice of the HE-6 is different - more high frequency energy in the HE-6 means at a given overall volume level the bass will be a bit lower in comparison to the sound of the LCD-2. But the extension and low distortion, and good transient behavior of a planar driver is there in the HE-6 so the bass is of wonderful quality.
Now in the LCD-2 vs HE-6 area we can get into an argument about which sound we like- the slight mid-treble emphasis of the HE-6 or the slightly recessed overall treble of the LCD-2. That is a matter of taste. I like them BOTH. Just like I enjoy steak sometimes and salad at other times-
vive la différence!
COMFORT: Both the LCD-2 and HE-6 are heavy. I don't like that, but I consider that a small price to pay for the fine quality of the sound. I prefer the velour earpads of the HE-6. The lambskin pads of the LCD-2 are butter soft, but leather makes my ears hot and cloth does not. I haven't quite bent the frame of the HE-6 into exactly the right shape for my head yet - I am reluctant to just torque away on a pair of $1k+ headphones, but I think I will eventually get them to fit right. The HE-6 does seem to CLAMP my giant head more than the LCD-2, which is not to my liking, but maybe in time I'll be able to bend the HE-6 frames to eliminate this. Comfort of either phone is not it's strong point. I can wear them for an hour or two but really any longer gives me a headache. But like I said, for the fantastic sound quality, I will HAPPILY endure a little discomfort.
BUILD: Build is good, they seem sturdy and the finish is nice. I like the gloss black earcups and accents. The matte surface and gunmetal gray color of the steel framework goes very well with the gloss black. While the build is good, it doesn't display as much pretty craft as the precision alloy castings of the Sennheiser HD800s, for example. In fact, the nicest build I ever saw was the jewel-like Sony MDR-SA5000's I used to own, with their fabulous magnesium diecast framework and beautiful carbon-fiber earcups. I didn't really like their sound, so I sold them, but boy they were pretty.
CABLING: I would have angled the connectors forward instead of straight down, for comfort. I like the cable. I don't know if the cable makes it sound better (wire is a topic for endless debate) but I like the FLEXIBILITY of the cabling provided by the HE-6. I really dislike the stiff, jacketed cable of the LCD-2. I have a pair of Beyer DT880's with Black Dragon cables on them, and I ABSOLUTELY HATE the stiffness of these wires. The DT880's came with these wires when I bought them off Audiogon, so that's why I have them. I just hate stiff wire. Maybe the Black Dragon wire sounds great, I don't know, I've not compared this wire against other wire. But they sure are a pain physically, these stiff wires just won't DRAPE; they push and pull. Same with the LCD-2 wire. The Sennheisers get the wire right; nice flexible wire with quiet cloth jacketing. The Sony MDR-SA5000 was also excellent in this area- nicely thin cloth-jacketed wire. No cloth jacket on the HE-6, but nice soft plastic, and the wire is quite light. It's just fine. I want to get a set of wires for my LCD-2's that are like these HE-6 wires. I like the flexibility of different connectors, too, offered by the HE-6 stock cables. Dual-circuit balanced 4-pin XLR, standard 1/4" phono or speaker-amp wires are readily accomplished. The look of the HE-6 wires is like a handmade aftermarket / exotic cable. That's an OK look. They ARE exotic phones, and the cable looks a little nonstandard too, all the better.
AMPLIFIER COMPATIBILITY I will make a list of all my amps and whether they work / don't work with the HE-6 here, editing to add info as I check out the HE-6 on my various amps.
Audio-Gd FUN: Drives the HE-6 "OK" but not "great." Plays loud enough and bass is good (not great)- I had to turn the level control just about all the way up and I got a medium-loud level. Amp didn't sound like it was strained or clipping, but it had JUST enough "oomph."
Beta 22 (three-channel): Now we're talking! Great sound. Bass is WONDERFUL. All the volume you'd ever want, without any hint of strain from the amp.
