[newdm]

 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Skylab 


That said, there are lots of good vintage amps that sound awesome with the HE-6, and for much, much less money than the dedicated headphone amps that have been made for them.

 
 
I like the idea of using vintage gear to get good amplification for a small price.
 
Several receivers and amps have been named already (Pioneer SX, Sansui AU, Marantz, Kenwood). Sadly, most of them are quite sought and not that reasonable, unless you have luck and find a local bargain. Based on Ebay, the price for a Pioneer SX-1250 in good condition is not far away from a Master 6 or EF6, especially if a restoration is needed.

Are there any other quality vintage options with a powerful, warm sounding headphone out, that are not so popular and desired?
 
What about NAD, Sony, Onkyo, Hitachi and Toshiba, for example?

 

[scompton]

At a meet, the HE-6 sounded very good out of my Realistic STA-2200 out of the headphone jack.  It's 60W and some people had the volume high enough to bring it close to clipping so if you listen loud, it would be better off the speaker taps.  It's a real sleeper.  It's well thought of on Audiokarma and usually goes form $100 or a little more shipped on eBay.
 
I also have an NAD 3155.  It's left channel is blown so I haven't heard the HE-6 out of it, but it had plenty of power and a warm signature that would be nice with the HE-6.

 

[Skylab]

If one is trying to be frugal, the best thing to do is find something locally, that doesn't require the cost and risk of shipping. Something you can pick up, and that you can see operate before you pay for it, is a really good way to go. Start reading your local Craigslist, and read up here and on AudioKarma about models people like. Then be ready to pounce.

I got my SX-1250 and SX-1980 locally, and I'm glad I did. I just bought a smaller Marantz receiver, a 2235, that I wanted to mess around with doing LED upgrades on, and it arrived with a busted main speaker terminal, and bad DC offset on the left channel...no obvious damage to the packaging, but clearly damaged in shipping.

I know how to ship these monsters safely, but there are people who do not. And even so, there is the cost - can be $40-60 easy for the big ones.

 

[Magick Man]

They're here! They're here!

*running around in circles, waving arms*

Well, not really, but you know...

 

[hawkhead]

Not a receiver but the Primare 30.1 is wonderful and a lot cheaper than EF-6/DS
 
Some pics (I was dusting the inside)
 

 

[wuwhere]

That Primare looks like a dual mono, very nice.

 

[Magick Man]

These are hand built so the consistency isn't there like the standard industry cans. The Audeze have had similar issues during their growth. That's the pains of start up companies introducing new products. As they build their base, the assembly processes will work themselves out or the co. will continue to be a start up and never grow past their limited capabilities. I've had the original issued 6s, second generation 6s, 500s and they all had one or two minor issues. But that sound can't be found by the perfectly made manufacturers, so that's the tradeoff unless you want to wait until they work out the imperfections in the processes,.....

Well, I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised, the ones I received are in excellent condition. There are a couple tiny imperfections on the cups and the headband isn't perfectly stitched, but overall they're completely acceptable. Whew.

Now, the sound... It's going to take some time to get a complete impression, but so far they've met or exceeded my expectations. Not sure about break-in with PMags like this, my Fostex didn't seem to change, but I'm going to let these put out some pink noise for a while and see what happens.

 

[newdm]

@scomton, Skylab and hawkheak:
Thanks for your suggestions, I will try to find a local offer.
 
The Realistic STA-2200 has 60W and the Primare 30.1 100W.
 
At which watt level can I assume, that the headphone out of vintage gear is sufficient to drive a HE6 to it's full potential with enough headroom? Is a speaker output with 100W at 8 ohm a guideline?
 
(a NAD 7080 receiver from 1978 seems to be fairly reasonable, it has about 90W at 8 ohm)
 
 

 

[zenpunk]

What about a Yamaha A-S500? Not vintage, but huge and cheap, powerful and available to buy everywhere? anybody tried it with the HE-6?

 

[Skylab]

 
Quote:

@scomton, Skylab and hawkheak:
Thanks for your suggestions, I will try to find a local offer.
 
The Realistic STA-2200 has 60W and the Primare 30.1 100W.
 
At which watt level can I assume, that the headphone out of vintage gear is sufficient to drive a HE6 to it's full potential with enough headroom? Is a speaker output with 100W at 8 ohm a guideline?
 
(a NAD 7080 receiver from 1978 seems to be fairly reasonable, it has about 90W at 8 ohm)
 
 

 
There isn't a simple answer to this because many vintage receivers will have a dropping resistor in the headphone out, which is needed for powerful amps and the vast majority of headphones.  But my 85 wpc Marantz drives the HE-6 beautifully from the headphone out.  As a very rough guide, I would say 75 wpc into 8 ohms is likely enough given the value of most of the resistors I have seen...but even more is always nice! The HE-6 just soak up power.

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

 


 
There isn't a simple answer to this because many vintage receivers will have a dropping resistor in the headphone out, which is needed for powerful amps and the vast majority of headphones.  But my 85 wpc Marantz drives the HE-6 beautifully from the headphone out.  As a very rough guide, I would say 75 wpc into 8 ohms is likely enough given the value of most of the resistors I have seen...but even more is always nice! The HE-6 just soak up power.

Rob the Pioneer Sx650 drove them out of the headphone out with no issue. The SX980 worked well out of the jack and better than the SX65 but also better on the SX980 out of the Speaker jack. I think the SX1050,1080 and bigger units would work better as I found the more going in to the HE6 the better is became.  If i Had no issue with the headphone jack on the SX980 I wouls still have that setup. Big Mistake I made there and one I still regret.
 

 

[ardgedee]

Quote:

At which watt level can I assume, that the headphone out of vintage gear is sufficient to drive a HE6 to it's full potential with enough headroom? Is a speaker output with 100W at 8 ohm a guideline?

 
I have a Harmon/Kardon HK670 receiver with a manufacturer's claimed 60 WPC. The HE-6's sound through the headphone jack and speaker taps is similar. I prefer the sound off the speaker taps, but the qualitative difference is so subtle that I'll frequently use the headphone jack for the convenience and not feel like I'm missing anything.
 
To add to Skylab's explanation of the difference in headphone jacks, it's also worth remembering that manufacturers' claimed power ratings for their receivers were often conservative. And then again, sometimes they were exaggerated. When researching vintage receivers, power claims are useful as a general guide but should not be taken literally.

 

[LarsHP]

Quote:

@scomton, Skylab and hawkheak:
Thanks for your suggestions, I will try to find a local offer.
 
The Realistic STA-2200 has 60W and the Primare 30.1 100W.
 
At which watt level can I assume, that the headphone out of vintage gear is sufficient to drive a HE6 to it's full potential with enough headroom? Is a speaker output with 100W at 8 ohm a guideline?
 
(a NAD 7080 receiver from 1978 seems to be fairly reasonable, it has about 90W at 8 ohm)
 

I would say forget the headphone out and just look for integreated amps of high quality and then either connect directly to speaker tabs or put a good resistor / HE-adapter between them and the HE-6. The HE-adapter will actually be your headphone out box from any speaker amp.
 

 

[Magick Man]

I would say forget the headphone out and just look for integreated amps of high quality and then either connect directly to speaker tabs or put a good resistor / HE-adapter between them and the HE-6. The HE-adapter will actually be your headphone out box from any speaker amp.

I'm shopping for a good tube amp and I'm considering picking up a very nice MC250 that a guy is selling locally. Think it would work? What would I need to do to get it to work with my HE-6s?

 

[LarsHP]

Quote:

I'm shopping for a good tube amp and I'm considering picking up a very nice MC250 that a guy is selling locally. Think it would work? What would I need to do to get it to work with my HE-6s?

If it's a tube amp you WILL need the HE-adapter (or buy a resistor and put it in parallel) to make the load about 8 Ohms. Also the amp should have at least 40 Watts in 8 Ohms.
So - yes, from the spec's it looks like it will drive the HE-6 well. The only thing I would worry about would be hiss and signal to noise level, but I have no experience with tube amps running HE-6.
 
With solid state amps you have a choice to do it or not, since they "don't care" if the load is as high as 50 Ohms, and on the other hand they don't "like" low impedance loads like below 1 Ohm.
With tube amps it's the opposite way around: They don't "like" a high load of 50 Ohms. They are made for values like 4, 6 or 8 Ohms. It's the output transformers in the tube amps that are designed to the low impedance. Tube amps are on the other hand better able to work in very low impedances. Solid state amps that are made with huge power supplies may actually be able to handle the very low impedances, but these amps are usually heavy and expensive.