[drez]

Quote:

My first HE-6 was all black, that was one of the first ones. The new I got this spring, and it has silver brackets, better headband, and better sound quality I think, more bass, more crips/better attack.
 
Congrats, iemcrazy.

 
They might have changed the damping a bit, or maybe changed the cable.  If they changed the driver I'm sure they would have called it the HE-600 or something 

 
The HE-6 I have came with the OCC cable with heatshrink, and has cotton wool damping at the back of the driver, as well as foam covering a quarter of the driver earside.

 

[zenpunk]

Talking about damping, mine had just  tiny clumps of wool thrown in randomly 

 I wonder why they even bothered. How much wool is used for damping in the new one and does it look neatly arranged?
Mine looks like they ran out of wool or maybe it was made at the end of a long shift and the person couldn't be bothered.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

Talking about damping, mine had just  tiny clumps of wool thrown in randomly 

 I wonder why they even bothered. How much wool is used for damping in the new one and does it look neatly arranged?
Mine looks like they ran out of wool or maybe it was made at the end of a long shift and the person couldn't be bothered.

 
My HE-400's have a very, very, thin piece of acoustic foam, barely more than a piece of speaker cloth.  I expect its more about keeping dust from hitting the driver from the grille than it is about acoustic damping.  Fang doesn't seem to be fond of damping in general.  It may have something to do with the popularity of the damping removal mods in HE-5

 
Quote:

 
They might have changed the damping a bit, or maybe changed the cable.  If they changed the driver I'm sure they would have called it the HE-600 or something 

 
The HE-6 I have came with the OCC cable with heatshrink, and has cotton wool damping at the back of the driver, as well as foam covering a quarter of the driver earside.

 
Nah, adding 100 to the name seems to be what's done when the power requirements are reduced.  And when the rest of the magnets are installed (HE-4->HE-400)

 
What color are your gimbals, and did it arrive in the black chest or the travel zip case?  (I really dislike the HFM travel case...it's wonderful for traveling with your headphone...if you remove the cable...)

 

[drez]

Quote:

 
My HE-400's have a very, very, thin piece of acoustic foam, barely more than a piece of speaker cloth.  I expect its more about keeping dust from hitting the driver from the grille than it is about acoustic damping.  Fang doesn't seem to be fond of damping in general.  It may have something to do with the popularity of the damping removal mods in HE-5

 
 
Nah, adding 100 to the name seems to be what's done when the power requirements are reduced.  And when the rest of the magnets are installed (HE-4->HE-400)

 
What color are your gimbals, and did it arrive in the black chest or the travel zip case?  (I really dislike the HFM travel case...it's wonderful for traveling with your headphone...if you remove the cable...)

 
Gimbals are gunmetal and came with the felt lined box.  The trouble with cotton damping is channel balancing as well as getting consistency between one headphone and the next.  As far as sound signature changes between HE-6 models I would say it is entirely possible thorough damping changes alone.  Would be interesting to compare.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

 
Gimbals are gunmetal and came with the felt lined box.  The trouble with cotton damping is channel balancing as well as getting consistency between one headphone and the next.  As far as sound signature changes between HE-6 models I would say it is entirely possible thorough damping changes alone.  Would be interesting to compare.

 
Interesting so the newer models do come in the big felt box....good to know, and you made me a lot less antsy waiting for my cans

  I do actually prefer the felt box to the zipper case by a fair margin.  It's a much more practical way to store headphones like these...it's not like one plans to take these to the park with an iPod unless you're bringing a generator with you

 
HE-6 is still mostly hand-made isn't it?  I suspect "consistency" between units of anything that has a good part made by hand would be virtually impossible without uniform materials.  If they throw some cotton in there like yours, still, I would doubt that any two have ever sounded exactly the same.  I know from 400 that just passing a hand NEAR the cup creates a sucked-out effect on sound.  These cups are very damping sensitive.

 

[sluker]

Quote:

  I know from 400 that just passing a hand NEAR the cup creates a sucked-out effect on sound.  These cups are very damping sensitive.

Take a look at the ortho roundup thread and the T50rp threads. Damping is a HUGE factor in the sound of orhtodynamic headphones. Not just the quantity of material but the type of material and the configuration.
IME with the T50 the more dense the material and the smaller the volume behind the driver the less bass.
 
However, I have not yet experimented with the HE-6 as I am happy with the sound stock, plus the open design will probably turn everything I learned from the T50's on it's head.

 

[sphinxvc]

Think toilet paper.

 

[IEMCrazy]

Think toilet paper.

Not all toilet paper is the same. My Golden Bowl Audiophile Damping Paper (Charmin logo +$15) features special fine grain multi filament fibres (recycled newspaper logo +$5) will tighten any bass, and warm up the mids of any headphone, and features 15% more absorbency per square than any other brand of Audiophile Damping Paper!

Send check or money order for $499.99 today and turn your mediocre headphone into a royal flush!

 

[paradoxper]

Quote:

Not all toilet paper is the same. My Golden Bowl Audiophile Damping Paper (Charmin logo +$15) features special fine grain multi filament fibres (recycled newspaper logo +$5) will tighten any bass, and warm up the mids of any headphone, and features 15% more absorbency per square than any other brand of Audiophile Damping Paper!
Send check or money order for $499.99 today and turn your mediocre headphone into a royal flush!

You're seriously at it again. Considering your: http://www.iemcrazy4audio.com/productid?cryotreated-argon-contactcleaner.asp
 
I hope I get some kind of customer loyalty discount. 

 

[IEMCrazy]

Quote:

You're seriously at it again. Considering your: http://www.iemcrazy4audio.com/productid?cryotreated-argon-contactcleaner.asp
 
I hope I get some kind of customer loyalty discount. 

 
I'm no longer stocking the Cryo-treated Argon Contact Cleaner.   Too many complaints about it losing detail in the upper-midrange.  It has been replaced by http://www.iemcrazy4audio.com/productid?pixiedust-filled-socket-extender-set2.asp which eliminates the need for contacts and also makes your tubes glow brighter!
 
And don't forget the http://www.iemcrazy4audio.com/productid?tube-cleaning-brush-toiletbrush-shape.asp to be sure to keep those contacts in top shape.   For a limited time it comes with the Golden Bowl Audiophile Damping Paper extra quilted sampler pack (slightly used) pre-fitted for the entire HiFiMan series!  At only $195 it's the audio bargain of the year!
 
You're one of the pioneer customers, so you get a lifetime 1% discount.  Don't forget to tweet about us!
 
(I swear I'll end up with a MoT tag by some overzealous mod who hadn't slept for a week one of these days

)

 

[IEMCrazy]

So, while I wait for my HE-6 arrival sometime this week, I keep pondering earpads for them. Is there a consensus among HE-6 owners regarding the pleather versus velour pads? I know in the HE-400 circles, he pleather pads are seen as horrendously bad sounding with recessed mids compared to the velour pads, and the velour is suggested to every new owner as the best upgrade they'll ever do. I know the pleather is also horribly uncomfortable, and my one pair of HE-400 have such a strong clamping force that even the velour gets crushed a little too flat too soon. I suspect the HE-6 has a slightly more recessed interior grlle than the HE-400. 400 was noted as shallow when it first was released

But in terms of sound quality is there as strong a preference for velour amonth HE-6 owners? OR does the more baanced HE-6 sound proper with pleather as well?

That said I may be going with one flavor or the other of Audeze pads. I got a pair of vegans for my HE-400 and the comfort is out of this world. I have a leather on the way too to experiment with. I know I like my Lawton leathers on D5k. But I've always viewed cloth/velour pads as being more tonally neutral. But I'm not running a tube amp on the HE-6 as I do for HE-400 so perhaps the smoothing of leather/pleather would be advantageous?

HFM is one of the only cans where "pad rolling" is a standard practice :rolleyes:

 

[preproman]

I've only used the velour pads.  I've not used the pleather pads.  What amp are you going to use on the HE-6s?

 

[Shahrose]

Like you IEMCrazy, I prefer the sound of the velour over the pleather (but that goes for all open cans).

 

[sluker]

I on the other hand, prefer the leather pads from Audeeze and the stuffed HM-5 pleather pads from mp4nation.com. Having said that I am inclined towards a darker signature and have been trying to replicate the smoothness of the LCD-2 r1 with the clarity and soundstage of the HE-6.
To each his own I guess. Regardless of pads though, feed them well with speaker taps.

 

[budx3385]

^^^ My HE-6 also sounds better with the velour pads than with the pleather - more even across the spectrum, mostly. And my HE-6 has the quarter-field foam dampening only in the forward portion of the left earpiece. It's probably different from yours; Drew Baird told me each one has some dampening in different places. If that's custom-tuning, then I have to say "Well Done", because my HE-6 seems perfectly balanced, with a 3D soundstage that fills out very well with a good track.
 
Oh, and yes, it can produce more realistic transients driven by the 100wpc ss Odyssey Cyclops, but using a solid silver RSS cable from DHC, now that my HE-6 is well-burned-in (>400 hrs) it can provide plenty of detail, realism and emotion driven by my new Stratus 2A3 tube amp (~1.8wpc).