[Magick Man]

What are you using for your EQ?  I'm not running from PC so the tone controls are my "EQ" for now.  I'd have to get an actual console EQ unit for any more complex GEQ or PEQ type configurations, not that I feel an immediate need for it.  It's just that HE-6 makes EQ fun!

I use a parametric EQ on my PC (EasyQ) with a VST plugin for Foobar. It takes a little time to figure it all out and get it setup, but it's worth it. Aside from software EQ, your options become fewer and much more expensive.

 

[grokit]

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I tried the HE6 with the Lyr, a WA22 with upgraded, max power tubes, and a $175 pro audio speaker amp, and it was no contest; the speaker amp won by a longshot. I do think the Lyr as well as the WA22 was underpowered for the HE6, and the difference to my ears was enormous.
 
This. On the second bolded part, I think is a little bit of both but mostly power as long as it's clean. Now that I'm using the WA22 as a preamp I have noticed very subtle improvement, but nowhere near the improvement that I refer to above.
 
The reason the pads got upgraded was because the attachment tabs were fragile and prone to breakage, and inconsistency with the padding. So it will be very difficult to source a well-matched, intact pair.

 
Interesting results.  What tubes in the Lyr?  I wonder if the HE-6 just reveals the flaws of those stock GE TV tubes more easily?  No contest the Marantz has more detail than the Lyr with them, but I didn't attribute that to a power shortage.  Both seemed to drive the can with authority, but the speaker amp had more finesse. Thyough it could certainly be power related as well. 
 
Any more power on this amp and the volume control wouldn't have the ability to control volume smoothly

  I do wonder if some difference in experience could relate to how strong or weak the input signal is.  The Squeezebox Touch locked at 100% (which SHOULD be bit perfect but seems to output much louder output than any other digital source which makes me wonder if it's still doing digital gain even though it shouldn't.  Maybe it's related to it working entirely in 24-bit space.), into Bifrost (~2VRMS) seems to require any amp to not only not strain, but barely get off the volume floor.  Lyr, O2, the Marantz, with any can running out of that setup barely gets off the ground on the volume knob maxing out at 9:00 or less.  I swear the squeezebox output levels are turning the DAC into a preamp

  But maybe the Lyr performs exceptionally well when it's practically being fed preamp level signals

 
The pads...yeah, the ring upgrade was definitely worth it, but I wish they'd stuck to the original materials and thickness!

 
I never tried the stock tubes, I was using Amprex NOS gold pins; the Head-fier I sold them to when I returned the Lyr said they sounded great. And I'm not knocking the Lyr, I thought it was fantastic with the K701 but it just didn't do it for me with the orthos.
 
RE the input signal, high gain (input voltage) can be desirable but current is the important thing. To me that means heavy metal (transformers etc./I'm no EE). And it sounds like in your case the high gain is working against you but there are series resistors and attenuation options. I find that using a preamp helps to control this but sometimes I attenuate digitally as well.
 
 
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I use a parametric EQ on my PC (EasyQ) with a VST plugin for Foobar. It takes a little time to figure it all out and get it setup, but it's worth it. Aside from software EQ, your options become fewer and much more expensive.

 
+X on the EQ, I use a modest BBE hardware EQ between my balanced preamp and the speaker amp that drives the HE6/K1000 and they can both "take it", but the HE6 more so.

 

[IEMCrazy]

I use a parametric EQ on my PC (EasyQ) with a VST plugin for Foobar. It takes a little time to figure it all out and get it setup, but it's worth it. Aside from software EQ, your options become fewer and much more expensive.

Yeah, thats the issue...i took tje audio rig PCless with the Squeezebox, and i havent looked back EQ is the only thing thats missing...id have to go hardware, and i have to womder if theres a real valuento complex curves with he6. usually the point is to compensate specific flaws, otherwise simple tome comtrols work. And he6 doesnt seem to habe specific flaws to correct

 

[Silent One]

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God, now we have to put up with IEMCrazy's longwindeus supremus posts in the HE-6 thread too?
 

I'm afraid so!
 
Poor SilentOne didn't know to expect it...

 
But if you want some REAL fun check out my "Which Summit" thread....if you thought I was longwindeus, imagine what a barrage of banter between me and obobskovich is like!

  H-F may require additional storage space soon!

 
No need to feel for him, really. He's use to being silent and having folks wind up their delivery to address his silence. 

 

[IEMCrazy]

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I never tried the stock tubes, I was using Amprex NOS gold pins; the Head-fier I sold them to when I returned the Lyr said they sounded great. And I'm not knocking the Lyr, I thought it was fantastic with the K701 but it just didn't do it for me with the orthos.
 
RE the input signal, high gain (input voltage) can be desirable but current is the important thing. To me that means heavy metal (transformers etc./I'm no EE). And it sounds like in your case the high gain is working against you but there are series resistors and attenuation options. I find that using a preamp helps to control this but sometimes I attenuate digitally as well.
 
 
 
+X on the EQ, I use a modest BBE hardware EQ between my balanced preamp and the speaker amp that drives the HE6/K1000 and they can both "take it", but the HE6 more so.

 
Compared to the speaker taps the Lyr doesn't do it for me either.  But I still don't feel it sounded "underpowered" specifically, it just didn't sound as clean and finesse with detail, which is consistent with the fact that Schiit's pointed out it wasn't built to be ultra clean with detail, it was built for power.  I noticed no loss of the low end or overall weight.  I did notice loss of some of the detail and texture.  It still had more detail and texture than HE-400, but not as much as it's capable of (and I'd guess that it's capable of more than the Marantz & Bifrost are giving it as well.)
 
I wouldn't buy a Lyr for HE-6, but it sounds good enough that I wouldn't recommend someone against HE-6 if they intend to power it with a Lyr, specifically if they'll look into something better later.  It also gives me hope for Mjolnir & Statement with HE-6

  I'm glad you guys talked me into the bigger amp of course, but TECHNICALLY I'd have been none the wiser with the Lyr

 
I do sometimes do digital attenuation in the squeezebox.  The thing that keeps me from doing so regularly is I don't know if it's working in 24 bit space or if it's doing 16->24->16 bit conversions or anything like that muddling up the sound.  The other reason is for some reason wherever I set volume with digital attenuation in the Squeezebox, it doesn't always hold there, so the next time I turn it on I could get blasted with 99% volume where I had it set for 75%   Don't get me wrong, I love the SBT, it's far more convenient than mucking with PC sources
 
Also how do you feel about your BBE EQ.  I'd consider the same model you have, but I've always thought BBE had a sort of "close enough for stage work" kind of SQ.  Behringer has some "audophile" grade processors...but they have budget op-amps (or worse, DACS) in there, so I'm not hugely tempted to throw an EQ like that into the chain if I don't have specific issues to correct that basic tone control doesn't provide

 

[wotts]

I missed the mail carrier yesterday. I hope to have my HE-6 tomorrow and pending some free time, I'll get some impression with the Mjolnir posted here. I'll try to compare it to the Aleph 3.

 

[sphinxvc]

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Compared to the speaker taps the Lyr doesn't do it for me either.  But I still don't feel it sounded "underpowered" specifically, it just didn't sound as clean and finesse with detail, which is consistent with the fact that Schiit's pointed out it wasn't built to be ultra clean with detail, it was built for power.  I noticed no loss of the low end or overall weight.  I did notice loss of some of the detail and texture.  It still had more detail and texture than HE-400, but not as much as it's capable of (and I'd guess that it's capable of more than the Marantz & Bifrost are giving it as well.)
 
I wouldn't buy a Lyr for HE-6, but it sounds good enough that I wouldn't recommend someone against HE-6 if they intend to power it with a Lyr, specifically if they'll look into something better later.  It also gives me hope for Mjolnir & Statement with HE-6

  I'm glad you guys talked me into the bigger amp of course, but TECHNICALLY I'd have been none the wiser with the Lyr

 
I do sometimes do digital attenuation in the squeezebox.  The thing that keeps me from doing so regularly is I don't know if it's working in 24 bit space or if it's doing 16->24->16 bit conversions or anything like that muddling up the sound.  The other reason is for some reason wherever I set volume with digital attenuation in the Squeezebox, it doesn't always hold there, so the next time I turn it on I could get blasted with 99% volume where I had it set for 75%   Don't get me wrong, I love the SBT, it's far more convenient than mucking with PC sources
 
Also how do you feel about your BBE EQ.  I'd consider the same model you have, but I've always thought BBE had a sort of "close enough for stage work" kind of SQ.  Behringer has some "audophile" grade processors...but they have budget op-amps (or worse, DACS) in there, so I'm not hugely tempted to throw an EQ like that into the chain if I don't have specific issues to correct that basic tone control doesn't provide

 
I understand your point, but it's all a question of potential.  Why invest in a $1K flagship as resolving as the HE-6, only to rob it of it's greatest strength, it's transparency.
 
This is why people generally recommend "against."  Add to this that you can pick up a vintage or modern speaker amp for around the same (or less) cost.  

 

[IEMCrazy]

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I understand your point, but it's all a question of potential.  Why invest in a $1K flagship as resolving as the HE-6, only to rob it of it's greatest strength, it's transparency.
 
This is why people generally recommend "against."  Add to this that you can pick up a vintage or modern speaker amp for around the same (or less) cost.  

 
Oh I agree and see your point easily enough.  Like I'm said I'm glad everyone here encouraged me to go the speaker amp route.   But I think when it comes to Lyr, because it's sold as "power for orthos", a lot of people have one, come to HE-6 hearing about it's need for power, inquire if Lyr has the power, and the response from a lot of people gives the impression that "HE-6 needs more power than Lyr outuputs", or is the impression I got from it.  When I think the closer reality is that "Lyr isn't as refined an amp as HE-6 can take advantage of, but it has plenty of power to drive them OK, it's just less resolving than the headphones are." 
 
Similar to Lyr + HD800 threads, nobody claims HD800 needs more power than Lyr has, but it's conventional wisdom that HD800 reveals its flaws too easily and thus is better paired with a nicer amp.  I think HE-6 similarly reveals the flaws, though in a still-pleasing way.  Perhaps it makes HE-6 an HE-500 instead.  My feeling is HE-6+Lyr > HE-400 + Lyr, but HE-6 + Speaker amp (or maybe higher end balanced headphone amp?) = better still. 
 
You hit it exactly right on both counts though.  The first being the point Fang was trying to make with "HE-500 lacks HE-6's extreme clarity but sounds similar on a modest amp as HE-6 on a powerful amp."  (or something like that.)  HE-6 is still really good on an amp like Lyr, better still than the lower HFM models, but there's no point buying a $1300 flagship if you're not going to utilize what makes it so special as fully as you can.  You can save a lot of money if you're not going to match it with equal performance signal chain.
 
And the second point specific to HE-6 and not so much to other headphones in this bracket is, because it CAN take the power of big speaker amps and most other cans cant, and because good quality big speaker amps can be found so cheap compared to good headphone amps, that it makes the value of Lyr less appealing compared to other options.  And for HE-6 specifically that's a pretty slick deal!

 

[Silent One]

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I missed the mail carrier yesterday. I hope to have my HE-6 tomorrow and pending some free time, I'll get some impression with the Mjolnir posted here. I'll try to compare it to the Aleph 3.

 
This will make for a wonderful TGIF reading...

 

[wuwhere]

Used quality speaker amps are not cheap, specially the known brands like Threshold, Pass, Krell, etc...

 

[Elysian]

I think he's mixing up speaker amps with non-refurb vintage receivers.

 

[Loko-Pillo]

Hello, I'm really a noob...the only "quality" headphone I owned was HD650 for 2 weeks.
So forgive me if I'm totally mistaken about stuff (and correct me!)
 
 
Now I researched headphones (on head-fi, mainly) extensively until I decided that the best one to get was the HE-6. 
 
I have EF-5 already, so I understood its not the best...but its good enough until I upgrade (hopefully, got a flow of money next month).
 
My DAC is ODAC...from JS labs (i think that's what they're called).
 
 
I got the headphone was so happy and excited, connected it to my amp (which I've been heating since the morning) and, honestly, I was quite disappointed.
 
I don't know terms very well (because I don't speak english, mainly) but I think its the treble. The "sssssss" sound with the high notes...horrible!
 
I do understand they are treble heavy headphones...detailed kinda...get it...but what I'm hearing is not normal, I don't think so!
 
High treble and a hissssss in all the "high notes" are different things!
 
right?
 
 
 
I'm mostly listening to Flac and high quality audio, as far as I can tell. 
 
Like Roger Waters voice, on Dark Side of The Moon, for example, at the very beginning of Breathe...when he says "breathe...breathe in the air" is just "low quality"...but the recording is not bad quality actually I have 3 different vinyl recordings of the best ever (one 5.1, one 4.0 and one stereo)...yet they all have that same thing! 
 
I listened to Bach's Violin Concerto, it was just Divine! Beautiful not a single "ssss". Weird.
 
I understand this is not a bass heavy headphones, but the drum for example always sound like "CLASH" not "DUB", y'know? 
 
 
 
I changed the pads to the valour ones, I think it made it a bit better, not much though.
 
Burning them in would probably help (if its not a myth) but THAT much?
 
 
I don't believe that's how they are supposed to sound tbh, even "under-amped".
 
 
What do you guys think is the problem, any ideas?

 

[wuwhere]

That's not good. When I first got my HE-6, I was just using some low powered headphone amp but it sounded good, better than my HD600.

 

[Loko-Pillo]

Did you need to burn it in?
 
There is always the possibility that its a defective one...
 
Does the DAC affect the sound too much, or not really?
 
 
Sorry, for this ADD induced questionnaire lol

 

[wuwhere]

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Did you need to burn it in?
 
There is always the possibility that its a defective one...
 
Does the DAC affect the sound too much, or not really?
 
 
Sorry, for this ADD induced questionnaire lol

 
New from the box with no burn-in it was good. At the time I was just using my iBasso D10 for DAC, my laptop as source using Foobar. I bought my HE-6 Nov. 2010 when it just came out.