[Xenophon]

   
I am planning to go with EF-6, is should be safe bet. I am kind of frustrated with speaker amps. With speaker amps your entire rig has to have good synergy, dac->premap->power amp. And I would end up spending 3K and kind of risky with experiments high gain may blow up the HE-6. 
 
with EF-6 and with simple balanced DAC (like emo DC-1).... if am able to get 80% SQ what preproman or brunk get out of their rigs, then it should safe bet in long run....I guess.

I thought about the EF-6 too and it would be easier to source in Europe and on the whole a lot cheaper to boot but I think there's more to be squeezed out of the 6.  Painful process though...busy cancelling my FW F-3 purchase right now after what transpired about it earlier in the thread.  I know myself, having decided to give a speaker amp a try to see if it really substantially improves performance I might as well go the whole hog and stop the 'what if' merry go round.  Back to the drawing board for me.  These cans are a ******* minefield and only suitable for people with a pronounced masochistic trait....I feel like a snail crawling over the edge of a straight razor (flashback to 'Apocalypse now').

 

[musicinmymind]

I can Recomend an amp that is just Bout as good a 6 k amp I own. And it has a volume control and preamp with both BAL and SE INPUTS. .

The KRELL kav 400 xi. I own it too. It s a truly great amp to go with many headphones I own. And it will,lite full size speakers too.
It is big , heavy and gets hot and must be hot to sound good.

Al

 
But I do not understand what would I miss between EF-6 v/s KRELL kav 400 xi,
 
I have read many comments that you would not go wrong with EF-6, when it comes to Instrument separation, Air, openness, Imaging and placement, Transparency, Midrange or Bass: Impact, quantity, quality. 

 

[Clemmaster]

Imaging is not the EF-6 strong point, IMO.

 

[brunk]

  Hi Guys - all this talk about the First Watt F4, I thought it'll be a time to let you all know that I've finished my first DIY build!! I've just about finished the F4 - it sounds out of this world!! crazy detail and dynamics!! The only thing is I haven't tested it with my HE-6s yet - they have had to be sent back to hifiman as the right driver went on me weeks ago. I'm based in the UK so I'll have to wait a while longer
 
Will let you all know how it sounds once I get the replacement back. Just to update you on my choice of configuration - didn't do the mono blocks but decided to do dual mono. I've attach a testing pic - excuse the extra wires  
 
Have to say it is the best sounding amp I've heard - I haven’t got the best speakers but the extra detail level and bass was crazy! its similar to the extra detail and transparency my HE-6 gave me over my speakers in my old setup. Could only imagine how good it'll sound with my HE-6s. Just ordered the KEF R300 speakers for them also.  
 
One thing is yes they do need a good preamp with good gain. I tried it with my Hifi-M8 as a DAC preamp and it did get it to an OK level but not loud enough - had to drive it with my 80s Pioneer amp - it has a speaker output with phono jacks.  My next DIY project will be a Nelson - BA-3 front-end made as a preamp. This will drive the F4 perfectly. Thanks to Brunk and the kind souls in diyAudio for some brilliant assistance and suggestions!
 

That looks beautiful man! I was a little concerned about your higher voltage toroidals, but it looks like it worked out in the end How long does it take to fully warm up in that 5U beast? Always happy to help a fellow Head-Fi'er!

 
 
Edit: I am building F4 and Aleph J very soon and am going with 50v Elna Silmic II's, solen fast caps, and some very nice panasonic ecwf films for the bypasses. Still looking for a source for matched quad MOSFETs, do you have a referral by chance?

 

[ALRAINBOW]

It's not that the cans are that much of a pain. Most headphones don't care what amp you use or nearly like that.

The point is when you buy a headphone that is truly above amost all headphones it is more dificults to achieve the best from it. You can buy the ef6. I have never heard one but I am sure it's pretty good. But to achieve much more that is when you need to dig down to find a proven one. I have five amps that drive them very well.
So it's not that hard.

Al

 

[gjc11028]

I am planning to go with EF-6, is should be safe bet. I am kind of frustrated with speaker amps. With speaker amps your entire rig has to have good synergy, dac->premap->power amp. And I would end up spending 3K and kind of risky with experiments high gain may blow up the HE-6. 

with EF-6 and with simple balanced DAC (like emo DC-1).... if am able to get 80% SQ what preproman or brunk get out of their rigs, then it should safe bet in long run....I guess.

not sure why the dac is less important with the ef-6.

 

[ohhgourami]

not sure why the dac is less important with the ef-6.

Maybe it isn't as resolving?

 

[erikfreedom]

soundstage is incredible with ef-6 he-6 pairing.. volume pot on mine is never over 10 o'clock. more than that it would be dangerous. ef-6 lacks nothing with the he-6. and as a bonus sound great with hd 800. I use mine with hegel hd25 dac and it makes for a wonderful sounding rig for the he-6.  hegel hd25 dac has made soundstage gigantic with he-6. I find it even more impressive than hd 800 at loud levels. my ideal amplifier for the he-6 would be a dynamite. a fully balanced dynahi. but there are none to be found nowhere.

 

[musicinmymind]

 

I am planning to go with EF-6, is should be safe bet. I am kind of frustrated with speaker amps. With speaker amps your entire rig has to have good synergy, dac->premap->power amp. And I would end up spending 3K and kind of risky with experiments high gain may blow up the HE-6. 

with EF-6 and with simple balanced DAC (like emo DC-1).... if am able to get 80% SQ what preproman or brunk get out of their rigs, then it should safe bet in long run....I guess.

not sure why the dac is less important with the ef-6.

 
I did not mean to say cheap dac, DC1 is regarded as good DAC for sound quality to price ratio. I meant dac without DSD capabilities, filters and other added features, please do not read simple as cheap dac, I should have elaborated earlier.
 
But it is still true that I got frustrated when DC-1 did not work as I expected with Emo UPA-200 power amp,  both are good products. UPA-200 was liked and suggested by preproman, I totally agree with him, when used with high gain Lyr (preamp) - > UPA-200 bass was massive with solid Impact, quantity, quality. But problem with Lyr (preamp) is noise floor is audioable even at 80db.
 
As I did not want to invest both on Pre-amp and DAC, I was searching for an affordable DAC with pre-amp, went with DC-1 for it's analog pre-amp capabilities. Sound improved across spectrum using DC-1, soundstage opened up, Imaging, placement, Transparency was better, but HE-6 sound more seismic, bass mellowed down. over all it sounded more like HD-800.
 
this should be learning path "in pursuit of happiness", my learning from this epospide is that I should understand and learn from others considering their entire rig, rather than one component of it and stop assuming end game statements from fraction of component. 

 

[musicinmymind]

  soundstage is incredible with ef-6 he-6 pairing.. volume pot on mine is never over 10 o'clock. more than that it would be dangerous. ef-6 lacks nothing with the he-6. and as a bonus sound great with hd 800. I use mine with hegel hd25 dac and it makes for a wonderful sounding rig for the he-6.  hegel hd25 dac has made soundstage gigantic with he-6. I find it even more impressive than hd 800 at loud levels. my ideal amplifier for the he-6 would be a dynamite. a fully balanced dynahi. but there are none to be found nowhere.

 
at this platform these statements has weightage, only if you complement and compare with other already acknowledge rigs and probability the reason I wanted EF-6 is to understand the benchmark.

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

The EF6 imaging and soundstage improves and scales up with a better DAC, like my Perfectwave DAC vs Stello DA-100.  But it is slightly more forward and up-front sounding than something like my ZDT amp, as well as being more energetic and a little less refined than the ZDT.  However, the ZDT that costs 2x more is a little too laid back sounding with the HE-6, and it's not as exciting and impactful to play with as the EF-6.

 

[preproman]

  soundstage is incredible with ef-6 he-6 pairing.. volume pot on mine is never over 10 o'clock. more than that it would be dangerous. ef-6 lacks nothing with the he-6. and as a bonus sound great with hd 800. I use mine with hegel hd25 dac and it makes for a wonderful sounding rig for the he-6.  hegel hd25 dac has made soundstage gigantic with he-6. I find it even more impressive than hd 800 at loud levels. my ideal amplifier for the he-6 would be a dynamite. a fully balanced dynahi. but there are none to be found nowhere.

 
 
Yes there is.  It's called the Super Symmetry Dynahi.

 

[Silent One]

Update:
 
- Sunday night

I bought the Apogee Big Ben Clock back. System just wasn't quite right in his absence.
 
- Still burning the ZEROs in. Fast approaching 50 hours and speeding toward the recommended "100." At this writing, however, ain't workin' out. But will go the distance as anything can happen. Showing the Shindo Lab monaural amps 16 Ohms from the HE-6 gives it a lot more drive at similar volume settings versus the HE-Adapter @ 8 Ohms. The amps run cooler, too. This suggests to me that the amp worked harder with the HE-6 @ 8 Ohms. That said, despite working harder it also returned a bit more Bass and Slam. Moving the cans up to "16" returns a more polite presentation with less current.
 
Gimme back my Bass. 

 
Currently considering modding the adapter for 16 Ohms instead of "8" and with wirewound resistors. What I want to determine is the difference in presentation with the HE-6 @ 16 Ohms with both options, HE-Adapter and ZERO Autoformers. If all else fails, I'll return to the adapter @ 8 Ohms for now. I'm selling my beloved Sansui G-22000, so I'm trying to optimize what I got left.
 
Add: My monos have 4-8-16 Ohm taps but I prefer to leave 'em @ 16 Ohms. 

 

[Armaegis]

Have you tried using the autoformers to run your amp on the 8ohm taps?
 
It's no surprise that it's cooler at 16ohm since there's less current flowing.

 

[Silent One]

  Have you tried using the autoformers to run your amp on the 8ohm taps?
 
It's no surprise that it's cooler at 16ohm since there's less current flowing.

Yeah 

 I know. Haven't tried any experiments yet - waiting to reach 100 hours and then 

 whatever we can think to try. The ZEROs have a generous 60 Day return policy.
 
Changing taps involve soldering and I'm not going there. What I may do this weekend though is use the ZEROs to drop the HE-Adapter from 8 Ohms to 4 Ohms just to see what the extra current gives me.