[Frank I]

All o0pen headphones are going to leak there is nothing to contain the sound. That being said they leak as much as any other open headphone. The Camper comment even at loud levels they do not sound like my Omega monitors at the same volume. But I do love the camper enthusiasm for the hE6

 

[Happy Camper]

All o0pen headphones are going to leak there is nothing to contain the sound. That being said they leak as much as any other open headphone. The Camper comment even at loud levels they do not sound like my Omega monitors at the same volume. But I do love the camper enthusiasm for the hE6

It should have been posted in blue font. I do listen to them that way when my wife and I are surfing in the family room.

 

[immtbiker]

John Grado had a pair of speakers built (one-offs) that were made by using approx. 25 RS-1 drivers lined up from top to botton…sort of like a McIntosh speaker, although Mc used ribbon tweeters and some kind of bass drivers.
I asked John about the ability for them to play bass, and his response was, "they're full range" headphone speakers, aren't they? 
Never heard them in action. though.
 
Here are the McIntosh's:
 

 

[ardgedee]

Resistors paralleled with the 50 ohm HE-6....  Good or bad?
Bottom line, you only need the resistors if you're trying to use a transformer output, tube amp, to keep the transformers happy.  Truth be told, at the minimal power levels we're talking about for headphones, it probably won't do any harm to use the headphones without the resistors.  If it's a noisy amp, the resistors may actually help make things quieter.

Can you elaborate on this? The sole purpose of my tube integrated is to drive the HE-6, so if the options available are to either add resistors that are going to soak the power I bought the amp for, or to risk the life expectancy of the transformers, I may as well sell it off for a good small solid state amp and add a tubed preamp if I want that tubey sound back.

So my question is that if it's a known thing that a significant impedance mismatch is bad, and the HE-6 provides that mismatch, and that it's so inefficient that we're plugging it into speaker taps to get it the juice it needs in the first place, can it be said to be running the amp within a safe low-power band at conventional listening volumes? This is probably not a canonically-answerable question, at least not without detailed knowledge of any particular amp, but can it be answered in a rule of thumb sort of way?

 

[sunneebear]

One day I'm gonna mount a HE6 to a box or board......

 

[grokit]

If I'm listening to my HE-6 before nodding off I will take them off sometimes and let them play next to my head. Properly positioned they do function pretty well as low-volume mini monitors. I have a remote for my volume so I will usually turn it up a bit though.

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

 

 
Just joined HE-6 owners club.  

Congrats man!!
 
 

 

[kwkarth]

Quote:

John Grado had a pair of speakers built (one-offs) that were made by using approx. 25 RS-1 drivers lined up from top to botton…sort of like a McIntosh speaker, although Mc used ribbon tweeters and some kind of bass drivers.
I asked John about the ability for them to play bass, and his response was, "they're full range" headphone speakers, aren't they? 
Never heard them in action. though.
 
Here are the McIntosh's:
 

There's a reason MC uses more than one size driver in their column arrays.  Solves some problems and creates others, but overall, I like the benefit.  I've built a number of line arrays in the day.  ( Great wife acceptance factor, that one. 

 )
 
 

 

[mill999red]

just got HE-5LE's and have a ZDT being built by Craig....would love to try out the HE-6's

 

[HeadphoneAddict]

Quote:

just got HE-5LE's and have a ZDT being built by Craig....would love to try out the HE-6's

Often I think my HE-5 LE with the HE-6 cable is actually a better match for the ZDT amp than my more power hungry HE-6, which sound better from a 40 watt Marantz or 55 watt Yamaha receiver speaker outputs.  You will love the HE-5 LE with ZDT, even with stock cable, and I find that pairing to be better than my LCD-2/ZDT as well.
 

 

[mill999red]

very helpful feedback...thank you Larry
 
I have also been interested in the LCD-2 with the ZDT.

 

[musicman59]

I am selling a Pass Labs Aleph 5 that I use with my HE-6. The only reason I am selling it is because I am a Threshold collector and just found a SA3.9e and needs to finance the purchase.
This amp really makes the HE-6 sing very nice. You can see it here:
http://www.head-fi.org/forum/thread/553995/fs-pass-labs-aleph-5-amplifier-in-great-condition
 
 
 

 

[tony31]

I am very interested by these headphones as i am found of my magnepan 1.6 speakers
Do they sound the same ?

 

[ardgedee]

I'm finally back home and have tried the HE-6 one last time with the Fisher X-202-B. The sound is sweet but the transformers get almost too hot to the touch, even when the speaker switch is "off" and I'm using Sextetts through the headphone jack instead [edited for clarity]. I don't know if that's a critical sign of problems or not, but I can't enjoy the music if I have to worry about it either.
 
So for now it's back to a T-amp for the HE-6. I'm contemplating whether to try a modest stereo amp component (Jose, your Aleph 5 would be perfect if I had the budget for it!) or going the vintage receiver route. I might try building a resistor circuit for the Fisher as well, but I don't feel confident that, relative to the effort, this would be a significant improvement over simply driving the HE-6 through the headphone jack.

 

[Happy Camper]

I am very interested by these headphones as i am found of my magnepan 1.6 speakers
Do they sound the same ?

Yes, they have all the characteristics of maggies. That includes needing a good amp to drive them. They suck power like a HEMI.