[franz12]

It is a huge upgrade from the aeon flow open and a lateral upgrade from the Clear. Again, the Clears aren't really my thing, but I'd say you get your money's worth with them.

Is HEK engaging as much as clear or aeon flow open? Planars tend to lack dynamic punch compared to dynamic counterparts. I wonder how HEK performs in this regard.

 

[dcguy73]

Is HEK engaging as much as clear or aeon flow open? Planars tend to lack dynamic punch compared to dynamic counterparts. I wonder how HEK performs in this regard.

That was my main complaint with the HEX, very little dynamic punch. The HEK is a big improvement over that, but it still lags a bit behind dynamic headphones in that regard. It's a trade-off I choose to make for a much larger soundstage. If I need more dynamic punch, I have my Amiron Homes or Senn 6XXs for that. As far as the Aeon Flow Open goes, that has more dynamic punch but a bit less resolution.

 

[Womaz]

Ok I am a novice at the equalisation stuff, so forgive me if what I am asking makes no sense. I love the sound of my HEK and if I could get my home rig to get some of that sound signature I would be delighted.
I may be barking up the wrong tree here but I am trialling roon and this has a parametric equaliser. Would it be possible to try and replicate the HEKs sound signature, and if so how would I attempt to do this
Any guidance appreciated

Can anyone point me in the right direction with this?

 

[phaeton70]

Can you guys tell me what dac and amp your using with hek and if you’re happy with it

I tipically use my HEKv2 with MSB Analog -> Custom Halgorythme 2A3 , sometimes when I want a slighlty tinner sound I use Auralic Vega -> Auralic Taurus MKII

I'm happy with both, the former is IMHO exceptional wrt how I like to listen, almost 90% of my listening is with it, the latter is more "hifi" and neutral, with slightly less impact, but still very enjoyable.

 

[gordec]

The HeK scales dramatically with amp. I initially had the HeK v2 with Woo WA8. It sounded so thin and anemic. Then I plugged then into the good old faithful Centrance M8. The dynamics came through right away. It became very punchy. This is the reason why I still have the M8 because it's so powerful for a portable kit. However, I still feel I haven't tapped into HeK's full potential, so I bought the McIntosh MHA100. Now we are taking. This is what end game should sound like. The HeK now has as much dynamics as the Utopia, but I sold it before I had the Mha100, so I can't compare them directly. Two weeks I learned from other Mha100 owners that the HeK will sound even better out of the speaker tabs. So I went out and bought a banana plug to XLR adapter. That's with 50W per channel of raw power. It's insane the HeK continues to scale up. Now it's sound stage is much wider, clarity and separation are both improved. Lastly it just punches harder compared to everything else I have tried.

So the take home point is that to fully enjoy HeK, you don't skimp on amp. I don't feel DAC is as important since I'm using the MHA100's integrated dac which many feels is what holds the amp back.

 

[dcguy73]

The HeK scales dramatically with amp. I initially had the HeK v2 with Woo WA8. It sounded so thin and anemic. Then I plugged then into the good old faithful Centrance M8. The dynamics came through right away. It became very punchy. This is the reason why I still have the M8 because it's so powerful for a portable kit. However, I still feel I haven't tapped into HeK's full potential, so I bought the McIntosh MHA100. Now we are taking. This is what end game should sound like. The HeK now has as much dynamics as the Utopia, but I sold it before I had the Mha100, so I can't compare them directly. Two weeks I learned from other Mha100 owners that the HeK will sound even better out of the speaker tabs. So I went out and bought a banana plug to XLR adapter. That's with 50W per channel of raw power. It's insane the HeK continues to scale up. Now it's sound stage is much wider, clarity and separation are both improved. Lastly it just punches harder compared to everything else I have tried.

So the take home point is that to fully enjoy HeK, you don't skimp on amp. I don't feel DAC is as important since I'm using the MHA100's integrated dac which many feels is what holds the amp back.

Wow. I don't think I can afford a major upgrade like that. You're seriously powering the headphones from your speaker terminals?

 

[gordec]

Wow. I don't think I can afford a major upgrade like that. You're seriously powering the headphones from your speaker terminals?

Once you invested in the can you kind of need to match it with the amp. I made that mistake for a while thinking in just going to get the TOTL headphones and I'm going to experience most of their potential with lesser amp, but amp matters a lot for the HeK.

I don't think you need the Mc to fully enjoy it. Just something more powerful. I heard even the new Cayin 6 amp has plenty of power. The iCan pro is also a nice choice.

 

[SilverEars]

First the HE-6, and now the HEK with the speaker taps. You just opened up a can of worms.

How's the volume knob range with the speaker taps?

 

[gordec]

First the HE-6, and now the HEK with the speaker taps. You just opened up a can of worms.

How's the volume knob range with the speaker taps?

Similar to headphone output at high gain. Volume at about 25-30% for me. I love to hear the Utopia with this setup. I know you are enjoying yours. .

 

[SilverEars]

Similar to headphone output at high gain. Volume at about 25-30% for me. I love to hear the Utopia with this setup. I know you are enjoying yours. .

Utopia doesn't take much to drive, speaker taps would be too much. Even balanced out of my Amp at low gain is only about 10% !! Compared to HEK which is about 30% of total volume knob range. Utopia, SE to Balanced difference is probably not as significant as the HEK with a strong amp. Balanced usually provides more power due to having two different amp lines driving each side of the driver separately, in which I think is most fitting for harder to drive planars. Utopia can be driven ok out of even portable sources I think.

Even on balanced, I'd put HEK on high gain compared to Utopia low gain.

 

[dcguy73]

Utopia doesn't take much to drive, speaker taps would be too much. Even balanced out of my Amp at low gain is only about 10% !! Compared to HEK which is about 30% of total volume knob range. Utopia, SE to Balanced difference is probably not as significant as the HEK with a strong amp. Balanced usually provides more power due to having two different amp lines driving each side of the driver separately, in which I think is most fitting for harder to drive planars. Utopia can be driven ok out of even portable sources I think.

Even on balanced, I'd put HEK on high gain compared to Utopia low gain.

I dunno about the HEK needing that much power to sound decent. I tried the highest gain setting on my iCan Pro and there was definitely more dynamic punch but the overall sound was not as balanced as it was with the medium gain setting. Also, with my Silvergarde cable, the sound became strident. With my copper cable, the sound was better, but there was still a sense of something being off. So at least with my amp, more power is not necessarily better.

 

[SilverEars]

I dunno about the HEK needing that much power to sound decent. I tried the highest gain setting on my iCan Pro and there was definitely more dynamic punch but the overall sound was not as balanced as it was with the medium gain setting. Also, with my Silvergarde cable, the sound became strident. With my copper cable, the sound was better, but there was still a sense of something being off. So at least with my amp, more power is not necessarily better.

I think this all depends on what your preference of HEK to be a bit forward or not. Headphones generally have slight differences in how it's driven, like for example in the case of HEK, one may be perfectly happy driven straight out of a Mojo, but with something that drives harder, they may find enough differences to warrant the amp's performance.

There's some stuff that doesn't make a whole lot of sense in general, especially regarding HE-6 being popular with speaker taps. HE-6 is quite inefficient, so there are some partial reason for that, but how much volume are people using even from speaker taps(although I guess the wattage varies for different speaker taps)? Balanced outputs and also higher gain typically sounded more forward and punchier in my past experiences, and this may just be due to greater gain overall. Like for example, 30% of the volume dial on my amp on low gain SE maybe 10% if on balanced at high gain. But subjectively, balanced just sounds like the ambient sounds come out more for live recordings, but also the sounds gets more forward. This is something I've notice for live recordings when comparing amps as well.

 

[dcguy73]

I think this all depends on what your preference of HEK to be a bit forward or not. Headphones generally have slight differences in how it's driven, like for example in the case of HEK, one may be perfectly happy driven straight out of a Mojo, but with something that drives harder, they may find enough differences to warrant the amp's performance.

There's some stuff that doesn't make a whole lot of sense in general, especially regarding HE-6 being popular with speaker taps. HE-6 is quite inefficient, so there are some partial reason for that, but how much volume are people using even from speaker taps(although I guess the wattage varies for different speaker taps)? Balanced outputs and also higher gain typically sounded more forward and punchier in my past experiences, and this may just be due to greater gain overall. Like for example, 30% of the volume dial on my amp on low gain SE maybe 10% if on balanced at high gain. But subjectively, balanced just sounds like the ambient sounds come out more for live recordings, but also the sounds gets more forward. This is something I've notice for live recordings when comparing amps as well.

Which amp and DAC are you using with the HEK?

 

[SilverEars]

Which amp and DAC are you using with the HEK?

Gumby > Bryston BHA-1 > headphones

 

[doctorjazz]

Heard back from Hifiman, RMA # on my HEK v2 that went bad. Should be sending them back soon. My dealings with Hifiman when there were any problems have always gone very well, have to say!