[Uncle00Jesse]

Is anyone using their v2s completely stock without a grill mod etc. and enjoying them? Or is the modding essentially mandatory?

 

[landwalker000]

4w @ 50ohm is more than enough unless the amp has topology problems.

A nice class A or class A/B amp pushing 2.5-3w at 50 ohm is already more than enough

I disagree when it comes to the HE-6. Unless the Liquid Gold X, Lyr 3, and Sa-1 are all terrible amps with bad topology, then 4w is not enough. I am not the alone in this view. There was a very noticeable improvement when I went from 4w to 7w, then finally to 14w.

 

[hmscott]

Is anyone using their v2s completely stock without a grill mod etc. and enjoying them? Or is the modding essentially mandatory?

Totally enjoying my Adorama Hifiman HE6SE V2 without mod's, using only 2w from a Hybrid Tube/SS amp, the Xduoo TA-20.

After a couple of months of listening, rolling about 10 pairs of tubes, I'm not so sure I need more power, as I'm not getting distorted audio at the top setting of 85 out of 95 - with the normal listening level between 60-70 - and I can't turn it up any further than 85 as it is too loud.

I'm using 12AU7 pre-amplifier tubes, and the TA-20 supports 12AT7 and 12AX7 so I ordered a couple of inexpensive unused / NOS (measured) pair to see if there is any volume boost or if they are going to overdrive the SS section.

I've watched BGGAR's recent video and I am tempted to get those add-on's for fun, but I really like how the stock band fits me, I can wear if for hours without any discomfort, and the way I have to pick up the headphones - touching the mesh screen - IDK if I could feel comfortable with large holes I could push my pinky through - and damage the driver. Same goes for the pads, those are huge and the ones I have in the stock headband are perfectly comfortable.

Nah, I'm not gonna mod the HE6SE V2's now, but I think I'll pick up the parts and hold on to them for a far future time when I've run out of other things to do

 

[Smoothstereo]

Totally enjoying my Adorama Hifiman HE6SE V2 without mod's, using only 2w from a Hybrid Tube/SS amp, the Xduoo TA-20.

After a couple of months of listening, rolling about 10 pairs of tubes, I'm not so sure I need more power, as I'm not getting distorted audio at the top setting of 85 out of 95 - and I can't turn it up any further as it is too loud. I'm using 12AU7 pre-amplifier tubes, and the TA-20 supports 12AT7 and 12AX7 so I ordered a couple of inexpensive unused / NOS (measured) pair to see if there is any volume boost or if they are going to overdrive the SS section.

I've watched BGGAR's recent video and I am tempted to get those add-on's for fun, but I really like how the stock band fits me, I can wear if for hours without any discomfort, and the way I have to pick up the headphones - touching the mesh screen - IDK if I could feel comfortable with large holes I could push my pinky through - and damage the driver. Same goes for the pads, those are huge and the ones I have in the stock headband are perfectly comfortable.

Nah, I'm not gonna mod the HE6SE V2's now, but I think I'll pick up the parts and hold on to them for a far future time when I've run out of other things to do

How is the stock HE6SE v2 on soundstage size?

 

[Dallagen]

I disagree when it comes to the HE-6. Unless the Liquid Gold X, Lyr 3, and Sa-1 are all terrible amps with bad topology, then 4w is not enough. I am not the alone in this view. There was a very noticeable improvement when I went from 4w to 7w, then finally to 14w.

People greatly confuse tonal qualities of the amp to the power driven by it. You are not inputting 14 watts into 50 ohms unless you are literally blowing out your drivers.

You are dropping your gain and using a better more capable amp.

 

[wazzupi]

I might go for the burson solo 3 if the SA-1 isn't good enough can anyone chime in ?

 

[landwalker000]

People greatly confuse tonal qualities of the amp to the power driven by it. You are not inputting 14 watts into 50 ohms unless you are literally blowing out your drivers.

You are dropping your gain and using a better more capable amp.

I'm not confusing anything. If you would use the search function on this very forum or go to any other thread about this headphone, then you will find many people using stereo amps. There's a reason Hifiman used to sell their own stereo tap for these. I am just relating my experience with these headphones and mine follows the standard route for the HE-6 and that is that a more powerful class A stereo amp does make an improvement. I used them with the Lyr 3, LGX, and the SA-1 and they all had the same issues with the Bifrost 2 being the DAC. The biggest being they distort in high gain when using FLAC files or streaming in FLAC/MQA.

 

[Dallagen]

I'm not confusing anything. If you would use the search function on this very forum or go to any other thread about this headphone, then you will find many people using stereo amps. There's a reason Hifiman used to sell their own stereo tap for these. I am just relating my experience with these headphones and mine follows the standard route for the HE-6 and that is that a more powerful class A stereo amp does make an improvement. I used them with the Lyr 3, LGX, and the SA-1 and they all had the same issues with the Bifrost 2 being the DAC. The biggest being they distort in high gain when using FLAC files or streaming in FLAC/MQA.

That viewpoint is literally incompatible with the reality of how transducers function.

You don't magically put more power into a headphone without increasing the volume. Increasing an amp's volume and dropping the preamp to volume match does nothing.

The Lyr 3 should not ever be distorting on even large peaks.

People's claims of underpowering it causing issues in the treble and bass is impossible with the HE-6's orthodynamic transducer, people just mistake the tonal properties of an amp not matching with "underpowering" it.

The Lyr 3 is just a very shrill sounding amp without tube rolling, and even that doesn't change a huge amount.

I'm not continuing this argument any further, because nothing I say will change what you believe. Audio is extremely subjective and to some people just the price tag of the equipment will make them perceive it as sounding better. To some people better measurements will make them perceive it as sounding better like the people on ASR who love the Topping A90. What you hear is most important and I can't change that, but I can make sure that people know that the people thinking hooking up way overkill speaker amps with extremely low gain and preamps lowering it even more aren't changing anything except the tonal properties of their amp. Even an Asgard 3 can capably drive an HE-6 and even pairs fairly well with its slightly warm presentation, with it's "measly" 2.5 wpc.

 

[antdroid]

You dont need 14 watts to enjoy the he6. you wont have any volume control for one.

I think the ideal target is 4-6 Watt for a headphone amp or 25-50W at 8ohms speaker amp, so you actually have some volume control and less likely to have noise issues.

The amp's characteristics and quality is much more important than pure power/power reserve. Yes I think its important to have some headroom but I don't think you need 14W of it either. But this is just my opinion.

The main reason Hifiman sold the HE taps was that HE6 was released in 2009 when most headphone amps did not have the power they do today. If you read up on why Schiit and others re-designed their headphone amps, it was mostly for the very rare use case of the HE6 or LCD planars which required much more power than what most headphone amps could back 10-12 years ago.

 

[hmscott]

How is the stock HE6SE v2 on soundstage size?

Widest next to the Hifiman Ananda, they are both detailed with a wide sound stage, and at least with the TA-20 the Ananda has enough sub-bass/bass - but the HE6SE V2 has much more. They are both excellent headphones. The Ananda is still only $699, down from $999. Maybe the HE6SE V2 will price drop again when another "boat-load" arrives.

The Sendyaudio Aiva has a wide soundstage, but not as wide as either Hifiman.

The Sennheiser HD660s also has a wide enveloping soundstage, very much head-centered - as in inside my head - it might even be a larger sound stage, but the perception is different.

I really enjoy both the Hifiman Ananda and the HE6SE V2

 

[Infoseeker]

How is the stock HE6SE v2 on soundstage size?

It isn't a Benchmark for soundstage. But in no way is it a small soundstage either. Very desk bookspeaker like feeling; like sitting loudly in front of their sweetspot (with no extra air feeling).

 

[Dallagen]

You dont need 14 watts to enjoy the he6. you wont have any volume control for one.

I think the ideal target is 4-6 Watt for a headphone amp or 25-50W at 8ohms speaker amp, so you actually have some volume control and less likely to have noise issues.

The amp's characteristics and quality is much more important than pure power/power reserve. Yes I think its important to have some headroom but I don't think you need 14W of it either. But this is just my opinion.

The main reason Hifiman sold the HE taps was that HE6 was released in 2009 when most headphone amps did not have the power they do today. If you read up on why Schiit and others re-designed their headphone amps, it was mostly for the very rare use case of the HE6 or LCD planars which required much more power than what most headphone amps could back 10-12 years ago.

I think even 2.5w-3w is plenty as long as it's a quality amp with a clean topology, rated wattage is generally for continuous current and not peak, good amps can usually push higher for a short period until they will clip due to being unable to sustain higher current, assuming a good noise floor on top of that you should be fine

 

[hp4fun]

Is anyone using their v2s completely stock without a grill mod etc. and enjoying them? Or is the modding essentially mandatory?

Glad that someone asked the same question!

I might be the outlier here but I do prefer the stock mob than the grill w/o cloth and than the fully open mod.

I feel the open mod really brings the openness, no doubt. However it loses the reverb and a bit texture in the bass. It then loses a little bit of the feeling of being in the real concert hall.

 

[antdroid]

Yea agree. The speaker amp market is notorious for advertising peak RMS "watts" plus combining all channels for total "watts" to make it sound better than it is, and this is "watts" at 10% or higher distortion.

 

[landwalker000]

I know what I hear. The two Parasound Zamps v3 in mono sound better than just one Zamp or the LGX, Lyr 3 (with NOS tubes), or or SA-1. And yes all three headphone amps distort in high gain when listening to Flac with the HE-6. I am not the first person to ever hook these up to a stereo amp and get better performance. It doesn't matter if you agree with me or not, that will not change what I hear when I use the He-6.