[DuncanDirkDick]

i also need one in Europe but there are no seller ):

I posted the slt files in this thread somewhere. Otherwise hit be up, I can print some if you like my design (on the road right now, can’t post examples but they are in here)

 

[ferorake]

Just use them without grills, they are way more robust than appears...

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Just watch for metal stuff around, the magnets are pretty strong and can attract undesired things inside the drivers that can even pierce the membrane.

 

[Brahmsian]

THX AAA 789 can drive them but only on third gain setting with volume almost all the way up. If you like to listen extra loud, the 789 will not be enough. But I want to push back on the claim that they sound bad on this amp.

 

[Nimzerz]

I tried my HE-6 on a THX amp, it sounded alright. I don't think that is a case of underpowering the headphone at all, just that people often will have a preference for a slightly harmonically rich amp.

 

[thefitz]

I tried my HE-6 on a THX amp, it sounded alright. I don't think that is a case of underpowering the headphone at all, just that people often will have a preference for a slightly harmonically rich amp.

What 100wpc into 4 ohm amps have you compared the THX to?

 

[Nimzerz]

What 100wpc into 4 ohm amps have you compared the THX to?

The HE-6? None. Have I tried high power amps with my HE-500? Yes. Do I think they would serve any use just due to their power rating? No. Hence my choice in the amplifier in my signature.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't like the THX amp at all. I am just saying that the fault is the amplifier itself, not the power.

 

[Nimzerz]

It is quite interesting how everyone here seems to think power is such a significant factor, yet one of the more popular brands for the HE-6 is in fact First Watt, which are relatively low powered class A amps.

 

[Brahmsian]

The HE-6? None. Have I tried high power amps with my HE-500? Yes. Do I think they would serve any use just due to their power rating? No. Hence my choice in the amplifier in my signature.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't like the THX amp at all. I am just saying that the fault is the amplifier itself, not the power.

Is it fair to fault the amplifier when it’s doing a good job amplifying without coloring the sound? It measures super clean. There’s software if you want to add harmonic richness.

 

[thefitz]

It is quite interesting how everyone here seems to think power is such a significant factor, yet one of the more popular brands for the HE-6 is in fact First Watt, which are relatively low powered class A amps.

For a good, like, 6-8 years, speaker amps (12-15 wpc into 50 ohms) was the universal recommendation. Then, the double whammy of the fire sales and the rise of the Topping A90 happened. and people insisted they work well together to justify their purchases. And then standards sank. Here we are.

I believe my Schiit Mjolnir served 8 wpc into 50 ohms. It was too steely and hard sounding. Then, I pulled the trigger on a speaker amp, using the Mjolnir as a preamp for it. It opened up considerably.

 

[Brahmsian]

The He-6se v2 is very good news for those of us who listen to classical music on headphones. Received them yesterday and fell in love within seconds. Listened for about three hours after work. I felt no desire to burn them in or find a better amp (even though I’m using a THX 789, which some claim is not a good pairing). The sound is full and rich and does an excellent job conveying the power of an orchestra while retaining a fine sense of air, space, depth, and refinement. The enjoyment/musicality factor with these is high (again even on a 789 amp, which some consider clinical). The bass adds weight while not muddying the other frequencies. In short, the He-6 has body AND soul.

Definitely superior to my other two Hifimans, 560 v2 and Ananda. The latter does give you a taller image, but it’s simply not as rich or layered. Neither the 560 nor Ananda has this degree of power and punch. And their tonality sounds artificial compared to the he-6, which is just superbly balanced across the frequency spectrum.

So far, I haven’t found the headphones to be uncomfortable, but I am surprised by how small the cups are. From pictures, I imagined they were the same as the 400i and 560, but no; they‘re much smaller. Some have complained that the clamp force is too weak compared to the amount of weight they place on the top of the head, but this is ideally suited to me since whatever discomfort I feel with headphones is never related to headband or strap but to clamping force. I only wish the cups were a little bigger. The he-6 feels very dense and compact in your hand and actually the sound signature is a lot like that, packing a lot into a limited space. How much do you guys think this superb sound has to do with the double-sided magnet array?

PS I bought these open box directly from Hifiman but it all looked brand spanking new and the box was sealed. Thank you, Hifiman, for yet another pleasurable experience!

 

[Brahmsian]

For a good, like, 6-8 years, speaker amps (12-15 wpc into 50 ohms) was the universal recommendation. Then, the double whammy of the fire sales and the rise of the Topping A90 happened. and people insisted they work well together to justify their purchases. And then standards sank. Here we are.

I believe my Schiit Mjolnir served 8 wpc into 50 ohms. It was too steely and hard sounding. Then, I pulled the trigger on a speaker amp, using the Mjolnir as a preamp for it. It opened up considerably.

I know what good sound is from listening to orchestras in a live hall. Playing well recorded classical music, the he-6se v2 does not sound hard or steely or clinical with the THX 789, which is even cheaper than the Topping A90. Interesting, some pop music can sound a little hard and steely on it, which leads me to conclude that what people are actually doing with their amp pairing, at least in part, is trying to make up for the way most rock or pop recordings are engineered. But the string tone on, say, Blomstedt’s Pentatone recording of Brahms’ Second Symphony played on the he-6se v2 using the 789 is heavenly, nothing wiry about it. Pure silk. But of course all this is relative. The he-6 might sound *even better* on a better amp or on a speaker amp. Won’t argue with that. But people should not be scared off if all they have is something like a 789 and they have some fabulously recorded classical to play with. You’re going to get good sound. If standards have sunk, the quality is still at a high level.

 

[thefitz]

If you like it on the THX 789, you'll likely have a heart attack and explode into dust if you hear it from a proper amp.

There's a lot of "ehh, I think it's fine through a Jotunheim/THX/A90, not going to bother with a speaker amp that I've never tried" and not too much "I tried both and it's a wash."

There's one guy that's tried this on an A90, Mjolnir, class-A Audeze Deckard, and a speaker amp. That guy is currently listening to them on a Ragnarok. That guy is me.

My $100 setup of a Schiit Sys and a dusty old power amp was better than any of those dedicated amps, minus the Ragnarok. My Schiit Freya/Bryston 3B ST setup was the best for the HE6SE, but it was too annoying for other headphones.

But I get it. It's 2022, and people in the audio community are stubborn as hell, especially when something's perceived to be a good value. The difference with my stubbornness is that I've actually tried all these things.

In the OG HE-6 days, when people paid full price, and perhaps even in the early HE6SEv1 days, absolutely nobody said ~4-5wpc was enough for these things. Even the EF6, which was made for the HE-6, wasn't adequate for those who actually tried different setups.

But then AudioScienceReview becomes a thing, these hardcover-sized amps become a thing, and coincidentally the headphone goes on a perpetual fire sale. All of a sudden, ~4-5wpc is fine.

Weird.

So yes, let's just say it here: The Jotunheim/THX789/A90 are perfect for the HE6SE! Yayyy!!

Let's watch - in 6 months, 2 watts will be plenty. Then, the original Asgard with 1wpc will be perfect. Then, an Apple dongle will be fine. Then, don't even plug the headphone into anything - it'll sound great! I got it on sale!

 

[Andrew_WOT]

Power requirement is 1.4W into 50 Ohm to get deafening 115db.

With an impedance of 50 Ω and a sensitivity of just 83 dB, the HE6SE v2 are very hard to drive and require lots of power: they need ~1.4 W to get to 115 dB. Now, I think that this requires a bit of explanation. That amount of power is not an opinion, that’s math and physics which you can use yourself to get to the same results. At 115 dB, you get permanently deaf to some (or even all) frequencies after less than 30 seconds. You can get to 115 dB for transients, say a single drum beat, and this is why you generally want to have enough power to get to these levels. But the thing is that recordings that have enough dynamic range to allow you to swing from the ~80 dB recommended maximum volume to 115 dB for transients are rare to come by and are probably countable using your fingers (maybe even your toes, if we want to be generous). So there really is little reason to have such an over-specced amplifier that goes beyond 1.5 W. Anything beyond that is just useless: you are never going to use it, no matter what.

I’ve read crazy stuff about the HE6SE v2: people complaining that their 4 W amplifier did not have enough power to drive these headphones “correctly”, or that “they only shine” if you use special cables with esoteric speaker amplifiers. Let’s get this straight: none of this is true. It’s all a steaming pile of rubbish. If you don’t like the sound of the HE6SE v2, or if you think that they should sound differently (e.g. have more bass, or sub-bass, or treble, or whatever), or if you think that more power will make them change in any significant way… then think again, and think harder. No amplifier can nor should fundamentally change how headphones sound, and if it does while not being a tube amplifier then it’s doing something very wrong to your music. So all this talk of “my amplifier can’t properly drive these headphones”, when you have something that outputs more than 2 W at 50 Ω, is basically an elaborate plot to get you to spend more of your money to buy more expensive equipment you don’t need and which won’t change your listening experience with the HE6SE v2. Now that we’ve settles this matter, let’s get on with the analysis.

 

[theangelboy]

I'm one of those weirdos that can't hear a benefit when using amps capable of pushing 8-16 watts (@50ohm) into the HE6se V2 in a controlled listening test, vs a THX-789 via XLR. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
From my experience, more power does not equal more better.

I know this will probably be considered controversial, but I have tried my HE6se V2 with 4 different speaker amps (vintage 100w per, a modern 50w per, and two different HT receivers that are both 100w per) and compared them all to my THX-789 (supposedly a "bad" pairing) and could hear no meaningful difference on the speaker amps (except an audible hiss on two of them) when they were volume matched to my comfortable listening level of ~75db. Not in bass, mids, treble, soundstage, or imaging. I used a switch box for my testing so there was no gaps in the audio when going between amps.

Maybe I listen too quiet, or my ears are poor, or don't have good enough cabling, or the amps weren't expensive enough, or my DAC wasn't transparent enough, or I was using the wrong music to test, or my brain was tricking me... etc. So YMMV, I guess, but, regardless, I can't discern any sonic advantage of using more power. I don't think amp chasing is productive. My advice is to stop worrying if you are driving them "enough" and just enjoy these impressive headphones. I've even tried them on my $30 Douk Audio U3 of off a battery bank and although I couldn't A/B compare them with my other amps when using that set up, they still sounded very enjoyable and still held the same or very similar technical superiority over other headphones.

I'm not trying to rain on anyone's parade or be combative. If you enjoy hunting down that sought after vintage amp or other equipment, then great! More power to you for enjoying the hobby the way you want. I just think that if someone is turned off getting this headphone over fears of not being able to drive them "well enough" with a conventional headphone amp, that's a shame. They are great headphones (QC driver issues aside) and have an unparalleled price to performance ratio (yes, even on a regular headphone amp) at the sale price, so scaring someone off of what might very well be their end game is a bummer.

Of course, YMMV and whatnot.