[TWerk]

I agree that it kills competition - nothing at that price level compares to this level.

People spend $300-400 on mid fi cans and they can get these instead - granted you need a decent amp too but yeah....

 

[greenfielda2]

I agree that it kills competition - nothing at that price level compares to this level, except for its sister HE-500, which is out of production now.

People spend $300-400 on mid fi cans and they can get these instead - granted you need a decent amp too but yeah....

i consider myself 'mid' audiophile. Listening now: Tidal (lossless) foobar --> SONY TA-ZH1ES as DAC --> WA6SE --> HE6SE, vocal is so intimate, frighteningly real. It makes you feel that 'audiophile'
is worth every penny, or in another words, regardless bank account damage

 

[TWerk]

Yes! I totally hear you on that. The realism is unbeatable - they are so nuanced, airy, beautiful. But then switch to other genres where realism isn't the focus like electronic music or pop and they preform amazingly just as well. Even vocals on stuff like pop can sound strikingly revealing. I'm same as you, (not really think of myself at least as audiophile) so much as someone who loves listening to music for immersion and enjoyment (I don't care what a graph looks like) but stuff like this will make an audiophile out of you in short order. They're end game headphones.

The only bad thing about these is everything afterwards is a disappointment.

 

[bagwell359]

Got my HE6SE, it is v1 not the v2. Shockingly good, speechless at this price ($600-
$700). Can only imagine how good the original HE6 would be. No need for break-in. After 30 sec, i know it is a winner, easily beats my HD800s. This is with stock cable, no mod. Woo Audio WA6SE Gen2 handled it well but i needed to turn my SONY TA-ZH1ES DAC pre-out volume up by 50%. You were probablly correct, without TA-ZH1ES pre-out gain control, WA6SE may not provide adequate power.

I have had the v1 for over 4 years. It is quite amazing for the price. The bass impact of the OG HE-6 is quite a bit more impressive. As for other aspects? I'll take my massaged v1 overall over the OG.

My v1 is my best headphone: As is typical for HFM, the driver is superb, but the rest of it shows lack of effort/research. After proper parametric EQ (not Harman), switch pads (DCA Ether Angled Lambskin), rear screen off, or with greater open space, switch cables (even diy O2 free is a firm upgrade), fuzzor mod, dynamat to cut bass vibrations for better damped bass.

It does improve with break-in. It made 2 significant changes by 20, and then by 90 hours, and a smaller one around 60 hrs. This is with hearing my other reference cans 1 hr before (HE-500), and for one hour after (HD-600) - using the same music each time. Then 9 hours nonmonitored playing various dynamic cuts on the v1- all to avoid ear break-in.

 

[bagwell359]

Its a long story, but after being into the cable wars (in the subjective side, with a few blind test situations to bolster those conclusions) from1977-95, I stopped. I only found differences again thanks to HFM, not DCA, not Audeze, not Senn... The stock cables on the HE-500, HEX v2 and HE-6 SE v1 and v2 (and others) are sonically inferior in blind testing vs a capable O2 cable such as the generic Custom Cans cables. Parametric EQ (not Harman) and pad upgrades on the round cups (specific ones, not any old) have more impact. So does the rear grill off on the round cups. Then fuzzor mod on the SE v1 and my bass vibration mod (dynamat) are about of the same amount of change. The Dynamat would be about 15 cents from a $35 sheet, rear grill =0, fuzzor about 12 cents from a $15 roll. Parametric on digital $8 lifetime. My preferred pads about $90 inc shipping, CC cables $125ish. So $350 cables makes sense?

On paper, silver looks the best. But, the best speaker cable I ever used was a 2 ga. aluminum mainframe cable on my DQ-10's. After that I tried a 2 ga welders cable (gack! properly stranded cable matters - those were the worst I ever used). Those aluminum cables were stolen but I got over it as amps and speakers have become more robust in design, cables start to seem awfully generic to me, so I use a pair of blue jeans cables or my own diy for speakers.

The craziest thing is power amp cables. So after the vagaries of the plug, home, step up transformer, long lines (miles long perhaps), a 5' power cable I once had demonstrated to me is going to fix all that? For $5k? Unlike the Emperor, I had clothes on.... what a scam.

 

[greenfielda2]

Its a long story, but after being into the cable wars (in the subjective side, with a few blind test situations to bolster those conclusions) from1977-95, I stopped. I only found differences again thanks to HFM, not DCA, not Audeze, not Senn... The stock cables on the HE-500, HEX v2 and HE-6 SE v1 and v2 (and others) are sonically inferior in blind testing vs a capable O2 cable such as the generic Custom Cans cables. Parametric EQ (not Harman) and pad upgrades on the round cups (specific ones, not any old) have more impact. So does the rear grill off on the round cups. Then fuzzor mod on the SE v1 and my bass vibration mod (dynamat) are about of the same amount of change. The Dynamat would be about 15 cents from a $35 sheet, rear grill =0, fuzzor about 12 cents from a $15 roll. Parametric on digital $8 lifetime. My preferred pads about $90 inc shipping, CC cables $125ish. So $350 cables makes sense?

On paper, silver looks the best. But, the best speaker cable I ever used was a 2 ga. aluminum mainframe cable on my DQ-10's. After that I tried a 2 ga welders cable (gack! properly stranded cable matters - those were the worst I ever used). Those aluminum cables were stolen but I got over it as amps and speakers have become more robust in design, cables start to seem awfully generic to me, so I use a pair of blue jeans cables or my own diy for speakers.

The craziest thing is power amp cables. So after the vagaries of the plug, home, step up transformer, long lines (miles long perhaps), a 5' power cable I once had demonstrated to me is going to fix all that? For $5k? Unlike the Emperor, I had clothes on.... what a scam.

Hear you !! Just need to try couple of affordable cables, that's it. Diminishing return is definitely working here....Getting into cable pairing is the beginning of 'audiophile' and demand higher and higher 'dose' of that Life is boring and this hobby is at least as healthy as it could be LOL ....

 

[defrsh]

I've been running the HE6se v2 for a bit now to hear the hype. The punch(!) these have is such a unique feel. I am trying to get a good feeling with them before I try out a pair of LCD-X to see which of the two I prefer before getting rid of the lesser one for me.

The HE6se has such a great sound for the price I purchased it at, but that build quality is not great. It also rests a bit weird on my head with its shape. Also this talk of amplification always bothers me. I have been running them off a Topping EX5 recently and they also ran fine off a Ifi Zen Dac V2 before that. I'm not looking for very high volumes with my listening pref but it didn't seem to miss its punch with these two Desktop amps.

 

[screwdriver]

I've been running the HE6se v2 for a bit now to hear the hype. The punch(!) these have is such a unique feel. I am trying to get a good feeling with them before I try out a pair of LCD-X to see which of the two I prefer before getting rid of the lesser one for me.

The HE6se has such a great sound for the price I purchased it at, but that build quality is not great. It also rests a bit weird on my head with its shape. Also this talk of amplification always bothers me. I have been running them off a Topping EX5 recently and they also ran fine off a Ifi Zen Dac V2 before that. I'm not looking for very high volumes with my listening pref but it didn't seem to miss its punch with these two Desktop amps.

I replaced the earpadsnon mine and I also replaced the headband and leather strap with the zmf ones . It makes it a joy to wear.

 

[Shawn71]

looking forward to trying them!

 

[dstarr3]

I recently scored a good deal on another modern monster receiver, the Onkyo SR875. 160W@8ohms, and it has a bloody massive toroidal transformer at the front:



The transformer itself has got to weigh 40 pounds, let alone the rest of the receiver also being pretty tanky.

I took some DC offset measurements yesterday to see what kind of shape it's in, across all 7 channels the highest offset was 15mV. So, it may be 15 years old, but it still measures basically like new. *chef's kiss*

Hooked up my HE6se V2 via a speaker-tap-to-4-pin-XLR adapter I made, did some quick testing, sounds tremendous. Pretty much the only complaint I've ever heard about this receiver is that it tends to run very hot, but that might be if you're powering all 7 channels. Powering just two channels, temps were typical for me.

Excited to put this head-to-head against my other monster Onkyo, the NR727. The DC offset on my NR727 is more like 50mV, which isn't bad, but it's not 15mV, so I may keep the 875 and sell the 727 on that basis alone.

Either way, both of these receivers only cost me about $150 each, so they're phenomenal ways to power the HE6se V2 for cheap.

Ultimately, I'd love to pick up a good vintage receiver from the days of the wattage wars, namely I've got my eyes on getting a Luxman R-117 if I can find one recently restored for a good price. But until then, either one of these two monster Onkyos will do juuuuuuuuuust fine. And I wouldn't be surprised if the value on these shoots up as they age into "vintage" status, as well. Just good ol' brute-force audio.

 

[KCXT]

I recently scored a good deal on another modern monster receiver, the Onkyo SR875. 160W@8ohms, and it has a bloody massive toroidal transformer at the front:



The transformer itself has got to weigh 40 pounds, let alone the rest of the receiver also being pretty tanky.

I took some DC offset measurements yesterday to see what kind of shape it's in, across all 7 channels the highest offset was 15mV. So, it may be 15 years old, but it still measures basically like new. *chef's kiss*

Hooked up my HE6se V2 via a speaker-tap-to-4-pin-XLR adapter I made, did some quick testing, sounds tremendous. Pretty much the only complaint I've ever heard about this receiver is that it tends to run very hot, but that might be if you're powering all 7 channels. Powering just two channels, temps were typical for me.

Excited to put this head-to-head against my other monster Onkyo, the NR727. The DC offset on my NR727 is more like 50mV, which isn't bad, but it's not 15mV, so I may keep the 875 and sell the 727 on that basis alone.

Either way, both of these receivers only cost me about $150 each, so they're phenomenal ways to power the HE6se V2 for cheap.

Ultimately, I'd love to pick up a good vintage receiver from the days of the wattage wars, namely I've got my eyes on getting a Luxman R-117 if I can find one recently restored for a good price. But until then, either one of these two monster Onkyos will do juuuuuuuuuust fine. And I wouldn't be surprised if the value on these shoots up as they age into "vintage" status, as well. Just good ol' brute-force audio.

Yeah, these were leaving me wanting from the THX 789 the other night (even balanced with a full 4.0V input) but plugging them into my jumpered Emotiva A-100 just makes them way more satisfying. Not quite an SR875 but still plenty of oomph and the power availability really does take these to another level.

 

[greenfielda2]

I've had mixed feelings on silver cables. I sometimes found it to make the sound more shrill. I'm not an authority on cables.

I don't love the cable on the 6SE but also don't hate it enough to replace it. The sound is glorious to me so I don't feel like bothering.

As far as the V1 vs. V2 debate I mean I paid under $400 for my V2 so that's the sale right there for me. Rediculous value.

$699 is approaching almost double, so that's up to you. I don't dislike the headband on the V2, find it pretty comfortable.

Got my silver cable. As you said, more shrill. No good, but the silver cable worked great for my HD800S. HE6SE v1 stock cable is surprisingly good, why people complaint it? No wonder HFM website sells it for $350.

Bought a HE-500. Arrives in a week. How's your HE500 vs 6SE v2?

 

[TWerk]

@greenfielda2 - Interesting you notice the added shrillness too - and yeah, I find that stock cable just sounds spot on for me and don't want to mess around with something that might change it in any way.

I find they compliment each other really well. The 500 is more forward sounding, especially mids come up IMO. The mids are rich and wonderful. The 6SE is more resolving and technically better. The 500 seems to have more warmth and body to it while the 6SE is more detailed, airy, and resolving - it is also a faster sounding headphone with more of a feeling of lightening fast transient response. 6SE has superb bass for my taste while the 500 is a bit less tight. The extra efficiency of the 500 is a plus for it. The soundstage of both headphones are excellent. I will say over time I have come to appreciate the extension and articulation of the 6SE in the treble area specifically - it is a good improvement over the 500. The 500 has great treble too, but the 6SE is stellar and super detailed/nuanced.

I run the 500 with velour pads and would not recommend the plether pads they sometimes comes with.

I will look forward to seeing your impressions of the two. I think they are some of the very best headphones for open back. I combine them with an HD600 and that'd all of my open backs in my collection and I really feel like these 3 do it for me, nothing else has been a keeper.

I have some Ultrasones for closed back because I have an affinity for their sound signature but for open back, it's just the two Hifiman's and the 600's - like @bagwell359 .

 

[bagwell359]

Got my silver cable. As you said, more shrill. No good, but the silver cable worked great for my HD800S. HE6SE v1 stock cable is surprisingly good, why people complaint it? No wonder HFM website sells it for $350.

Bought a HE-500. Arrives in a week. How's your HE500 vs 6SE v2?

HE-6 SE v1 stock is good? My stock cable and the twin I got with the HEX v2 are not up to snuff sonically and they are not trouble free in terms of handling them physically. What have you compared them with in a blind AB?

 

[bagwell359]

I find they compliment each other really well. The 500 is more forward sounding, especially mids come up IMO. The mids are rich and wonderful. The 6SE is more resolving and technically better. The 500 seems to have more warmth and body to it while the 6SE is more detailed, airy, and resolving - it is also a faster sounding headphone with more of a feeling of lightening fast transient response. 6SE has superb bass for my taste while the 500 is a bit less tight. The extra efficiency of the 500 is a plus for it.

For sure. For me the 500 bass is a little too warm in the 90-160 Hz area and the high end has some cancellation/reflection issues due to the large stators. A bit of dynamat and the fuzzor mod helps moderate those issues.

I run the 500 with velour pads and would not recommend the plether pads they sometimes comes with.

I will look forward to seeing your impressions of the two. I think they are some of the very best headphones for open back. I combine them with an HD600 and that'd all of my open backs in my collection and I really feel like these do it for me. I have some Ultrasones for closed back because I have an affinity for their sound signature but for open back, it's just the two Hifiman's and the Sennheiser.

I won't name the pads I prefer again, since it must close to 20 times, but from about 2012-today they are among the favs of several respected posters here and SBAF. Certainly my favorites - in particular for the 500, even more than the HE-6 (all versions) which they are also the best I've heard.

%cough% DCA Ether Angled...

Well, as we have spoken of - the 500, 6 SE, and 600's are at the top of our piles.