[cwoo]

I'm interested, but on the DCA website, there doesn't appear to be any measurements, in particular depth, so I can compare it with the Dekoni pads. The problem I have is with my ears sometimes touching the drivers.

I was never sure how large or how far my ears stick out, but after reading some of the LCD-R comments, a lot of people have their ears touching the fazors... this seems to be a problem for the whole LCD line with the new pads for many people. I am lucky that I don't have any contact with fazors. Same with the 6se, no issues with touching the drivers.

The fenostrated pads were definitely a bit deeper than the stock pads on the 6se. I'm guessing you are in good shape with your Dekoni pads? Maybe @bagwell359 can comment on the depth of the DCA angled lambskins.

 

[Idiosyncrat]

I was never sure how large or how far my ears stick out, but after reading some of the LCD-R comments, a lot of people have their ears touching the fazors... this seems to be a problem for the whole LCD line with the new pads for many people. I am lucky that I don't have any contact with fazors. Same with the 6se, no issues with touching the drivers.

The fenostrated pads were definitely a bit deeper than the stock pads on the 6se. I'm guessing you are in good shape with your Dekoni pads? Maybe @bagwell359 can comment on the depth of the DCA angled lambskins.

My ears touched the fazor on my lcd-x. I had to upgrade to dekoni sheepskin. It definitely fixed the problem

 

[deafenears]

I was never sure how large or how far my ears stick out, but after reading some of the LCD-R comments, a lot of people have their ears touching the fazors... this seems to be a problem for the whole LCD line with the new pads for many people. I am lucky that I don't have any contact with fazors. Same with the 6se, no issues with touching the drivers.

The fenostrated pads were definitely a bit deeper than the stock pads on the 6se. I'm guessing you are in good shape with your Dekoni pads? Maybe @bagwell359 can comment on the depth of the DCA angled lambskins.

I've been reading the LCD-R thread too and thought I was going to have the same problem so was going to purchase replacement Dekoni for those too but luckily I don't have that problem. If I move the placement of the headphones forward a little, I do though - with the ears touching the fazors causing some discomfort.

I don't have a problem with the Dekoni pads being thicker than the usual stock pads that usually comes with HiFiMAN headphones.

Just took this pick of the two side by side. The pads shipped with the LCD-R do look deeper and thicker but actually compress more (likely due to not using memory foam?) than the Dekoni pads I have on the HE6sev2.

 

[cwoo]

I've been reading the LCD-R thread too and thought I was going to have the same problem so was going to purchase replacement Dekoni for those too but luckily I don't have that problem. If I move the placement of the headphones forward a little, I do though - with the ears touching the fazors causing some discomfort.

I don't have a problem with the Dekoni pads being thicker than the usual stock pads that usually comes with HiFiMAN headphones.


Just took this pick of the two side by side. The pads shipped with the LCD-R do look deeper and thicker but actually compress more (likely due to not using memory foam?) than the Dekoni pads I have on the HE6sev2.

The pads are definitely deeper (but as you mentioned, as soft as a cloud) on the LCD-R but those fazors are super aggressive. Those Dekoni pads look nice on the 6SE.

 

[deafenears]

The pads are definitely deeper (but as you mentioned, as soft as a cloud) on the LCD-R but those fazors are super aggressive. Those Dekoni pads look nice on the 6SE.

Yeah, I don't have any other LCDs to compare to see if the LCD-R fazors are worse or similar.

The Dekoni pads are nice overall, even the Focal replacement ones.

 

[bagwell359]

I'm interested, but on the DCA website, there doesn't appear to be any measurements, in particular depth, so I can compare it with the Dekoni pads. The problem I have is with my ears sometimes touching the drivers.

It's quite deep, not as deep as the bagel shaped ones from China that cost $6, but compared to the general audiophile choices in that cup size, above average.

 

[kith86]

I have heard my share of HFM and I know what you're saying. I am not a huge fan of the house sound but these are not it.

I heard this on the meet i also agree with you but it's HE6 OG 4 screw, i was surprised, it didnot bother me at all with ringing and siblant, i believe that HE6 v2 which is as i read it described as slightly warmer than OG doesnot have those issue too

 

[bagwell359]

I agree, i feel like a middle ground between fully open and with the original screens would be the best. I had contemplated adding more sheets of organza to see if that would find the right balance, but I didn't feel like messing with it too much.

With the ebay screens or with no screens at all, you get a much better airy sound (as I'm sure you know), but you also end up with kind of an odd soundstage. The center image is fairly close and anything that extends outward ends up sounding very wide to the left and the right. You don't really end up with a very holographic and 3D soundstage.

The imaging and timbre is much improved and you lose the congestion of the original screens, and that is good enough for me!

Timbre. Finger snaps and percussion using wood as the prime source of sound are the most obvious improvements to my ear. Anyone suspicious of screen removal or down sizing of the screen density ought to try that. "Grandmas Hands" by Livingston Taylor on Chesky is one such example.

Even with all my mods on the HE-500 and HE-6se v1 to tame excesses, or improve clarity - properly set EQ removes (to a level satisfying for my ear) a certain sibilance, while restoring some upper mids to near proper levels, and adding a little bass under 35 Hz to make up for the removal of the screen. FR charts I have seen say there is no effect on the bass. Set up the experiment and try - certainly does drop mid bass (not that much) and bass (more). The 500 "likes" the removal of bass more than the 6se because it has some some excess (I.E. Q too high) (that's what dynamat is for - so if you have the mod, problem is mitigated).

 

[cwoo]

Timbre. Finger snaps and percussion using wood as the prime source of sound are the most obvious improvements to my ear. Anyone suspicious of screen removal or down sizing of the screen density ought to try that. "Grandmas Hands" by Livingston Taylor on Chesky is one such example.

Even with all my mods on the HE-500 and HE-6se v1 to tame excesses, or improve clarity - properly set EQ removes (to a level satisfying for my ear) a certain sibilance, while restoring some upper mids to near proper levels, and adding a little bass under 35 Hz to make up for the removal of the screen. FR charts I have seen say there is no effect on the bass. Set up the experiment and try - certainly does drop mid bass (not that much) and bass (more). The 500 "likes" the removal of bass more than the 6se because it has some some excess (I.E. Q too high) (that's what dynamat is for - so if you have the mod, problem is mitigated).

Grandmas hands is one of the tests tracks I use... actually that whole Chesky album is solid for auditioning headphones and ABing changes to your system.

Do you happen to an EQ profile that you found to be most appropriate? I have one that I found, but I didn't do a good job of documenting the source of the EQ. I think it might have just been another users settings that he posted on head-fi and I actually don't think it was for the he-6se, but rather one of the OG he-6's. Needless to say, its not a good profile at all and I never use it.

 

[bagwell359]

Grandmas hands is one of the tests tracks I use... actually that whole Chesky album is solid for auditioning headphones and ABing changes to your system.

Do you happen to an EQ profile that you found to be most appropriate? I have one that I found, but I didn't do a good job of documenting the source of the EQ. I think it might have just been another users settings that he posted on head-fi and I actually don't think it was for the he-6se, but rather one of the OG he-6's. Needless to say, its not a good profile at all and I never use it.

Not really.

* I look at the recommended EQ's - but most of the newer ones have trash settings under 100 Hz (ignore)
* Also all of these FR charts feeding into recommended EQ settings, just look at FR. For planars in particular ignoring excess ringing at discrete frequencies (or areas) is plain lazy, or lacking in insight to get to the correct (or at least closer) settings - thus incomplete and potentially badly misleading.
* then take a look at the pad comparisons at SBAF for the original HE-6 - quite the set of variations.
* then my mods, cables, my equipment, barometric pressure, headaches, VAC.... and their vagaries - my left ear very much missing a lot over 12k, right stops at 14k

I got back into EQ's the past 15 months or so after a 41 year hiatus. I've probably tried out > 400 settings for my HE-500, 250 for HE-6se, and 200 for HEX v2, and 15 for HD-600. Even if someone gave me the exact settings on day 1, I'd still want to check out variations - the journey and destination worth more then just the destination.

 

[bagwell359]

I heard this on the meet i also agree with you but it's HE6 OG 4 screw, i was surprised, it didnot bother me at all with ringing and siblant, i believe that HE6 v2 which is as i read it described as slightly warmer than OG doesnot have those issue too

The HE-4, HE-5LE, HE-6 4 & 6 screws all ring a great deal more than the latest generation of round and long cup HFM's. The HE-6se v2 is IMO my pick for best value mid/high end can between $700 and $1250 and possibly all HFM cans ever released, not that it can compete directly with the Susvara or HEK v2 or se on an absolute level. HE-500 with mods would be my other choice for best value.

 

[Shane D]

I was a little surprised but Adorama still has their deal on:

https://www.adorama.com/hmhe6sev2.h...T2WyRb6UkBVZPTvC0UQ3Q0&utm_source=rflaid62905

 

[cwoo]

Not really.

* I look at the recommended EQ's - but most of the newer ones have trash settings under 100 Hz (ignore)
* Also all of these FR charts feeding into recommended EQ settings, just look at FR. For planars in particular ignoring excess ringing at discrete frequencies (or areas) is plain lazy, or lacking in insight to get to the correct (or at least closer) settings - thus incomplete and potentially badly misleading.
* then take a look at the pad comparisons at SBAF for the original HE-6 - quite the set of variations.
* then my mods, cables, my equipment, barometric pressure, headaches, VAC.... and their vagaries - my left ear very much missing a lot over 12k, right stops at 14k

I got back into EQ's the past 15 months or so after a 41 year hiatus. I've probably tried out > 400 settings for my HE-500, 250 for HE-6se, and 200 for HEX v2, and 15 for HD-600. Even if someone gave me the exact settings on day 1, I'd still want to check out variations - the journey and destination worth more then just the destination.

Makes perfect sense. I'll do some more digging and try to find consistency with the FR Graphs. Obvious dips and spikes are typically consistent between graphs, but they all very on their smoothing, the device they are using, the software, etc.

I do like FR graphs to help point out wild swings in certain frequencies, but you are right, there are a lot of frequencies that are sometimes picked up that arent really a problem.

 

[trellus]

I was a little surprised but Adorama still has their deal on:

https://www.adorama.com/hmhe6sev2.h...T2WyRb6UkBVZPTvC0UQ3Q0&utm_source=rflaid62905

It's a nuts price, in my view... in a good way. I paid $649 for mine from Adorama and I still think that's a great price. I guess the challenges to drive these, along with increasing competition from newer cans, is what keeps the price from being closer to the original "deal", which if memory serves was... $749? Or perhaps $699 -- for the v2, I mean. I believe the original HE-6se deal was $799 or even $899?

The HE-6se v2 have lately become my daily drivers at one of my offices.

 

[Shane D]

It's a nuts price, in my view... in a good way. I paid $649 for mine from Adorama and I still think that's a great price. I guess the challenges to drive these, along with increasing competition from newer cans, is what keeps the price from being closer to the original "deal", which if memory serves was... $749? Or perhaps $699 -- for the v2, I mean. I believe the original HE-6se deal was $799 or even $899?

The HE-6se v2 have lately become my daily drivers at one of my offices.

I would call these a definite buy at $599.00. That is also what I paid for my Focal Elex's. Both work out to about $1K, landed in Canada. That has been my upper limit for headphones so far. Anything past that I will likely buy used.