[cwoo]

excellent, thx!!

sure thing... the grill mod works out well. I just ordered my grills off of ebay. If you go back in this thread, there are two links from ebay with replacement grills that are much more open if that is something you would like to try.

Actually, here they are:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265277136476?hash=item3dc3bfde5c:g:OF4AAOSwAppef8Y3

https://www.ebay.com/itm/114990134850?hash=item1ac5f23642:g:BvEAAOSweQphIWMY

I just went back and grabbed the links.

 

[bagwell359]

Enjoy them... I just got a pair of Dekoni Fenestrated Sheepskin pads delivered for them today. Huge improvement in comfort.

I will probably be ordering a new cable for the 6SE soon. This cable is such a joke. Any recommendations from anyone on cables they like with these?

Finally got my EQ figured out as well... still making some small tweaks, but I used the oratory1900 PEQ as a starting point and it has been a game changer.

I am also using a bit of crossfeed as well. I don't normally use crossfeed, but it really helps with the 6SE after the grill removal.

I used crossfeed for almost a year on the v1, went w/o the past month and that works better for me.

I had a cable made up by Custom Cables in the UK. For 5' it was like $125 inc shipping. Clear, attractive, professional. Look them up,

EQ from Oratory? Pretty good stuff over 100 Hz (except the total ignoring of ringing), but under 100 it's ghastly and totally incorrect for 99% of users - using facts they admit as a guide.

 

[cwoo]

I used crossfeed for almost a year on the v1, went w/o the past month and that works better for me.

I had a cable made up by Custom Cables in the UK. For 5' it was like $125 inc shipping. Clear, attractive, professional. Look them up,

EQ from Oratory? Pretty good stuff over 100 Hz (except the total ignoring of ringing), but under 100 it's ghastly and totally incorrect for 99% of users - using facts they admit as a guide.

Awesome, I will check Custom Cables out... appreciate the info.

As far as oratory1990, its a decent harman curve starting point. No harman curve (or any frequency response changes to a specific target) is going to correct for ringing or other problems within a headphone. The ringing needs to be modded out or you have to tweak it down yourself. I know you have done some dynamat modding or something along those lines. Any FR graph is only gonna get you in a ballpark, as you know.

I have been tweaking the EQ with oratory1990 as the starting point.

Do you have a link to the mods you performed to help control the ringing? Were you able to successfully pull it down with EQ adjustments? What amps have you been using with your he6se (the ragnarok)?

I'll do some more searching around head-fi to see if I can glean some more information about correcting issues.

 

[bagwell359]

Awesome, I will check Custom Cables out... appreciate the info.

As far as oratory1990, its a decent harman curve starting point. No harman curve (or any frequency response changes to a specific target) is going to correct for ringing or other problems within a headphone. The ringing needs to be modded out or you have to tweak it down yourself. I know you have done some dynamat modding or something along those lines. Any FR graph is only gonna get you in a ballpark, as you know.

I have been tweaking the EQ with oratory1990 as the starting point.

Do you have a link to the mods you performed to help control the ringing? Were you able to successfully pull it down with EQ adjustments? What amps have you been using with your he6se (the ragnarok)?

I'll do some more searching around head-fi to see if I can glean some more information about correcting issues.

Very Fine response. Too tired do links. I've also blended EQ settings, FR charts, and my own ears. Long story, back later.

 

[cwoo]

Very Fine response. Too tired do links. I've also blended EQ settings, FR charts, and my own ears. Long story, back later.

I tried to find some of the mods related to the dynamat or blue tack to help reduce ringing, but came up short (I am probably terrible at searching this forum). If you happen to have some links when you have a spare minute, it would be greatly appreciated.

 

[legcramp]

Sold all my other headphones (TH900 V1, HE-560 V1) and kept this beast. Hopefully this is the end-game, running them out of a Musician Pegasus -> Burson Soloist for Pre-amp -> Audiophonics MPA-S250NC via speaker taps. The Burson soloist is a great amp but did not do these justice at all even at maximum gain so needed to pick up the speaker amp.

These blows the HE-560 away and does everything extremely well for me, lacks a little bit of bass extension when compared to my TH900 but everything else is more "correct" to my ears.

 

[Infoseeker]

I have the he6se v2, the Focal Utopia, hd800S, and the Audeze lcd-xc.

Other than for open back timbre where the he6se, hd800S, & Utopia are ahead.

If I include EQ, I find the Audeze lcd-xc does best out of the bunch. Bass detail on the lcd-xc is easier to achieve without needing crazy power requirements; as in it is easy to achieve bass that is not 1-note monotone. But you may also need to EQ the pinna gain region depending on what audese earpads you got.

Also eq down the treble shelf. (Which is a better situation than having to EQ it up). Though EQing the treble is avoidable if you have a non-objective source chain that is treble-nuetral rather than perfectly treble-transparent. Other alternative is using appropriate hqplayer filters to bypass your dac filters, that make things smoother for planar treble timbre.

He6se v2 is still a beast, just takes more effort than to optimize for it than expected.

 

[bagwell359]

I tried to find some of the mods related to the dynamat or blue tack to help reduce ringing, but came up short (I am probably terrible at searching this forum). If you happen to have some links when you have a spare minute, it would be greatly appreciated.

I wrote this a few days ago:

Take off rear screen, the outside edge of the cup is basically pointing at you - 90 degrees from the main flat surface, the inside edge facing towards the middle of the cup is where it goes.

the 500 needs more. I came up with this: dyn 2", space, dyn 1.4", space, dyn .8" - not touching each other with spaces about equal to each other. I put the longest by the wires. The diff lengths attempt to focus damping in different areas, as opposed to just one. Dynamat all around bleeds the life out of the 500's

6se v1 is easier, one strip of 1.6" by wires.

Sorbothane is more effective than dynamat per size, but it doesn't stick well, blu/white tack is less effective, need IMO more than is safe, and not enough if it is a safe mounting.

Damping cups from outside and headbands (esp the parts near the cups) seem useful - but a little seems to go a long way, and I haven't worked on that enough to take up any strong POV.

 

[cwoo]

I wrote this a few days ago:

Take off rear screen, the outside edge of the cup is basically pointing at you - 90 degrees from the main flat surface, the inside edge facing towards the middle of the cup is where it goes.

the 500 needs more. I came up with this: dyn 2", space, dyn 1.4", space, dyn .8" - not touching each other with spaces about equal to each other. I put the longest by the wires. The diff lengths attempt to focus damping in different areas, as opposed to just one. Dynamat all around bleeds the life out of the 500's

6se v1 is easier, one strip of 1.6" by wires.

Sorbothane is more effective than dynamat per size, but it doesn't stick well, blu/white tack is less effective, need IMO more than is safe, and not enough if it is a safe mounting.

Damping cups from outside and headbands (esp the parts near the cups) seem useful - but a little seems to go a long way, and I haven't worked on that enough to take up any strong POV.

excellent. Thanks for the info. If there is a way to control the ringing, these would definitely move up a large notch in capability.

The resonance with the earcups and the odd soundstage are two of the biggest drawbacks of these headphones... what they do well, they do well at a near flagship level (speed, timbre, imaging). What they don't do well, ends up holding them back pretty heavily (flat and wide soundstage - not holographic at all, ringing/ear cup resonance, cable, earpads, FR, difficulty to drive, poor bass quality). Obviously the cable, earpads, FR, and difficulty to drive have easy fixes for them (some can be done for free and most are gonna cost you), but getting rid of the earcup resonance would be a huuuuuuuuuuge improvement. The soundstage is something I am willing to deal with and for $599 right now at Adorama, these are probably some of the finest headphones you can get.

For reference, the drawbacks are being compared to headphones far higher in price than the he6se, so take that with a grain of salt. These headphones are pretty solid, but I think they have a decent amount of room for improvement with some simple fixes that will take them to the next level.

 

[bagwell359]

excellent. Thanks for the info. If there is a way to control the ringing, these would definitely move up a large notch in capability.

The resonance with the earcups and the odd soundstage are two of the biggest drawbacks of these headphones... what they do well, they do well at a near flagship level (speed, timbre, imaging). What they don't do well, ends up holding them back pretty heavily (flat and wide soundstage - not holographic at all, ringing/ear cup resonance, cable, earpads, FR, difficulty to drive, poor bass quality). Obviously the cable, earpads, FR, and difficulty to drive have easy fixes for them (some can be done for free and most are gonna cost you), but getting rid of the earcup resonance would be a huuuuuuuuuuge improvement. The soundstage is something I am willing to deal with and for $599 right now at Adorama, these are probably some of the finest headphones you can get.

For reference, the drawbacks are being compared to headphones far higher in price than the he6se, so take that with a grain of salt. These headphones are pretty solid, but I think they have a decent amount of room for improvement with some simple fixes that will take them to the next level.

Some people have done a lot with the ear cups. I have not, but look around.

With the v1 I did away with the cable, pads, no problem with the power, FR enough (I now think trying to get them dead flat (or even close isn't ideal).

Dealing with the ringing above 2k greatly concerns me w/ every planar I own. They are sometimes synced with rising FR, often not. Remove too much (assuming you located the correct freq, db cut, and Q) and you losing music too. So its a subtle hand to cut the edgyness but not mangle the sound.

The worst thing about the v1 you can't fix (screens off and with my trusty Ether Angled pads helps some) is the soundstage. Too me the HE-500 soundstage or better is the target. The v1 stage is meh. Much like HD-600 is meh.

I've heard the v2 for about 3 hours. It's got a better stage and doesn't have such an awful hole in the upper mids. I think the mids and lower highs are more composed with less smearing.

 

[kickserve16]

Has anyone tried the He6se v2 with the JDS El Amp II?

 

[tjdub]

excellent. Thanks for the info. If there is a way to control the ringing, these would definitely move up a large notch in capability.

The resonance with the earcups and the odd soundstage are two of the biggest drawbacks of these headphones... what they do well, they do well at a near flagship level (speed, timbre, imaging). What they don't do well, ends up holding them back pretty heavily (flat and wide soundstage - not holographic at all, ringing/ear cup resonance, cable, earpads, FR, difficulty to drive, poor bass quality). Obviously the cable, earpads, FR, and difficulty to drive have easy fixes for them (some can be done for free and most are gonna cost you), but getting rid of the earcup resonance would be a huuuuuuuuuuge improvement. The soundstage is something I am willing to deal with and for $599 right now at Adorama, these are probably some of the finest headphones you can get.

For reference, the drawbacks are being compared to headphones far higher in price than the he6se, so take that with a grain of salt. These headphones are pretty solid, but I think they have a decent amount of room for improvement with some simple fixes that will take them to the next level.

Out of curiosity what are you comparing them to if you think the he6 have bad bass?

 

[Bop]

Has anyone tried these with the SMSL SP400? Badguygoodaudio apparently prefers the Jotunheim but looking for more input

 

[cwoo]

Out of curiosity what are you comparing them to if you think the he6 have bad bass?

Audeze headphones. And I wasn't using EQ with the he-6se initially as I didn't want to lose a ton of headroom. After EQ and a 3dB bass shelf, the bass is quite nice. I guess I should have posted that update after I made the EQ change. Decent quality and plentiful bass now. Also, changing to the Dekoni Fenestrated Sheepskin pads seems to add a bit more sub bass.

 

[tjdub]

I hear you, I have 4 audeze cans and they do know how to reproduce bass very well