[Ithilstone]

Have to say, I wanted to like this one but too uneven. Driver has some good detail but the tonality is too off for me



Here's to hoping I can hear another modded HE 6 or 6SE, on the bright side apparently the 6SE is better stock than the original HE 6...

Actually... I did hear a legacy HE 6 with some very light mods at the Maryland meet I went to in May and It was a noticeable albeit small improvement over this. As I had both this stock HE 6SE to hear alongside that lightly modded 6 at that meet

What amp did you use? From what you are describing it sounds like severely under-powered HE6. Did you tried to pair them with something different than amps from your signature?
I have original HE6 ( modded ) also on many occasions tried stock HE6 of my friend's. Those headphones just need serious SS amp.
As all planars those present almost no load to amp and are purely current driven. Most tube amps (except some hybrids) produce loads of voltage but very little current.
Most of SS headphone amps have also too little current at its disposal - that's why so many people pair HE6 with speaker amps - Watts are not important but current headroom is. And you need spades of it as HE6 are very inefficient
As a rule of thumbs if an SS amp do not have 160 VA or more then most likely it cannot produce enough current to let HE6 shine.

ohh and it has nothing to do with how loud headphones can become!!!
Sound need to be powerful and not loud as loudness is a sign of distortion.
Like in 0.5W small portable radio can be painfully loud and some 500W monoblocks + speakers can move curtains in the room but listeners do not think sound is painfully loud.

 

[dill3000]

Have to say, I wanted to like this one but too uneven. Driver has some good detail but the tonality is too off for me



Here's to hoping I can hear another modded HE 6 or 6SE, on the bright side apparently the 6SE is better stock than the original HE 6...

Actually... I did hear a legacy HE 6 with some very light mods at the Maryland meet I went to in May and It was a noticeable albeit small improvement over this. As I had both this stock HE 6SE to hear alongside that lightly modded 6 at that meet

What amp were you using on the HE6SE? I can tell you with experience the HE6's are possibly one of the fussiest alongside the HD800 headphones I've heard in terms of powering them with the amps the headphones like. The HE6’s require lots of power in terms of current for them to truly shine!! They would just sound uneven if underpowered - the bass would be minimal and the highs could sound a bit too crispy, these are signs of them being underpowered. In short, the headphone is not getting what they need to get the drivers moving in the way they were designed. It doesn’t matter how loud they get on a particular amp (it could still be loud but underpowered) - if underpowered they could sound harsh with distortion from them being underpowered. I have all of the HE6’s in-house (the modded 4 screw version, the stock 6 screw later version and the HE6SE’s) I can tell you they all have the same power requirements with amping.

I have gone on an HE6 amp pairing adventure for years! - testing the top amps - I have to say most of the best amps for the HE6 is high quality, low wattage speaker amps. I have also heard the HE6’s with the famous vintage amp beast the Pioneer SX-1980 (wow what an experience!)

The best I’ve currently heard my HE6’s on is the Pass Labs XA25 speaker amp - these make my HE6’s shine to the fullest - The HE6’s and HE6SE still hold up to the best of them today, other than the Susvara they are my favourite. Funny enough the amping requirements for the Susvara are identical. They shine to the fullest with the high quality, low wattage speaker amps. The powering differences in the HE6 and Susvara is mainly shown when using lower powered amps (mainly headphone amps) the Susvara would still sound great - (not at its best - but still great) it would still beat the competition in my opinion where the HE6s wouldn’t sound any way near the way it would sound with giving them the power they crave for.

 

[Dobrescu George]

What amp were you using on the HE6SE? I can tell you with experience the HE6's are possibly one of the fussiest alongside the HD800 headphones I've heard in terms of powering them with the amps the headphones like. The HE6’s require lots of power in terms of current for them to truly shine!! They would just sound uneven if underpowered - the bass would be minimal and the highs could sound a bit too crispy, these are signs of them being underpowered. In short, the headphone is not getting what they need to get the drivers moving in the way they were designed. It doesn’t matter how loud they get on a particular amp (it could still be loud but underpowered) - if underpowered they could sound harsh with distortion from them being underpowered. I have all of the HE6’s in-house (the modded 4 screw version, the stock 6 screw later version and the HE6SE’s) I can tell you they all have the same power requirements with amping.

I have gone on an HE6 amp pairing adventure for years! - testing the top amps - I have to say most of the best amps for the HE6 is high quality, low wattage speaker amps. I have also heard the HE6’s with the famous vintage amp beast the Pioneer SX-1980 (wow what an experience!)

The best I’ve currently heard my HE6’s on is the Pass Labs XA25 speaker amp - these make my HE6’s shine to the fullest - The HE6’s and HE6SE still hold up to the best of them today, other than the Susvara they are my favourite. Funny enough the amping requirements for the Susvara are identical. They shine to the fullest with the high quality, low wattage speaker amps. The powering differences in the HE6 and Susvara is mainly shown when using lower powered amps (mainly headphone amps) the Susvara would still sound great - (not at its best - but still great) it would still beat the competition in my opinion where the HE6s wouldn’t sound any way near the way it would sound with giving them the power they crave for.

The Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ also powers He6SE really nicely

I agree, they eat a LOT of power

 

[Oregonian]

What amp were you using on the HE6SE? I can tell you with experience the HE6's are possibly one of the fussiest alongside the HD800 headphones I've heard in terms of powering them with the amps the headphones like. The HE6’s require lots of power in terms of current for them to truly shine!! They would just sound uneven if underpowered - the bass would be minimal and the highs could sound a bit too crispy, these are signs of them being underpowered. In short, the headphone is not getting what they need to get the drivers moving in the way they were designed. It doesn’t matter how loud they get on a particular amp (it could still be loud but underpowered) - if underpowered they could sound harsh with distortion from them being underpowered. I have all of the HE6’s in-house (the modded 4 screw version, the stock 6 screw later version and the HE6SE’s) I can tell you they all have the same power requirements with amping.

I have gone on an HE6 amp pairing adventure for years! - testing the top amps - I have to say most of the best amps for the HE6 is high quality, low wattage speaker amps. I have also heard the HE6’s with the famous vintage amp beast the Pioneer SX-1980 (wow what an experience!)

The best I’ve currently heard my HE6’s on is the Pass Labs XA25 speaker amp - these make my HE6’s shine to the fullest - The HE6’s and HE6SE still hold up to the best of them today, other than the Susvara they are my favourite. Funny enough the amping requirements for the Susvara are identical. They shine to the fullest with the high quality, low wattage speaker amps. The powering differences in the HE6 and Susvara is mainly shown when using lower powered amps (mainly headphone amps) the Susvara would still sound great - (not at its best - but still great) it would still beat the competition in my opinion where the HE6s wouldn’t sound any way near the way it would sound with giving them the power they crave for.

Great post. Do you run them from speaker taps or from the headphone out? I love the HE-6SE from the taps of my Pioneer Spec system - just as I did with the HE-6 I owned a couple of years ago. So visceral..................

 

[dill3000]

Great post. Do you run them from speaker taps or from the headphone out? I love the HE-6SE from the taps of my Pioneer Spec system - just as I did with the HE-6 I owned a couple of years ago. So visceral..................

Thanks - All the speaker amps were from the speaker taps (if the amp was a lower wattage amp) I did listen to the Pioneer SX-1980 with the HE-Adaptor connected to the speaker taps. I agree with you very very visceral!

 

[dill3000]

The Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ also powers He6SE really nicely

I agree, they eat a LOT of power

interesting, I'll like to give the Mytek Brooklyn DAC+ a try one-day

 

[Oregonian]

Thanks - All the speaker amps were from the speaker taps (if the amp was a lower wattage amp) I did listen to the Pioneer SX-1980 with the HE-Adaptor connected to the speaker taps. I agree with you very very visceral!

I've run the HE-6 and now HE-6SE direct from the speaker taps with no HE adapter (didn't like the change in sound it made when I tried the adapter a few years ago) on the Spec 2 amp system, which has 250 wpc (but also has the Spec 1 preamp). Always was careful with keeping the volume down upon startup.

 

[silversurfer616]

Would love to be part of the HE-6SE loaner tour and compare it to the HE-6.
Located in Dunedin , New Zealand.

 

[gaz2613]

Hi I would love to be part of the loaner tour. Would be nice to compare against me He400i headphones plus testing different op amps in my diy amps then review them and the differences.

 

[prolim]

Hey, i can test he-6se in Poland. I've OTL and cayin iha-6, should be enough power for them.

 

[nicodem]

Would love to test in Poland, RME adi2dac, pathos Aurium, DarkVoice, Kann cube

 

[vonBaron]

Would like to try them out with my IFI Pro ICan.
Live in Poland.
I very like the old HE-6.

 

[silversurfer616]

Received the HE6-SE this morning( within a week of expressing my interest...unexpectedly fast!) and I am quite impressed so far. My system is EVO server > Metrum Pavane > Hifiman EF6
Really grateful to have the EF6 because the headphone really needs power.
Initial impressions are of clarity, transparency, good, clean bass and neutral mids. Treble could be a problem for some but is not as 'nervous' as say Utopia.
Probably most impressed with the transparency and the tonality...everything just sounds right without any/too much coloration.
Lovely holographic soundstage, too.
More later...!

 

[Articnoise]

I signed up on the loaner tour 25 of mars. Still not got a chance to try it and compare it to my HE6, HE1000se and LCD3, strange.

 

[prolim]

I received he-6se today. My unit has some scratches on yoke. It looks like bad painting, but don't know what they experienced before me. Rest is ok, nothing spectacular, nothing bad. In right order.

Tonality similar to he-4xx, but they're so clean and detailed, it's level above my t1v2. Sound color is very pleasing, creamy. Bass goes low as fluff, lcd2c isn't even close. Vocal can be magic. Highs without sibilants. Soundstage intimate, imaging is little bit confusing. Headphones seems to be for little bit advanced listeners.