I already sold the HE6,after I compared them with the SR007 ,to help fund the Amp. The System was Krell KAV 300i + something sort of WooWEE (better than WooWEE to our ears)+ Arye CX7emp with Cardas golden reference Balanced and 3 Cardas golden reference power cable. The SR007 was perfect with this set up ,it's so perfect that I asked my freind to trade between his O2MKI and my O2MKII . When I listened to the O2MKI ,everything seemed to be perfect. The soundstage was not big,but the image is so precisely and clear to see(hear),HE6 on the other hand,though good imaging capability,but still to my ear far behind the O2MKI. And the big different between O2MKI and HE6 is that ,when you hear O2MKI,the music just flows,it's like ,when I listened to the R10 once ,there's only two headphones(or maybe set ups),that make me feel this way. I used to be very exited,when I heard the ED10 with weiss202.This combination sound amazing ,espacially when you listen to the Vocal,but the R10's and O2MKI's set up win here. To my ear I want to say O2MKI is a level above the HE6. I myself own The HE6 ,LCD2,HD800,O2MKII. I decided to let the HE6 go,but it's not ,because the HE6 are worse than the LCD2 or HD800,for me overall I rank the HE6>LCD2>HD800 (HE6,T1 ,SR007 (A) have a better tonal balance than the LCD2 and HD800 and therefore for me they are not Genre specific),but I sold them because LCD2 and HD800 are quite unique in theirs own ways. Now about the O2MKI,O2MKII and 4070 in this set up.
Many people said the O2 lacks dynamic,but I think It's all depend on your set up. I used to here the O2MKI before,compared with the Stax Sigma Pro I love the Sigma pro far more. But for some reasons (you know,I have read much about the SR007 (A) here in Head-fi) I was quite sure the O2 can perform better. then I decided to purchased the O2MKII (the price was good two). After we listened to the set up, I and my freinds have found that O2MKI don't lack anything ,Int amp Krell 150 watt 8 ohm fixed this ,they are just perfect,super tonal balance and transparency.Music just flow easily,it's the big different compared to the Dynamic headphones(I've found when you listen to dynamic headphones,the connection between the bass,mid,treble regions is not perfect like when you listen to Stax)
Compared to the 4070,I think 4070 can give more depth to the soundstage,the drum kicks harder impactful,but the tonal balance was not quit ok (HE6 are better than the 4070 in this aspect) ,we think they coulb be fix with some tube amps. Compared O2mkII (not 2.5) to O2mkI ,still the O2mkI won here they sound quite similar,but I think the MKII ain re boosted some frequency and the sound is not just the same. The perfect tonal balanced is gone,but not so bad they're still O2 Finally before I walked out the door I asked my friend to trade my O2MKII with his MKI,he said OK.The reason is not ,that he prefer the MKII to the MKI,but he want to try to set his system to match the MKII (he said it's some kind of challenge), by the way my O2MKII look far newer than his O2MKI .
p.s The Stax Energizer has the Stax out put and the Normal Headphones output,so you can use both stax and normal headphones though this.
P. S2 LCD2,HD800 can be driven with the Home amp too (At home my Intamp is 70-80 watt 8 OHM) .I diY a connector to my home amp (Actually I can use theStax energizer too,but just to show if someone want to use the home amp to drive the Headphones,the Result was good for HD800,but my tube headphone amp paired better with the LCD2)
P.s3 I owned the HE6 for 2-3 months already (the first batch ) .I have tried them with different set up and listen to them many times ,They are really good ,but not as stunning as the O2 or R10
