Nan-6 planar headphone ?

[der Koekje]

It's really a problem that you don't understand Chinese, maybe you can email the author if you have any questions, and his email is 357074038@qq.com.
His products are mainly sold on Taobao.There are many foreigners' experience of buying Taobao online, I believe it will help you. The price should be much more reasonable than purchased by re-seller.

Yeah, if you have some Chinese friends maybe they can help you with specific questions. The guy is very active and will respond to inquiries quickly and fairly though I just contacted him straight through Taobao.

 

[deafenears]

@gzbaga , do you plan on getting a set of the Nan-7? Would be interested to see how they measure and compare with the Nan-6.

 

[gzbaga]

@gzbaga , do you plan on getting a set of the Nan-7? Would be interested to see how they measure and compare with the Nan-6.

I'm very happy with my NAN-6 and since I also own the Arya Stealth guess I won't be adding the NAN-7 to my collection. That said if there were to be a world tour of the 7 I'd be more than happy to try and measure it.

Also been playing around with some pad options for the NAN-6, will post them here if there's anyone else interested.

 

[pokrog]

I don't know the causal relationship between sensitivity and gold, but I can provide photos of the driver.
I believe the author deliberately increased the sensitivity for sales. Nan6 has low sensitivity and Nan7 has high sensitivity, which is the meaning of the two models.
There is a big price gap between Nan7 and susvara, so I would not compare them. I have applied for the audition of nan7 headphone. waiting in line...

Where did you apply to audition? I'd love to give these a shot, I really loved the Nan-6.

Dont be tricked by the different units.

Sensitivity at voltage:100.00 dB/V SPL

for what you are thinking of, would be represented as :
Sensitivity at power: 81.46 dB/mW SPL

Keep that power amp & pre-amp ready.

that would make them the most current hungry headphones in existance....by a LOOOOT.

 

[jasswolf]

Any early reviews?

 

[Sayed2020]

Where did you apply to audition? I'd love to give these a shot, I really loved the Nan-6.


that would make them the most current hungry headphones in existance....by a LOOOOT.

Nah, Tyll measured an OG HE6 with a sensitivity of 78 dB!
The K1000 is still the least sensitive headphone/earspeaker ever made with a rating of 74 dB!!

 

[Random Lunatic]

Has anyone actually managed to compare either of these agains a Susvara? Or heard/measured the NAN7? There seems to be quite limited information currently...

 

[pokrog]

Nah, Tyll measured an OG HE6 with a sensitivity of 78 dB!
The K1000 is still the least sensitive headphone/earspeaker ever made with a rating of 74 dB!!

The K1000, at 120 ohm and 74db/mw of sensitivity works out to 57.7mA for 100db, while the Nan-7 at 14ohm and 81db/mw of sensitivity works out to 75.6 mA for 100db meaning the Nan-7 takes 31% more current per db than the K1000. Substantially more current.

 

[jasswolf]

Has anyone actually managed to compare either of these agains a Susvara? Or heard/measured the NAN7? There seems to be quite limited information currently...

It's well understood that these do not have the technical performance of the Susvara, just that they have a similar FR graph.

What you're getting here is a HE-6 that's been re-tuned to be more neutral, with a minor descrease in technical performance. That's still an extremely high value headphone, with timbre and dynamic performance you typically don't get from a planar while bringing plenty of detail.

If you're not chasing big soundstage, I'd suggest it's the better value option over the HIFIMAN Edition XS.

 

[deafenears]

It's well understood that these do not have the technical performance of the Susvara, just that they have a similar FR graph.

The Nan-7 is new so it is not well understood how these compare to the Susvara at all. Maybe the Nan-6, not the Nan-7, just saying...

EDIT: There are no published FR graph for the Nan-7 that I know of.

 

[jasswolf]

The Nan-7 is new so it is not well understood how these compare to the Susvara at all. Maybe the Nan-6, not the Nan-7, just saying...

EDIT: There are no published FR graph for the Nan-7 that I know of.

I was answering with respect to the Nan-6, not the Nan-7. There were two questions there and I probably should have acknowledged that in my post.

Yet to see any key info about the Nan-7, but would assume it would roughly target the same FR, but it's otherwise an attempt to deliver the same driver with higher sensitivity and lower impedance... so maybe it will have more in common with the HE-1000? User reviews on Taobao seem to point to it being more open sounding.

 

[Random Lunatic]

I am glad you find it useful : )

I recently had the chance to measure the Hifiman Susvara by courtesy of a friend. For those interested this is how they look like on my measurement rig. The 8khz difference can be caused by positional variation (although both curves were generated using 5 positions). Some explain this as due to different amount of air resonance, like insertion depth in the case of IEMs. But then again overall the two measure very closely.

Did you get to do listening comparisons?
also something Ive been wondering - how secure is the fit? I like than my old Hifiman like he400 sits so tightly on the head that I’m not worried about moving or jumping around, or using them portably…

 

[gzbaga]

Did you get to do listening comparisons?
also something Ive been wondering - how secure is the fit? I like than my old Hifiman like he400 sits so tightly on the head that I’m not worried about moving or jumping around, or using them portably…

Yep I do have experience with the Susvara. Tonally the resemblance is clearly there, although the differences are still audible. As you can see the Susvara FR displays a kind of zig zaggy pattern that causes deviations from the N6 of between 2-7db. That's defintely enough to be audible. To boil it down to how it sounds to me would be that the Susvara is slightly clearer in the treble, more nuanced and overall more expansive and relaxed. Bass of the Susvara also has better definition and impact. Nan-6 (N6 hereafter) on the other hand is more focused on the texture and body of midrange instruments and vocals, and that's why I kinda think of the N6 as a good mesh-up of the Hifiman and the Audeze sound. Some have noted the N6 is a frankenphone by the look of it, to me it's also how they sound

Another key difference is in time domain behaviour. Almost all Hifiman planars (especially the more expensive ones) have been documented to display a kind of messy decay pattern (see measurements by Solderdude, Brent Butterworth, Headphone Test Lab, and mine below), whereas on the N6 it's a lot cleaner. Note that however this does not mean the cleaner is neccessarily the better or superior. Some have speculated the relationship between this kind of CSD irregularities with perceived soundstage and a kind of 'ethereal' or 'euphonic' character. So take it as you will. As for the cause, I wager that the N6 diaphragm (film) is more damped mechanically. The upside is the decay on the N6 is better controlled.

(note that for the sake of comparison I have used the Susvara pads on the N6 to eliminate the pad factor).

Fit wise the N6 is comfortably secure for me, but YMMY. Comparing to the HE6SE V2 the N6 has a bit more clamp. Whereas the HE6SE V2 tends to fall off my head when I look down, the N6 does not. The amount of clamp feels about the same with the Arya, if that helps at all.

On a separate note, a review of the new Nan-7 on taobao seems to suggest more resemblance to the Susvara than the N6. Not something I can verify though.

 

[Infoseeker]

I noticed on the Nan7 they have this picture.

. Easy to drive NAN-7 out of the box bottom technology to achieve high sensitivity without stinging sound, and achieve good transient performance under large amplitude conditions. Take LA90 high gain as an example. The volume of the test curves roughly overlaps. The required volume is as follows:

HD800 30

HD600 31

SUS 65

NAN7: 30

NG HE6: 58

NAN6: 50

I can't say I am happy they are using a Topping Amp to test their headphone. Lol.

But seems indeed the headphone is less more sensitive than the rest?

 

[gzbaga]

But seems indeed the headphone is less sensitive than the rest?

I think it's the other way around. The numbers indicate the required volume pot digit to bring the mentioned headphones to the same loudness. So the HD800/N7 are the easiest to drive out of the bunch. Otherwise it would mean that the HD600 require almost twice the amount of power than the HE6, and thatd be odd.