Hi Larry/Headphone Addict,
Thanks for the feedback...just as I was listening to HE-6+EF-5 for the first time.
Your comments seem dead-on. I listen to a very wide range of instrumental jazz+female vocals and not loudly...but I am having to turn the EF-5 vol full up (daytime) to get a comfortable to mildly uncomfy volume level (mind you I have not burnt in the HE-6 at all, Hour 1 only!; not changed any gain switch on the EF-5). In contrast, plugging in my HE-300, I achieve the same at maybe 30% of EF-5's volume ! The sound stage is also - as you rightly say - noticeably narrower with the HE-6 than the same amp + HE-300 but clarity is much better. So it seems EF-5 is just about able to run the HE-6 comfortably....
And, regretfully, the badly recorded wonderful Bill Evan's "Live at Ronnie Scott's" [Emily] do sound quite bad alas with the great HE-6, no surprises there. Unforgiving...
Anyone tried headphone.com's BUDA balanced amp with HE-6 ? I'd be very interested to know how that works compared to a single amp like EF-5. Huge price jump of course.
http://www.headphone.com/headphone-amps/headroom-balanced-ultra-desktop-amp-buda.php
Regards,
Nishy.