Suggestions for a DAC/AMP to drive Hifiman HE-6

[leonroy]

I've been using the wonderful sounding Yamaha DSP-A2070 amp to drive a pair of Hifiman HE-6 headphones for the past few years and it has been great.

Unfortunately the amp is getting really flaky and is near to giving up the ghost.

I was going to pickup a Schiit Mjolnir and Gungnir stack but after reading @amirm's review of Schiit gear I paused. I then took a look at Audio-GD's lineup...but given @amirm's review of their stuff I took another step back. Looking for a simple amp, that's reasonably well engineered with a DAC built in.

The HE-6 is really insensitive at 83.5dB (hence a speaker amp to drive it). Impedance is 50 Ohms. Detailed measurements from Inner Fidelity:
https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/HiFiMANHE6.pdf

I was tempted to pickup a Bryston 4B-ST or something suitably over-engineered but I figured I'd stop being a gear head for once and see if there's something cost and power effective out there - a Class D budget speaker amp like the Yamaha WXA-50 even.

 

[amirm]

What is your budget for this? And what is your timeframe?

 

[March Audio]

I will see if I can get time today to add some meadurements of my Chord Mojo driving headphones and resistive loads. I use Oppo PM1 which are are planar magnetic with an impedance of 30 ohms.

https://www.innerfidelity.com/content/scrumptious-oppo-digital-pm-1-planar-magnetic-headphone

Mojo measurement thread here.
https://audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/measurements-of-chord-mojo.2434/

You are right about the he6 insensitvity. 1volt and 19mW to get them to 90dB ! The oppos by comparison 53 mV and 0.1 mW

 

[leonroy]

What is your budget for this? And what is your timeframe?

@amirm no real urgency - prob within the next 1-2 months, no real budget either, I tend to save up and keep the gear I like for a long time - £1-2k I guess would be reasonable - lower the better though. Why, some interesting DAC/AMPs in the review pipeline?

You are right about the he6 insensitvity. 1volt and 19mW to get them to 90dB ! The oppos by comparison 53 mV and 0.1 mW

heheh, it'd almost be more practical to buy a more sensitive pair of headphones and an amp from the Topping range - the HE-6 is something special though so keen to keep it singing.

 

[amirm]

@amirm no real urgency - prob within the next 1-2 months, no real budget either, I tend to save up and keep the gear I like for a long time - £1-2k I guess would be reasonable - lower the better though. Why, some interesting DAC/AMPs in the review pipeline?

There is always more in the pipeline. With that kind of budget though the RME ADI-2 DAC is highly recommended. By June though, I hope to review the Benchmark HC3 so that may be an option, albeit at double the cost.

 

[trl]

Old thread, I know, but there was no real answer here. Hifiman recommends their EF6 that pushes 5W/ch. @50 Ohms and they're right about the amount of power needed.

However, with what amp did you paired the HE6 in the end?

 

[leonroy]

Measurements of the EF6 aren't particularly good. But since it outputs about 4W into 50 ohms we can conclude that'd be the needed power to drive the HE-6 effectively. With that any of the new THX AAA amps Amir has reviewed here should be sufficient and cheaper to boot.

My HE-6 has been boxed and gathering dust due to other priorities right now but one of the above amps would be the way I'd go.

 

[trl]

Not sure where you found EF6 measurements, but it would be nice to update the thread with impression about how the HE6 pairs with EF6, then impressions about pairing HE6 with your new-coming THX headamp. Seems that EF6 has an averaged output impedance of 24.3 Ohms, so not quite the best pair with the 50 Ohms HE6 I guess, bit worth a try.

Given HE6's power requirements the THX amps from above might get run out of juice on very loud levels or will be driven near to its max most of the time, while Schiit Mjolnir (8W/32 Ohms) or Burson C3X (15W/32 Ohms) might pair even better due to their more output power.

Lots of folks are using speakers amps to drive HE6, so these cans are really very power hungry for sure.