Hifiman HE-6 Review (Headphone)

[YSC]

Ah ok, that’s why I was skeptical the drop measurement showed a roll off bass at lowest octave and the he-500 was like he6 flat all along, this explains that

 

[Anmol]

Hi Amir
Many thanks for review. If you had to pick between hd800s or he6 which one would you pick?
Akg 371 is not one of the choice options -
PS- love to see comparison between he6 vs he6se(I own it)
Cheers!

 

[B4ICU]

Some remarks:
Headphones should be comfortable. No word about it. Fit to wear, as first impression, longer listening experience (most HP fail on that short).
Even listening description is so dull vs. the technical part.
I do not see how it can be recommended with a price tag of $1,300.- and still requires EQ. Plenty of that: 10 dB.
EQ for me, is a "BIG NO". EQ of 10 dB is like killing HP Amp's power by a factor of 10. With such a low efficiency: SPL per mW, it is a disaster better to stay away from.

 

[solderdude]

Some remarks:
Headphones should be comfortable. No word about it. Fit to wear, as first impression, longer listening experience (most HP fail on that short).
Even listening description is so dull vs. the technical part.
I do not see how it can be recommended with a price tag of $1,300.- and still requires EQ. Plenty of that: 10 dB.
EQ for me, is a "BIG NO". EQ of 10 dB is like killing HP Amp's power by a factor of 10. With such a low efficiency: SPL per mW, it is a disaster better to stay away from.

Aside from the weight and its appalling efficiency it is a great sounding headphone.

I measured the 4 screw HE6 as well and got a similar result. (except in the treble of course)

I too didn't really want to send it back. On the other hand the weight would be killing for me.
Really a great headphone otherwise.

 

[304290]

Really glad to see this review. Now I really feel smart lol. This is one of my all time favorite headphones. I preferred these over hd800, all stax that I had listened to and owned, and some of the overpriced hard to find headphones like the sony r10 , akg1000 and audio technicas. Yes they do have a slight tilt up high, but that was their only shortcoming for me. That was easy to live with given all of the other attributes they posess. I kept them for years and never thought I would get rid of them. That is until the he1000 came along. They have supplanted the he6 and I have owned them just as long as I owned the he6. That graph shows what I thought I was hearing when I did own them. I loved the extension, mids to die for, and just enough slam and impact to not warrant eq'ing them down low to be enjoyable. And most of all, not a hint of harshness, even with the slight(to me) tilt up high that was still very clean sounding.

 

[YSC]

Some remarks:
Headphones should be comfortable. No word about it. Fit to wear, as first impression, longer listening experience (most HP fail on that short).
Even listening description is so dull vs. the technical part.
I do not see how it can be recommended with a price tag of $1,300.- and still requires EQ. Plenty of that: 10 dB.
EQ for me, is a "BIG NO". EQ of 10 dB is like killing HP Amp's power by a factor of 10. With such a low efficiency: SPL per mW, it is a disaster better to stay away from.

Agree to comfort wise it's a major concern, I have a pretty strong neck and still feels the Hifiman planars to be hefty after long use, definitely not for ladies or guys with a small neck.

Price tag was the main reason I never went with it but as far as current headphone market is concerned, it's not "that expensive", EQ is more like a personal preference as anechoic diffusive field flat curve that this HE-6 pretty much follows vs the Harman boosted bass, so it's a matter of preference and otherwise this is surprisingly good match to the target and the distortion is still great after EQ is another plus, so if purely based on sound I feel Amirm's recommendation is justified, as this headphone is discontinued and known to be better paired with speaker amp, this is more like the AKG K1000, for the collectors who like it and have enough to spend, much like vintage cars or speakers..

 

[3125b]

Are those Beyerdynamic pads on there?
Anyway, pretty good performance, unfortunately many are riced out.

 

[qwerty88]

Are those Beyerdynamic pads on there?
Anyway, pretty good performance, unfortunately many are riced out.

Those look like the stock velours.

 

[The Capstan]

Hi Amir,
your reviews are super interesting. Well done and can’t praise more.
However I see you have recently reviewed some discontinued products. I imagine some forum partecipants have these items and they could be interested, but would not make more sense focus your efforts on current production?
Not a criticism, more a desire. I don’t think you have reviewed the Sundara which is a super popular HifiMan product in current production, for instance.
best
Ale.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

After this review which confirm my point of view of the HifiMan HE6 as an end game product, I no longer feel the scratch for the HD800 or anything. I did not also notice that the Atom could drive it to high volume. As a bona fide audiophile, I want headroom. I am not pleased with seeing the volume pot of the Atom near 3 o'clock to achieve "good" SPL .
Now I would like to see a review of the HE-6SE, the current version of this Classic and of the Sundara a much hyped headphones.

Peace

 

[FrantzM]

Really glad to see this review. Now I really feel smart lol. This is one of my all time favorite headphones. I preferred these over hd800, all stax that I had listened to and owned, and some of the overpriced hard to find headphones like the sony r10 , akg1000 and audio technicas. Yes they do have a slight tilt up high, but that was their only shortcoming for me. That was easy to live with given all of the other attributes they posess. I kept them for years and never thought I would get rid of them. That is until the he1000 came along. They have supplanted the he6 and I have owned them just as long as I owned the he6. That graph shows what I thought I was hearing when I did own them. I loved the extension, mids to die for, and just enough slam and impact to not warrant eq'ing them down low to be enjoyable. And most of all, not a hint of harshness, even with the slight(to me) tilt up high that was still very clean sounding.

+1

Have not heard the HE-1000 and don't you tempt me! .. See my post up there

 

[304290]

lol

 

[B4ICU]

A word regarding EQ and power:
If any device is EQ'd by 3 dB, the Amp's dynamic range decrease by 3 dB (Half). So, if you had a 50W Amp's you remain with only 25W available.
If the same is EQ'd by 10 dB, the Amp's dynamic range decrease by 10 dB (1/10). So, if you had a 50W Amp's you remain with only 5W!
That's bad.
Now most EQ'd devices on this site are speakers and headphones.
The audio output of such device (speaker) is given by the sensitivity (SPL/m/w). In other words, how loud it sounds when checked on axis, at a 1m distance, when driven by 1W rms (2.83V@8ohms) in dB. So if you have a low sensitivity speaker (or HP), let's pick a Magnepan 1.6 with 86dB/w/m SPL, vs a Klipsch Forte-II with 99dB/w/m SPL, the 13dB difference is translated to x20 more power for the Magnepan 1.6.
If you would like to play the Magnepan 1.6 as loud as a Klipsch Forte-II at 5W you need a 200W power Amp playing at full trust.
If that would be EQ'd by 10dB, it would really crippled the Magnepan 1.6 to be driven by 20W only.
The very same is with the rested HP. It's sensitivity is the lowest, by far, among other HP in the market.
EQ is also not so good with THD and phase. It always sound inferior to NO EQ.
I used to own the SONY TA-E2000ESD pre Amp. with a 91 band parametric EQ, with precision Q and amp (0.1dB +/-). It always sounded more natural without it, than with! I think that EQ never been better than that, and still...Thanks, but no thanks.

 

[Jimbob54]

These have been on my ebay watchlist for some time and now even less likely to ever make their way to me. Maybe hifiman will do an anniversary re-issue at some point and charge an arm and a leg. A proper reissue though, none of this SE nonsense.

 

[solderdude]

Note:

There are differences between early 4 screw, later 4 screw and again later 6 screw.
https://systematicsound.wordpress.c...e-6-early-4-screw-vs-late-4-screw-vs-6-screw/

 

[Tks]

Lots of people talking about comfort. More specifically about the weight of these headphones with respect to neck issues.

I never have an issue with headphone weight in terms of neck pain (I can go 6+ hours no problem). An issue I have with Audeze LCD's for example which are also heavy, is they're simply unstable. You can't do large swinging or fast moving head movements. Also forget about tilting your head or any of that, it just moves the damn thing.

When I went back to light stuff like HD600's. I couldn't believe it. I honestly don't think I can ever wear a planar again for anything aside from leaned back listening for a few minutes. I get they can make the clamp force greater but then you have a vicegrip on your head. You can imagine that being worse for people with neck issues. They would then have the neck pain from weight as usual, and also a horizontal gripping force, making the damn headphone a torture device.

 

[milosz]

Amir vs Jaakkopasanen (measured by InnerFidelity):
View attachment 119826
PEQ profile by Amir (from my post #2 above):

Spoiler

Preamp: -5.4 dB
Filter 1: ON LS Fc 60 Hz Gain 5.0 dB Q 1.0
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 2000 Hz Gain 4.0 dB Q 1.5
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 4300 Hz Gain -3.0 dB Q 2.0
Filter 4: ON HS Fc 10000 Hz Gain -3.0 dB Q 1.0

PEQ profile by Jaakkopasanen (measured by InnerFidelity):

Spoiler

Preamp: -5.2 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 17 Hz Gain 3.6 dB Q 0.94
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 52 Hz Gain 2.6 dB Q 0.63
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 2018 Hz Gain 5.3 dB Q 1.81
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 5940 Hz Gain -7.6 dB Q 3.81
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 20018 Hz Gain -9.3 dB Q 0.15
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 959 Hz Gain -1.2 dB Q 3.94
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 3155 Hz Gain -0.4 dB Q 1.67
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 4891 Hz Gain 3.2 dB Q 3.03
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 5546 Hz Gain -3.2 dB Q 7.50
Filter 10: ON PK Fc 8388 Hz Gain -1.8 dB Q 2.70

Oratory1990 didn't measure.

I have a pair of HE6 and there is no way there is a rolloff above 5 kHz as shown in those Jaakkopasanen measurements. Maybe he had a defective pair. My He6's sound a bit bright, as Amirm said the pair he tested did.

I am anxious to try Amirms EQ. I have tried the EQ from https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq/tree/master/results/oratory1990/harman_over-ear_2018/ and they did not work, the sound was not good.

 

[Shazb0t]

On the other hand the weight would be killing for me.

Agree to comfort wise it's a major concern, I have a pretty strong neck and still feels the Hifiman planars to be hefty after long use, definitely not for ladies or guys with a small neck.

As far as the weight is concerned, yes they are heavier than normal headphones but I've never had any neck pain issues from wearing them for extended sessions. The caveat is that I'm also a gamer with over a decade of counterstrike under my belt; so I may have gained some neck muscle from starting at a screen while wearing a headset for long periods of time My point is that you get used to it!

 

[milosz]

I find the HE-6's to be OK in terms of comfort. They are heavy, as all planars seem to be.

You need some power to drive these puppies. I have used a number of amps with them, my favorite being the Monoprice Monolith THX 887 balanced amp, and I also like the Beta 22 as far as an unbalanced amp. I used a First Watt amp for a while, I forget which one. That was OK too but just too expensive an amp for me, I sold it on.

 

[solderdude]

I have a pair of HE6 and there is no way there is a rolloff above 5 kHz as shown in those Jaakkopasanen measurements.

It's actually the other way around. Jaakko's EQ suggests the HE-6 was 10dB too bright (which it really isn't).

There are different HE6 around which sound different as well.