He6se v2 help me

[BigTy120]

I'm looking for am amp around $300 that will power the He6se v2. I listen to a wide variety of music however I am a bass head. I prefer my music to be more V shape than analytical. It will be used primarily for games movies and music in that order. I plan to use this amp with the ifi gryphon as my dac. I like to listen to music kinda loudly. So please no suggestions that requires me to turn it all the way up only for it to still sound low. I have tried the ifi XCan, Gryphon, black label, signature finale, zen can, as well as the topping a30 pro amp and the L70. I have followed the instructions given to me to check to make sure my system is running well and it is. A friend at work brought me his topping stack just to make sure that there was nothing wrong with mine and the sound was identical I had to turn the L70 all the way up to get any type of decent level and still the bass was very flat tight but not thumpy or maybe that's the wrong word I want it to be hard-hitting Bass and I know these headphones can produce it. So please any help is appreciated whether it's a headphone amp or a stereo power amp I just need some Direction.

Question 2 if a stereo power amplifier can power the headphones what is an appropriate power rating to shoot for because I do have a spare pioneer 5 Channel Home Theater receiver that I was going to donate to my job but I thought that that might be too powerful to run the headphones however I have seen where some people do in fact use old amplifiers to power those headphones. Is this advisable again thank you guys in advance for your help

 

[staticV3]

Did you find out what the issue was already?

Ifi..........

I would like a amp to drive the he6se v2. The L70 cant. I start getting sound at -8.0 db and thats about it. Sounds like your system is misconfigured. The L70 has no issues driving the HE6 to ear-shattering volumes of 115+dB SPL Peak. Use a multimeter to double-check that you're getting the...

www.audiosciencereview.com

No point in recommending new Amps if there are unsolved configuration issues.

 

[olieb]

If the A30pro still has not enough power for you, maybe consider the 3eaudio A5?
The main problem with using a power amp is noise (and destruction of the headphone of course).
A5(se) has 107dB SNR relative to 5W/4Ω (4.5Vrms). The HE6 has a sensitivity of 1.5V for 94dBspl or 104dBspl for 4.5Vrms. So noise should be ok.
And if your ears are still not massaged enough, then I do not know.

 

[staticV3]

Btw, the 3e A5 can play just 10% louder than the L70, less than 2dB.

 

[BigTy120]

I unistalled equalizer Apo. And it solved the problem. For some reason it kept defaulting to 10bd boost and it wouldn't stop so I Un installed it and it solved everything. When I Ren installed it I've lost all of my presets but that's OK. So the L70 is powerfull enough to run all my other headphones but not the HE6. At least not to my liking. I now start getting sound around -30 which is fine but I can still turn it all the way up to zero and it's really just not that loud so when my friend from work offered up his same stack and I saw that there was no difference between his that or mine it became clear that the L70 just wasn't cutting it. So I want something else for them.

 

[ObjectiveSubjectivist]

How much dB of negative pre gain do you use?

 

[BigTy120]

I was thinking about the Smsl A300 or 2 Aiyima a07 max in mono mode. I want a very Dynamic sound with them. Good bass rumble and clear treble. The Topping stack will be my calm neutral system, but when I want to rock out and play it loud, that's when the HE6 will come into play.

 

[BigTy120]

How much dB of negative pre gain do you use?

-6.9

 

[Mr Swing King]

Seems like there is something missing from the equation. I mean the L70 spits out 7.5 W in 32 ohm and should power your HE6 without breaking a sweat.
Either you are implementing some sort of mad equalisation, or maybe there is something funky going down with how you’ve set up the rest of your electronics.

If you are not doing EQ the bass of the HE6 will remain the same aka flat way down into the subbass. No amount of amp power will transform the headphone into a bass slamming beast. A bass shelf however will get you there.
The reason I mention this is because I’ve come across quite a few folks that thought they would be receiving a bass monster with the HE6. Often they were coming from reviews most likely written by old school openback dynamic driver fans who weren’t accustomed to cans with real subbass abilities, and as a consequence something like the HE6 sounded extremely capable in the bass department. Many of said folks also believed that you needed to hook up the Hifiman to incredibly powerful amps in order to really tease out the bass - preferably stereo amps. This doesn’t increase the bass in any way shape or form unless you EQ in the bass, in which case one needed some extra juice from the amp (though nowhere near as much as people claim).
Suffice to say that there are a lot of other options on the market if one is looking for some more thump down low - most of which aren’t 50 ohm 83 dB/mW headphones.

 

[Curupira]

Another relevant question, how loud is loud for you?

Since you're maxing out the L70, it's safe to assume there's something wrong with the chain. Either digital preamplification or the griffon not delivering the standard output voltage.

However, if there isn't, maybe you're already way past remote safe listening levels. And I'm not talking about peaks in music. It's easy to go over 100db averages if your ears are used to it.

Consider bringing jn a friend or a family member to try your setup and ask them how loud it is, if unbearable or just loud. If they say unbearably loud, try readjusting your listening habits. If not for health, just for sanity: if you don't have hearing loss, getting used to lower levels is possible, recommendable and circumvents the whole holy amp search. I myself used to crank up my hd 650 to levels that would make me hear distortion, and adjusting back to normalcy wasn't that big of a deal. It sucked in the beginning but I soon reset my standards.

Worth pointing out that I also owned a HE6SE and used it with a plethora of amps, from the zen can and magni+ to speaker amps and the a30 pro. The latter got it to uncomfortable levels already, and the former were lackluster for impressive levels but enough for my preferences (may not be for you though).

On the bass not being thumpy, try either introducing a bass shelf on the EQ OR doing one of the most famous mods for the he6s: creating a bass port between the earpads and the driver. This emphasizes the resonant bass frequency, creating a "thump" around 100hz that decays afterwards, it's extremely punchy. You can do it with 3M tape. Cut it in for little pieces and stick them to the four sides of each pad (careful with alignment, as the earpads of the 6SEs are angled). Then stick the pads to the driver mount and voilà, DIY bass port. You can glue two pieces of 3M for enhanced effect, but the taller you go (the bigger the airgap) the more you lose bass overall.

 

[Jimbob54]

What is your source? Local files / streaming app/CD?

Agree with others sounds like something else is bringing the digital signal down. Volume levelling or something? PC or app volume control down?

 

[Heinrich]

-6.9

That setting reduces the output in watts to a quater. Not a problem so far with an orderly L70. Seems you've got another problem, that you cannot solve easily. If time is money, why not get a consultant in, a dealer maybe? He or she could measure the output of your L70 (or other) and compare to the expected voltage, wattage, ... . Pretty basic equipment would do, every electritian would get it blind out of the pocket.

 

[Jimbob54]

Also , what EQ profile were you using? Agree with others you have to EQ the bass quite a lot over stock to get good thump. Do you have long hair/ beard? I think the HE6 dont like a broken seal between skin / head and pad.

 

[BigTy120]

OK. So I no longer use EQ APO with the stack. My current setup is the topping L70 and d50 iii. At the beginning I was having a low volume issue, as well as this popping in Distortion sound when turning up the volume . After listening to the advice of you guys on a different thread all of the problems were fixed once I uninstalled The Equalizer apparently it had some type of corrupted file and it was setting the game level too high no matter how much I reset it . Now that is no longer the problem . Now all of my easy to drive headphones sounds great again. The only kink in the chain was the HE6. With my other headphones I started to get audio sooner at about-40db or so and the HE6 starts getting some sounds at - 30db. However I can turn the volume all the way up to zero and I would say from about negative 10 to 0 there is no audible increase in sound. It is not hooked up incorrectly I have TRS to XLR cables running to the balanced input of the L70. I cannot use the gryphon with the L70. They do not play well together. Some of the guys that I work with at the job share the same hobby. And based off of my stack one of them bought a similar stack and I hooked up the HE6 to his Topping stack, E70 and L70 and I got the same results. Clear sound, but very low. However, when another bubby brought his pa5 ii or plus I think it was, the HE6 sounded better, stronger, louder.
The funny thing is I've asked this question to multiple sources because I never really get clear answers however here lately I would say about the last 2 days or so, three different current owners of the HE6 have told me to same thing from three different platforms which was we all started off with headphone amps and transitioned into standard power amplifiers. They have all given me different speaker amplifier setups to use but they all say the same thing once they switched to that setup the headphones sounded way better and they still had Headroom on their amps to where they didn't have to turn it up all the way to listen to it at the high level. One of them suggested that I use my gryphon as a dac because he did for sometime before he upgraded to the Hifiman ef400

 

[Jimbob54]

When you say "start to get audio at -30dB" what do you mean? With the L70 at -30 dB level with the DAC at full volume and source device at full?

Also , @staticV3 has told you twice now an essential test you need to do.

upgraded to the Hifiman ef400

Not sure the EF400 is an upgrade from many things.

 

[Curupira]

was we all started off with headphone amps and transitioned into standard power amplifiers.

This is kind of outdated in the current amp scene. Back in the days of the he6, the headphone amplifiers indeed had trouble delivering more than 2/3 Watts on higher loads. The L70, however, has more output wattage at 50/60 ohms than most small class D power amps at the same load. Remember, power amps are specced at 4/8 ohms, not 60 which is what the he6se v2s have. At that resistance the smaller amps offer LESS power than the L70 because they'll hardly reach 5W at 60ohm.

Which power amp did you use? For you to have more power than the L70 you'd have to have monoblocks or really big desktop sized amplification.

Also, the v2s had a problem with stuck drivers producing all kind of quirks. Are yours misbehaving in any way other than volume?

 

[Heinrich]

Clear sound, but very low. However, when another bubby brought his pa5 ii or plus I think it was, the HE6 sounded better, stronger, louder.

Simple, connect your valuable L70 (way out of my range because of cost) to some other guy's PC, using standard wires, non-symmetric, no e/q and so on, just right normal, you get the picture. Still to low in volume? And as I said, sometimes you need an expert, for good and fair money, that's the deal, who would do things you do not want to dig deeper into.

 

[BigTy120]

When you say "start to get audio at -30dB" what do you mean? With the L70 at -30 dB level with the DAC at full volume and source device at full?

Also , @staticV3 has told you twice now an essential test you need to do.

Not sure the EF400 is an upgrade from many things.

Meaning I didn't start to here sound coming out of the HE6 till about - 30db volume level on the L70. The dac is set to fixed level. Not variable.

 

[Jimbob54]

Meaning I didn't start to here sound coming out of the HE6 till about - 30db volume level on the L70. The dac is set to fixed level. Not variable.

That's very high to get nothing out of the headphones. Sounds like something is reducing the digital signal into your dac to me

 

[Heinrich]

Meaning I didn't start to here sound coming out of the HE6 till about - 30db volume level on the L70. The dac is set to fixed level. Not variable.

Maximum confusion. You need a hands-on consultant, an audio expert to resolve things. Hands-on, somebody with some (extremely basic) measurement devices at your place. Maybe you reveal your location, spend another 200 additionally to your past purchases, and things get fluent.

Maybe he/she would detect some faults in the devices you own, and you'll get a refund?