Hifiman HE-6 Review (Headphone)

[KiyPhi]

I don't have one to measure currently.

Hello. Long time lurker, first post. I have a spare pair I don't use much anymore I wouldn't mind sending out.

 

[Shazb0t]

This is why I get sad when I need to eq down more than 3db on the pregain. Tonality is better, but dynamics and such take a hit so I try to not force the harman curve too much. I have hard to drive headphones for which oratory eq recommends - 8db gain, ended up at tweaking it for an eq that's half as strong.

Speaker amp.

 

[Dana reed]

Have enjoyed my HE6SE, but never heard the original. I wonder how much deviation in measurements there would be between them given some people's subjective observation of the comparative sound of the two.
Without EQ, the HE6SE is amongst my favorites, but with EQ, I still like the LCD2 better.

 

[DivineCurrent]

To make things even more confusing, there are two new versions of the HE6. The HE-6se with the Sundara style headband, and the Adorama exclusive HE-6se V2, which you can find here: https://www.adorama.com/hmhe6sev2.html
I personally much prefer the comfort of this Adorama headband, I got a HE-560 V4 from there and it has the same headband. It is the same as the Deva also.

 

[B4ICU]

There are a lot of web sites where you can read about this sort of thing if you find it convincing.
This site is based on science and using known information and research both on things which are provable (most electronics) and some where preference a major factor so most people may tend to like the preference a significant minority may/will not.
I like the fact I can come here and find information based on knowledge rather than speculation.
This site is pretty well unique in being knowledge based rather than wild, and often irrational, speculation based but I do understand that the majority of people are not scientifically minded so may find it boring.

It is not about black or white. It has more shades of gray. This site has too, a listening portion, but is is small and not informative.
A good test, should provide a whole picture. Only listening or only measuring is not for me.
Sometimes measurements would reveal a problem or a downside. But sometimes it's not. I had it once.

 

[Anmol]

To make things even more confusing, there are two new versions of the HE6. The HE-6se with the Sundara style headband, and the Adorama exclusive HE-6se V2, which you can find here: https://www.adorama.com/hmhe6sev2.html
I personally much prefer the comfort of this Adorama headband, I got a HE-560 V4 from there and it has the same headband. It is the same as the Deva also.

I do have original sundara when it came out nice and early and I do own adorama he6se too. somehow i get the feel that sundara headband is sturdier. may be its shape of my head, While lying down in bed causes adorama special to slip downwards towards bed. he6se is tonally quite sensitive to how it is positioned with respect to ears. no slippage issues with sundara headband.

 

[Dana reed]

To make things even more confusing, there are two new versions of the HE6. The HE-6se with the Sundara style headband, and the Adorama exclusive HE-6se V2, which you can find here: https://www.adorama.com/hmhe6sev2.html
I personally much prefer the comfort of this Adorama headband, I got a HE-560 V4 from there and it has the same headband. It is the same as the Deva also.

I prefer the suspension headband and also the 3.5 mm connectors, compared to the original. I have the original HE560 and it has the same type of headband. Of course that uses 2.5 mm jacks so I can’t share cables between them.

 

[Racheski]

It is not about black or white. It has more shades of gray. This site has too, a listening portion, but is is small and not informative.
A good test, should provide a whole picture. Only listening or only measuring is not for me.
Sometimes measurements would reveal a problem or a downside. But sometimes it's not. I had it once.

So what, exactly, is the review missing?

 

[Jimbob54]

So what, exactly, is the review missing?

Waffle. Superfluous flowery waffle.

 

[rcstevensonaz]

A90 did 4.8W @ 50 ohms vs. Mono 887 which did 3.7W @ 50 ohms. More power is unnecessary.

What is the power of the RME ADI-2 DAC? My comment was against that, not comparing A90 vs TXH 887. (And, Amir noted he tested using an A90, so my comment was already effectively addressed by the initial review.)

 

[Jimbob54]

What is the power of the RME ADI-2 DAC? My comment was against that, not comparing A90 vs TXH 887. (And, Amir noted he tested using an A90, so my comment was already effectively addressed by the initial review.)

Measured here as 310 mw @300 ohm, 1.5w @32

 

[murraycamp]

my "highly recommended" bucket

Sorry if I missed this @amirm but what other cans are in this bucket? If it's another thread, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

 

[amirm]

Hello. Long time lurker, first post. I have a spare pair I don't use much anymore I wouldn't mind sending out.

That would be great. Please start a conversation with me and we can take it from there.

 

[amirm]

Sorry if I missed this @amirm but what other cans are in this bucket? If it's another thread, thanks for pointing me in the right direction.

Members have never been a fan of creating such lists so we don't have any.

 

[Jimbob54]

Members have never been a fan of creating such lists so we don't have any.

Feel free to PM those very interested members who will reveal on pain of death. Price not a factor either way.

 

[CTRLM]

This is why I get sad when I need to eq down more than 3db on the pregain. Tonality is better, but dynamics and such take a hit so I try to not force the harman curve too much. I have hard to drive headphones for which oratory eq recommends - 8db gain, ended up at tweaking it for an eq that's half as strong.

Agreed. I use the Oratory Harman EQ purely as a baseline and then tune to my taste on my Clears & Anandas. That involves a maximum of 2dB low shelf and at a lower frequency level. I also usually vary the amount of gain/attenuation on the filters I use to taste and discard others that I find unnecessary. The nett result is that I only use 4 filters on each of these and set the pre-gain to -3dB.

Looking forward to the measurement of the Anandas.

 

[tential]

Isn't this the same as the HE-6se and HE-6se v2? The v2 is an attainable price, so if anyone has one or wants to buy one and send, that'd be great.
Or if you just have any info in general.

 

[antdroid]

Isn't this the same as the HE-6se and HE-6se v2? The v2 is an attainable price, so if anyone has one or wants to buy one and send, that'd be great.
Or if you just have any info in general.

I think the se v2 is similar but not the same as the original. There's some definite cosmetic difference in the dampening and driver from the SE models and the original. The pads and headband are also different

I measured the SE V2 recently using a compensated (via comparing/best fit to known similar headphone data) GRAS clone (43ag with older ra0045 clone coupler mic)

Black is HE6SE V2 and Red is Susvara.

I hope that helps. I really like the HE6SE V2 a lot. It's a stellar value at its adorama pricing, but I do recommend a good quality and higher powered headphone amplifier for it. I've used it with the A90, Jotunheim 2, Feliks Elise Mk 2, and currently primarily using it with the Audiolab 6000A integrated amp.

For reference, here's the same graph vs the Harman 2018 Target Curve (again note of my measurement setup)

Bold line: HE6SE V2 dark blue thin line: Same headphone with grill removed

 

[tential]

I think the se v2 is similar but not the same as the original. There's some definite cosmetic difference in the dampening and driver from the SE models and the original. The pads and headband are also different

I measured the SE V2 recently using a compensated (via comparing/best fit to known similar headphone data) GRAS clone (43ag with older ra0045 clone coupler mic)

Black is HE6SE V2 and Red is Susvara.

I hope that helps. I really like the HE6SE V2 a lot. It's a stellar value at its adorama pricing, but I do recommend a good quality and higher powered headphone amplifier for it. I've used it with the A90, Jotunheim 2, Feliks Elise Mk 2, and currently primarily using it with the Audiolab 6000A integrated amp.

View attachment 120219

For reference, here's the same graph vs the Harman 2018 Target Curve (again note of my measurement setup)

Bold line: HE6SE V2 dark blue thin line: Same headphone with grill removed
View attachment 120220

Thanks, appreciate the response, I read your review and your mods. I've been eyeing this because of the amazing price discount for awhile now.

Good to get me expectations in check since I also wanted a mobile unit, so I'd need more than one setup.

When I first looked it up when it was on sale, there was little to no reviews on it.

Definitely my top pick so far.

 

[SeriousApple]

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hifiman HE-6 open-back, Planar Magnetic Headphone. It was kindly loaned to me by a member. There are different versions of this headphone in the wild. This is the "4-screw" version. The HE-6 has been discontinued. When available, it cost US $1,300.

The HE-6 has a serious look to it and beefy metal parts:

View attachment 119796

I think the wiring provided are aftermarket.

The large cups allowed it to instantly fit on my head with excellent comfort despite its above average weight.

The cup is round and its inside diameter is 60 millimeters. The depth is 18 millimeters.

Note: The measurements you are about to see are preformed using standardized GRAS 45CA headphone measurement fixture. Headphone measurements require more interpretation than speaker tests and have more of a requirement for subjective testing as a result. In addition, comparison of measurements between different people performing it using different configurations requires fair bit of skill. So don't look for matching results. Focus on high level picture. Listening tests are performed using RME ADI-2 DAC and its headphone output.

Mounting the headphone on my test fixture was challenging, resulting in quite a lot of variation between channels and overall response. I optimized this as best as I could but like there are some error in low frequencies.

Hifiman HE-6 Measurements
Before I show the measurement let me state that this was the easiest headphone to measure by far. I just put it on my test rig and it instantly registered equal levels in both cups. And furthermore, the level barely changed when I switched to a low frequency of 80 Hz. It was a joy in this regard!

Let's start with frequency response of HE-6 and comparison to our preference target to figure out tonality of the headphone:
View attachment 119797

Now you see what I meant by ease of measurements. See how the response is ruler flat and matching in both cups from 20 Hz to almost 1.5 kHz! I have never seen such precision before. Yes, our preferred response asks for more bass but this is a great baseline to have instead of drooping, or jagged response. Someone had a target of flat response there and got it! Beyond 1 kHz, we have some shortfall from target followed by excessive peaking and exaggerated highs. Neither is very extreme though:

View attachment 119799

Check out the distortion levels:

View attachment 119800

At 94 and 104 dB, there is essentially no distortion from 20 Hz to 10 kHz! 114 dBSPL brings out some unhappiness between 1 and 2 kHz. We can see that there must be multiple sound sources from the group delay:

View attachment 119801

Low frequency response though is textbook accurate with that sloping down graph. Again, I don't recall seeing another headphone that clean in that region.

Back to distortion, the HE-6 passes my 40 dBSPL threshold with flying colors:
View attachment 119803

The HE-6 has a reputation for being very inefficient, needing ton of power and we can see that in my testing:
View attachment 119804

It is in a class by itself there.

Typical of planar magnetic transducers, impedance is flat and low:

View attachment 119805

Hifiman HE-6 Listening Tests
I remember testing the HE-6 a couple of weeks ago for another purpose and saying, "hey, this is not bad!" Same impression held this time around. The sound is very clean with just a bit of high frequency exaggeration. What bass there is, is good enough baseline that you could live with. Still, I went after its response to matching to our preference better and the sound improved by a good notch or two:

View attachment 119807

I arbitrary dialed in that sub-bass EQ. It worked well enough to bring out that region without changing the overall impression of bass or making the headphone boomy. I put in a shelving filter to pull the highs down and that worked well. I think brought down the resonance around 4.3 kHz and compensated with pulling up the 2 kHz.

Once there, the transformation was impressive. Spatial effects were reasonable before but now were incredibly satisfying. It felt like you had your head inside a medium sized dull house with an orchestra playing! I wish I still had the Sennheiser HD800S with me to compare. From memory though, I think the HE-6 is close if not the same as its magical response in this regard. I am assuming the large cups and spacing from the ear is responsible for this open sound.

With equalization, I really had no other wishes for this headphone. It was comfortable and produced incredible fidelity. Everything was there from clean bass to detail and resolution. And oh, I was driving it with Topping A90 which could drive it quite loud on high gain. I also tested it on RME ADI-2 DAC V2 and it too managed to drive it. So no, you don't need a power (speaker) amplifier to drive it. High performance amplifiers I have been recommending can mange it.

I liked the sound of HE-6 so much that while working on the review, I was playing my selection of music with it and constantly saying, "wow, that sounds good!"

Conclusions
It is a shame this headphone is discontinued and was expensive to boot. Objectively the performance is quite good with distortion being a stand-out in addition to good amount of bass out of box. With four filters, the sound is transformed not only tonally, but also from imagine/spatial qualities, differentiating from other headphones.

I am going to put the HE-6 four-screw version on my recommended list. With EQ, it lands in my "highly recommended" bucket. Will be sad to let this go.

FYI, I have asked the owner to chime in and explain exactly what it is that I tested. He also lent me some other mods but I have not tried to assess them.

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As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.

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What program do you use to add EQ to your dac?