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Hifiman HE-6 Review (Headphone)
- Thread starter amirm
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- Nov 23, 2020
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Will there be a Hifiman Arya or Susvara review coming up?
tankas
Member
Nice. Now the Ananda please.
That's relevant .
Any technical guy can fire back?
DarthShader
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AudioSmell
Member
Thank you for the review.
My long term experiences with them are as follows.
I selected them long time ago because of Tyll's measurements. Graphs showed incredible square wave response, a textbook one. Low distortion as well.
Sound-wise, these are incredible. Each song splits into separate tracks, even complicated classic pieces sound realistic and one can discern instruments without effort or focus. They have tremendous bass, not exaggerated, more like from huge speakers. Yet the sound is gentle.
To me they offer the most realistic (transparent) music performance to date.
My long term experiences with them are as follows.
I selected them long time ago because of Tyll's measurements. Graphs showed incredible square wave response, a textbook one. Low distortion as well.
Sound-wise, these are incredible. Each song splits into separate tracks, even complicated classic pieces sound realistic and one can discern instruments without effort or focus. They have tremendous bass, not exaggerated, more like from huge speakers. Yet the sound is gentle.
To me they offer the most realistic (transparent) music performance to date.
While it is a fair point it paints a darker picture than reality:
Dynamic range is not altered on the amp (the ratio between noise floor and max voltage remains), what is reduced is the headroom you have before the amp clips so you can still normalize or adjust global gain in the input signal.
Good amps are conservatively rated but can tolerate higher amplitude transients.
EQ is done on amplitude, not on power, so you need a 6 dB gain to double/half,
You reduce amp headroom only if you boost on the EQ, when you place dips to even out peaks you could say you are "recovering" headroom.
The EQ affects narrow bands and the spectral content in actual music decays inversely proportional to the frequency.
Headphones rarely require 1V to reach 94 dBSPL so you probably do have the headroom for EQ.
that being said, a low shelf of +10 dB surely will eat up your amp headroom.
Nango
Major Contributor
So almost every Hifiman that came AFTER the HE-6 is crappier stuff???? I bet on it!!!!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.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
Well, I'm impressed with that headphone, especially the lack of distortion, but also the frequency response is not too jagged which seems to be a common pitfall with planar headphones. I'm also impressed that you relayed soundstage as being on par with HD800s, from your recollection of when you measured the HD800s. Do you think it would be worth it to purchase a few milestone headphones that display certain benchmark characteristics by which other headphones are compared....eg the HD800s for it's soundstage....that way you could flip between them and make more assured comparisons re soundstage & other listening impressions? You could purchase any notable benchmark headphones you come across in your growing arsenal of measurements. Afterall, for instance you said you didn't want to give this one back anyway!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.
------------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
If we step out of fantasy land for a minute and click the first link in my signature, we will realize that typical speakers need no more than -3 dB preamp gain after EQ.
The worst offenders are Canon S-50 and Tannoy System 600 at -8.3 dB and -7.8 dB, respectively. These values also include a 0.2 dB "buffer".
Even the extremely poorly measuring Magnepan LRS (being so bad that its predicted preference score is in the negatives) only needs a preamp gain of -5.0 dB.
Nango
Major Contributor
I bet the one which comes closest to HE-6 is ...... HE-560 !!!!!I have Ananda and Sundara so will be testing those soon.
If the He-6se is out of consideration I would bet that it's actually the He-500. I have the He-500 in addition to this He-6 and find them to be very similar tonally. They also share the exact same magnet/cup structure with the difference being treatment on the diaphragm and aluminum traces instead of gold on the He-500.
Topping L30 can drive it at 12-1 o clock provided dac provides over 3volts. Sabaj d5 and 2qute can provide needed boost to l30.
Upcoming topping A30 pro should be awesome with he6 or he6se for us$350.
Nango
Major Contributor
HD800 is said to be very amp dependent and to escalate highhhhhhhh .........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
Peace
What mechanism of amplification do you think would be responsible for that? It's a trick question.
Thank you so much @amirm for the review of this gem. I recently bought the SE version, which is supposed to be the same headphone with slightly different package. I am also greatly impressed and cannot compare with anything else I have (Focal Elegia, Senn HD6XX, Audeze EL-8, etc.) The only thing comes close is Audeze iSine20 with cipher (Those are also a genre in themselves).
BTW: I was driving them with THX AAA and Aune S7 PROs.
BTW: I was driving them with THX AAA and Aune S7 PROs.
Oh, I see, the curves shown are EQ curves, not plots of measurement of the HE-6. AHA!
rcstevensonaz
Active Member
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- Nov 27, 2020
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By design, these headphones are very inefficient compared to, well, just about everything.
Because of that, I believe your tests (at least, listening tests) should be done using a Monolith THX 887, not the RME ADI-2 headphone jack; and especially not on the lower powered ADI-2 DAC (vs. ADI-2 Pro). The RME can route XLR down the THX 887, so you can still keep it in the audio path for the configuration aspects.
As a side note, even RME notes that their products are fantastic headphone amps, with no need to route out to a different amp except when more power is needed. I believe this is one of those cases.
Because of that, I believe your tests (at least, listening tests) should be done using a Monolith THX 887, not the RME ADI-2 headphone jack; and especially not on the lower powered ADI-2 DAC (vs. ADI-2 Pro). The RME can route XLR down the THX 887, so you can still keep it in the audio path for the configuration aspects.
As a side note, even RME notes that their products are fantastic headphone amps, with no need to route out to a different amp except when more power is needed. I believe this is one of those cases.
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