Hifiman HE6se Review (Headphone)

[KiyPhi]

Just got mine.

No speaker adapter.

Only the first runs came with it I believe. It was a promotion of some kind I think.

 

[watchnerd]

For the amp - you need about 2-3W of power at <1 ohm output impedance, depending on listening levels.
Everything else is a myth from a time where we didn’t have cheapo amps that could blow a hole in these.

EQ demands on power needs to factored in, too.

I just clipped mine tonight using the Oratory EQ and listening to Daft Punk at moderately loud levels.

 

[Noodles]

EQ demands on power needs to factored in, too.

I just clipped mine tonight using the Oratory EQ and listening to Daft Punk at moderately loud levels.

True, however i can attest that my A30 Pro can drive it fine even with EQ, also Jotunheim 2 out of the balanced is plenty as well.
The myth that it needs extreme amounts of power is just that.

 

[watchnerd]

True, however i can attest that my A30 Pro can drive it fine even with EQ, also Jotunheim 2 out of the balanced is plenty as well.
The myth that it needs extreme amounts of power is just that.

Those are pretty extreme amounts of power to me.

Granted, my amp is similar, but those are pretty ridiculous amounts of juice for headphones.

 

[Noodles]

Those are pretty extreme amounts of power to me.

Granted, my amp is similar, but those are pretty ridiculous amounts of juice for headphones.

Not according to people that say power them off speaker amps with 40W per channel. Plus they were sitting around noon on the jot2 on high gain. Don’t remember what position I had them on the A30 Pro. Yes that was with EQ at -5dB preamp in EqualizerAPO.
So that’s where the 2-3 W per channel come from.

 

[watchnerd]

Not according to people that say power them off speaker amps with 40W per channel. Plus they were sitting around noon on the jot2 on high gain. Don’t remember what position I had them on the A30 Pro.
So that’s where the 2-3 W per channel come from.

I'm still going to try the HE6SE from speaker amp to compare.

Why not?

 

[Noodles]

Didn’t say don’t try them, I just said they don’t need it. You can try them off 300W monoblocks and be fine too.
Doesn’t mean they need that much.

 

[watchnerd]

Didn’t say don’t try them, I just said they don’t need it. You can try them off 300W monoblocks and be fine too.
Doesn’t mean they need that much.

I'll be using 400W monoblocks, actually.

 

[peniku8]

Thank god I have a spare FP13000 I can use for my headphones!
.
.
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jk, my EX5 drives them just fine, even with my typical pre amp gain of -20dB

 

[peniku8]

Measured the headphones again after some more 'burn-in', and as expected, the response did not change in the slightest.
Here is a difference plot between left and right channels, which I'll be sending to Hifiman too:

Will report back when they answered my mail

 

[Jimbob54]

Measured the headphones again after some more 'burn-in', and as expected, the response did not change in the slightest.
Here is a difference plot between left and right channels, which I'll be sending to Hifiman too:

Will report back when they answered my mail

You'd have to think one of the drivers is defective in that 1-3k region. Bonkers. Indicates zero QC on each pair before shipping. Not on for the price. Was this the V2? You'd have to think its a conscious decision to reduce tolerances / QC on the V2 to hit the low price point. Mine seem fine but that may be pot luck (or defective ears). Good luck.

 

[peniku8]

You'd have to think one of the drivers is defective in that 1-3k region. Bonkers. Indicates zero QC on each pair before shipping. Not on for the price. Was this the V2? You'd have to think its a conscious decision to reduce tolerances / QC on the V2 to hit the low price point. Mine seem fine but that may be pot luck (or defective ears). Good luck.

I bought the v1. I hate the headband on my HE400i 2020, which was my main motivation behind looking for a replacement. And I also dislike the colour of the v2, which makes it look really cheap imo. The v1 is really comfy, despite its high weight. It melts onto my head and not having pad swivel is not an issue, since they just seem to fit perfectly.

 

[Robbo99999]

Measured the headphones again after some more 'burn-in', and as expected, the response did not change in the slightest.
Here is a difference plot between left and right channels, which I'll be sending to Hifiman too:

Will report back when they answered my mail

I forgot to ask, have you verified your measurement rig is not defective in one of the channels - praps by measuring other headphones on it or flipping the HE6se around on it to see if it measures the same? Just as a last sanity check before you send them back.

 

[edahl]

Measured the headphones again after some more 'burn-in', and as expected, the response did not change in the slightest.
Here is a difference plot between left and right channels, which I'll be sending to Hifiman too:

Will report back when they answered my mail

That's a good use of a miniDSP-ears set I hadn't thought about, checking channel matching.

 

[peniku8]

I forgot to ask, have you verified your measurement rig is not defective in one of the channels - praps by measuring other headphones on it or flipping the HE6se around on it to see if it measures the same? Just as a last sanity check before you send them back.

The measurement rig only has one mic, so I actually do flip the headphones around. Besides that, results are ofc verified by listening
Here are my HD650s (with oratory EQ) on the rig:

@edahl the measurements were made on a DIY rig with a speaker measurement mic, which is why the response looks wierd, but channel matching works pretty well.

 

[edahl]

The measurement rig only has one mic, so I actually do flip the headphones around. Besides that, results are ofc verified by listening
Here are my HD650s (with oratory EQ) on the rig:

@edahl the measurements were made on a DIY rig with a speaker measurement mic, which is why the response looks wierd, but channel matching works pretty well.

Creative! Did you make that?

 

[pkane]

The measurement rig only has one mic, so I actually do flip the headphones around. Besides that, results are ofc verified by listening
Here are my HD650s (with oratory EQ) on the rig:

@edahl the measurements were made on a DIY rig with a speaker measurement mic, which is why the response looks wierd, but channel matching works pretty well.

How do you flip the headphones on this? Just flipping to the other side may not produce an equivalent measurement between left and right since the foam is angled front to back.

 

[peniku8]

Creative! Did you make that?

I did make that, yes

How do you flip the headphones on this? Just flipping to the other side may not produce an equivalent measurement between left and right since the foam is angled front to back.

I just take them off and flip them by 180°. The fixture is symmetrical, so it shouldn't matter if the driver is angled to the front or the back.
Like I mentioned earlier, I made a compensation EQ based on these measurements and confirmed the findings by ear. I also measured my HE400i 2020 on this fixture, which have similarly angled pads, which produced good results (not perfect channel matching, but miles better than these).
When I disable my compensation EQ for the right channel, vocals pan from center to the left.
I also take 3 measurements of each channel (removing the headphones from the fixture between each measurement) and average them to get an even better result. Deviation between these measurements is typically within fractions of a dB, these for example were +-0.1db through most of the range, since the pads seal well and are easy to align with the circles.

 

[watchnerd]

HiFi Man QC being what it is, I'm never going to be able to EQ my HE6SE's correctly unless I measure my specific sample.

Arrrggh.

 

[Skinner001]

HiFi Man QC being what it is, I'm never going to be able to EQ my HE6SE's correctly unless I measure my specific sample.

Arrrggh.

First they were famous for QC issues, then with some of the revisions they seemed to have fixed stuff (my Sundara and Arya seem quite good) and now it rears it's ugly head again. And just to add it here as well - they just can't provide one single decent cable it seems - though at least they don't use proprietary connectors so getting aftermarket cables at a good price is not too big of an issue.

Time and time again I get reminded that Sennheiser builds stuff mostly from plastic, does not look of feel premium, and yet most of their stuff lasts for years - so many companies have issues with these basic things. Build and channel balance - at least get that right.