Nan-6 Planar Headphone Review

[peniku8]

Here is the response of Hifiman HE-6 by the way:

There is better channel matching but the HE-6 has that notch around 7 kHz which the Nan-6 remedies.

Uh oh. Hifiman and channel matching...

 

[Ra1zel]

One thing I really like about ASR headphone measurments is THD data, for some reason other people who measure headphones don't do this. Thanks Amir.

 

[Phoney]

Uh oh. Hifiman and channel matching...

It's not bad. This is quite normal "imbalance" for FR measurments. It will not be very audible really, even if this FR is 100% accurate, I doubt that you would tell a difference in a listening test. Espeically without knowing about it beforehand. After seeing it on a graph, confirmation bias can happen.

 

[Robbo99999]

I don't think I'm that sold on planars, they always seem to have a lot of severe fine grass very high Q deviations above 1khz. I only have one planar, the HE4XX, which is supposed to have low unit to unit variation according to Oratory, but using Harman EQ on the HE4XX just doesn't end up with much clarity even if tonality sounds right....my intuition tells me it's the very high Q fine grass deviation above 1kHz on the HE4XX (and planars) that is messing with clarity even when tonality seems right. You just don't see that very high Q fine grass deviations in the treble of dynamic driver headphones, and with the right EQ I can generally get them to reveal more clarity than the HE4XX that I have. I'm just gonna vote this headphone as "Not Terrible", I'm just not convinced by planars (& it's expensive)......the exception is the DCA Stealth where they've managed to design it so that there is virtually none of the High Q Fine Grass that I've been talking about, which is quite likely due to the "meta-material" technology that DCA have incorporated into the Stealth.....which further gives me intuition that it's desirable to remove this High Q Fine Grass I've been talking about........here's the DCA Stealth frequency response which is the only planar I've seen where they can get rid of the High Q Fine Grass - that's the smoothest frequency response I've seen in a planar:

 

[Robbo99999]

Uh oh. Hifiman and channel matching...

Where are you at with yours at the moment, you kept sending them back & getting replacements.....have they finally sent you one with perfect channel matching yet?

 

[Metronomy]

What amplifier does it take to make them sound good?

 

[acbarn]

It’s difficult to get excited about a knockoff at this price. Hard pass here.

 

[[email protected]]

It’s difficult to get excited about a knockoff at this price. Hard pass here.

Exactly my point

 

[Lambda]

Wow, they are incredibly low distortion/high power.
If used with the right EQ they they must be fantastic for extremely dynamic content at high listening levels.

 

[111a111sk]

It’s difficult to get excited about a knockoff at this price. Hard pass here.

As I see it, this is a knockoff of Susvara, not HE-6, so a fifth of the typical sale price seems quite reasonable. The FR certainly resembles Susvara more than anything.

 

[peniku8]

Where are you at with yours at the moment, you kept sending them back & getting replacements.....have they finally sent you one with perfect channel matching yet?

I will post an update in the HE6se thread soon, it hasn't been fully dealt with yet

 

[amirm]

EQ added to the review.

 

[amirm]

Hmm, no data on the weight of the headphones and the dimensions of the pads

I stopped taking those measurements as it is a bit of pain and I saw little value in them. In this case given the lack of proper company website/spec, I agree I should have taken it. I will see if I can do it later today.

 

[amirm]

In my opinion, I don't think it is a good think to encourage nockoffs by testing them in ASR.
This has borrowed parts from abyss, audeze, and a marketed tuning of hifiman !!

While I hear your point, knock off in my view are something that are sold as the real thing but with much lower quality parts/performance. In other words, the buyer is fooled into thinking they are getting one thing but get another. This is not the case here. Performance is excellent and the headphone is sold with a different name/brand. I also have no personal knowledge of parts being used from another company. There is chatter about it online but I did not have the time or ability to verify them.

Also, I make a distinction between when a company sends me something to test versus members. In some cases, I would refuse to accept a product from a company with low ethics but will test things if a member asks me to.

 

[Ra1zel]

but using Harman EQ on the HE4XX just doesn't end up with much clarity even if tonality sounds right

Interesting... I have experienced something similar, Susvara if pretty close to harman with flat bass yet I always feel like it's uneasy in the treble, tiny bit unpleasant timbre in 5-8khz range, yet at the same a little bit lacking in engagement.

On the other hand I always find my estats to respond wonderfully to EQ

 

[Robbo99999]

Interesting... I have experienced something similar, Susvara if pretty close to harman with flat bass yet I always feel like it's uneasy in the treble, tiny bit unpleasant timbre in 5-8khz range, yet at the same a little bit lacking in engagement.

On the other hand I always find my estats to respond wonderfully to EQ

I don't really recall seeing Electrostats being measured here on ASR? Are electrostats generally free of the High Q Fine Grass I was talking about above 1kHz?

EDIT: Solderdude found some Electrostat measurements in the post after this one. That Stax (elecrostat) has a bit of High Q Fine Grass above 1kHz, but not as much as a typical planar. Maybe it's the High Q Fine Grass that negatively effects your experience in the Susvara, or maybe it's not.....I think that's the reason for me not being able to get as much clarity out of the HE4XX even when tonality sounds right, but I can't really know for sure that's the reason. If I tried loads of planar headphones and kept coming to the same conclusion then that might help....but that's not gonna happen......it's interesting though that Dan Clarke decided to rid the Stealth of the high Q fine grass.....actually Dan Clarke's Aeon RT didn't have a lot of fine grass either (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?attachments/dan-clark-audio-Æon-rt-measurements-closed-png.106154/ ), perhaps Dan Clark also think the High Q Fine Grass is detrimental.

 

[solderdude]

Stax SRM-Xh Review (Electrostatic Headphone Amp)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Stax SRM-Xh which powers ("energizes") the Stax Pro electrostatic headphones. It was kindly purchased used by a member and drop shipped to me. I don't know what it originally cost but I see them going for $300 or so on ebay right now. The unit...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Headphone Measurements Using Brüel & Kjær 5128 HATS

:) @amirm for grins can we have one ear cup of HD650 Klippel analyzed to see the front and open back relations.

www.audiosciencereview.com

 

[cheapmessiah]

Wonder if these will suffer from stuck drivers like the HE6se, that to me is the main deal breaker.

These seem like "youtuber headphones", they are relatively expensive but if your channel has the apropriete amount of viewers you can amortize them in a single video, and you wouldnt really have to worry about reliability.

 

[LTig]

Seeing very similar measurements could it be that both Nan 6 and He6 are manufactured in the same plant in China?

 

[Cars-N-Cans]

In my opinion, I don't think it is a good think to encourage nockoffs by testing them in ASR.
This has borrowed parts from abyss, audeze, and a marketed tuning of hifiman !!
Legit asian audio companies are very good and lauded especially in iems and gear, but and I don't think we should buy a 1k$ nockoff.

I think the overall theme of these reviews is they are done under the auspices of objective performance, and the end user has to decide. But I agree buying someone’s headphone that is a copypasta of others might not be too swift. That and the resemblance of the logo to NaN, which perhaps is fitting