The following post is only my personal opinion based off of the measurements I've viewed, a variety of reviews, and large amounts of lurking in audio forums and review sites; I consider myself fairly well informed but I am not an expert.
As fantastic of a discount as this is, I would greatly recommend the vast majority of people to avoid these headphones for serveral reasons:
First, since I know people wander onto these headphone deals not realizing these are audiophile cans for critical listening, here's some basic information: these headphones are wired only (no bluetooth or wireless connections of any kind), have no form of active noise cancelling, have extremely poor sound isolation (you can hear whats going on around you, and everyone around you can hear what you're listening too), and are extremely heavy and bulky. They are designed to be used at home with a dedicated audio setup.
Next, a very powerful headphone amplifier is 100% necessary to get even semi-decent sound out of these cans. Hifiman recommends an absolute minimum of 2 watts into 50 ohms, and many people who own these headphones recommend up to 5 watts into 50 ohms, which is an absolutely ludicrous amount of power. If you don't already have a very powerful desktop dac-amp setup, don't even think about buying these.
Another issue is that Hifiman is infamous for exceptionally poor quality control and build quality. It's pretty much accepted as a fact that if you buy a Hifiman headphone you're quite likely to be looking for a replacement in a couple years unless you get rather lucky, and that's assuming you get one that's good to begin with. This also applies just as much to their high end cans such as the He6se, if you want some examples try reading the forum thread for the he6se review on audiosciencereview. A recent example there is a guy who received three bad pairs from them in a row before they just refunded him rather than send him a fourth, and he specifically asked them to test the headphones before sending them to make sure they had no issues after he had problems with the initial ones.
Yet another reason to avoid these headphones is the value proposition: while several years ago this would have been a pretty good deal even considering the above mentioned points, there are much better value headphones nowadays, even from hifiman themselves. If you're looking for super high end sound in a similar price range the hifiman edition xs are arguably just better than the he6se, require far less power to drive, and also go on sale for ~$450 or less. Build quality and quality control are crap on the edition xs as well, but that's just par for the course with hifiman. The hifiamn sundara are somewhat worse than the he6se in most respects but are far easier to drive, and go on sale for ~$250 making them far more palatable to replace when they inevitably develop issues as hifiamn cans are wont to do. I could go on recommending other headphones, but I'll only list those two hifiman models to avoid getting too far off track.
Overall, if you already have an amp capable of driving the he6se, prefer it's tuning and sound signature over other headphones in it's price range, and don't mind hifimans quality control issues, this is an excellent price for the he6se. For anyone who doesn't entirely match the conditions listed above, I recommend you look elsewhere.
These will require an amp
You need a powerful amp as this headphone is harder to drive.
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Right, these are audiophiles that know and have experience in real good sound and already have a good setup ( amp/ DAC etc) or planning to get more gear to get the most out of this headphones. The apple ones have Bluetooth and other futures that are meaningless for the real purpose, sound horrible and a complete ripped-off for the price. I always tell these people to get the
philips fidelio x2hr headphones if they are looking amazing sound for 1/4 of the price and can care less for the features of Bluetooth or fancy tapping gimmicks.
Quote
from chiaman96
:
I'm assuming he's saying that for the people that do very little research into stuff that they buy. Someone could see a pair of headphones listed at this "discount" and think they're the end all be all headphones without looking into their somewhat specific use case.
People will compare this to say the apple pro headphones based on price alone and they would be incredibly disappointed buying these thinking they compare to the similarly priced set of headphones apple offers. These aren't feature packed headphones because they're really only made for one purpose.
Would this work well with a phone? or would I need an amp/dac to get the Best out of the headphone?
While youu get more bass with an amp, I can drive them with my iPhone XS with the volume turned up high. Fiio BTR5 can also drive with less bass as well.
But have you owned both and A/Bed them? I ran 8W to them so power isn't an issue.
If so, I'm wondering what you think is better about the V2? The FR on the XS has less peaks/dips, better resolution, noticably better soundstage, and runs much better on a standard amp. The only thing the V2 has over it is the bass impact when you feed it tons of power.
It's also a 10 yr old tech redesign vs something released last year.
I already have an Ananda, so always wonder if I'm missing something by not having a pair of HE6se V2's. Sounds like from your experiences I am not. Appreciate your info and experiences.
That's your best combo for this. It has the power to handle headphones like this. It effectively makes this a ~$800 headphone, but the upside is, you have an endgame amp, and you'll never need to upgrade. I'm thinking of picking it up. I would consider it a purely desktop setup.
You can try the Topping NX7 for mobile use though. Thats the most power you'll get for portable in a reasonable price point right now.
I have a pair of the very basic intro-level Hifiman magnetic planars. I also have a paid of mid-level Stax electrostatic headphones. I more often plug my Hifiman headphones into my phone and it is just fine. Unless you need considerable volume, my Samsung phone can push the sound enough, and the benefit is you don't need to be tied to an amplifier. I never use my Stax at this point
Completely different. I ran HE560s for a few years and got by with just my PC Motherboard's built-in DAC/Amp chip (Asus mobo). HE6se is technically slightly lower impedance than the HE560, but absolutely impossible to drive by comparison. I ended up buying a dedicated DAC+Amp stack (Gustard X16+H16) expressly to drive the H6se, and that amp just barely gets loud enough imo. I leave it around 75 on high-gain mode, and it's not too uncommon for me to need to max it out for certain tracks. That said, I mainly listen to classical, and older legacy recordings tend to be a bit quieter, but still...
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As fantastic of a discount as this is, I would greatly recommend the vast majority of people to avoid these headphones for serveral reasons:
First, since I know people wander onto these headphone deals not realizing these are audiophile cans for critical listening, here's some basic information: these headphones are wired only (no bluetooth or wireless connections of any kind), have no form of active noise cancelling, have extremely poor sound isolation (you can hear whats going on around you, and everyone around you can hear what you're listening too), and are extremely heavy and bulky. They are designed to be used at home with a dedicated audio setup.
Next, a very powerful headphone amplifier is 100% necessary to get even semi-decent sound out of these cans. Hifiman recommends an absolute minimum of 2 watts into 50 ohms, and many people who own these headphones recommend up to 5 watts into 50 ohms, which is an absolutely ludicrous amount of power. If you don't already have a very powerful desktop dac-amp setup, don't even think about buying these.
Another issue is that Hifiman is infamous for exceptionally poor quality control and build quality. It's pretty much accepted as a fact that if you buy a Hifiman headphone you're quite likely to be looking for a replacement in a couple years unless you get rather lucky, and that's assuming you get one that's good to begin with. This also applies just as much to their high end cans such as the He6se, if you want some examples try reading the forum thread for the he6se review on audiosciencereview. A recent example there is a guy who received three bad pairs from them in a row before they just refunded him rather than send him a fourth, and he specifically asked them to test the headphones before sending them to make sure they had no issues after he had problems with the initial ones.
Yet another reason to avoid these headphones is the value proposition: while several years ago this would have been a pretty good deal even considering the above mentioned points, there are much better value headphones nowadays, even from hifiman themselves. If you're looking for super high end sound in a similar price range the hifiman edition xs are arguably just better than the he6se, require far less power to drive, and also go on sale for ~$450 or less. Build quality and quality control are crap on the edition xs as well, but that's just par for the course with hifiman. The hifiamn sundara are somewhat worse than the he6se in most respects but are far easier to drive, and go on sale for ~$250 making them far more palatable to replace when they inevitably develop issues as hifiamn cans are wont to do. I could go on recommending other headphones, but I'll only list those two hifiman models to avoid getting too far off track.
Overall, if you already have an amp capable of driving the he6se, prefer it's tuning and sound signature over other headphones in it's price range, and don't mind hifimans quality control issues, this is an excellent price for the he6se. For anyone who doesn't entirely match the conditions listed above, I recommend you look elsewhere.
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philips fidelio x2hr headphones if they are looking amazing sound for 1/4 of the price and can care less for the features of Bluetooth or fancy tapping gimmicks.
People will compare this to say the apple pro headphones based on price alone and they would be incredibly disappointed buying these thinking they compare to the similarly priced set of headphones apple offers. These aren't feature packed headphones because they're really only made for one purpose.
If so, I'm wondering what you think is better about the V2? The FR on the XS has less peaks/dips, better resolution, noticably better soundstage, and runs much better on a standard amp. The only thing the V2 has over it is the bass impact when you feed it tons of power.
It's also a 10 yr old tech redesign vs something released last year.
https://www.audioscienc
That's your best combo for this. It has the power to handle headphones like this. It effectively makes this a ~$800 headphone, but the upside is, you have an endgame amp, and you'll never need to upgrade. I'm thinking of picking it up. I would consider it a purely desktop setup.
You can try the Topping NX7 for mobile use though. Thats the most power you'll get for portable in a reasonable price point right now.
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