Absolutely. I am a weirdo that doesn’t like the arya. Who does that? 
Just find out what your preferences are. (I started on the sundara and ath-r70x which is a dynamic, that in my opinion, is not on the sundara’s level. This lead me down the planar path. Sample sizes of 1 suck. Never doing that again).
And recognize that there is no avoiding the journey. I tried. It didn’t work.
Last year I tried and compared the Sundara, HD 560s, HD 58x, Avatone Planar, TYGR 300R, Phillips SHP9500 and 9600, Philips Fidelio X2HR, Koss KHP30i, and the Ollo S4x. Along with a variety of different IEM’s but did not enjoy them.
Ended up keeping the Sundara, TYGR, and Koss (my wife uses these daily with the grado pads).
So I did hear quite a range of tunings, company signatures, and types but this was the sub $500 range. Now, a year later, I’m curious to see what the Above $500 range is like.
My experience is worlds apart. Dynamic drivers suddenly become brilliantly viable over $500. While, the sundara requires a much bigger jump in price to truly beat it within the same sound parameters (Ananda is the obvious choice there, but that’s the one I haven’t heard). But, I have heard far fewer DD than planar.
Again, I went $350 ath-r70x (among others, but this was the best of them) and didn’t hear something better until 12 planars later. I sort of assumed planars are the one for me.
In the interim I learned a ton about my preferences. LCD-x recession (pre 2021, 2021 version is on the list to try again) seems to drive me bat crap crazy. Bloated bass everywhere (like the quad era-1) didn’t work for me either. Soundstage needs to be coherent over any specific size (arya). Detail/resolution is roughly irrelevant to me once beyond a certain point (that point being sundara most likely). I learned that mobility is exceedingly important (Qudelix!). I learned that a neutral high clarity headphone is extremely appealing (drop ether cx), but not as appealing as a clear headphone that can thump (LSA HP-2). I learned that the isolation of closed backs isn’t just convenient, I genuinely like the reduction of external noise interfering with the sound (LCD-XC and others). As minimal as that reduction may have been. I have very sensitive hearing in the 1-2k range and find headphones that spike in that area to be super shouty.
I could elicit the same thing through a dozen amps. I only tried 5 iems. But learned stuff there as well.
OH! Given your exuberance over EQ, I HIGHLY recommend the LCD-X for you. Yes, the weight. See if you can get over it. It sounds like a far better fit than the he6se for you to me. If I liked EQ, and was willing to EQ, it would be in my top headphones. (The lcd-xc is in the top 3 with the drop ether cx and hp-2). But I still wouldn’t do it until you try at least a comparable DD. 
Very cool, Thanks for the experience. I think I’m going to order the Focal Clear as well at the headphones.com price to compare it with.
I’ll look into the LCD-X as well.
Thank you!
Good morning @Jman841 
the HE6SEV2 and other HE6 variants are one of the more tricky headphones to both power as well as synergize with the proper amp to really hear what they can sound like. I say this as someone who has had the opportunity to roll them with $8500 amps down to $199 amps. The consensus on my findings as been that the HE6SEV2 likes at a minimum around 4.5w-5w or more as well as significant current to control the driver and balance the treble region. I think you are kinda in a pickle to truly “hear them” with your current amp as it will likely not give enough power or current for it to reach it’s potential. I also think the HE6SEV2 pairs better with amps that lean towards the warmer side of things, along with some tube harmonics in the mix. I feel this way about all Hifiman for my personal listening preferences. If you are looking at a new amp for them after you get them let me know I can share a few of my favorites.
What is your thoughts of the HE6SE V2 after you have paired it with a high end amp?
It’s time for everyone to take a step back and think a little bit longer before they send their next posts. This thread is about purchase advice. Ask your questions and if you do not agree with answers, take it to DMs. For others, I understand you are trying to give helpful advice.
On the subject of Topping and Schiit, there are a number of experiences I’ve seen, especially with the Heresy. They’ve had issues in the past as well but to their credit they did replace / pay for the customer’s headphones.
The Topping L30 had all their units below a certain serial number recalled due to ESD issues with a number of people destroying their headphones. Outside of the L30, I have not heard any issues reported.
@Jman841 it sounds brilliant with high end tube amps. It goes from a average sound in my opinion to a sound that is worth we’ll above it’s asking price. However I think you can get really close to unlocking most of its potential with the Forge
It provides just the right amount of balance for the sound signature of headphones while also shining light on the strengths of the headphone. Under $3k that’s one of my top recommendations. I really loved it if the 32ohm tap.
A amp that is a bit less expensive and also pairs well with it in my opinion especially in Tube + mode as @bigshel99 said is the iFi Pro iCan
this amp is also quite versatile. Just another idea to look at.
Thank you,
The nice thing about investing in a higher end amp is it may improve the sound of headphones I currently own and benefit any future headphones as well.
The B2 is a great earphone, but is lacking a bit in the punch and bass texture department. It might be a bit too “shouty” if you listen to rock or metal, but overall it’s a benchmark in my opinion. With that said, and as I’m sure you already know, you really have to hear it for yourself. Oh, and don’t hesitate to experiment with different tips. Happy hunting!
I agree! I think a higher end headphone amp is a great piece of kit to add to your setup.
The Forge is definitely a piece of equipment you should consider.
If you decide for this path you’ll have an amp that will make your headphones sing.
In doubt check the 8/100 ohm taps one and you can pair it with whatever you can think about.
I live in Port St. Lucie FL and can’t seem to find any places where I can go and test some of the higher end headphones as opposed to buying on Amazon and returning, which I don’t love doing.
Does anyone know of any good music shops anywhere from Miami to Orlando that has a good range of high end headphones I could listen to?
Never really found any dedicated to headfi, most good quality audio stores are 2 chl or 2chl / HT with headphones as a “have on hand”, like the High End Palace, or Audio Salon as examples. Or SunCoast Audio in Sarasota. Good to excellent 2 chl but lacking on headphones, but give them a call.
I suggest to people to buy open box items, if it’s from Amazon you can return for sure. Other online retailers you must check cause some open box sales are final.
I ended up having to do that for a pair of Bluetooth headphones cause everyone here uses wired.
That’s what happened to me 
Personal experience > getting decision paralysis from reading comments.
What EQ settings do you use on your Sundara?
My 2c buy for what you have not what you might have.
You can’t predict what direction you will go in as you move through gear, I’d have done it very differently if I knew where I’d end up, I disliked every planar I heard until I head a Susvara driven by an OG Cavalli Liquid Gold and every headphone I’ve bought since has been planar.
But that leaves me with expensive amps that now get little use because my previous focus was on Dynamic Driver headphones, and for the most part those amps are not a good match for my currently heavily used extremely amp picky headphones.
You’ll get a lot of competing advice on this and a lot of that is because it’s both Subjective and if you haven’t heard better you don’t know what your missing.
The very amp picky (note I didn’t say hard to drive) planars HE6, Susvara, 1266TC can sound terrible in comparison to what they can sound like when “underpowered”, but that doesn’t mean they sound “terrible”. However commonly there are pairings I would rather have at those price levels than the “underpowered” above.
It’s about more than just power with these a Monoprice Liquid Platinum will put out more power into 50 Ohms than a Bakoon 13R (it’s 20Watts are into 8 Ohms, it’’ be closer to 4 into 50), but the latter will still sound better into those headphones.
There is absolutely no reason not to experiment here. Try it with what you have, if you don’t like it return it, just don’t assume that’s as good as it could be, or that you can get to that point with a reasonable expenditure.
I will say that a friend of mine who has at least an order of magnitude more $$ than I have in my systems, likes the HE6 (OG version) a lot, but believes it’s even harder to get the most from than the Susvara, in that he believes there are headphone amps that can get the most out of a Susvara, but getting the most out of an HE6 requires a speaker amp, and in his opinion very good/expensive speaker amps.
I’ve refined it quite a bit over the last year, current settings are pretty basic, but I find this works best for me for a wide range of music: (Note the pre-amp is lower than that max potential, so clipping is possible. With that said, using my usual music player which is Amazon Music HD, I’ve never had clipping issues so I keep it there. If you use a player or listen to files that max out your computers volume, you will need to lower that to -7)
