I think if you bought it from Hifiman it’s probably the HE6SE V1 and not V2/Adorama edition.
But the biggest difference is just the headband and earcups with the downside that headband doesn’t allow the earcups to swivel forward/backward.
I think they should be damn near identical acoustically with maybe minor differences that could be attributed to different clamping force from the different headbands.
It looks like the studio Jr is rated at 2W/32 ohm so it’ll be interesting to see if it drives them to your liking. Do you have any other amps you’ll also be trying?
It’s the V2 for sure. I mean I wouldn’t be opposed if they shipped me a V1 instead since I like the headband more. But definitely V2, blue, rigid headband. It’s open-box, so likely some returns from the Adorama sales that went back to Hifiman for refurbing.
Only other amp at this point is a RebelAmp. Will still experiment with it, but hoping the Studio Jr will fit the bill.
Oh weird! I don’t recall ever seeing a listing on the hifiman store for the V2, but I only browse the store every time they send an email. I see the listing now.
I wonder if they end up getting waves of them shortly after each time Adorama does the $650-700 sale.
I don’t have a chance to rewatch that video but doesn’t he test the V2 with the open grille mod his borrowed sample has?
That would make any comparison dubious at best. Unless you just wanted to know if the open grille mod makes it sound better.
Edit: He outright says removing the grille did not affect frequency response, but that is contrary to other frequency response measurements I have seen for HE6SE for no grille/grille mod.
Yeah I just remembered that as I see the preview image in my post. I’ll let @Resolve address your concerns about the video if he likes. But if you think swapping the grilles will significantly affect the FR, then the difference in ear pads between the v1 and v2 definitely does.
Ah, I did clarify this to @AudioTool in a DM. The answer to this is a bit complicated but I’ll do my best to explain it here.
For these HE6 headphones (seemingly all three of them), the grille on the back has both the main grille part as well as a piece of mesh on the inside of it. This traps air behind the diaphragm, which loads additional mass onto it. The result is that it smooths out the driver resonance that you’d normally see for the bass in these headphones when the seal is broken - or in other words, it reduces the Q value of the resonance peak, leading to a less pronounced elevation. On all three of these headphones, the driver resonance was exceptionally low, roughly around 30-40hz where you see the rise there in Ant’s graph.
This is a good thing in my opinion. However, when you remove the grille, that added mass load is removed, increasing the Q value of the resonance peak (narrowing and elevating the bass boost) when the seal is broken. So, objectively, it does make a measured difference in this situation. Moreover, this was consistent behavior on all three of the HE6 versions when I removed the grille (which is very easy to do).
Now in the case of this particular HE6se V2, I believe @antdroid may have gotten a broken seal - in part because of the clips and the pads - he can maybe provide more context for that. But, in my mind that explains why you see this difference here. I did do additional testing with air gaps in each of them and they all showed the same result of elevated bass, and when I applied additional clamp pressure, they all went back to normal again with the stronger coupling. Realistically, it’ll probably be somewhere in between for the average person, since coupling generally isn’t perfect, but it’s also usually good enough. This means that you may get some additional sub-bass with the grille mod, but really not that much.
TL;DR - The grille mod does make a difference in situations where the coupling is seal-broken, but doesn’t make as much of a difference when the coupling isn’t seal-broken. So it’ll probably depend on how it fits on the head of the listener.
This is very insightful and helps fill in a lot of blanks I had. Thank you for the comprehensive write-up!
I am wondering if it also explains why the low frequency rise in antdroid’s earpad testing graph was absent for 2/4 pads because they achieved a better seal, negating the effect from the grille removal.
I imagine there is more to the grille mod than just frequency response, of course, potentially reducing reflections within the earcup.
Probably depends on who you ask haha. I don’t think it’ll have any impact on reflections or anything like that - since that would show up in FR. But where the bigger differences are likely to show up is the on-head results, which will be slightly different for each person. And, because the driver resonance is so low on these to begin with, there may be a more significant variation in impressions from different people. In other words, the fact that headphones are often imperfect with respect to seal means that due to these parameters, the sense of ‘slam’ may be a bit different among listeners.
Hi Guys!
I’m curious if you had a chance to compare HE6se V2 to Sundara. Would you say HE6se V2 is a direct upgrade to Sundara in all categories, or just a sidegrade?
That’s an important consideration. I think there’s a good argument in favor of the HE6se V2 over the Ananda, but that’s also kind of source dependent, because it’s definitely way more picky. You can drive an Ananda from a phone haha. But in some ways I think if you already have a Sundara, it might be better to go with a higher end DD headphone, maybe like a Clear or Elex.
I’m new to this forum. Was lurking around for a while and finally decided to jump in and say hi But I’m also not a newb in the audio hobby. In fact, I used to own an original 4-screw HE6 which sounded delicious driven by a Parasound A21 speaker amp… until one day the left channel just decided to stop working. As for higher end DD headphone, I own HD800, Clear Pro, ATH-W5000, Fostex TH900 MK2 and TH909. But when it comes to planar magnetic headphones, I’m stuck in mid-fi hell with Fostex T60RP, Sendy Aiva, GL2000, OPPO PM1 and PM3.
Over the years Hifiman’s higher end headphones took a more technically impressive but subjectively boring sound. Ananda reminds me of a more agreeably tuned GL2000 with less weird midrange but otherwise very similar technical performance. Arya is more like my HD800 in terms of resolution and clarity with a bit narrower soundstage and less spiked-up treble. But both Ananda and Arya are not for me Their non-aggressive and laid-back presentation is not what I expect from a higher end planar magnetic.
So this brings me back to Sundara and HE6se V2. From my brief experience with a 2020 Sundara, I’d say it’s technically inferior to Ananda and Arya (Yeah, no surprises here) but it is more lively and engaging. So my question is - does HE6se V2 follow the new Hifiman trend to sound polite and laid-back or does it go back to the aggressive “pay attention to me” roots of the brand, as the original HE6?
No, it’s a bit more reminiscent of the older style of ‘angry planars’ they used to do. What you’re looking for is that macro contrast quality, which apparently is more difficult to achieve in a planar - or at least modern instantiations of planar magnetic designs don’t aim for that quality. The original HE-6 had that… to a lesser extent the HE-500 had that too. The HE6se V2 is not quite on that level, but maybe a bit better than the Sundara for that. But don’t expect it to be OG HE-6 level.
@Resolve What do you think about an upgrade from Gold Planar Gl2000 to He6Se V2? How much better is the bass and detail retrieval moving to a He6se V2? I originally wanted to get them but they were sold out on adorama in Feb so got the Gold Planar instead. Now they are back in adorama for $650 I am very tempted
But I’m also not a newb in the audio hobby. In fact, I used to own an original 4-screw HE6 which sounded delicious driven by a Parasound A21 speaker amp… until one day the left channel just decided to stop working. As for higher end DD headphone, I own HD800, Clear Pro, ATH-W5000, Fostex TH900 MK2 and TH909. But when it comes to planar magnetic headphones, I’m stuck in mid-fi hell with Fostex T60RP, Sendy Aiva, GL2000, OPPO PM1 and PM3.
Their non-aggressive and laid-back presentation is not what I expect from a higher end planar magnetic.