The angled Hifiman ones.
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I just received mine last week and am testing it out. I think my unit might have channel imbalance at certain frequecies. I used a sine sweep and at some frequencies, the sound is louder on the right. I hope itās just my ears, but any way I can verify this? And anyone knows how hifiman handles warranty if I am from asia(singapore)? I bought them from adorama and used a forwarder.
Swap the cables where they attach to the headphones. If the imbalance moves to the opposite side then the headphones are okay, if not then one driver is likely defective or going bad. That would not surprise me.
If the imbalance moves after a cable swap then your amplifier volume pot or output channels have an imbalance. This is pretty common. Many volume pots have channel imbalance a low volume settings.
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Indeed! Though AFAIK this kind of imbalance wonāt be frequency dependent.
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In my personal experience, frequency dependent imbalances usually relate to my hearing quirks (and sometimes bad tubes). I do sometimes hear tones going back and forth during a two-channel frequency sweep ā this is absolutely not related to electrical channel imbalances. Just my hearing.
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Has anyone dealt with hifiman RMA before? How was it like? Does getting an RMA number mean that you will definitely get a replacement? Or is there a chance that theyāll reject the replacement after they receive it? Because I bought mine from adorama and used a forwarder from USA to Singapore, but hifiman says origin of purchase. However their CS gave me an RMA number and Iām hoping theyāll just replace it no questions asked.
Itās likely you have one of the defective units. Mine was one of them, and I thought it was a channel imbalance but one of the drivers was actually bad. Pop off the grills (you can use your fingernail to bend the plastic retaining ring inwards and then out) and make sure your driver isnāt touching the magnets
this is what the first one I got off adorama looked like and I had to return it
what it should look like: left ā ImgBB
what my broken driver looked like: right-bad ā ImgBB
Oddly the driver that was touching the magnets was louder (and more sibilant and lacking bass)
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Itās here!
Iām driving it from an Atom and an Aiyama A07 speaker amp. For once, the memes prove correct.
- That cable is an abomination!
- Level matched, this thing sounds way better out of the speaker amp! On the Atom, Iām on high gain and about 12 oāclock on the dial for a comfortable listening volume, so theoretically thereās plenty of headroom. For the same volume on the speaker amp, Iām at about 2 out of 60
.
The tonal balance isnāt any different, and it actually sounds okayish on the Atom. But switching to the speaker amp, itās like a veil is lifted, and the sound goes from being kinda soft to being pretty darned punchy.
Up next, pad rolling 
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now wasnāt that satisfying? 
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I am not seeing it, can you mark what i should be seeing friend?
look at the gold driver in the bad image compared to the good, the bad one has no shadow (itās touching) and the good one has a shadow
Okay, my pad rolling didnāt go very far. First try was the Dekoni Fenestrated Sheepskin Pads for Beyerdynamic, and so far Iām digging them. If you squint and are color blind, you might mistake these for Focals or something .
One thing that I was hoping to get out of these was good bass extension even without a seal, since I wear thick rimmed glasses and Iāve got thick hair. So far so good.
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Quick and dirty measurements on MiniDSP.
Channel matching with Dekoni pads is good, so I think my drivers are in decent shape.
Hereās the difference between the Dekoni and stock pads. Surprisingly not huge considering the that oneās angled and one isnāt, one is much deeper than the other and their materials are different.
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And for fun hereās a comparison to the HE4XX. The HE6SE has considerably more upper mids and better sub-bass extension.
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I purchased the Hifiman HE6se and modded them slightly with Dekoni pads and new open grills, also I purchased Hart Audio Cables HC9 and they sound better than anything else I have. This could be the end for me for open back headphones. They sound very close to Susvaraās.
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I modded mine with the most open grill and also put a Hart Audio cable on them.
What difference can you hear with the Dekoni pads? Iām happy with just the grill, but Iām curious.
A note on comfort - I think it depends a lot on head shape. Iām finding the headband mostly comfortable. Thereās maybe a slight hot spot at the crown, but Iām actually getting contact at multiple points on my head so itās not bad.
By contrast, a lot of people find Focal headphones comfortable, but they give me a very noticeable and almost immediate hot spot, so YMMV.
With all that fluffy hair, Iām surprised any headphonesā headbands would have an immediate hot spot 
I didnāt really find the HE6SE v2 headband that great, a headband cover helped.
That from:
Now time to swap out the grill?
Used the fabric attached to the old grills and with a bit of glue, attached it to the new to protect it from dust and other particles.
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Thanks for the link. I used to have hair way back whenā¦
. Ahhh, the good olā daysā¦
Anyway, now I donāt and I find these super uncomfortable. By far the most uncomfortable can I own and I donāt use them because of it. Iāll try that cover. I have one of the geekria ones on my Clear but itās pretty thin. Doesnāt provide padding so much as just protecting the headband from staining. Do you know if these are maybe any thicker/softer? They look like they are.
Still have my eye out for a headband thatās better (I.e. with swivel) and easy to swap.