I’ve been curious what’s different between the OG HE6 and the HE6SE. I’ve never had the chance to hear an OG HE6, but from seeing measurements it clearly seems to be tuned differently, with much less of a hole at 2 KHz.
From what I can tell, the OG HE6 shipped with Hifiman’s velour earpads, so I bought some Hifiman Velour pads for 6 bucks, wondering if they’d bring the HE6SE tuning closer to the HE6. Well, here are the results on my E.A.R.S. (with a bonus air-gap measurement).
Just for fun, here’s that same pad on the HE4XX. It has a similar overall effect, though it also boosts the treble quite a bit on the HE4XX and depresses the sub-bass a bit. From this, I’m guessing that the HE4XX depends much more on a sealed front-volume to get good bass extension, and that this sealed front volume is also dampening the driver in the higher frequencies.
i did think of one thing, maybe your stock pads are a little broken in vs your new pads are not? Maybe that could shift the measurements? Its interesting because if you look at resolve measurements of the 2 pads for he6 they are seem to perform close in midrange.
Also great find on the velours, 6 dollars i ordered it, WITH FREE SHIPPING. Not sure how one makes money from that but ill take it
Well, mine just did this too Going to try an exchange and keep my fingers crossed. Usually I’d just say f’it and move on, but this sounds too damned good to give up on it.
It didn’t come like this. At some point I realized that the one channel didn’t sound right anymore, and thanks to this helpful forum I knew what to look for. I don’t know if something specific triggered this. I’m guessing the issue is that the mounting/tensioning mechanism for the diaphragm failed somehow.
My hope is that if the replacement doesn’t do this within a short time of owning it, it might last for a good while, but without knowing the failure mode that’s only a wish.
I am taking a guess that this might be a result from the pressure from the cups forming a seal on your head when placing them on your head when rolling leather pads. It may be best to stay with hybrid or velvet pads with the HE6SE V2.
you all scared me so i opened mine up and i guess i’m lucky. I have heard my diaphragm move when i pushed down my ear cup and it seals so much you hear a crinkle in the driver. But mine hasn’t stuck to side of wall after that experience though
Not a frequent poster to this forum & I know I’m late to this discussion, but I would like to add my two cents as I currently own both the HD600 & HE6SEV2 (as well as Argon Mk3, Monolith M1060, Grado SR80e and Audio-Technica ATH-M40x). I’ve had the HD600, Grados, and M40’s since beginning of my headphone journey 5-6 years ago, the HE6 for about a week lol
Though I don’t have ANY experience with expensive headphones (in my case $600 and above; new HE6SEV2 was purchased for $499 on eBay), I can offer that I’m loving both my HE6 & HD600 thru my current setups (HD600<LittleDot MKII<Bifrost 2)/(HE6<Jot2<Bifrost2).
Which brings me to my reason for posting: IMHO the HD600 is a great recommendation in general, not only for beginners as I believe it sounds good with modest front-ends (for ex. Dragonfly black & Audio-gd NFb11), but has also scales nicely with a better front-end like the Bifros2t/Jot2/LD2. In my current setups the HE6SE sounds better to my ears in a couple areas (better bass, more “weight” to name two) BUT the funny thing is the difference isn’t nearly as big as I was expecting when doing an A/B compare, actually pretty close. Again, I’ve only had the He6’s for about a week so this is obviously subject to change but my HD600’s have been surprisingly good over the years.
just got the velours today. First thing that occured to me is, this might be the cheapest way to just get hifiman pad mounting rings to if you wanted to try different earpads
Going to try an exchange and keep my fingers crossed. Usually I’d just say f’it and move on, but this sounds too damned good to give up on it.
