I have been using Bifrost into Ampsandsounds Mogowie se v2 using the LOW Z and they sound so good.
I also have the Audeze LCD5 and I prefer the HE6se v2,hard to imagine but I will be selling my LCD5’s soon because of it.
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I agree I have been using my Mogwai se v2 using the Low Z and they sound pretty damn good
I also found the Chord Hugo2 also drives the HE6se v2 very well and sounds great.
I have a pair of Beyer COPPs and from what I understand the pads are very similar to the DT990 pads (The COPP uses DT770 pads). These pads seem to be shallower than the stock HFM pads since my ears practically touch the drivers when I put on my COPPs. Is this also an issue on the HE6SE v2 with the beyer pads?
I use my He6se v2 with the Dekoni Elite Velour pads. I never did any in depth A/B testing (although I suppose I can now since I impulse bought another pair when it dropped to 400 USD) but I can say that the comfort is much better, especially for people with glasses like me.
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One should take off ones glasses for listening to speakers or headphones unless there is a good reason not too. Also I find keeping my eyes closed helps me concentrate on the music better.
Speakers: sound bounces off your glasses into your ears
Headphones: breaks the seal, hurts bass
Tried 14 different pads with these. DCA Ether Angled the best all around with a very wide sound stage, and balance between low, mids, highs,
Lol that’s the first time I’ve heard that 
. The chair that you sit in and the walls, floor, and ceiling have many magnitudes more effect on the sound than glasses.
That statement is much more reasonable but I’m blind as a bat without my glasses so I’d rather not. Also I find the bass completely adequate even with my glasses on and there’s not much difference with or without glasses with velour pads
Touching ears is not a problem for me with the Beyer pads, I find them quite comfortable.
Dekoni uses closed cell memory foam for their pads. Beyer uses regular open cell foam. That results in very different sealing characteristics and sound.
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This depends on the headphones. As shown here, the HE6SE has an extremely low resonance frequency, and when the seal on the front volume is broken, it actually boosts the sub-bass a bit. This matches what I hear - bass is actually more to my preference with my thick armed glasses on. That’s part of why I love this headphone - I get to see what I’m doing, and the headphone sounds better to boot!
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I laughed too, until the fellow I learned much of my room improvement ideas from - and made into a side business proved it to me. But yes, it’s down the list. But keeping eyes closed is a well proven way to focus more of your brain on music
If the chair you sit on has a high back and/or is very padded that’s quite bad for sound. Worse than the glasses. Having a pile of equipment between speakers is very common and quite bad for sound in particular for planars.
Like I said, if there is a reason to wear glasses - wear them. I use all lambskin pads on 3 of my 4 main cans and bass leak is an issue with 2 of them. Try pince-nez…
I have had 3 very highly respected SS amps on my HD-600 (Violetric V-281, Ragnarok 1, and Bryston BHA-1. I gave up on tubes in 1995 for speakers for good. But the stock Bottlehead Crack, Crack with speedball and big mods, and the XDU00 TA-26, and they all wiped out the SS amps. I’m quite sure that the HD-600 and 800 were both designed in whole or part on OTL tube amps - they sound wan, even fey compared to the 3 tube amps.
Of course those amps are useless on any planar under 100 ohms. The SE and SE v2 love current. I cannot believe that any .5 wpc @ 50 ohms could get the dynamics and bass correct. 2 wpc seems to be the minimum. The v281, Bryston and Rag 1 both drive any HE-6 fine.
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bad bad bad, the official deal price is now $799, looks like won’t be 399 ever again
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Probably means they are low on stock and wanting to cash in, which also means the v3 may be on the way…
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The price always drops, also sometimes it’s in the browser or selected link. If you reopen in a different browser with history the price may go back.
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HE-6 SEV2
Hello everyone, my first post here, although I’ve been watching the channel for a few years. This is going to be a review from somebody who doesn’t have tons of expensive audio equipment, but is rather on a relatively tight budget for this hobby.
Tempted by a relatively low price (700 euros here in Germany) and high ranks in Resolve’s recommendations, I bought an HE-6 SE v2 as my entry into higher end headphones world. My earlier journey was DT990, DT770, Sundara, DT1990, K361. With HE6 I wanted to try “what is out there” in the higher end tier. It’s the $1800 sound for $700, they said. Let’s see.
Out of the box it was a little disappointment. Not for the build quality which I anticipated to be pretty clunky. HE6 SEv2 is better built than Sundara. And I was already prepared for the cheap package, the awkward cable and the high weight of these. Out of the box it sounded harsh in the treble. Even more harsh than the Beyers: the Beyers have this famous 8k peak, but this Hifiman sounded to me like it has way too much energy in the highs all across the board. So I let it break in for a few days before going into any further conclusions.
After a few days break in the harshness got way milder, still I went for EQing it. I used a slightly less V-shaped modification of Oratory1990’s preset for SE v2. And boy did I enjoy it!
HE6 gave me an insight into what “performance” actually means. While all of the headphones that I heard before play the music, this one performs it like you’re actually there. It brings a lot of physical acoustic details like string vibrations, brass sizzle, wall reverberations, etc. It is very engaging and punchy. Combined with good staging and imaging capabilities, it’s a very enjoyable headphone.
I won’t add much about the tonal balance. With EQ it is very well-rounded. I enjoyed it with all the music genres I listen to (from classical and jazz to rock and electronic), which I didn’t expect from a Hifiman, to be honest. My favourite part is the bass. It is very clean and very well extended. To my taste it lacks a bit of warmth that I’m used to with the dynamic drivers. Still it made me want to hear it again and again.
Instrument separation is as great as you expect from a planar in this price category. Imaging is as precise as a pin of a needle. The sound stage, like others said, isn’t very large, but it is large enough, very accurate and solid. For me that’s a perfect combination. Be it larger, it would lack intimacy and engagement in some tracks.
I can’t say much about the microdynamics. Probably because I don’t have a proper amplifier (more on that below), probably because of the low sensitivity. In terms of macrodynamics, boy does it slam! It hits you with a wall of sound. And not just that, my absolutely favourite part of it is the snare drums. It feels like you’re hitting the drum with a stick yourself, you almost feel the effort and physical response of every hit.
Alright, now to the “not that great” part.
The first one is the comfort. It was better than I expected, I could get it comfortable enough on my head. But it is still a heavy headphone. I could not wear it non-stop for more than 30 minutes, the temple spot gets so hot a 5 minutes break is necessary. The most annoying part is the lack of side clamping force though. I’m not a bighead, so when I tilt and move my head around, the HE6 starts to swing back and forth a little. So I had to maintain a still posture, which is pretty hard when the sound is so engaging!
My original plan was to replace the headband with the one from Audeze, but it’s impossible to buy the yoke kit here in Europe, and the additional cost is also non-negligible.
The second one is the timbre. It is not vividly plastic’y but it is plastic’y. Especially when you listen to it next to something like a DT1990 or Clear. It affects human voices and metal instruments like brass and hats.
The third one is the amplifier rabbit hole. I have a moderate SMSL SP200 delivering 1.92W @ 50 Ohm, which is on the lower threshold of what Hifiman officially recommends for this headphone. It is capable of driving the HE6sev2 to uncomfortable volumes even with EQ, and is capable of delivering a decent bass and punchiness. The treble harshness would probably be more in control with a proper amplifier pairing, and more details would show up.
The cheapest good known option for HE6 you can buy here in Europe is eMotiva BasX A100 speaker amp (€300 ~ $330). Schiit Jot2 is €550 ($600). Most of the stuff that you guys recommended here as a good pairing either doesn’t ship to Europe or costs more than €1000. Which to me is an overkill for a €700 headphone.
Instead of buying a new amp, I bought a used Focal Clear OG for €600 to see if it is potentially a better fit for me right now than spending god knows how much on an amp.
Here is a quick comparison of HE6se v2 and OG Clear. HE6 has a better bass extension, which Clear just doesn’t have if you A/B them. The Clear sounds warmer though. HE6’s bass is big and clean, and Clear’s bass is more intimate and warm.
HE6 has a better soundstage and imaging, this is the part that I lack the most in the Clears if I compare them. HE6 is in my opinion overall punchier than Clear. I know the Focals are famous for their punch, but I wouldn’t say that Clear is so much punchier than e.g. DT1990Pro. The Clear is very punchy, it does hit you like a hammer. But HE6 hits you like a truck.
The timbre and the tonal balance makes a lot of difference though. Clear is much more natural, it doesn’t have the plasticness at all. And the treble is very detailed. Beyerdynamic headphones are sometimes described as detailed because they have a lot of treble. But that’s just the amount, not the quality. If you want to know what the details in the treble sound like, listen to the Clear. Same applies to HE6 vs. Clear comparison. Frequency response-wise, Clear is the first headphone I can fully enjoy without EQ (except for K361). I do EQ it to a less aggressive variation of the Harman target though.
The Clear is also a more comfortable headphone. I can wear it for hours without any issue. This, and its more natural timbre is why I was reaching out for the Focal most of the time instead of the Hifiman.
As I was within the 30-day return period, I ended up sending the HE6se v2 back. I was lucky with my unit, it didn’t have the stuck driver issue, and it didn’t die after a couple weeks of active use. Which, judging by the forums, it can do at any time. Investing €700 into this random roulette game is too risky for me, so I decided to keep the Clear and return the HE6.
I do miss its sound stage, its imagining, and its immersiveness and engagement. The guide from Hifiman says you need 150-200 hours of listening for the headphone to break in. I think that is bullshit. They just want your hearing to adapt to its harshness and they want you to get addicted to its performance. Because there is something addictive in the HE6 sound. The charm only breaks if you listen to something else, and then you’re like “was I under a spell or something?”. You do want to get under this spell again and again though.
I would probably buy the HE6 again in the future when I’m not so worried about it breaking any time soon, and when spending a thousands bucks on an amp isn’t an issue. Or I would rather buy another planar with a similar sound signature, that is as engaging but has better build quality and comfort.
Any hints in this direction?
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Hi MrSehrKalt,
Welcome to your headphone forum!
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Thank you for sharing your experience with your headphone setup. Your shared experience intrigued me since the HiFiMan HE6se V2 is my second or third favorite headphone of my collection. I too own the SMSL SP200 headphone amplifier. When pairing both of these together, the synergy is quiet poor. It does not even place in the top ten amplifiers when pairing with HiFiMan HE6se V2 because it just does not have the balls needed to drive these notoriously hard to pair headphones. Of my collection of over fifty headphone amplifiers, there are only three that can drive the HE6se closer to it’s potential. These would be the Rebel Audio RebelAmp, Headamp GS-X mini, and Questyle CMA Twelve. None of my other amplifiers can drive them to a point that they sing beautifully. The only other one that gets close is the Schiit Jotunheim 2. As you have hinted, what makes the Jotunheim 2 a viable option for some is that it costs only $400 for those of us here in the states.
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I have not attempted to drive the HE6se directly from a speaker amplifier. Nor shall I ever attempt to as I see this as a bad idea, and one should be very cautious proceeding to do so with such an expensive mistake should something go wrong. However, I am aware of the numerous success stories all over the internet of many with success driving them from speaker amplifiers. Perhaps if you are one that is temped by this risky venture, it might be a viable solution to achieving closer to what the HE6se V2 are capable of. If not, I agree with your plans to perhaps make a future headphone amplifier upgrade.
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Thanks for your reply and giving more insights into the amplifier choice! It’s good to know this Hifiman can do even more than I witnessed.
Of the 3 amps that you recommended only Questyle CMA Twelve can be found in Germany and it costs €2000 ($2200). Is the sound that you get with this combo it really worth the value? Or is there a better option given the combined cost? $770 for the headphone and $2200 for the amp is almost $3000.
It seems like a fair warning to anyone who considers buying the HE6se v2 as a high end entry is that they should include at least the price of buying a Schiit Jot2, a RebelAmp or a $1000-$2000 amp with this headphone.
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That’s the eternal question, and one that no one can answer for you. Most of us buy and resell or demo as possible.
There are different schools of thought. Some put the bulk of their budget into the drivers (headphones), while others favor “start from the source” and put more money early in the signal chain, and some emphasize synergies between components regardless of price. Some of us also tweak the sound with equalizers, pads, cables, etc. It can be a sickness… 
Many of us (probably 90%+) also consider a similarly priced DAC as essential for high end entry too.
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