Hifiman HE-6SE

I agree that you don't need a reactor or a speaker amp to power them, but they do need a good, strong partner that you like.

My Violectric V220 couldn't do anything with them.

The Liquid Platinum had Tons of power, but sounded very plain to me. When I added the Loki to the chain it was a huge improvement.

I don't hear much bass out of them at all. But they will take all the bass boost/EQ that you can throw at them.
My magic partner is the iFi Pro iCAN with lots of 3D and bass boost. It is a very powerful amp, but I only use mid-gain at about 10-11:00.

 

OK, I finally convinced myself to introduce my HE6SE mod: Dynamat mod.

TL;DR: Please apply one layer of Dynamat onto the inner walls of the back of the drivers, and that's it!

I get noticeable mid-upper bass boost with somehow calmer treble, killing two birds with one stone, DOUBLE KILL!

Like this:


And as you can see, there's more to it, so here comes the long story:

My system: Yggdrasil GS -> Lokius -> broken Raggy V1 (only consumes 40W of power with occasional distortion on left channel ) -> headphones

I always didn't really like my HE6SE V1, I just didn't get the positive review. To me, the only good thing about them was the robust sub-bass. And maybe, the treble was not that f*ed like some other round-shaped Hifiman? I once even thought the listening of them was like staring to a brushed stainless steel wall, it just felt that hard and emotionless. I tried quite some pads swapping and finally landed on ZMF suede pads, the treble was dialed down, the headphones sound totally serviceable, but I just couldn't get much joy.

The reason I have been using them is because I got them for cheap, so they gives me this fake premium illusion (I know, I'm a horrible person), and the sub-bass can be useful for metal tracks.

But there's no fun. And I even got this unsettling feeling using them, because they sounded empty and lean, the broken Raggy fixed that mostly, but still, no fun.

Until I decided to put some Dynamat-like stuff into the headphones, and it works wonders, who could have known all I needed was bloated bass? (Actually I did, as I tried SJY Starry Night, that bass made me smile) So here's the detailed version:

1. This is 80% of the mod: applying Dynamat(-like) stripes onto the inner walls, one layer is really enough. I got curious and tried to overdo it with another layer of this material, and one layer of felt on top because I didn't like reflective surface in the back of the headphones, but I didn't really sense much different after that.


2. Sound absorbing foam stripes, not necessary but really useful for covering the treble. This is just personal preference, I'm using some foam for drainage pipes, you can try putting one whole ring of this stuff into the headphones and see how it muffles the sound. I used ~ 1 / 3 of the perimeter, which is good enough for me.

3. Ear pads, personal preference. I'm using some random Chinese flurry? velvet? hybrid leather ear pads. I got the Mrspeakers Angled pads after I did this mod, and they sounded too mids-focused to me, could be a bit like HD650 (imagining using "mids-focused" and "HD650-like" describing Hifiman headphones, but it's real!) As I still plan to use the headphones for metal songs, I want them to be a bit more U-shaped, so, back to random pads. Besides, these pads are great, they help lifted some upper bass I believe. (I bought them secondhanded from some guy and I just don't know the brand of them or whether even there is a brand...)


4. Bass ports. I put these things on the headphones right after I got them, the sub-bass was more prominent? But the gaps could be too big comparing to other's methods? Never mind...



5. Grill mod. Since I bought a 3D printer, of course I'm doing it.


6. And finally, [Cat Ears]! Effect: 10% improvement of listening!


I'm not good at reviewing and describing the change of the sound. But I do find that there are some checkboxes for me to recognize headphones I like:

• Feeling safe and comfortable using the headphones, check, except I get
• Getting chills listening to some sad vocal tracks, check.
• Shocked by the sound is "correct" within 5 seconds putting on the headphones. Only HD600, HD650 and HD800 checked this box at several times, but my modded HE6SE did it once, and that's good enough.
• Higher volume than usual, because I just want for more, check.

I'd say the mod mostly levitate quite some upper bass to put some warmth and fullness into the sound, and then there comes emotions and feelings. And treble seems to be tamed a bit more too, not much, maybe. Any way the whole sound package just got way better to my liking.

Drawbacks:

• I think the sub-bass recessed a bit, but there's still plenty.
• Vocals can still be a little recessed, could be better than before but still, not that neutral or even smooth. But you can use Mrspeakers pads to boost mids, I think.
• Now here's the thing I think that sounds exaggerated, or fake, but I found this thing, and I'm honestly not so happy about the result. There used to be four pairs of headphones that I really liked or sounded interesting to me, now coming back to them feels not as exciting or even meh, and they are:
  • HD600 on ZDT Jr., I really liked them, but now I just miss the excitement, could because I'm rocking on metal songs now...
  • TH900 (pads swapped) on ZDT Jr., man, ZDT Jr. is just great with dynamic headphones, but TH900 just don't sound that punchy now... The bass character is different and I still appreciate that, but then the problem of their weak mids became more obvious.
  • ESP 95X on ifi iesl. They could be my favorite pair as they just make any genre sounds full and detailed, but again, since now I'm listening to metal, how about some more bass and wider (maybe artificial-ish) soundstage?
  • Some one-man-job DIY ribbon headphones I bought for cheap. It's got huge bass and some uneven but sweet-ish timbre to me, interesting but not for long time use. Last night I took them out and they just gave me some "WTF" feeling: boring with metallic sheen. Ugh.
  • Mathematically, it's a failure boosting one pair of headphones while losing my love to other three. Not good.

Disclaimer and things:

• This is a simple, cheap and revisable mod, because I'm lazy and cheap.
• I'm in China so most of the stuff I used was not the typical choice, but I hope the materials were not that different?
  • AliExpress doesn't like my Chinese account, so no links for similar thins, like the ear pads, sorry.
• The SN of my HE6SE unit starts with 80, people here said that it's the earlier iteration of HE6SE and it's different comparing to later units (I believe both later iteration V1 and V2 have SNs starts with 10 or 11?). I found that my unit didn't sound that much different vs HE6SE V2, but once I tried to swap pads, the difference was noticeable: V2 only took like 30% of the effect of modding comparing to my unit. So YMMV, but please try some other stuff in this simple way and report back please~~~
• Due to procrastination, I've been rocking on these modded HE6SE for two weeks before writing this, so this should not be new toy syndrome? But again, not good at reviewing!
• Sorry for any errors, bad editing and bad grammar, non-native English speaker here, and my hands just couldn't keep up with my brain.

Edit: redo image links, and here's the link for all pics: https://imgur.com/a/ZmdVk58

 

A couple of weeks ago I finished attaching silk mesh to the replacement grilles on my HE6se V2, which also has Dekoni Elite Hybrids on it. Over the weekend I think I inadvertently discovered the closest thing to perfect I've heard in an end-to-end setup by putting these on a Sabaj A5 ICEpower-based class D amp, fed by the Soekris dac1421. I've tried other speaker amps with the HE6se before, but none of them really blew me away compared to decently powerful headphone amps. This is something else entirely: perfectly controlled prodigious bass, exceptional detail retrieval, timbre to die for. You know when you go to the optometrist and your eyes haven't changed that much, but they get it dialed in and everything is just that much easier to see? Yeah, that.

I've tried other DACs, but so far the Soekris is winning. It's not a huge surprise given that it's the best all around single ended DAC I have. The only other good SE DAC I haven't been able to try yet is the Mojo 2, which will probably take me a couple of days to get to. I'm not sure it's going to do wonders for the overall balance, though.

I think I'm spoiled now. These cans already sounded really good post-mod, especially on the slammy as hell EF499, but this was enough of a bump that I've had to re-evaluate just how close I was to catching the dragon before when I thought I was happy. Who knew Class D would play well with these? Not me, that's for sure.

 

Thanks for the writeup! I'm gonna try this dynamat mod on my pair of HE6SEv2s and report back as well.

So far I've already applied:

• Fuzzor mod
• more open grills + separate dust screens (to protect the drivers)
• more comfortable headband (donor HE1000 headbands)
• extra-large opening earpads (to my ear these provide the much-needed soundstage that usual earpads don't)

Excited to see how the dynamat might further change the sound!

 

One perk of adhesive-backed felt though is that since it's plastic strands, you can easily shape it post-modding, so that their cross sections taper away from the driver opening slots.

In both instances where I've done the fuzzor mod (back when I first posted the mod guide on the HE500s and when I recently modded my HE6SEv2s) I've not had any messiness / loose felt strands when I worked with sharp scissors + Creatology "peel & stick stiffened felt" black felt sheets.

Maybe it's dependent on the exact felt material used (some have looser-packed fibers?).

 

Quick update - the dynamat (Siless brand in my case) arrived and I got modding!

I ended up deciding to apply 2 rounds of dynamat (see my photo below):

1. Dynamat on the interior circumference of the headphone cups, per Ti_Leo's mod post above. I went with a single layer of dynamat + a layer of adhesive felt on top of it. This should address cup-related influences on bass quality.
2. Dynamat on the driver assembly itself (3 pieces of dynamat per driver). I went with just cut pieces of dynamat in this case, since there shouldn't be any reflection issues right back to the drivers from the outside. This should address driver-assembly-related influences on bass quality.

Subjectively both made a difference on the bass quality (I did (1) first, noticed improvements, then next day did (2), and on the same music tracks noticed additional improvements).

What improvements (subjectively)? A) Bassy songs have blacker background, giving a cleaner soundstage feel, and B) bass gained substantially more texture + moderately more punchiness overall.

 

This is interesting, your description seems to be opposite from my memory. I remember my modding made the headphones "less clear or greyer", which was more dynamic headphone like. But it's weird that this type of material should make the sound cleaner, I suppose?

And about the bass, I found the bass on my unit became a bit less punchy but had more warmth and the ambient bass feeling to it (maybe this added to my impression of the decrease of "clarity and emptiness"). It could be because of different iterations of the drivers or I was using different ear pads and things.

Shame that I sold my HE6SE (I much preferred LCD-4 to my modded HE6SE on Ragnarok (duh)), now I'm wondering about 3D printed fazor mod, which can be easy to make and install, but the layer lines from FDM can be a problem (I don't think I should print thin walls vertically, my 3D printer is cheap). Maybe I should get back to Hifiman modding gang!

 

Well, this is my modest understanding of the subject matter of dynamatting headphone drivers/cups, from reading a few dozen dynamat-related threads last few weeks:

Dynamat (or related sound deadening adhesive panels) are traditionally used for "stopping noise causing resonance and vibration, by using visco-elastic qualities of the materials used" (ref: Dynamat website), In other words, converting unwanted vibrational energy to heat energy through its goopy material that soaks up vibrations. It has long been a popular choice therefore for improving headphone bass cleanness / quality by removing unwanted cup/driver-related vibrations.

In terms of measured differences, check out purr1n's HD650 dynamat mod before/after measurements on harmonic distortion: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...hd650-dynamat-mods-proof-that-its-not-bs.2098


Lower distortion in the bass should mean cleaner, less "noisy/bloomy" bass. My subjective experience of my round of modding there was that this led to black background, much more bass texture, and a bit more bass punch.

 

Given that this thing regularly drops to $400 nowadays, I think a compendium of mods along with measurements are in order.

Has anyone done measurements for anything besides the grill mods?

 

Crossposting my Reddit post documenting all the mods applied to my HE6SEV2s in the past few months.


Jerg's ultramodded HE6SEV2s (& thought process breakdowns)




<INTRODUCTION>

This was the result of a few recent months of additive modding to my HE6SEV2s. I've gotten them to a point now where they sound just right chefs kiss, and impress me with essentially all genres of music.

I had four North Star objectives to my modding of the HE6SEV2s:

1. minimize / "room-treat" to get rid of as much bounced waves / resonance as possible
2. stabilize the drivers for optimal lower bass clarity
3. directly shield the drivers from dust on both sides
4. make the headphones as ergonomic/comfortable as possible
   

<MODDING DETAILS>

See my attached diagram ^ to get a sense of the mods involved !

Even though chronologically, I applied the mods in a seemily random order over the months of tweaks (fuzzor mod > headband swap > regrilling > dust screen transplants > dynamat application > padrolling/baffle damping), I'll give a brief description of the mods in order of Left to Right in my diagram above, so it's easiest to understand.

Earpad change (to Dan Clark Audio Voce pads with manually cut fenestrations):

• I padrolled a number of times, and found these and only these pads to fulfill the full checklist: 1) MASSIVE opening which does not block any of the driver surface area, ideal for soundstage scale, 2) aggressively angled so the drivers are more perpendicular to the ears for more immediacy, 3) high quality comfortable material (soft genuine lambskin leather, soft cushy foam).
• I trimmed away its dust-screen fabric as I will be adding dust screens to the drivers directly.
• It did have a big drawback: it lacked fenestrations (small holes all along the inner surface area), which causes the earpads to sound cupped and peaky in the midrange. With a pair of sharp scissors and some elbow grease, I manually cut about 50 fenestration holes per earpad. That completely fixed the problem.
• Caveat: these are by far the most expensive earpads I've ever bought, at about 1/4 the price of the headphones.

Baffle damping (with a felt cutout that matches the baffle)

• this is just continuing my "room treatment" of the ear-earpad-driver space. Exposed hard surface that could bounce soundwaves? Adhesive felt it up.

Protecting the driver from dust directly (with transplanted dust screens)

• I harvested these dust screen fabric pieces from Hifiman stock grills (just rip them off).
• They seem very acoustically transparent, and are rigid so easier to transplant than elastic dust screens.
• Having them right against the driver on both sides, sandwiching it permanently means I will never need to worry about dust ever.

Addressing driver surface backwaves (with my fuzzor mod)

• This is a mod I developed many years ago, and it's nostalgic applying it again (I think I first figured it out with my OG HE500s).
• Basic problem being addressed is that drivers like HE6 series have ~50% of its ear-facing surface being flat steel, meaning it's just begging to bounce soundwaves around (again, think room treatment as the analogy).
• Solution here is cutting out chonky adhesive felt strips that match those flat steel parts of the driver surface, sticking em on, and shaping them a bit so they don't negatively affect soundwaves coming through in the driver slits.

Headband transplant to save my scalp (with HE1000 headband)

• The HE6SEV2 headbands are the worst for comfort out of all headphones I've owned/tried in recent memory. They had to go.
• Ironically, one of the most comfortable headbands I've ever owned/tried is the HE1000's suspension headband.
• I had to apologize to my HE1000s and rip the headband off them (just need to use some force, no tools needed).
• had to drill the screwholes a bit larger on the HE6SEV2's earcups, then it was a simple swap in.
• Scalp comfort went from a 1/10 to a 10/10 instantly.

Driver/cup stabilization for bass quality (with dynamat)

• This one I was inspired by HE6SEV1 mods posted by Ti_Leo on this thread.
• Similar to how Dynamatting is a tried-and-true way to improve bass & subbass quality for cars - the same Dynamat (or same thing of different brands) can be used here to absorb the kinetic energy of off-vibrations of the "chassis" of the headphones and dissipate that as heat.
• This has also been measured to cause quantitative reduction of bass harmonic distortions on Sennheiser HD650-series by Purr1n here.
• Namely here, I applied the goopy material to the driver assembly itself, and the headphone cup. I applied strips onto the driver in the outer perimeters, and a full ring is applied onto the lateral inward rim of the cups.

Regrilling

• I think anyone familiar with Hifiman headphone modding should know this classic mod.
• In this case I looked around all my mesh materials laying around and looked for one that was optimal: maximum opening size, minimal gauge size, and still rigid enough to protect mechanical piercing to the drivers.
• It did not need to protect against dust, as I already sandwiched the driver directly in dust screens both sides.
• I landed on 1/4" opening, 23 gauge steel landscaping mesh. Just used some tin snips and cut-cut-cut, voila.

<CONCLUSIONS & OUTRO>

Overall this series of modifications allowed me to tick all four North Star objectives. The cans sound ultra-clean and immediate, with physical chest-thumping bass, fully protected from dust and mechanical dangers without compromising on sound, and just plain comfortable for hours of wear.

 

I've learned that when it comes to powering headphones, it’s not about the sheer quantity of power but the quality of power and the synergy between the amp and the headphones, especially with demanding models like the Susvara and HE6se V2.

Early on in my headphone journey, I realized I preferred the HE6se V2 over the LCD-X that I owned at the same time. However, I didn’t have an amp that could fully bring out its potential, so I kept the LCD-X and sold the HE6se. Now that I’ve paired a newly acquired HE6se V2 with a solid amp, I currently prefer it to the Susvara I owned for 15 months (undeniably a phenomenal headphone, but I eventually sold it and don’t miss it). For me, the style of transients is key, and I find the Susvara’s transients too smooth and soft for my taste.

Of course, the Susvara is magical with well-produced music (Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool comes to mind), but it doesn’t quite fit with most of my library, despite superior staging and transparency. On the other hand, the HE6se V2 checks all the boxes for me. It offers enough resolution for rock music, a stage that satisfies my needs (I’m not obsessed with stage width, as long as there’s good 3D potential), and a frequency response that works really well for my preferences. Plus, it has plenty of dynamics for a planar. In terms of modding, so far I’ve just replaced the grille (Arctic Cables).

I also owned the Abyss 1266 TC for a while. While the 1266 is incredibly engaging with its visceral impact, peakiness, speed, and impressive 3D staging, I ultimately couldn’t deal with the fit issues long-term. It commands your attention, but the constant adjustment needed made it difficult to enjoy consistently. I’m glad I had the experience, though.

Lately, I’ve been having a lot of fun rotating between the HE6se V2, OG Jar600, RS1x, and 800s with my Envy amp + A2 Yggdrasil - it’s been a rewarding shift.