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