HiFiman high end thread, HE6 / Arya / HE1000 / Susvara / Shangri La

Absolutely. The hot treble calmed down and the bass got deeper, slam punchier. Also, DO THE GRILL MOD.

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Grill mod - I like the looks for sure. Did it change sound much? Where did you buy your grill?

Huge change to stage and subbass. The decay is so addicting. Got mine off of ebay but you really donā€™t need to replace the grills unless you want extra protection.

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Interesting. Just remove them. Okay, cool, Iā€™ll try it. But it sounds like a great way for me to put my fat finger through them! Iā€™ll look for honeycombsā€¦

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Yup, removing the grill is no joke. Nice improvement! My honeycomb grills are in the mailā€¦ :grin:

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Grills make a big difference. Pads can make a difference as well.

The Dekoni HifiMan Hybrid are pretty good, and the ZMF Auteur Hybrid are pretty good as well.

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Iā€™ll run stock for a while, and then probably check these out. thanks for the tip!

These headphones really are a lot of fun for the money!

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After living with the HE6 for a month (as of yesterday), I gotta sayā€¦ these have easily become my favorite can. I get all of the slam I got from Fostex but with none of the forwardness, much more stage and decay thatā€™s super addictive. Best part is I didnā€™t have to reinvest in a chain and was able to repurpose my 2ch system for the time being.

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@DDT Nice :+1: mine are a permanent part of my main 2 channel system at this point. If ever I was to sell off all my HP equipment I could be happy w/ my 2 channel and a pair of Susvara and the HE6 series. Both models sound best to me on my main system rather than any HP amps I own.

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Yeah, HE6se are a great value if you can properly power them. With a couple of simple mods, theyā€™re really good.

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Youā€™re all tempting meā€¦ But also, thatā€™s OK. I appreciate the honest enthusiasm.

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Thereā€™s at least 3 sets in new / like new condition on headfi right now for 500 - 600. Probably could negotiate them down given the number of sets for sale. Mine were new in box for $500

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Iā€™ve been eyeing up the HE6se actually not the v2. I like the suspension headstrap on the se. I do not know what the sonic differences are between the two sets, if any. Iā€™ll need to sort that out first but if I can find a set NIB like you did I might flip for a v2.

Youā€™ve probably already seen this, but just in case you havenā€™t here you go.

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Looks like enough people are getting these and modding them to ask if people have tried these for gaming?

Personally for competitive shooters I havenā€™t come across anything across any price up to around $4000 that can come close to competing with the HE6se V2 with honeycomb grills and an imaging focused pad (non angled is a pretty big bonus) swap in a competitive sense as far as laser accurate imaging and separation in a really accurate soundstage depth as well as a good enough sense of height that itā€™s passable on any game. They might be bordering on the edge of not having enough soundstage for BR games at the upper max of the soundstage depth but for the actual fights you get into that good accuracy matters youā€™re totally fine.

Something about the really aggressive attack and that really well defined decay (that Iā€™m finally seeing people talking about lately) just stamps the image of something in your brain better than anything else Iā€™ve found. Anyone else have this kind of effect stand out to them? I donā€™t expect to find anything more specific than this at what it does which really surprised me since that wasnā€™t even why I originally bought them (and now Iā€™ve had 4 die on me with 2 still aliveā€¦) and now Iā€™m wondering if anyone has something theyā€™d describe as being better than them for absolute precision and absolute presence of depth in gaming and what that would be and why. Any suggestions are totally welcome but Iā€™ve definitely dipped my toes in a lot of different options.

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Now that you mention it, I could totally see that

I also think a big factor is that they are very very traditional in stage, they donā€™t shift it to try and make it more realistic or exaggerate their stage, which makes it mesh pretty dang well with most game engines Iā€™d assume

I really donā€™t game anymore, but Iā€™d bet the d8000 pro do really well here too. Iā€™ve always thought something like the 009/s is an excellent pick for that too. I also think specifically the diana phi is a solid choice for comp stuff

Moving away from planar, Iā€™d say adx5k is likely what Iā€™d trust the most for the sort of games I play (or would play if I still did)

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See, the odd thing is that Iā€™ve felt like electrostats would really excel in this area in the same way that planars just kinda are in another league from dynamics in the amount of spatial information they can convey. Iā€™ve done a lot of tweeking on the ESP/95x and got it to a really crazy level, but still not the level that the HE6se v2 sits at and obviously it seems like a really apparent limitation of the performance of the very entry level electrostat but it gives me hope that thereā€™s more. I know Iā€™m planning on a big DAC quality jump soon so Iā€™m definitely planning on a bigger budget to at least give electrostats a fair shot.

I had it and it was honestly my favorite dynamic Iā€™ve ever owned by a lot and I really regret selling it thinking I could do betterā€¦especially since I picked it up as an open box for $1200.

I somehow skipped this time and time again because of lackluster reviews here and there. IDK why, just completely ignored it. A lot like the Fostex stuff which Iā€™ve heard some decent things about having some characteristics Iā€™m looking for (albeit not all) I just kinda accidentally missed those two on the way.

IMO you actually want some dynamic compression with comp gaming stuff, you want to make it really easy to hear lower level details and some added natural compression is really nice (to an extent). For the stax imo they are laser sharp in games and spatially plenty large enough for me

Not really surprised there, they wonā€™t get that way unless you run them off a much nicer source chain than stock, get a nicer energizer and you would be surprised (and dac)

:ok_hand:

Worth checking out, really great cans (specially the pro in your case, people are more seemingly mixed on the regular d8000 and it doesnā€™t suit your needs if you want for gaming)

But any of these are far overkill for gaming imo lol

Youā€™d be surprised lol. Some game engines really carry a lot of info and some of the audio reverb is rendered in the gpu for sound reflection and refraction and diffusion and all that nice stuff depending on the material. Thereā€™s a lot of times where Iā€™m even playing casually where I know when I flick to someone I havenā€™t even seen yet through a wall that if I was using even my HE1000se, Iā€™d miss. They just donā€™t have that absolute accuracy.

I think Iā€™m convinced enough to try the d8k pro and I only originally ignored them because I thought they might be a little too soft on the top end and the mid bump might be problematic but my idea of a problematic mid bump comes entirely from dynamicsā€¦

Interesting, Iā€™m used to older games so thereā€™s not much in like cs as an example lol

They are very clean, Iā€™d say brighter u shaped signature, more depth than width focused, great overall bite, very resolving and very technical but still organic. Check out the d8kp thread since thereā€™s some good info in there imo

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