Many people use headphones like sneharizer and beyerdynamic for 15 or 20 years. But how long do hifiman headphones last? Can you tell me your experiences?
this post was submitted on 23 Nov 2023
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I still like them very much. They don't get as much listening time as they used to, but whenever I put them on, I tend to keep them on for long bouts of time. It's probably one of the few modern Hifiman headphones that actually has punch/slam that comes close to that of Focal headphones, making them quite engaging and enjoyable. For me, no EQ tweaks are needed, as they sound great they way they are - but more on this later.
As you're probably aware, they are quite hard to drive, but given how cheap and plentiful headphone amp power has gotten, it's not as out of reach as things used to be. If it makes any difference, I was able to pick up a bunch of Cavalli amps last year that were being liquidated between eBay and Monoprice sales, and regularly swap between the Massdrop x Carbon X, Monolith Liquid Platinum, or sometimes Monolith Liquid Gold. Even with the Susvara, I'm not wanting for more in terms of source gear, with either of these headphones.
I should note that mine are outfitted with a leftover HE560 v3 headband from Adorama (back when they were still available), which made a huge difference for comfort, and also have the HE400s Velpads that I tend to use for most of the circular Hifiman headphones. The stock headband was horrendous for my head shape, as it gave me aching pains at the very tippy top of my skull, right where the foam padding rested. The Velpads also generally tend to give a little more warmth and bloom to the sound, that I enjoy so much. So take what I say with as much salt as needed. :)
Thanks for your feedback, appreciate it! You often hear of their macro dynamics and difficulty to drive but not very often of their tuning or resolving ability.
No worries. :)
Yeah, I generally don't comment much on the stock tuning because of the earpads that I have installed on them, which are not representative of what you will get out of the box, and not everyone is willing to put up with the itchy fabric material of the Velpads to obtain the same sound either. If I ever find the stock earpads, I can give them a try again, but if memory serves, they're pretty much the equivalent Sundara pads, which were notably brighter/sharper sounding, to me, and that's what sparked my pad rolling interest, early on.
I'm sure what I am about to say is not a revelation for some, but through my own experiences, what I have learned a few times over is that the terms resolution, detail, separation, layering, etc. all relate back some how, some way to frequency response (aka. the aforementioned "tuning"). So long as the driver is capable, it becomes a matter of balancing the right blend of FR characteristics that allows "new details" to become revealed or "un-buried" from the mix. So with that said, the HE6se v2 is definitely very capable of resolving small details, without being overly distracting, unlike say, the Focal Utopia - where that headphone commands you to pay attention to the small details so much that it sometimes can ruin songs - at least, for me.