In the early mornings while my spouse is still asleep, I’ve been using my HE6 in my listening room while sitting in the same chair I usually sit in when I listen on my floor speakers. Normally I have the music playing through the headphone before I put them on my head, like a responsible old should do to protect their hearing. But today I was already seated in my chair with the headphones on when I turned on the music. I’d turned the volume down to low.

When the music started I went “shit, the speakers are sill on. Gotta turn it down real quick before I wake the spouse,” so I turned down the volume super low using the remote and jumped up quick to go over to the amp to figure out why the “speakers on” wasn’t lit up, took off the headphones and heard silence.

Silence? Oh! The HE6 were so spacious-sounding at half volume that I thought it was my floor speakers. It’s amazing how often I’m blown away by what my setups sometimes can make me experience.

One other weird thing. I’ve been using a Roon EQ recommendation for these that was posted on audiosciencereview, but this morning I was still on my floor speaker EQ settings. When I switched to my custom settings for theses or switched all EQ off, they lost that spacious sound. The main EQ adjustment for my floor speakers is adding a peak at 258 Hz.

They’re $609 right now at the Hifiman store, if you’re looking for something to treat yourself this holiday season. My only criticisms are they feel a little big on my little girl head and they required all the power my amp can muster.