If you don’t notice a difference and can drive them easily like that, then return it. Also, in my opinion, more expensive DACs don’t increase sound quality nearly as much as more expensive headphones.

There is no real reason to expect anything but a very minor difference at best. The DX3 might be a bit better but these are both good enough. The bar for "good enough to be audibly transparent" really isn't that high.

return it. modern motherboard DACs are not audibly worse than $500 DACs.

The G6 is no slouch.

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I think people who are used to hearing very high quality dacs will recommend more expensive dacs as they have trained their ears to better hear subtle differences. For the rest of us, especially if you're not 10 years down the rabbit hole, the apple dongle + decent amp will work great. I'd only recommend spending on dacs once you've gotten a good collection of stupidly fast headphones to demo them before you buy.

You’re absolutely right. I will always tell people that a higher end amp and DAC will make a difference. I, however, WILL NOT TELL THEM TO DO THIS!!! A setup like that for a headphone like that is complete overkill lol!

Yup! Has plenty of power for Aeons and the Hifiman HE 560 on high gain. Struggles with the HE6se though, but those are beasts.

Thank you everyone for the answers, I'll just return it.

I've been using an Asus Xonar Essence STX for years, recently swapped the op-amps for Burson Audio Vivid V6 and I've been very happy with my setup. However after I changed to planar headphones and started acquiring insanely high quality FLAC files of classical music, I've started to feel like my trusty soundcard isn't powerful enough, on some tracks I can crank the volume to 100 and it's a bit too much, but not painfully so. It's crazy how big of a variance there is on volume in different music.

So IME you only need an amplifier if you're listening to classical music.

I also have the g6. Its really good for driving any of my headphones. Its driving an he4xx and lcd 2c just fine. For me, replacing it comes down to bugs with the drivers sometimes and multiple setups. It blue screened my old pc build quite a bit. It also doesn't start up sometimes with my pc. The dx3 pro+ has bluetooth, a remote, and a quarter inch I believe. The only reason to really upgrade over a g6 in my experience is creature comforts. The g6 also works on the ps5 and switch which is pretty cool. I'm upgrading to a fiio k7 for fun honestly. I want something that I know will power anything well. But I know it isn't going to upgrade my sound or anything. Honestly I just want to connect the g6 to the consoles and have something dedicated to the pc so I don't have to constantly change cables.

I no longer use my DX3Pro+. The Apple dongle sounds same.

I have Soundblaster AE-5+ and changed to Topping EX5, I noticed a difference but it was subtle. Treble was sharper on the AE-5+, other than that there was not much difference that I could tell.

Holy. If only the amounts spent on the stack and the headphones were reversed...

Don’t worry, the tube amp was a DIY kit. I got the DAC used during COVID for only $400. While still excessive for the HD 560s, it’s perfect for this one.

Haha, definitely more balanced!

Sorry I've been trying to find details of the amp you're using since I picked up the HE6se v2 a few days ago. Could you please provide details for me to look into it. Completely new at this.

The amp I have is the Elekit TU-8200DX. There’s an updated version available now. It’s a DIY kit though. I believe you can buy a pre assembled one for idk how much more from vkmusic.ca but I’m not sure.

To be completely honest, I’m have no idea if my amp is properly driving them. I don’t have a 100w speaker amp or a headphone amp with more power to test it out. The Elekit is rated at 8wpc at 8ohms in ultra linear. I keep seeing people saying that Hifiman recommends 2w at 50ohms but I couldn’t find anything on their website. I will say this though, I love how the HE6se sound on the Elekit. Compared to my other planars, (Aeon Open Flow, HE 560) they need a tad bit more volume but they don’t seem to struggle. Still sounds full, clear, and punchy

Maybe something like the Schiit Jotunheim would be better for you. It’s $400 by itself or $500 with a DAC built in. It’s rated at 4w @ 50ohms balanced so more than enough power for them. People also like to use them with speaker amps connected directly to them with speaker taps. I honestly don’t know which is better since I haven’t used either method.

Hi Thanks for your reply. The Elekit is very tempting mainly because it will push me to learn a new skill (soldering) and gives a sense of accomplishment from DIY. My research showed me the same recommendation of 2w at 50ohms. Suggestions include the iFi Pro iCAN, Rebel amp, and Ragnarok.

Would a preamp help if it is underpowered later?

I honestly have no idea if a preamp would help, hopefully someone smarter than me can chime in. I believe a preamp’s job is to boost a low or quiet signal to line level by increasing the voltage. It will make the headphones or speakers louder but they won’t sound as good since they won’t have the required current to drive them properly. That is my understanding but I could be totally wrong. (I’m not a scientician)

That issue can be solved by using the Elekit as a preamp instead, then hooking it up to some monoblock amps to have more than enough current. EDIT: It doesn’t have to be monoblocks, a stereo or multi-channel power amp works too. Unfortunately, the Elekit TU-8200 doesn’t have pre outs. The TU-8500 is an actual preamp so it does. Something like this might work to convert the banana plugs into pre outs. But… I’ve never used it so I’m not sure if the Elekit’s noise floor is too high. That could be solved by adding a passive volume control but now there’s hella crap in the signal chain lol!

But the Elekit by itself is a great amp. Really fun and easy to understand. My older brother did the soldering and I assembled it. It took a total of 8 hours to build, but we went slow lol. It sounds fantastic! Definitely rivals some $2000+ tube amps I’ve heard. I highly, highly recommend it.

I contacted the support on Elekit (Japan) and their response is below.

>We checked your headphone in the internet and found thatHE6 se v2 requires very high power to an amp.As all of our tube amps are not so high powered,we do not recommend TU-8200R or any of our tube amp to use with your HE6 se V2

I'm honestly torn.

Yeah… I’m only using it since I already have it lol! In your case, it’s better to just get a powerful amp. Maybe even a speaker amp since the HE6se need lots of current.

Thanks so much for your responses. I will look into speaker amps as well.

I did receive confirmation from Viktor at vkmusic.ca and he confirms that it will work. I'll make a decision by the end of the week since there's no ongoing sale at the moment.

Lol you’re welcome! 😇

Honestly, I don’t think the Elekit struggles with the HE6se. I just can’t say for sure since I have no other reference point. Emotiva has some awesome looking amps spec wise. I mean, 8.5w @ 47ohms????? That’s ridiculous! And it’s cheap lol

Ok youre killing me with options. I'm nearly convinced with the Elekit. Hopefully the DIY part wont scare me.

My bad, having more options doesn’t make it any easier lol! Man, I’m super tempted to see if I can turn my Elekit into a preamp and get a pair of monoblocks to power some crazy speakers.

And building the amp was fun and easy to me! I didn’t really have much experience either, it’s just that well designed. My amp was damaged by a brownout recently so all I had to do was change the damaged FETs. Victor actually helped me out with that. I got the replacement parts from him as well. He replied quickly, very pleasant to deal with. Here’s a look at the insides when my older brother and I repaired it back in April this year.

Yup I've been getting pretty good responses from Victor as well. He suggest to go with the Lundahl upgrade for better sound. Sadly the shipping itself is over 250USD. I'm currently looking into shipping from Japan itself. Im also checking out Soldering irons on Aliexpress lol.