HiFiMAN relaunches the HE6 Remastered at $1,899, and it still needs a big amplifier
The remaster revives the original HE6 driver design and fits HiFiMAN's second-generation composite headband, but does nothing to soften the amplifier demands the original was notorious for.
HiFiMAN has launched the HE6 Remastered at $1,899, reviving the driver design of the original HE6 and fitting the company's second-generation composite headband to make one of its most celebrated headphones more comfortable. It was among the models shown at CanJam London's tenth-anniversary edition, alongside the Meze Audio Arta, the RAAL Magna Evo 1, the Grell OAE2 and the ZMF Tessidera.
The original's reputation rested on sensitivity low enough that owners routinely drove it from speaker amplifiers, and the remaster does not change that: it still needs serious amplification. That makes the real price of ownership higher than $1,899 for anyone without an amplifier already capable of it, which is a power-matching question before it is a taste one.
Announcement sources
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This is an announcement, not a verdict. Specifications come from the manufacturer and nothing here is measured until a unit reaches the rig. For tested planar, see Planar reviews. Back to all new releases.