Rag has no problem driving HE-6. But hard to say if you will like the sound or not. Some people like it. Some people don't.

There was a mid-line Krell much lauded by the HF crowd for HE-6. It sounded like shit. That Krell made a bunch of farts with the HE-6 in the bass on a Daft Punk album and was bested by a 3 watt tube amp during the same listening session.

A passive preamp into a Pass amp might be the phenomenal setup you are looking for. It's all relative, based on personal preferences, and how much you want to spend.

OK, decided to learn how to re-terminate cable (I can get soldering help at the office) so I ordered a Sennheiser replacement cable off Amazon Canada for $32 (good deal!).

Problem is I'm having a super pain in the ass time finding a place to get the Neutrik connector.  Probably going to end up paying $20USD for the damn connector after shipping...     (not a good deal)

Got the XLRs off Markertek as well.

NC4MXX-B
NC4FX-B

Male to reterminate the HD650 in XLR, female to take the old TRS and make an adapter.

I'm sending them to The Ghost Himself on Etsy along with my HD650 cable because I don't want to deal with soldering.

Hi guys,

First post here, i've read all thread and decided to buy HD650 (previous cans not by order: portapros, Grado sr80i, Fidelio x1, HD598, V-Moda M100, Beats Solo 2) and Fidelio X2. I've had my HD650 (w/ shiit modi 2 magni 2) for three weeks now, and got X2's just a few days ago.

And i like X2's more.

I'm not an audiophile by any sort of definition, i just like listening to music. To me, the biggest difference is bass and probably the soundstage if i understand the term correctly. HD650 feels very.. narrow? It's like the music is very close to ears (obviously not closed-cans close), but at the same time very distant if that makes sense? It's right HERE, but not really. Very strange sound. And it becomes even more apparent when i put on X2's. They sound really wide, i can't even tell where the sound is coming from, because it feels like sound originates somewhere outside the cups. The bass is superior, it had more punch where it needed. Also, X2's draws you into music, while HD650 produced music disappears. It's not engaging.

The only thing i don't understand is why i hear background hiss with X2's while HD650 keeps it clean.

What should i do changstar? I don't want to choose the wrong one, and i took HD650 to leave the mid-fi purgatory. But it seems X2's sound better for me. Thank you.

Based on specs, the X2 may have more bass than the HD650. But not necessarily higher quality.

If you are using high gain like Luckbad said, it is possible that you amp is in high impedance mode (not sure what the output impedance of the Magni 2 is in high gain). Note the X2 has a large impedance hump in the bass area but still south of 45 ohms. This can result in even more bass out of the X2.

So probably you like cans with more bass presence. This may not always be your preference and may become old.

As far as hearing things inside or outside the cups, I'm not sure what to tell you. Soundstage is not something headphones do great in general. But I personally find my HD600 engaging. If you find the X2 more engaging then keep those..