HE6 Remastered vs Susvara Unveiled: which needs more amplifier?

The HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered is 50Ω at 83.5 dB (no reference unit printed); the HiFiMAN Susvara Unveiled is 45Ω at 86.0 dB (no reference unit printed). This page is only about what they ask of an amplifier — not how they sound, which no specification on either sheet can tell you.

The HE6 Remastered needs 2.5 dB more than the Susvara Unveiled to reach the same loudness — 45 mW against 25 mW.

The numbers that decide it

SpecificationHE6 RemasteredSusvara Unveiled
Impedance50 Ω45 Ω
Sensitivity83.5 dB86.0 dB
Sensitivity (voltage)96.5 dB/V99.5 dB/V
Power for 100 dB45 mW25 mW
Voltage for 100 dB1.49 V1.06 V
Current for 100 dB29.9 mA23.6 mA
Highest source impedance
that leaves them alone (one-eighth rule)
6.25 Ω5.62 Ω
Sources that reach 100 dB
out of 280
240259

One caution before reading the rows. HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered and HiFiMAN Susvara Unveiled printed a decibel figure with no reference unit, so this page reads it as per milliwatt. If it is really per volt, each of them needs far more than the table says. Why the two readings differ by so much.

Where the two part company

19 of the 280 sources have the power for the Susvara Unveiled but not for the HE6 Remastered — Generic CX31993 dongles, Kiwi Ears Allegro Pro, ddHiFi TC35Pro (Mountain2), 16 more.

240 of the 280 sources here reach 100 dB on both. That count is about power only — the output-impedance and hiss lines above are separate questions, and a source can pass this one and fail those.

What each one needs from 80 to 105 dB

The gap between these two in decibels does not change with volume — it is a property of the two headphones. What changes is the size of the numbers, and it changes fast: every 10 dB costs ten times the power. The row that matters is the one nearest the level you listen at, and for most people that is nearer the top of this table than the bottom.

The HE6 Remastered is more demanding than 99% of the 567 non-electrostatic models in this database; the Susvara Unveiled than 98%. Both figures use the same measure as the rest of the site: whichever runs out first against a 2 V, 100 mW dongle, voltage or power.

dB SPLHE6 Remastered powerHE6 Remastered voltageSusvara Unveiled powerSusvara Unveiled voltage
800.45 mW0.15 V0.25 mW0.11 V
851.4 mW0.27 V0.79 mW0.19 V
904.5 mW0.47 V2.5 mW0.34 V
9514 mW0.84 V7.9 mW0.60 V
10045 mW1.49 V25 mW1.06 V
105141 mW2.66 V79 mW1.89 V

105 dB is included because forum power figures are usually quoted there or higher. It is also a level that damages hearing in minutes — how many minutes is its own calculator.

The cheapest source that satisfies both

SourcePriceHeadroom, HE6 RemasteredHeadroom, Susvara UnveiledOutput impedanceNoise
FiiO KA11$294.6 dB7.5 dB0.7 Ω1.7 µV
FiiO BTR13$591.5 dB4.5 dB0.6 Ω1.0 µV
iBasso DC03 Pro$691.5 dB4.4 dB0.12 Ω0.9 µV

Of the 280 sources here, 240 reach 100 dB on both. That is the easy axis. 67 of them also publish an output impedance low enough for both under the one-eighth rule and a noise figure that stays below the audible-hiss threshold with both — the rest either fail one of those or never printed the number at all, and 171 of them are in the second group.

The cheapest of the 67 is the FiiO KA11, at $29. It leaves 4.6 dB of headroom on the HE6 Remastered and 7.5 dB on the Susvara Unveiled, its output impedance is 0.7 Ω against a one-eighth limit of 6.25 Ω and 5.62 Ω, and its noise figure puts the hiss floor 39 dB and 36 dB below the 20 dB SPL this site treats as the point where a quiet room stops hiding it.

Cheapest that satisfies three published numbers is not the same as best, and none of it is about how either headphone sounds. To put either model against a source this page does not mention, or to change the target loudness, use the amplifier matcher.

What each sheet prints, and what it is worth

ModelAs printedToleranceStandard
HE6 Remastered8 Hz - 65 kHznot printednot printed
Susvara Unveiled6Hz - 75kHznot printednot printed

HiFiMAN prints 8 Hz - 65 kHz for the HE6 Remastered and 6Hz - 75kHz for the Susvara Unveiled.

Neither range has a tolerance printed beside it, and that is the whole of what this section can tell you. A wider range on one sheet is not deeper bass or more treble on that headphone: without a tolerance, neither number says how loud either model is at the ends of its own range, so the difference between the two is a difference between two pieces of marketing copy. A ±dB figure is what turns a range into a specification, and of the 490 models whose maker prints a range, 58 print it.

None of this is a measurement. What each maker publishes, and what it is worth, is set out in the frequency response audit.

Both pages in full

Each model has a page of its own with the full source list, the hiss estimate and the provenance of every figure above: HiFiMAN HE6 Remastered and HiFiMAN Susvara Unveiled. Each figure on this page is labelled on those pages with where it came from, including the ones HiFiMAN never published — what that maker publishes, counted.

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