They sound even better. The guy I borrowed them from has a pair of Fi-BA-SS and Piano Forte IX as well. The Heaven VI is supposed to be the sweet spot in the FAD line up, as far as performance/value goes. I'm floored by the detailing, space, bass response and timbre of these phones, and keep telling myself that this shouldn't be possible out of a single armature. Timbre is likely the best out of any phone I've ever heard, it just sounds very natural and organic. The stick impact on drum fills on jazz recordings is uncannily realistic, beating out the Flat-4, ES5, SA5K and Mad Dogs, which really shocked me. It nails the tone of drums like nothing I've heard. Mid range is perfect for my tastes, very lush and smooth, but not to the detriment of details. It's likely the best midrange I've ever heard, highlighting flaws in the ES5, which now sounds nasally in comparison. Horns, piano, and guitar also sound amazing on the VI. I intially thought the VI was going to be a "polite" phone (due to their elegant styling) and only really excel with jazz, classical, and vocal albums but they are actually great for rock as well. They excel with quite a wide range of music. I've thrown electronic, jazz, rock and classical at them and they've reproduced everything effortlessly
The VI is capable of incredible detail resolution, but it doesn't sound clinical or analytical. Highs are very detailed, but short of being sibilant. There's credible energy to cymbals, rides and hi-hats, but they aren't splashy like most phones are, you hear the different tones, and they ring out just long enough. Bass on these things though, a single armature should not be capable of this kind of bass, it's just exceedingly effortless. It doesn't extend as low as the Flat-4, so there's not as much sub bass quantity, but what's there is incredibly taut, nimble and capable. I keep picking tracks where I think the bass would crap out on me, and it just doesn't ever happen. I'd still take the Flat-4's bass over it, since that extra bit of oomph adds body to instruments, but the Heaven VI's luscious mids have me seriously contemplating picking them up. Moving over to soundstage... It's actually quite spacious, just two notches short of the Flat-4 which sounds like a full sized headphone. There's a decent amount of air around the instruments as well, although the H VI is more mid forward than the Flat-4, and has pushed instruments a little too close to my face on a track or two, but never to the extent that the ES5 does.
All in all, I find it very hard to find any faults in the VI at the moment. I came in expecting the Flat-4 to kick them up and down the block, but was surprised to find them quite evenly matched in a number of ways. (Speaking of which, I should let you hear the Flat-4 sometime; I gotta send them off to the HFier who lent me the H VI, but I'd like you to hear them. I'm pretty damned crazy about those things) Surprise, that's really the only word that sums up the Heaven VI in the few hours I've listened to them so far
