Agreed with this, I am very happy with my Meitner MA-3

I really liked the Bryston BHA-1 when I had my LCD-4s

I have a 750u and Susvara and although it plays loud enough, it doesn't have enough power to satisfy me - it sounds a bit thin and lean, misses the punch and weight of a good speaker amp. Even a not so good speaker amp lol. I use a speaker amp with my Susvara, and the 750u for everytrhing else.

My first choice would be the ECP DSHA-3F over all the ones you mention - pronally I use the Luxman P-750u in balanced mode which I find to be a particularly good match, and I've tried 430HA, GS-X Mini, Bryston, Ray Samuels, Audio GD, Focal Arche, and some I don't remember ...

I still own and use both - HEKse has a wider stage, a bloomier low end (but less defined), slightly more brittle highs and an "airier" presentation. Utopia is punchier, a bit warmer overall, has a more "intimate" presentation and crisper in its detail retreival. Both have good clarity (edge to...

Balanced mode definitely sounds palpably better - also, once warmed up I find the Luxman to be on the warm side, which is a good thing.

I use a speaker tap to headphone adapter https://www.zynsonix.com/Speaker-Output-to-Headphone-Balanced-Adapter_p_16.html

I use the Luxman for all my headphones (HEKse, Utopia, LCD-5, and previously d8000Pro, LCD-4 etc) other than Susvara. For Susvara alone I use a speaker amp, in my case a Krell KSA150 and a Bryston preamp, all balanced ...

I have the Luxman as well as the Susvara and HEKse. In my opinion, as good as the Luxman is with the HEKse it is not powerful enough to drive Susvara properly. It gets loud enough but sounds flat, missing dynamics, punch and overall tonal weight.

I still own and listen to both, but if I were honest with myself I'd admit that the Susvara is considerably better than HEKse in almost all the ways that matter - that said, imo those that say there isn't much difference between the two just aren't powering the Susvara properly. This cannot be...

I have the Luxman with LCD-5, sounds great, the Luxman is richly textured and a touch on the warm side, which to me works well with the mid forward LCD-5. Works well with my Utopia, HEKse and Final d800Pros too, but NOT with my Susvara - although it plays loud enough on its high gain setting...

My experience with the LCD-5 is almost exactly the same - when I first got them I was quite disappointed to be honest, they sounded clear, transparent and detailed but seemed very "flat" to me, with very little macro dynamics and lacked punch. They are very intimate, the soundstage was pretty...

While I love my Luxman with my Utopia, HEKse and (hopefully) LCD-5, I do not think it pairs well with Susvara, it just doesn't have enough power to fully exploit what makes the Susvara great - just my opinion, YMMV.

Nothing satisfied me until I got a speaker amp for my Susvara - it doesn't have to be anything ultra expensive either - Susvara needs power, it cannot be underestimated ...

My Susvaras slam as much as my LCD-4 if not more but they need lots of speaker amp power, no matter what anyone here says to the contrary ..:L3000:

What did you end up with for your Utopia?

I've corresponded with paradoxper privately and he has been informative, generous with his time and seems like he'd be a great guy to hang out with - I personally love his contributions here.

You don't need that much power ... but I did :gs1000smile:

Since I posted that I liked my d8000Pros better than Susvara, I ended up dragging my Class A 150 watt Krell out of the closet and that has made the difference to now favouring Susvara by a significant margin ...

I have had the same experience with my pair of Utopias after purchasing new pads from Focal. The soundstage got a bit larger, bass increased slightly etc. My old pads got pretty soft and flabby so I decided to buy new ones from Focal. I've never had any driver issues and the headphones don't...

I would say that Utopia (arguably) does a bit better job at separating instruments in the field, while Susvara is smoother overall.

I forgot to also mention the Simaudio Moon 430HAD as one of the candidates... @MacedonianHero, what would you consider top flight amps for TOTL planars?

Thought I'd throw in my 2 cents here on Susvara with speaker amps vs good quality non speaker amps that can drive Susvara well ... I have heard extensively the Luxman P-750u, Ray Samuels Apache, Audio Technica AT5050H and Kinki Studio EX-M1, all of which drive the Susvara just fine (balanced)...

In my experience the d8000Pro smooths out over 50 or so hours - it ia a bit "V" shaped overall even when opened up but at the start the highs are just a bit etched - but they smooth out relatively quickly. The included OFC silver coated cable sounds good and although I use the headphones...

Oops sorry, the opposite! I've edited my post .... sorry!