[Kramer01]

My iPad Pro 12.9 iPhone 7s colors are trash.

As an iphone 7 and a previous gen Macbook pro retina user I find that hard to believe. The 1st gen 12.9 iPad had a white point that was a little higher than 6500k thus making the screen look a little blue, but that was the case with the old iPad as well as iPad air 2. The new 12.9's screen is GORGEOUS. You should try it at the Apple store. The reason we are getting better displays is because Samsung introduced great OLED displays on their phones thereby making the others look bad and as a result we are seeing better calibrated displays on new flagship devices, but even samsung galaxy displays are no longer as well calibrated as they were in the Note 4 and Note 5 days.

I have no problems with my Utopia

That's good to hear. Focal is a new entrant into the headphone market and headphone manufacturing must come with its own sets of challenges. They are very experienced in the speaker manufacturing business but they are new to headphone driver manufacturing maybe that is why the channel imbalance and driver variation occurred in the early units. I definitely expect them to improve their QC with time and subsequent production runs as they gain more experience with headphones but as a consumer when one hears or reads about such discrepancies arising in a flagship product its simply not confidence inspiring.

 

[Whitigir]

What I meant colors was the body painting color, not the screen color. I can post u picture of the back from 5s vs iPad Pro and see....but let's get back on the topic

 

[zeissiez]

The internal of my made-in-China Auralic Vega:

The internal of my made-in-USA EC BA

DJI, IPHONES are made in China so that people can afford great product at a lower price than if they were made in 1st world countries. What's not to like?

Having said that, in the next decade, as wages increase, China will not be the "world factory" anymore. Manufacturing will be outsourced to countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia etc.

 

[isquirrel]

You have an impressive system isquirrel! Thanks for your impressions on the Susvara, excuse the offtopic but how are you liking the MSB Select II? Do the two power supplies increase its sound quality to justify their purchase?

Loving the Select II, I went though a lot of DAC's to end up there. It was the one to really make me forget about a Turntable. Yes the dual power supplies do make a big enough difference to warrant the upgrade. At first most owners did not do it however as word has got around I hear from MSB that most of the new Select's are being ordered with the dual power supplies. It is expensive however the point that really sold me apart from the sound is the ten year upgrade free guarantee. Thus ensuring that in the fast paced world of digital electronics I will not get left behind. The Select works as a Pre-amp, also does MQA (recently) and has a Roon endpoint enabled Network Renderer about to be released which will free up my Aurender for sale.

 

[isquirrel]

I noticed some wrinkles visible on the back of the driver and in conversation with jack Wu he sent me some photos of his Susvara's which had the same "wrinkles" I wrote to Fang and asked him for a response here it is:

Hi Simon,

It was nice to hear from you. The surface of the gold conductor layer is not smooth because it is too thin to control with our current technology. A nice looking gold layer require a total thickness 5 micro meter or even more. If we use that thickness conductor layer on the diaphragm, its total mass of diaphragm and conductive coating will be much higher. One of the important element of HIFIMAN planar headphones is to make the diaphragm and conductor layer as light as possible, which will give a much wider freq range, faster response, and bigger soundstage. Susvara is the model have the lightest vibration mass from any hifiman headphones we made. If we increase a tiny little thickness of the diaphragm or conductor layer, it will sound not as good (we tried several times before). It is on every gold conductor diaphragm that we made, including HE6. The gold diaphragm is very stable and consistent. Gold has higher impedance than other conductors such as Aluminum or Copper so that we can only do simple conductor pattern on the diaphragm to keep the impedance as low as 60 Ohm, which made the efficiency low. We trade of efficiency, but the overall vibration mass (total diaphragm mass) is so low that benefit the sound quality and soundstage very much.

If you have any other questions or anything I can help, please let me know.

Best,
Fang

 

[isquirrel]

Some of us live in very expensive small apartments or condos in congested cities where there is no way any amount of room treatments would allow the use of speakers.

Totally agree, that is the situation I have.

 

[Peti]

Sorry if I missed the post, but what is the answer to this?

You didn't miss it as the person never deigned to reply. I just have this habit that I want to know after a glowing "review" if the author purchased the item shelling out the MSRP, or he got a discount from the manufacturer, etc. I think it's only fair to know the background. Let's hope this time we shall receive an answer. So how was these 'phoned obtained after all?

 

[isquirrel]

You didn't miss it as the person never deigned to reply. I just have this habit that I want to know after a glowing "review" if the author purchased the item shelling out the MSRP, or he got a discount from the manufacturer, etc. I think it's only fair to know the background. Let's hope this time we shall receive an answer. So how was these 'phoned obtained after all?

MSRP for me, I bought them as soon as I saw them released on here. Expensive when converted to Aussie Dollars.

I am an avid Head-Fier first, reviewer 2nd. I had ben tipped off that they were pretty special. But I was not told how power hungry they are! When the DHL Truck arrived I shot downstairs and the Courier had gone to drop off packages at the other end of the building complex, I spied my Susvara's through the rear windows of his Van, keen as mustard. The driver had a big smile on his face when I quickly signed for them and shot off upstairs.

 

[Stars700]

Well that would probably be a waste of time but hey give it a shot and let us know

Crying...............

 

[Stars700]

HE6 would popular again with those reviews between SUSVARA&HE6, just guess

 

[mulder01]

I feel inadequate after seeing that system. Running the Susvara off a £160 marantz amp...

Unfortunatly I don't have a high end system, but by god do the Susvara sound excellent with power behind them.

I wouldn't automatically assume that the marantz amp is inadequate just because of the price though. If it has the power and a sound signature that you like then you're set.

A little while ago, a friend of mine saved an old Luxman integrated amp from the scrap bin for $20 (turns out it just had a blown fuse). We tried it vs a $2k integrated amp (which is very popular on head fi) with a couple of different pairs of speakers . All 3 of us preferred the old Luxman. Enjoyment is not necessarily proportional to price paid.

You didn't miss it as the person never deigned to reply. I just have this habit that I want to know after a glowing "review" if the author purchased the item shelling out the MSRP, or he got a discount from the manufacturer, etc. I think it's only fair to know the background. Let's hope this time we shall receive an answer. So how was these 'phoned obtained after all?

I am nobody and I don't pay full RRP for any A/V product. I didn't think anyone did. Generally if you're spending a chunk of money, all you have to do is ask for a discount and you should get at least something. If I spent a lot of money with my retailer and they sold me a Susvara for $5k instead of $6k, does that make my opinion worth less?

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

I wouldn't automatically assume that the marantz amp is inadequate just because of the price though. If it has the power and a sound signature that you like then you're set.

A little while ago, a friend of mine saved an old Luxman integrated amp from the scrap bin for $20 (turns out it just had a blown fuse). We tried it vs a $2k integrated amp (which is very popular on head fi) with a couple of different pairs of speakers . All 3 of us preferred the old Luxman. Enjoyment is not necessarily proportional to price paid.



I am nobody and I don't pay full RRP for any A/V product. I didn't think anyone did. Generally if you're spending a chunk of money, all you have to do is ask for a discount and you should get at least something. If I spent a lot of money with my retailer and they sold me a Susvara for $5k instead of $6k, does that make my opinion worth less?

My Marantz is perfectly capable to be honest (PM-5005), it has a wide soundstage, everything is very well presented and full (these sound lackluster when underpowered), no noticeable roll off and a slightly smooth sound. I'm very happy with it for the price.

 

[LouisArmstrong]

Nice. Really nice.

 

[mulder01]

My Marantz is perfectly capable to be honest (PM-5005), it has a wide soundstage, everything is very well presented and full (these sound lackluster when underpowered), no noticeable roll off and a slightly smooth sound. I'm very happy with it for the price.

Nice. Too many people immediately dismiss gear that isn't expensive enough because expensive = good and cheap = not as good. Most people would be reluctant to mention that they spent a couple of hundred bucks on an amp for their $6k headphones out of fear of people calling them out for wasting their time and money on inexpensive gear. That attitude needs to stop IMO. Good on you.

 

[Whitigir]

Well....a good amplifier with properly design and parts should never be only couple hundred bucks lol! So people who knows stuff, they realize buying expensive headphones but cheap amp will be a non-sense is common. It is just fact

Now, will this 6k outperform Utopia 4k ? The Utopia seems so affordable now