[Whazzzup]

Never mind the cost of cans, or amps, the source can now effect the chain in a significant factor and multiple, it too can be very expensive, but to my unpaid for opinion is the one of the most significant parts of the chain. I'm talking of roon core servers for your Dac. It has improved overall performance considerably and the output from my hd800S.

 

[mulder01]

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

I've heard plenty of amps in wildly varying price ranges sound very similar. Some cheap gear sounds great, some expensive gear sounds average. Higher price does not guarantee you the best system for your tastes. On a number of occasions I have listened to expensive, highly regarded pieces of equipment and thought to myself *** I'm glad I didn't waste my money on this.

You can't be certain that if you did a blind test with OscarHiFi's cheap Marantz vs a $4k alternative, that you will much prefer the alternative solely based on it being more expensive. To me, that is very closed-minded.

 

[Whazzzup]

Speaking of amps specifically. There is a conundrum here. The highest complement I think one can give your amp, like in my case, and frequency charts support this thesis, is that it steps out of the way, wire and gain like, and you don't know it's there.
Now I'm sure some folks want there amp to make the music sound like.... but even with bloom aside and I love my amp, if the tree falls in the forest and you do not hear it....
I know I'm pounding a point, here but after just going through this rabbit hole hobby we are in I have to emphasize what has been the top influence of sound quality improvement in my chain, that's a roon core player server addition. That unlike amps, has had the biggest effect to me on output for cans.

 

[seeteeyou]

Dunno if they're serious or just "trolling" but someone on "Duper Worst Video Enemies" seemed to love driving Susvara with JLH69 for 100 bucks or so

https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?id=20574723709
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hum...test-Perfect-1969-PNP-MJ2955/32781806073.html

They even compared that combo with Sennheiser HE-1 but the latter was most likely limited by an average source component like Marantz CD transport.

 

[Dobrescu George]

I think that those Susvara look wonderful!

 

[Matez]

Totally agree, that is the situation I have.

There's ALWAYS a way

OK, not always, but I recently have found my Holy Grail of stereo and it's *very* small.

[Derail mode off]

 

[DigMe]

For my upcoming review:

Source = Mytek Digital Brooklyn DAC

*spits coffee onto screen*

I hope that was free too.

 

[Deftone]

If only...

 

[thatonenoob]

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?

That's kinda different from being a reviewer. I tend to drop disclaimers in mine so people can draw their own conclusions.

 

[ostewart]

The sheer depth, and clarity of these is incredible... Sat here listening to them and it is pure bliss.

Now I will never have the cash to ever buy these, but if I did, I probably would, they are definitely a headphone you need to build a system around, but they are rewarding.

The sound never sounds strained, or forced, it just effortlessly oozes out of the gold drivers, I like a lot of badly recorded heavy rock, and it still sounds great, that treble extends for days.

 

[Whazzzup]

so in canada is there anyone carrying this product. Is there a tour going, over the next few months need to demo this again on my equipment, how to get this done...

 

[dill3000]

Early listening impressions for the SUSVARA


I’ve only had the SUSVARA for 2 days now so these are super first impressions. I have only given the headphones around 30 hours burn in so they still have a while to go. On the booklet it says to achieve optimum performance break in of 150hr is best. I definitely agree with this as it took at least 150hrs for my HE6's to get to optimum performance.

In fact I found a few key things to happen with my two HE6's at burn in (both purchased new)


1. The HE6's sound pretty good at the beginning. All the HE6's characteristics of there but they’re not as transparent or dynamic as a fully broken in HE6.

2. (After around 25 hrs, I found the sonics take a hit for some reason) This happened on both sets. They just sounded more closed in and dry sounding. The highs wasn’t great.

3. Things would gradually improve and improve over the next 4-5 days or so - You would get the traditional HE6 dynamics, transparency, bass and musicality.

4. At 150 hr or more your HE6’s are ready to give major listening - it will still improve over time - just get enjoying them.


I have to say the SUSVARA at the beginning sounded real good - but I could clearly hear it needed the burn in. Its doesn’t surprise me as I’m fully aware HIFIMAN planers need the burn in.

Any how - what was my feeling after giving them a listen? I gave them a test with some binaural recordings.


One example is a Chesky recorded album: Dazzling Blue by Alexis Cole - the track I’ll talk about is Track 2: Jonah

I was really impress when listening to this track! I was wowed at moments the spacing and imaging was truly great! I was able to close my eyes and feel the surroundings of the recording space, imaging was the thing which shocked me mostly.

An example is at the beginning of the track theres a type of jingling sound which I feel moves behind you from left to right, not sure what the instrument is but it sounded so life like! Maybe its just chains rattling Alexis’s voice sounded really natural - all the subtle details in her voice was there but not in your face. I got a holographic type imaging feeling when listening to the recording. The stand out moment for me was listening the the rattle percussion instrument. I could follow all the movements from each shake - I could hear all the movements in the hand of the shaker In fact its like I could not only follow the shaking positioning but also feel the rattling hit my ears. Thats a great unique trait I get from the HIFIMAN HE6's which the SUSVARA also has - you can feel the music.

The highs on the SUSVARA is really nice and I know there is still lots of improvements to come. I think HIFIMAN were going for a similar type of voicing to what Sennheiser HE1 has (great highs - never harsh - with great imaging and clarity with a slight touch of warmth to the tone).

How does it sound next to my modded HE6’s? Ok it definitely can capture greater detail, just as hard to drive. I feel like its a successor to the HE6's but It has to be burnt in more. It has the HE6's characteristic in terms of visceral attack but has the fastness of an electrostatic headphone. Its currently kind of in the middle - visceral attack and bass isn’t currently as pure as my HE6's I fully think the 150hrs burn in will fix this. I’m looking forward to seeing!

By the way these headphones need lot’s of power!!! They scale excellently when driven by powerful clean high end amps. e.g I’ve tried them with high end low wattage speaker amps. (I did test some normal head amps first and much like the HE6’s they need good power to sound great) The first worthy amp I tried is the amp in the photos below, I call it the mini beast - its a Amp I built just for my HE6's based of a First Watt F7. Its fully dual mono design so it basically has double the power supply of the commercial F7.

The commercial F7 is a 20W of pure class A into (8 ohm) Fantastic pairing!! So fantastic I wanted to know if the headphones could sound better with my more powerful higher end amp nicknamed The Beast. This is a Pass Labs XA30.8 rated at 30W of pure class A per/ch (8 ohm) Fully balanced from start to finish. I was blown away!! This is the amp I used with the song impressions above. The realism was astonishing. I’m excited to see how good these headphones can become.


Thats it for now folks - I’ll give an update a little later - hope you like the pics below

 

[Dobrescu George]

Early listening impressions for the SUSVARA


I’ve only had the SUSVARA for 2 days now so these are super first impressions. I have only given the headphones around 30 hours burn in so they still have a while to go. On the booklet it says to achieve optimum performance break in of 150hr is best. I definitely agree with this as it took at least 150hrs for my HE6's to get to optimum performance.

In fact I found a few key things to happen with my two HE6's at burn in (both purchased new)


1. The HE6's sound pretty good at the beginning. All the HE6's characteristics of there but they’re not as transparent or dynamic as a fully broken in HE6.

2. (After around 25 hrs, I found the sonics take a hit for some reason) This happened on both sets. They just sounded more closed in and dry sounding. The highs wasn’t great.

3. Things would gradually improve and improve over the next 4-5 days or so - You would get the traditional HE6 dynamics, transparency, bass and musicality.

4. At 150 hr or more your HE6’s are ready to give major listening - it will still improve over time - just get enjoying them.


I have to say the SUSVARA at the beginning sounded real good - but I could clearly hear it needed the burn in. Its doesn’t surprise me as I’m fully aware HIFIMAN planers need the burn in.

Any how - what was my feeling after giving them a listen? I gave them a test with some binaural recordings.


One example is a Chesky recorded album: Dazzling Blue by Alexis Cole - the track I’ll talk about is Track 2: Jonah

I was really impress when listening to this track! I was wowed at moments the spacing and imaging was truly great! I was able to close my eyes and feel the surroundings of the recording space, imaging was the thing which shocked me mostly.

An example is at the beginning of the track theres a type of jingling sound which I feel moves behind you from left to right, not sure what the instrument is but it sounded so life like! Maybe its just chains rattling Alexis’s voice sounded really natural - all the subtle details in her voice was there but not in your face. I got a holographic type imaging feeling when listening to the recording. The stand out moment for me was listening the the rattle percussion instrument. I could follow all the movements from each shake - I could hear all the movements in the hand of the shaker In fact its like I could not only follow the shaking positioning but also feel the rattling hit my ears. Thats a great unique trait I get from the HIFIMAN HE6's which the SUSVARA also has - you can feel the music.

The highs on the SUSVARA is really nice and I know there is still lots of improvements to come. I think HIFIMAN were going for a similar type of voicing to what Sennheiser HE1 has (great highs - never harsh - with great imaging and clarity with a slight touch of warmth to the tone).

How does it sound next to my modded HE6’s? Ok it definitely can capture greater detail, just as hard to drive. I feel like its a successor to the HE6's but It has to be burnt in more. It has the HE6's characteristic in terms of visceral attack but has the fastness of an electrostatic headphone. Its currently kind of in the middle - visceral attack and bass isn’t currently as pure as my HE6's I fully think the 150hrs burn in will fix this. I’m looking forward to seeing!

By the way these headphones need lot’s of power!!! They scale excellently when driven by powerful clean high end amps. e.g I’ve tried them with high end low wattage speaker amps. (I did test some normal head amps first and much like the HE6’s they need good power to sound great) The first worthy amp I tried is the amp in the photos below, I call it the mini beast - its a Amp I built just for my HE6's based of a First Watt F7. Its fully dual mono design so it basically has double the power supply of the commercial F7.

The commercial F7 is a 20W of pure class A into (8 ohm) Fantastic pairing!! So fantastic I wanted to know if the headphones could sound better with my more powerful higher end amp nicknamed The Beast. This is a Pass Labs XA30.8 rated at 30W of pure class A per/ch (8 ohm) Fully balanced from start to finish. I was blown away!! This is the amp I used with the song impressions above. The realism was astonishing. I’m excited to see how good these headphones can become.


Thats it for now folks - I’ll give an update a little later - hope you like the pics below

Woah, nice impressions and beautiful images!

 

[protoss]

Now my turn !

I got to listen to this $800 thin metal, squeaky, wobbling, fragile, embarrassing construction Sursvara Aka Edition 6. The complete retail version.

oooooo boy here comes the pain..... (I will repost this at the impression and review section also)

So is this a knock off from the HE1000.

It is such a shame a 6K item borrow every known issue from the He1000.
Did not see any improvements from the construction from this.

Once I pick it up from the table I heard a squeak. I was like wait was that the chair? Nope. Swirl the earcups left and right like a madman and all I heard was squeak, squeak squeak etch.
My god some one get the WD-40 and grease it up!

Was not impress by the built! Saw scratches and tiny marks on the wood. Such a shame. Even thou this was a used pair. But come on 6K? This thing should be bullet proof !

The great things were that it was super light, very comfy. Well most headphones these days are comfy! It better be comfy! and the wires were nothing surprising about them.

Now the main event the sound.

Punchy, detail, clear, warm and tight. Has a mysterious treble increase in some songs I notice!

And here it is boys I heard some distortion in 1 song . such a shame!

Overall, $2900 for the highest for the Susvara that anyone should ever pay or lower
8/10 in rating
Build: 5/10
Bass: 8/10
Treble: 8/10 and a weird distortion? 6K come on hifiman get with the program. And no it dose not sound good to justify 6K. My goodness grace .
Mids: 8/10

Overall sound, 8/10
Not recommended at retail price. For $3000 yes only and maybe! **Cough cough Sr-009

Sorry Hifiman. lower the price please..

 

[protoss]

I have my boxing gloves on . Lets do this