[Heldaeus]

My source is my android phone going into a RME ADI-2 DAC

For amps, I have 3 atm I'm testing out, trying to decide which one to keep.
Cayin iHA-6 https://en.cayin.cn/products_info?itemid=91
Burson Soloist 3X P https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/soloist-3x-performance/
Monoprice THX AAA 887 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=39359

There are power calculators online such as this.

Or, you can opt for a this spreadsheet.

Check out Audio Science Review for detailed measurements of your devices.

 

[Bob Ley]

There are power calculators online such as this.

Or, you can opt for a this spreadsheet.

Check out Audio Science Review for detailed measurements of your devices.

Not exactly sure how to answer my question with these calculators but I'm sure all these 3 amps have enough power to provide what @HardstyleLoco96 was saying?

 

[Heldaeus]

Not exactly sure how to answer my question with these calculators but I'm sure all these 3 amps have enough power to provide what @HardstyleLoco96 was saying?

Perhaps I've confused myself in the conversation. Are you asking how to figure out the exact amount of milliwatts that your headphone driver is receiving from your amps? Are you trying to determine whether or not your headphone is being under powered? The short answer is no, your AMPs are sufficient in terms of power delivery for the Planar.

 

[Bob Ley]

Perhaps I've confused myself in the conversation. Are you asking how to figure out the exact amount of milliwatts that your headphone driver is receiving from your amps? Are you trying to determine whether or not your headphone is being under powered? The short answer is no, your AMPs are sufficient in terms of power delivery for the Planar.

I was trying to figure out what @HardstyleLoco96 was saying here: If you can pump at least 500mw or more into the Planar they should be driven to their full potential though with no problem. Avantone recs 250mw and up us enough to drive the Planar but I say double. So 500mw is perfect.

 

[Heldaeus]

I was trying to figure out what @HardstyleLoco96 was saying here: If you can pump at least 500mw or more into the Planar they should be driven to their full potential though with no problem. Avantone recs 250mw and up us enough to drive the Planar but I say double. So 500mw is perfect.

Ok cool, I agree with that but keep in mind that max power handling is 3 watts. But you’ll never pump that much power through unless you’re trying to.

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

My source is my android phone going into a RME ADI-2 DAC

For amps, I have 3 atm I'm testing out, trying to decide which one to keep.
Cayin iHA-6 https://en.cayin.cn/products_info?itemid=91
Burson Soloist 3X P https://www.bursonaudio.com/products/soloist-3x-performance/
Monoprice THX AAA 887 https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=39359

Usually on the products website I look and it'll say how many watts or milliwats can be pumped into a load of 16ohms, 32 ohms, 90ohms and even 600ohms. In this case, all the amps you mentioned have more than enough power for the Planar. The Planar can handle 3watts but you'll never pump that much through it unless you really tried to, but that may result in damaging them. You are in the safe zone and driving them with far more than enough power and going balanced will be no use .

The best thing I can say is, try the Planar with all amps and see which sounds best . Those amps 10000% have more power than my SMSL M500, that's for sure. So if I feel my SMSL M500 drives the Planars withh ease, you are set with any of those amps you mentioned. All comes down to which sounds best for you

 

[Bob Ley]

Usually on the products website I look and it'll say how many watts or milliwats can be pumped into a load of 16ohms, 32 ohms, 90ohms and even 600ohms. In this case, all the amps you mentioned have more than enough power for the Planar. The Planar can handle 3watts but you'll never pump that much through it unless you really tried to, but that may result in damaging them. You are in the safe zone and driving them with far more than enough power and going balanced will be no use .

The best thing I can say is, try the Planar with all amps and see which sounds best . Those amps 10000% have more power than my SMSL M500, that's for sure. So if I feel my SMSL M500 drives the Planars withh ease, you are set with any of those amps you mentioned. All comes down to which sounds best for you

 

[mobbaddict]

I just placed an order on the black version
I spent the last few days comparing my Quad Era-1 and my HD600 with Dekoni leather pads (which provides a darker, more LCD-2 like signature), and went to the conclusion that I basically need a true planar version of the Sennheiser.

 

[Bob Ley]

Curious of those that have both the Sundara and the Avantone, which sounds more transparent (less veiled)?

 

[HardstyleLoco96]

Curious of those that have both the Sundara and the Avantone, which sounds more transparent (less veiled)?

I don't own the Sundara but have owned the Ananda and Arya. To me the Planar is inbetween the two but closer to the Arya. This could be due to the tonality of the Planar though as the Ananda and Arya have a more elevated treble area. With Oratorys eq, you can make the Planar sound very similar to the Arya. Some people have also compared the Planar to the Sundara and say Sundara is more transparent. But for me personally, I feel that is not the case. It could be maybe their unit has one of the faults many people have commented on, the source they are using or some other strange thing. But I and many others have agreed the Planar has a presentation in its whole sound very similar to the Arya. To explain that further.

Lows on the Planar are a bit more cleaner, faster and a touch more detailed with slightly better texture and separation.

Mids on the Arya are more forward so this gives the percieved touch of more clarity and slightly bit more detail. But the Planar to my ear had more textural nuance, sounding more natural, I could actually hear guitar strings more clearly and overall mids felt more tonaly correct.

Now the treble area is where they differ. The Arya has more energy up top but extension is about the same on the two. But I felt there is more air on the Planar. Detail does pop out a bit more on the Arya but the Planar has the smoother treble and detail in the treble is extremely similar between the two.

Soundstage in width would go to the Arya, height would go to the Planar and depth for me would go to the Planar. But its all very close.

Imaging to me is more precise on the Planar while separation is on par with the Arya.

Now with Oratorys EQ, I feel the Planar becomes very very similar to the Arya, even if you compare both FRs of the two. The Planar with eq and Arya without eq, you'll see how similar they are.

I personally much prefer the Planar over the LCD-X without and with eq. Many people praise the LCD-X but I feel the Planar is a better performer.

So for my 2 cents. How does the Planar compare to the Sundara? No competition. The Planar wins hands down.

Now for build, it's a different story.
I have not had any issues at all with build on the Planar but some others have. So maybe build is overall better on the Sundara.

And for reliability, I'd also say the Sundara has the upper hand. Yes there has been QC issues with them. But the Planar there is just too many unit varients. Different sounds, build quality issues and so on... It's kind of a gammble buying the Planar.

Overall I do feel when the Planar is 100% right with no issues. It's a hella of an insane headphone, sound wise and price to performance wise. And if Avantone ups their game and QC, it could potentially be end game for some. I am one of those people. I find the Planar end game worthy. I truly do. But I will not sugar coat it and say its the best headphone in the world. It has its serious flaws and Avantone need to fix those flaws ASAP.

But damn, I do seriously love my Planars. They are right up there with my Ultrasone Edition 11, Vision ears VE8, LZ A7 and a few others. They do easily compete with some of the best out there. So be it headphones or iems.

I have said on a earlier post. If I had to pick one headphone and those headphones are the Focal Clear, Hifiman Ananda, Hifiman Arya or the Avantone Planar. I'd choose the most expensive headphone. Sell it. Get the Avantone Planar and upgrade my gear for the Planar. I do find them that good

That is my 2 cents. So take it with a grain of salt and overall, the best judge is your ears. But I understand it could be hard to hear the two side by side. But yes for me. The Planar is the more transparent, clearer and detailed of the two.

Thats Oratorys graph of the Avantone Planar and Hifiman Arya. They both are very similar but the Planar has the warmer/darker/neutral treble. You can imagine how easy it would be to eq the Planar and make it sound extremely similar to the Arya. That is what Oratorys eq does.

Here is Avantone Planar and Hifiman Sundara.

Now tell me, which of the two look more similar...

 

[Bob Ley]

I don't own the Sundara but have owned the Ananda and Arya. To me the Planar is inbetween the two but closer to the Arya. This could be due to the tonality of the Planar though as the Ananda and Arya have a more elevated treble area. With Oratorys eq, you can make the Planar sound very similar to the Arya. Some people have also compared the Planar to the Sundara and say Sundara is more transparent. But for me personally, I feel that is not the case. It could be maybe their unit has one of the faults many people have commented on, the source they are using or some other strange thing. But I and many others have agreed the Planar has a presentation in its whole sound very similar to the Arya. To explain that further.

Lows on the Planar are a bit more cleaner, faster and a touch more detailed with slightly better texture and separation.

Mids on the Arya are more forward so this gives the percieved touch of more clarity and slightly bit more detail. But the Planar to my ear had more textural nuance, sounding more natural, I could actually hear guitar strings more clearly and overall mids felt more tonaly correct.

Now the treble area is where they differ. The Arya has more energy up top but extension is about the same on the two. But I felt there is more air on the Planar. Detail does pop out a bit more on the Arya but the Planar has the smoother treble and detail in the treble is extremely similar between the two.

Soundstage in width would go to the Arya, height would go to the Planar and depth for me would go to the Planar. But its all very close.

Imaging to me is more precise on the Planar while separation is on par with the Arya.

Now with Oratorys EQ, I feel the Planar becomes very very similar to the Arya, even if you compare both FRs of the two. The Planar with eq and Arya without eq, you'll see how similar they are.

I personally much prefer the Planar over the LCD-X without and with eq. Many people praise the LCD-X but I feel the Planar is a better performer.

So for my 2 cents. How does the Planar compare to the Sundara? No competition. The Planar wins hands down.

Now for build, it's a different story.
I have not had any issues at all with build on the Planar but some others have. So maybe build is overall better on the Sundara.

And for reliability, I'd also say the Sundara has the upper hand. Yes there has been QC issues with them. But the Planar there is just too many unit varients. Different sounds, build quality issues and so on... It's kind of a gammble buying the Planar.

Overall I do feel when the Planar is 100% right with no issues. It's a hella of an insane headphone, sound wise and price to performance wise. And if Avantone ups their game and QC, it could potentially be end game for some. I am one of those people. I find the Planar end game worthy. I truly do. But I will not sugar coat it and say its the best headphone in the world. It has its serious flaws and Avantone need to fix those flaws ASAP.

But damn, I do seriously love my Planars. They are right up there with my Ultrasone Edition 11, Vision ears VE8, LZ A7 and a few others. They do easily compete with some of the best out there. So be it headphones or iems.

I have said on a earlier post. If I had to pick one headphone and those headphones are the Focal Clear, Hifiman Ananda, Hifiman Arya or the Avantone Planar. I'd choose the most expensive headphone. Sell it. Get the Avantone Planar and upgrade my gear for the Planar. I do find them that good

That is my 2 cents. So take it with a grain of salt and overall, the best judge is your ears. But I understand it could be hard to hear the two side by side. But yes for me. The Planar is the more transparent, clearer and detailed of the two.


Thats Oratorys graph of the Avantone Planar and Hifiman Arya. They both are very similar but the Planar has the warmer/darker/neutral treble. You can imagine how easy it would be to eq the Planar and make it sound extremely similar to the Arya. That is what Oratorys eq does.
Here is Avantone Planar and Hifiman Sundara.

Now tell me, which of the two look more similar...

Thanks for that!

 

[Heldaeus]

Welp...

I broke my Planar. I think its technically repairable but I don't have the patience for such a project.

I'll be honest I loved the sound of these but their baffle design is not robust enough. I can live with wear marks on the frame, a broken headband collar, a lump in the headband, etc. but when it comes to the driver there needs to be no compromises in the integrity of the design. The magnets being used are too strong for their respective frame. The baffle needs to be make out of metal so that it doesn't warp but given that the baffle is made of plastic there is VISIBLE warping at all times. This warping is definitely affecting the sound signature in major ways. I promise that the amount of product variation that exists (in terms of sound) is directly related to the fact that the transducer and magnet array are being held together by flimsy plastic.

For example, when the driver is removed from the cup there is about 1-2 mm of space between the two baffle faces (on the long sides). Now to be fair, when the driver is securely mounted in the cup those gaps close but this still leaves a warping problem in the center of the baffles to which there is no mechanism to reconcile this flaw. Perhaps you're thinking 1-2 millimeters isn't all that significant but you'd be wrong. When this close to the driver, changes to the scale of micro meters can significantly alter the sound signature.

Anyways, I could continue to pick apart more isses with the design such as the mounts for the screws don't have hard stops (emphasis on the word hard) and should also be made out of metal or, that the plastic shelf that the mounts sit on is clearly creating reflections and closing off the sound, or that the velcro pad design is a blatant gimmick and provides sub-par seal which was detrimental to the sub-bass in my experiments, but... for now I'll give it a rest. I've made my point.

 

[smorgar]

What broke? And how did you break it?

Back to the drawing board for the new baffle?

 

[Heldaeus]

What broke? And how did you break it?

Back to the drawing board for the new baffle?

Two magnets broke. The transducer is safe, and the baffles are more or less fine. I think I may model a baffle or remove the magnets and have the baffles 3D scanned.

I broke the magnets on accident because the two baffles got stuck together and I had to forcibly separate them.

 

[Heldaeus]

Some more QC issues.

The glue that is used to hold the magnets on to the baffle clearly bled out the sides and has hardened creating lumps in the vents of the baffle. The magnets are also rusting on my unit. Why?

Here is a picture of the magnet damage I was talking about.