[hypnos1]

I find the Susvara to have it all over empyreans from a comfort level. Empty’s get hot, have too much clamp force, and ride low on my jaw line for my liking. The Susvara are the most comfortable of the two for my head for certain. Initial
Comfort on the empyrean felt great but those niggles shown their heads after sometime and especially in comparison.

Different heads to be sure lol! ...and all the more reason for me to get a demo some time!!

 

[Jonathan Crouch]

Yes indeed...haven't used anything other than silver for years now. But it MUST be good silver, such as Neotech's Teflon coated mono crystal UP-OCC...even soft-annealed 'pure' silver doesn't come close. However, having experimented with various combinations of metals, sometimes the silver benefits from partnering with a little OCC copper - both solid as far as I'm concerned. No stranded for me personally, even though solid makes for much less flexibility of course...and certainly no silver-plated stuff lol!! And my uber perfectionist German friend swears by Neotech's AG-GD gold infused silver for his headphones, but nowhere else.

I personally think this cable talk is especially appropriate for the Ferrum gear as it surely maximises OOR's supreme clarity, detail retrieval, tonal range, treble mastery in particular...all of which, coming out of a totally black background contribute to the best 'holographic' soundstage I've ever heard...truly sublime. And bass is no slouch either!...not to mention gorgeous mids, etc etc...

I use the Silver Dragon interconnects and a Silver Dragon headphone cable for the Susvara.

 

[LarsMan]

Different heads to be sure lol! ...and all the more reason for me to get a demo some time!!

I had Empyreans for awhile, and it took me awhile to get used to their fit, but once I did, they were wonderful and best feeling headphones I've ever worn. I also find the Susvaras to be extremely comfortable. I wish I could get headphones with the build quality of the Empyreans and the sound of the Susvaras, which sound like $6K headphones but to me, the build quality, not so much - they feel cheap and tinny to me - but some folks like their build and some other folks don't, but that's another issue.

 

[Arkitecc]

I recently had to start selling off my higher end headphones, so I went back to my ol' reliable HD 650 and they sound really good off of the Ferrum stack + a Benchmark DAC3b, definitely recommended hahaha.

 

[Tubewin]

So far. Hypsos is better than Burson supercharger, so there's that. Mostly due to the poor conductor on the supercharger. If amperage allows, go for the ipower Elite, like the OOR/ Erco. But Burson will be more compatible with the Hypsos.. except for the GT

Typically going over the recommended voltage adds more emphasis on the upper registers, lower recommended voltage slows down the timing and adds more midbass. The right voltage just aligns the timing the just right. So you know when you know via timing.

Really? Is this the Oyaide 2.5mm plug as well? I don't doubt the Weipu plug will be better than that for a Weipu to Weipu connection. I wonder if the sensing tech takes advantage of something.

Edit: the issue of the ipower x is it does leak interference back to the mains. I used to have a line conditioner dedicated for it but at that rate, an Elite is cheaper.

The GT pairs well with the Hypsos, it's how I have mine setup.

 

[Jonathan Crouch]

I recently had to start selling off my higher end headphones, so I went back to my ol' reliable HD 650 and they sound really good off of the Ferrum stack + a Benchmark DAC3b, definitely recommended hahaha.

I’ll stick with my planars. The 600 series still has that “veil” sound even on my gear. I still prefer most of my other headphones to these.

Edit: If any I would probably buy a 660S seeing I did love the HD 700.

 

[Sajid Amit]

I recently had to start selling off my higher end headphones, so I went back to my ol' reliable HD 650 and they sound really good off of the Ferrum stack + a Benchmark DAC3b, definitely recommended hahaha.

I have tried this and can second this.

 

[prismstorm]

Well Prism based on everything I’ve seen you seem more like someone who would like the AB 1266.

You can literally feel the slam extend down into your chest. Edit: Assuming you have the proper gear and cables*

I tease about a quote in a fight in a specific game “Follow your Susvara or AB 1266 my children and never look back.”

I am planning to keep Susvara for lighter tracks like jazz and classical, then acquiring something with more slam thereafter

I've been thinking about the whole Susvara thing, and actually you could argue that Susvara is a very good excersise for anyone who wants to improve their chain. In the process of "fixing" my Susvara experience I've made Utopia sound about 2x good as it ever did before and same with TC. In fact TC now sounds sublime. It is a painful process, but it leads to building a vastly better system in general.

Very much agreed. A very troublesome process that saw me upgrade my amp and cable and interconnects and even consider dabbling in EQ to fix it.

You may also want to look at different DACs. I use a D90SE in 5v output myself and personally I feel like my Susvara has a fairly strong punch on my current A90. I should have the Oor/Hypsos combo in 2 days to test it myself on those units too.

Will explore Yggdrasil LIM and Holo May KTE at a later time.

 

[801evan]

Ah, yes...ipower for lower voltages definitely. But for much higher - and OOR?...should prove very interesting indeed.

And even more interesting...I personally found definite improvement from the 4 pin connection compared with the 2.5mm plug - tamed the slight edginess that can sometimes come from certain recordings using 28V out from Hypsos, but which my system/ears prefer over 24V. Looking forward to your findings...

One thing I noticed and took awhile to isolate was that the Hypsos takes like 15 mins to stabilize when running digital devices. I was definitely powering my CDT one time but I may have been powering my modded Diablo as well and noticed the issue. But I was in a situation where I can't have uninterrupted playback for 15 mins for the blacks to get really good. Just restarting or changing track is enough to ruin the blacks and the timing. I thought my chain was hitting a new level of transparency and it is what it is if that means 15 mins for things to settle down. When I got my dual ifi elite mod, I actually forgotten about the quirk until weeks later. I can only pin it down on the Hypsos. So basically the Hypsos on my setup's level of transparency doesn't handle varying current draw to a point where I'm losing max potential on the blacks.

 

[Jonathan Crouch]

I will say after these few days of use I’m highly impressed at just how much the Oor and Hypsos have command/control over the drivers which is saying a lot for being used on a Susvara.

Also, it’s a pretty amazing amp when it’s paired with the Hypsos. It will likely remain my endgame as I doubt a EF1000 will ever be on table just because of price.

 

[LarsMan]

After much delay, I just finished my own personal shootout between the Oor stack and the Enleum 23R for Susvaras, now that I've given the Enleum well over 100 hours of break-in time.... Honestly, the Enleum didn't sound discernably different to me than when it had just been broken in for about 50 hours. It's a fine sounding amp, and for some kinds of music it might be preferable, but for me personally with the kind of music I listen to in my system chain, the Oor stack has it all over the Enleum for my Susvaras (haven't comparatively tested my other 2 headphones yet); no value judgements here, the Enleum might be considered a bit smoother sounding, and it has a warm-ish, pleasing sound that I did not find hyper-detailed; might go good with jazz, vocals, etc - in fact, I slightly preferred vocals on the Enleum; you can certainly listen to it for long periods of time.

The Enleum glides but the Oor stack rocks, it was more visceral for me and it gave me some sub-bass on the Susvaras on some reggae tracks that the Enleum did not. But somebody else might think just the opposite - it's all good! - so give a listen yourself if you get a chance - both are enjoyable.

The Oor stack let me hear all the layers that were in the mixes with the kind of clarity and detail and staging and dynamics and texture that I like in my favored genres, rock and reggae, better than the Enleum did for me. I do want to try the Enleum in my 2-channel system just to see how it sounds, but it's likely I'll put it up for sale before long so it can find a more appropriate home. Now I need to do a compare between the Oor stack and the Auris Nirvana with Susvara.

 

[801evan]

Usually 'texture' doesn't exist in music or in a good setup. It's actually micro distortion mistakenly seen as detail and texture. Enleum may be the better one here.

 

[krude]

Usually 'texture' doesn't exist in music or in a good setup. It's actually micro distortion mistakenly seen as detail and texture. Enleum may be the better one here.

Texture is micro dynamics, say when you have a bow on a string like in Agnes Obel Aventine, you can hear the micro detail of the bow gliding on the string, commonly referred to as instruments texture. If your system is not fast / sensitive enough it will play it back as a blurb of sound resembling a bow on the string. That is one of the striking things about high end audio, when you get all of this texture information for the first time and go "whoaa I never haerd this record quite like this before". Actually you can't have distortion in the system to get good textures, you can only get them with a crisp and clean steup.

 

[801evan]

Texture is micro dynamics, say when you have a bow on a string like in Agnes Obel Aventine, you can hear the micro detail of the bow gliding on the string, commonly referred to as instruments texture. If your system is not fast / sensitive enough it will play it back as a blurb of sound resembling a bow on the string. That is one of the striking things about high end audio is when you get all of this texture information for the first time and go "whoaa I never haerd this record quite like this". Actually you can't have distortion in the system to get good textures, you can only get them with a crisp and clean steup.

If the emphasis comes off where the brain sees it as texture, then it's really distortion. The reverberation of strings should be perceived as, guess what, reverberation. Not 'texture'. While upgrading people will be fooled they are hearing the reverberation of strings because they hear the 'texture'.

 

[Aetherhole]

I know this is the Ferrum Oor thread, but I am genuinely curious about the Erco + Hypsos. I am wanting to drive the Susvara and currently have a Burson Conductor 3XR, which I fear might be a little bit limiting. Does anyone have experience with the Erco versus the C3XP and maybe specifically with the Susvara?

I am also curious at the difference sonically between the Oor and the Erco...