Time to revisit
my review from many moons ago.
I wrote that I'm often hesitant to start listening to music through my Sundara +Crown XLS 1502 combo because once I start, I literally find it very hard to stop. I wasn't exaggerating. It is still true to this day. I often find myself staring at my playlist just contemplating whether I should play a song, or go do something else. It's actually quite a bit nerve-wracking, because I know there's no going back... Once the music begins, it is decided—the next hour, or two, or three so will be delegated to sgetting lost in my music collection. I'd forget to eat.
For the love of all that is good and holy, please, I implore anyone who owns a Sundara...please don't pass judgment on your Sundara until you've fed it with a powerful speaker amp through speaker outputs.
To re-elaborate on my experience with this combo for the past two years:
Vocals are always articulate, and never feel like they're far in the mix. It's intimate, but just a touch less so than the HD600. The midrange is tactile/textured/full, large/enveloping, and crystal clear without being the least bit dry or analytical. Highs are smooooth, and only sibiliant when recordings are sibilant post-EQ. Mid-to-upper bass is also warm, full-bodied, present and detailed, but stays in its lane within the mix. The bouble bass, for example, sounds very round and enveloping. There is detail resolution for days throughout the entire spectrum.
Bass transients not only achieve hard impacts, but the notes are also sustained, giving them fullness and tactility. I keep going back to my favorite bass test tracks Infected Mushroom - Spitfire, and Lordy when the bass transients kick, momentarily pulling 8+ Watts/ch, the adrenaline rush is real! The entire driver assembly vibrates, and with a perfect seal I feel the pressure and vacuum sensation of the diaphragms pressing/pulling against my head in the frequencies below 50hz. I believe it was around this same amount of power that fried my HE-6se v1, where the 6se didn't even achieve half the amount of rumble. The Sundara is a tank in this regard. I haven't felt the desire to push beyond 8 watts, however. It's around this point that distortion becomes audibly significant. Note: this is a transient attack, not a steady signal. I don't know whether the latter would damage the drivers, but there's really no point in testing it, either.
Instruments/vocals are effortlessly separated, with so much space between them. Imaging is 3D, layered, tall, intimate, yet also grand and enveloping.
Spatial cues are rendered effortlessly. I was listening to William Murdock's reviews of his various headphone gear, and I felt like he was sitting right in front of me—like I could reach out and touch him—because I could not only hear him, but also picture the shape and size of his room. It's almost a binaural experience. I listen to a lot of podcasts through this setup, and somewhat prefer the mics positioned far away from the speakers, as I much enjoy the ability to sense the studio space.
As
@ardilla wrote in his review, the thing scales up profoundly with speaker amps, which are much more capable of providing the current control these planars love. There is much unexplored territory as to what are the best amps for these headphones, as there are many speaker amps, but very few individuals willing to go to such extents to explore their humble Sundara. I honestly can't imagine it getting any better than my current setup, so I haven't bought any new gear. This to me is levels above the Sundara + Asgard2/Mjolnir/THX789/Vali2. It's night and day level of difference. Someday, I may give the fabled HE-500 a listen through this amp, to compare.
