[chrisnyc75]

One thing I can say on day 2 of my time with Susvara is that this George Michael track is one of my favorite songs of all time. It's a standard "demo track" that I have listened to on every device/chain I've ever auditioned or owned. I have listened to it literally thousands of times on everything from Bose to Focal and everything in between, and it sounds definitively better on Susvara than anything else. That imaging tho....

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

Yeah, already I can tell that for DSD or vinyl I have to nearly max it out, but at that point it leaves nothing to be desired. With streaming/digital it's deafeningly loud and satisfyingly dynamic (and I say that as a Utopia fanboy!) at 9 notches below max.


Thanks I listened to it on Envy (not the 25th) at CanJam, too, and loved it. Would be GREAT if it worked anywhere near that well on my 2A3 DNA amp (for anyone who doesn't know, 2A3 is basically a half-powered 300B), but I'm not holding my breath (taking some time to get familiar with it on Bliss before I even plug it in to Stellaris). Also heard it on DCS (excellent!) and Head Trip - the latter being quite a revelation - maybe even worth its price tag? Can't be certain as I'm a Susvara novice, but I recall the holographic imaging striking me as something I had never heard before on any other headphone/chain.


"Bonkers" is what we do best here, isn't it?

Its that holographic sound what makes hifiman cans so special and what made me feel in love with arya v2 and now with susvara. Maybe they dont sound as natural as other brands, but susvara is the lesser affected by that weird harsh hifiman sound. It has the best of both worlds. The other thing that makes hifiman so interesting is height. That feeling of hearing the real size of everything and not a miniature. Since i began with hifiman i dont listen to speakers any more, that was problematic because neighbours and acoustic.

 

[BillinSF]

Ask him or her.

btw I saw a guy with your name win a lap bike race here in San Francisco years ago.

Here is a PBS video I ran across talking about modern music editing (and creation), in particular Classical Music. In recent research I was stunned to learn about "auto-tune" and its widespread use these days. What's the role of the artist vis-a-vis the recording engineer is discussed. Just what are we listening to? It's worth watching - artists talking about how their performances are recorded, engineered and edited.

Link to PBS music editing video

For those with any interest whatsoever in sharing my path of discovery and learning, here's the following:

Lots of recent discussion in the Susvara forum about Feliks Envy (German) and tube amps in general. Well... some quick research uncovered a very interesting recent (Aug. 2023) article about the use of tube amps in the recording studio. And, it's written by the folks at a German Studio!!

Article re Tubes in Recording

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

Im not a fan of asr, but this article is hard to read but interesting. I learned a lot of how tubes sound better or al least different.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ion-of-low-order-nonlinear-distortions.34863/

 

[BassicScience]

For those with any interest whatsoever in sharing my path of discovery and learning, here's the following:

Lots of recent discussion in the Susvara forum about Feliks Envy (German) and tube amps in general. Well... some quick research uncovered a very interesting recent (Aug. 2023) article about the use of tube amps in the recording studio. And, it's written by the folks at a German Studio!!

Article re Tubes in Recording

Thanks for posting the article. Minor correction: Feliks-Audio is actually based in Poland.

 

[jerwir1]

Its that holographic sound what makes hifiman cans so special and what made me feel in love with arya v2 and now with susvara. Maybe they dont sound as natural as other brands, but susvara is the lesser affected by that weird harsh hifiman sound. It has the best of both worlds. The other thing that makes hifiman so interesting is height. That feeling of hearing the real size of everything and not a miniature. Since i began with hifiman i dont listen to speakers any more, that was problematic because neighbours and acoustic.

This was my take as well regarding the Hifiman harshness when going to the Susvara after having Arya Organic and HE1000SE. Its an improvement beyond anything EQ can fix and feels like a different take, rather than an improvement on the HE1000 line. I just wish there was more low end.

Susvara for me feels like a pair of perfect bookshelves with the accompanying subwoofer turned off. Great for some music, and not the best for others.

 

[jlemaster1957]

I just wish there was more low end

In my experience as a user, this is entirely dependent on the quality and characteristics of your audio chain and particularly the amp - in fact most of this long thread is about this topic. Drive the Susvaras properly and they will deliver all the bass you could want- at least I have found it so. I defer to 1266 owners - who tend to gush about that HP’s bass. At least I am not finding Susvaras wanting at all in this department.

 

[skhan007]

Guilty as charged! I'm a gushing Abyss 1266 owner.

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

This was my take as well regarding the Hifiman harshness when going to the Susvara after having Arya Organic and HE1000SE. Its an improvement beyond anything EQ can fix and feels like a different take, rather than an improvement on the HE1000 line. I just wish there was more low end.

Susvara for me feels like a pair of perfect bookshelves with the accompanying subwoofer turned off. Great for some music, and not the best for others.

In my experience as a user, this is entirely dependent on the quality and characteristics of your audio chain and particularly the amp - in fact most of this long thread is about this topic. Drive the Susvaras properly and they will deliver all the bass you could want- at least I have found it so. I defer to 1266 owners - who tend to gush about that HP’s bass. At least I am not finding Susvaras wanting at all in this department.

I agree. Give it more watts and you will wake up its monster bass. Thats what happened with my arya v2 with the 10 watts burson gt.
And arya v2 its assumed to have less bass than susvara. Even susvara with the 10 watts of class A has a quite impressive bass. But based in what happened to arya, i think susvara can scale more and that means more bass. Susvars is really hard to drive. Of course i mean 10w at 16 ohms which is more or less 6 watts at 60 ohms if im not wrong.

 

[jerwir1]

In my experience as a user, this is entirely dependent on the quality and characteristics of your audio chain and particularly the amp - in fact most of this long thread is about this topic. Drive the Susvaras properly and they will deliver all the bass you could want- at least I have found it so. I defer to 1266 owners - who tend to gush about that HP’s bass. At least I am not finding Susvaras wanting at all in this department

Agreed on the amp. I originally was running a Topping A90/D90 stack when I first picked up the Susvara, and ended up upgrading to an all Benchmark setup, using an AHB2 to drive things. It made a huge difference on the Susvaras, and Id say an equal improvement for the HE1000SEs. Definitely not saying Susvara is BAD in the bass dept, just that I found other HPs in their line fuller on the lower end of things, at least for my music/use cases.

I haven't heard the 1266 or any of the Abyss stuff to compare, but would be curious to see if it brings me to tears the way it seems to for others haha.

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

Agreed on the amp. I originally was running a Topping A90/D90 stack when I first picked up the Susvara, and ended up upgrading to an all Benchmark setup, using an AHB2 to drive things. It made a huge difference on the Susvaras, and Id say an equal improvement for the HE1000SEs. Definitely not saying Susvara is BAD in the bass dept, just that I found other HPs in their line fuller on the lower end of things, at least for my music/use cases.

I haven't heard the 1266 or any of the Abyss stuff to compare, but would be curious to see if it brings me to tears the way it seems to for others haha.

Agreed on the amp. I originally was running a Topping A90/D90 stack when I first picked up the Susvara, and ended up upgrading to an all Benchmark setup, using an AHB2 to drive things. It made a huge difference on the Susvaras, and Id say an equal improvement for the HE1000SEs. Definitely not saying Susvara is BAD in the bass dept, just that I found other HPs in their line fuller on the lower end of things, at least for my music/use cases.

I haven't heard the 1266 or any of the Abyss stuff to compare, but would be curious to see if it brings me to tears the way it seems to for others haha.

What i think its that susvara doesnt emphasize the bass. You get monster bass when its on the music. Other cans are tunned to emphasize low end or mid bass and all the music sounds more bassy but thats what kills the holographic sound.

 

[jonchard]

What i think its that susvara doesnt emphasize the bass. You get monster bass when its on the music. Other cans are tunned to emphasize low end or mid bass and all the music sounds more bassy but thats what kills the holographic sound.

I agree.

 

[trollbearpig]

I also dropped the Topping A90. A fine budget amp but it was definitely leaving a ton of room on the table for improvement. Topping amp will be in the classifieds soon xD

I just got the Cayin 300-MKII and it’s phenomenal. Highly recommend especially for those looking for a more budget friendly Feliks Envy alternative. I even liked the HA-6A on Susvara. Tubes just make this thing magical

 

[chrisnyc75]

Agreed on the amp. I originally was running a Topping A90/D90 stack when I first picked up the Susvara, and ended up upgrading to an all Benchmark setup, using an AHB2 to drive things. It made a huge difference on the Susvaras, and Id say an equal improvement for the HE1000SEs. Definitely not saying Susvara is BAD in the bass dept, just that I found other HPs in their line fuller on the lower end of things, at least for my music/use cases.

I haven't heard the 1266 or any of the Abyss stuff to compare, but would be curious to see if it brings me to tears the way it seems to for others haha.

I compared Susvara vs 1266 at two CanJams now, and came away with the exact same take from each:

1266 is an incredible headphone, its dynamics, bass, & soundstage are world class. But it's a planar headphone, and it sounds like a planar headphone. I would personally argue that Caldera has the edge in the bass department, which is typically considered Abyss's superpower, but that's probably a "hot take".

Susvara is a whole other creature, more like an electrostat than it is like any other planar headphone. The stage may not be "wider", but it is holographic in a way that I've never heard any other standard headphone do.

I listened to them side by side on two different chains last week, AND listened to Sus side-by-side with Tungsten. The next day I ordered a Susvara. And that's all I have to say about that.

 

[jerwir1]

I compared Susvara vs 1266 at two CanJams now, and came away with the exact same take from each:

1266 is an incredible headphone, its dynamics, bass, & soundstage are world class. But it's a planar headphone, and it sounds like a planar headphone. I would personally argue that Caldera has the edge in the bass department, which is typically considered Abyss's superpower, but that's probably a "hot take".

Susvara is a whole other creature, more like an electrostat than any it is like other planar headphone. The stage may not be "wider", but it is holographic in a way that I've never heard any other standard headphone do.

I listened to them side by side on two different chains last week, AND listened to Sus side-by-side with Tungsten. The next day I ordered a Susvara. And that's all I have to say about that.

Definitely a hot take on the Caldera Another one I need to sample. Who knows, I may eventually end up where I started at the end of it all. Got to broaden the palette some more.