[dstubked]

i sometimes wonder what is considered enough too. I never had this problem before the susvara. my current inventory drove the the abyss and lcd-4z really well.
i recently acquired both the susvara and a liquid gold and now i am driving the susvara from the liquid gold at 3 o’clock on the volume. Sounds really good and no distortion. However, the fact it is driving at 3 o’clock makes me question if the liquid gold is operating at an optimal level for the susvara. Am i straining the liquid gold and risk damaging the susvara? I was taught an amplifier should operate between the 11am and 1pm dial to be “optimal” Could be #fakenews i don’t know.

 

[iFi audio]

So, I was listening to my Susvaras on my WA33 really loud for the first time. Oh my, the Susvaras are a completely different headphone loud.

Yes, they are indeed

 

[mixman]

i sometimes wonder what is considered enough too. I never had this problem before the susvara. my current inventory drove the the abyss and lcd-4z really well.
i recently acquired both the susvara and a liquid gold and now i am driving the susvara from the liquid gold at 3 o’clock on the volume. Sounds really good and no distortion. However, the fact it is driving at 3 o’clock makes me question if the liquid gold is operating at an optimal level for the susvara. Am i straining the liquid gold and risk damaging the susvara? I was taught an amplifier should operate between the 11am and 1pm dial to be “optimal” Could be #fakenews i don’t know.

My thought if you have to drive anything from 3' o'clock, that amp is not the right one and is straining.

 

[jlbrach]

actually I was told by several people in the industry that you should aim to listen to your amp between 12-3....in my case it depends on how I set the volume of my dave/blu2 into my formula 2/powerman....if I set the dave to -3 I can listen to the susvara between say 10-1 if I set it to -6 which I tend to do I listen between say 11-2 etc.....I find no trouble at all in terms the amps ability to drive the susvara and I had no trouble with my 281 or ifi pro can in the past....

when listening to compressed remastered material I am usually listening around 10-11 and when listening to uncompressed acoustic jazz I am most often between 1-3 and as I said I can vary this with my dave's volume...in truth I find I like the sound of the combo best when I am listening to the formula s /powerman at at 1-3

 

[MacedonianHero]

To everyone had/has/listened to LCD-4(z)s, I am looking for another pair of stupendously good headphones, something that can match or best the LCD-4s.

I see @jlbrach has his LCD-4s for sale, and I was wondering if you could do any direct comparisons of these two TOTL cans, do you have a pair of Susvaras? Is that why you are selling?

Also @MacedonianHero, what gear would you recommend for the Susvara? I rarely have I heard of headphones to best the HD800S in its soundstage, also I would love to know your opinions on it against the LCD-4z.

Also, @dstubked I noticed that the Susvara bests the LCD-4z, and it is your endgame. Could you elaborate why?

I have had the privilege of listening to the LCD-4 on the Violectric V281, and using the RME ADI-2 DAC, but I have since sold that and gone to the THX AAA 789. Would this be adequate for the Susvara? Would it bring out the top tier soundstage to best the HD800S? Is there any reason to own the HD800S if I were to own a pair of Susvaras?

I should elaborate that the reason I sold my LCD-4s was because I think I got really well acquainted with the MDR-Z1Rs, and the way that they color the music. I want that planar sound back (again), but if there is something somehow even better than the LCD-4s, I would love to experience them. The technical ability and slam that the LCD-4s had was a bit too much to have all of the time, as I did not have any complimentary headphones to pair with them, also the weight was just a bit much, but I think that could be alleviated with the LCD-4z, or not having them as my only headphones. The only hifi store I know of that could have the Susvaras would be AudioVision SF, which according to their website, they do not have the Susvara, so I can't audition them, unfortunately.

Also how is the reliability? I don't know that much about Hifiman's customer service, but I have heard nothing but raving reviews on Audeze, even though they are somewhat known for a lot of driver failures.

Thank you.

Right now I'm using the Benchmark HPA4 and GS-X mini as amplifiers with the Susvara's and both amps have a very firm grasp of the Susvara's drivers! My DAC is the Chord DAVE...IMHO, they are in my top 5 headphones...they are that darn good! And IMO, no speaker amp is needed as they are only slightly harder to drive than the Phi TC (which don't require a speaker amp as well).

 

[mixman]

actually I was told by several people in the industry that you should aim to listen to your amp between 12-3....in my case it depends on how I set the volume of my dave/blu2 into my formula 2/powerman....if I set the dave to -3 I can listen to the susvara between say 10-1 if I set it to -6 which I tend to do I listen between say 11-2 etc.....I find no trouble at all in terms the amps ability to drive the susvara and I had no trouble with my 281 or ifi pro can in the past....

when listening to compressed remastered material I am usually listening around 10-11 and when listening to uncompressed acoustic jazz I am most often between 1-3 and as I said I can vary this with my dave's volume...in truth I find I like the sound of the combo best when I am listening to the formula s /powerman at at 1-3

I would think better at 12 than 3, at least on a regular basis. Now this all depends on input too. At three I would tend to think you can risk subtle distortion from the amp kicking in.

 

[jlbrach]

that hasnt been my experience, lets just say I like it better at 3 than at say 9

 

[iFi audio]

At three I would tend to think you can risk subtle distortion from the amp kicking in.

That's possible but depends on an amp.

 

[me2621a]

Hey guys,
I had a special amp in house for the last week and wanted to share it with everyone. I was looking for something tube powered, not crazy expense, that would drive the Susvara well. After talking to Justin Weber from Ampsandsound (one of my favorite amp manufactures), he sent me something fun to demo, his Stereo 15, with a 1/4 inch headphone jack next to the speaker taps.

At $2800 the stereo 15 is not cheap, but it is also not crazy expensive. It outputs 15watts conservatively into an 8ohm load, and can be ordered in either a 4/8ohm tap configuration or an 8/16ohm configuration (if you want a little more slam the 8/16 with the headphones on the 16 will probably give you that). The amp is silent when nothing is playing, and dynamics with the Susvara is excellent as well as tone and bass. I fall hard into the tube camp, so I want an all tube headphone amp for the Susvara and while I have a few that perform really well, all of them are less powerful than the Stereo 15 and almost $1000 more expensive. I highly recommend checking this amp out if you are thinking about upgrading, just remember you either need a pre-amp or DAC with volume control (in my case a Chord Dave) as the Stereo 15 does not have a built in volume control option.

 

[rsbrsvp]

I have an audio-gd HE-9- which I understand to be one of the most powerful solid state headphone amps on the market and possibly the most powerful which operates in class A. I had it made with a 9dcb boost in accordance with advice from the manufacturer when using with power hungry planer headphones. I do not believe the formula amp. that Abyss sells is as powerful; nor does it have a regenerative power supply; nor does it have a remote for the volume which is critical for me.

The volume on this amp goes from 0-99. It drives the Susvara in balanced mode to volumes that will blow my ears off at around 60. It drives the abyss TC to volumes that blow my ears off at around 50. I actually moved to unbalanced inputs at 6dcb less input strength so that the volume will have more room for movement. I now have around another ten or so clicks on he volume register. The drive and power and fullness of sound on both headphones from this amp. is very very satisfyng.

I have never tried a speaker amp- but I find it difficult to believe that any more power will result in any improvement. I do believe that cleaner power does make a difference because I used to own the M9 amp from audio-gd and the HE-9 with regenerative power supply but same power output is noticeable better.

 

[lambdastorm]

I have an audio-gd HE-9- which I understand to be one of the most powerful solid state headphone amps on the market and possibly the most powerful which operates in class A. I had it made with a 9dcb boost in accordance with advice from the manufacturer when using with power hungry planer headphones. I do not believe the formula amp. that Abyss sells is as powerful; nor does it have a regenerative power supply; nor does it have a remote for the volume which is critical for me.

The volume on this amp goes from 0-99. It drives the Susvara in balanced mode to volumes that will blow my ears off at around 60. It drives the abyss TC to volumes that blow my ears off at around 50. I actually moved to unbalanced inputs at 6dcb less input strength so that the volume will have more room for movement. I now have around another ten or so clicks on he volume register. The drive and power and fullness of sound on both headphones from this amp. is very very satisfyng.

I have never tried a speaker amp- but I find it difficult to believe that any more power will result in any improvement. I do believe that cleaner power does make a difference because I used to own the M9 amp from audio-gd and the HE-9 with regenerative power supply but same power output is noticeable better.

Kingwa's definition of powerful is not your normal everyday one-schiit-does-it-all powerful lol. Back when I had the Master 19 I always thought it has way too much gain even at default setting. I remember writing him an email once and he got back saying he can crank the power up to 12W/50Ohm if I want to. Thanks for the offer Kingwa but I don't want to be deaf.

 

[GU1DO]

I have an audio-gd HE-9- which I understand to be one of the most powerful solid state headphone amps on the market and possibly the most powerful which operates in class A. I had it made with a 9dcb boost in accordance with advice from the manufacturer when using with power hungry planer headphones. I do not believe the formula amp. that Abyss sells is as powerful; nor does it have a regenerative power supply; nor does it have a remote for the volume which is critical for me.

The volume on this amp goes from 0-99. It drives the Susvara in balanced mode to volumes that will blow my ears off at around 60. It drives the abyss TC to volumes that blow my ears off at around 50. I actually moved to unbalanced inputs at 6dcb less input strength so that the volume will have more room for movement. I now have around another ten or so clicks on he volume register. The drive and power and fullness of sound on both headphones from this amp. is very very satisfyng.

I have never tried a speaker amp- but I find it difficult to believe that any more power will result in any improvement. I do believe that cleaner power does make a difference because I used to own the M9 amp from audio-gd and the HE-9 with regenerative power supply but same power output is noticeable better.

I have both Formula S and the Master 9 and to my ears the M9 is way more transparent than the Formula S , Hugo2 filters all sound the same over the formula but with the M9 it is very distinguishable , Regarding the power i don't think i am utilizing my M9 to the max with the Hugo2 single ended connection however it can power any headphone i tried with total authority.

 

[rsbrsvp]

I have both Formula S and the Master 9 and to my ears the M9 is way more transparent than the Formula S , Hugo2 filters all sound the same over the formula but with the M9 it is very distinguishable , Regarding the power i don't think i am utilizing my M9 to the max with the Hugo2 single ended connection however it can power any headphone i tried with total authority.

Yeh. And I have the HE-9 which is without a doubt a clear step up on the Master 9 in control, authority, punch, and weight; as I owned both and can testify to this with certainty.

 

[iFi audio]

Hey guys,
I had a special amp in house for the last week and wanted to share it with everyone. I was looking for something tube powered, not crazy expense, that would drive the Susvara well. After talking to Justin Weber from Ampsandsound (one of my favorite amp manufactures), he sent me something fun to demo, his Stereo 15, with a 1/4 inch headphone jack next to the speaker taps.

At $2800 the stereo 15 is not cheap, but it is also not crazy expensive. It outputs 15watts conservatively into an 8ohm load, and can be ordered in either a 4/8ohm tap configuration or an 8/16ohm configuration (if you want a little more slam the 8/16 with the headphones on the 16 will probably give you that). The amp is silent when nothing is playing, and dynamics with the Susvara is excellent as well as tone and bass. I fall hard into the tube camp, so I want an all tube headphone amp for the Susvara and while I have a few that perform really well, all of them are less powerful than the Stereo 15 and almost $1000 more expensive. I highly recommend checking this amp out if you are thinking about upgrading, just remember you either need a pre-amp or DAC with volume control (in my case a Chord Dave) as the Stereo 15 does not have a built in volume control option.

That's one lovely looking piece of audio right there.

 

[me2621a]

That's one lovely looking piece of audio right there.

Yah, the A&S amps are quite nice looking. I sent it back last night, decided to have A&S build me a custom version of their single ended amp (Mogwai SE) as I have a large collection of NOS octal power tubes, but the stereo 15 was a treat to have in house.