[Slim1970]

People greatly overestimate how much power they actually use. Back in the day when equipment had VU Meters it was quite a bit easier to know such information. 6.25W is a massive amount of power, plenty of overhead, more than plenty.

That's a very true statement. I think most amps can play the Susvara's but not all of them sound good with them or have good synergy with them. When not driven properly, you can easily tell the Susvara's are capable of so much more or if something sounds off. When that happens, I think most of us believe the solution to the problem is to throw more watts at the Susvara's. I know I was guilty of doing that initially. I have since heard headphone amps can properly push them. 6 watts is probably overkill for them to be honest, but it does bring out the best of the Susvara's. Having that kind of power moving through the drivers, you have to be very careful not to blow the drivers.

 

[VintageAudio]

Interesting. The Bakoon is 'only' 25W into 8 ohms? So in theory 25W = 6.25W at 60 ohms of the Susvara. Then allow for the very low efficiency of the Susvara.
But this review shows it is more than just the amount of power. The X1 sounds really good with the Abyss, as does some speaker amps like the Moon 600i.

There were a few things in that review that made me curious. It mentions a secret gain mode on the AMPR-13R. For native headphone output it uses the 1/4" jack in front. For the other integrated amps he was using the speaker jacks. I wonder if the results would be much different if he used the speaker jacks for the AMP-13R.

I personally have noticed a difference in sound quality when going balanced and using XLR connectors. Its too bad the AMP-13R only has RCA inputs and doesn't have a 4-pin balanced XLR output. Despite people telling me that balanced only makes a different for long cable runs, I notice that background is usually darker and the sound has greater separation.

I use my Susvara on the desktop, so 25W for me is good enough for desktop speaker use.

 

[jlbrach]

That's a very true statement. I think most amps can play the Susvara's but not all of them sound good with them or have good synergy with them. When not driven properly, you can easily tell the Susvara's are capable of so much more or if something sounds off. When that happens, I think most of us believe the solution to the problem is to throw more watts at the Susvara's. I know I was guilty of doing that initially. I have since heard headphone amps can properly push them. 6 watts is probably overkill for them to be honest, but it does bring out the best of the Susvara's. Having that kind of power moving through the drivers, you have to be very careful not to blow the drivers.

I have listened to far more powerful amps with my susvara but the best I have heard thus far is the formula s/powerman combo which was designed for abyss 1266 but sounds terrific with the susvara and it is only 6 watts into 16 ohms...there is much more than simply power that contributes to the susvara sounding great...obviously you cant use an underpowered amp but gobs of power doesnt necessarily mean better

 

[Slim1970]

I have listened to far more powerful amps with my susvara but the best I have heard thus far is the formula s/powerman combo which was designed for abyss 1266 but sounds terrific with the susvara and it is only 6 watts into 16 ohms...there is much more than simply power that contributes to the susvara sounding great...obviously you cant use an underpowered amp but gobs of power doesnt necessarily mean better

Yes, I’m finding the pairing with the Burson Conductor 3X and the Susvara’s to be very nice as well. It’s 7.5 watts into 16 Ohms.

 

[Sonic Defender]

That's a very true statement. I think most amps can play the Susvara's but not all of them sound good with them or have good synergy with them. When not driven properly, you can easily tell the Susvara's are capable of so much more or if something sounds off. When that happens, I think most of us believe the solution to the problem is to throw more watts at the Susvara's. I know I was guilty of doing that initially. I have since heard headphone amps can properly push them. 6 watts is probably overkill for them to be honest, but it does bring out the best of the Susvara's. Having that kind of power moving through the drivers, you have to be very careful not to blow the drivers.

I think your point about synergy gets to the heart of the matter. I drive my headphones right from the speaker terminals of my NAD M3 which puts out 180 watts so certainly plenty of power to be careful with. It isn't an issue at all, I have even driven 16ohm headphones from the M3.

 

[VintageAudio]

There were a few things in that review that made me curious. It mentions a secret gain mode on the AMPR-13R. For native headphone output it uses the 1/4" jack in front. For the other integrated amps he was using the speaker jacks. I wonder if the results would be much different if he used the speaker jacks for the AMP-13R.

I personally have noticed a difference in sound quality when going balanced and using XLR connectors. Its too bad the AMP-13R only has RCA inputs and doesn't have a 4-pin balanced XLR output. Despite people telling me that balanced only makes a different for long cable runs, I notice that background is usually darker and the sound has greater separation.

I use my Susvara on the desktop, so 25W for me is good enough for desktop speaker use.

Forgot one thing! the AMP-13R is a current based amp instead of voltage. I'm curious as to the implications that may have on power and sound...

 

[F208Frank]

Susvara one of the smoothest headphones ever.

 

[iFi audio]

Its too bad the AMP-13R only has RCA inputs and doesn't have a 4-pin balanced XLR output.

That Bakoon's small size wouldn't accommodate XLR outs and its circuit isn't balanced as far as I can tell. To me those are reasonable factors for lack of XLR outs.

There were a few things in that review that made me curious. It mentions a secret gain mode on the AMPR-13R. For native headphone output it uses the 1/4" jack in front. For the other integrated amps he was using the speaker jacks. I wonder if the results would be much different if he used the speaker jacks for the AMP-13R.

That's unlikely. I took a look at that review and it seems that in AMP-13R the same circuit works for headphone and speaker outs, so the only difference between them is in signal routing either to one or another, which shouldn't change sound in any way. If anything, perhaps a negligible difference between two types of sockets.

This reviewer didn't bother with speaker taps on that Bakoon because he knew that the same circuit handled its headphone out and delivered the same power output. That's not a flaw in his methodology but rather common sense

 

[Matez]

Interesting. The Bakoon is 'only' 25W into 8 ohms? So in theory 25W = 6.25W at 60 ohms of the Susvara.

That's what I thought at first. I thought that it couldn't get any better than EX-M1 but it did. That Bakoon is on another level. So yes, after everything I've heard I'd say that some power is needed and the EX-M1 is a fairly cost-efficient way to get Susvara going. But ultimate performance requires other things too. Plus AMP-13R is a killer amp for speakers.

 

[DJJEZ]

could a benchmark HPA4 drive these headphones well?

 

[koven]

could a benchmark HPA4 drive these headphones well?

Listening to this as we speak, yes.

 

[Slim1970]

Listening to this as we speak, yes.

Nice setup!

 

[DJJEZ]

Listening to this as we speak, yes.

Beautiful setup. What is that headphone stand?

 

[koven]

Nice setup!

Beautiful setup. What is that headphone stand?

Thanks! It is a Rooms stand.

 

[Matez]

Rooms stand.

Very cool! I saw this piece several weeks ago and wondered who made it. Now I know, tanks!