[TheAttorney]

Its time for HIFIMan to ditch the 2.5mm Jack connector, with non standard cables, mine are DHC Prion 4S which are on the heavy side the connector can come out. I wish they had a Lemo connector like the Focal Utopia's. In fact it would be great to see the manufacturers agree on a standard connector.

I agree that a globally standard connector would be nice, but until that happens, I quite like Hifiman's 2.5mm connector for the following reason: I use long cables and occasionally this results in me accidently yanking out the cable (e.g.when stooping down to adust volume and then standing up without realising my foot is on the cable!). In such situations, the 2.5mm just pops out with no damage done. With a secure/locking connector, the damage could be considerable.

I've read that HEK V1 users had issues with loose connections, but my HEK V2 has been fine so far (touch wood). If the DHC Prion is too heavy for such connections, then you could try a lighter, superior cable like Toxic Silver Widow - speaking of which, the SQ improvement the Toxic SW gave to my HEK V2 seams just like the SQ improvements written about the Susvara over the HEK. On top of that, I use Roon parametric EQ to very successfully tone down HEK V2's slight brightness as mentioned in comparisons to Susvara. Which leads me to the following speculation:

I wonder how much closer in SQ the HEK V2 would get to a stock Susvara if the HEK had the better cable and some EQ?

 

[Whazzzup]

Or if susvara had a better cable, it was the final expression of its true self that needs to come through.

 

[Matez]

I agree that a globally standard connector would be nice, but until that happens, I quite like Hifiman's 2.5mm connector for the following reason: I use long cables and occasionally this results in me accidently yanking out the cable (e.g.when stooping down to adust volume and then standing up without realising my foot is on the cable!). In such situations, the 2.5mm just pops out with no damage done. With a secure/locking connector, the damage could be considerable.

It makes sense, doesn't it?

I've read that HEK V1 users had issues with loose connections, but my HEK V2 has been fine so far (touch wood). If the DHC Prion is too heavy for such connections, then you could try a lighter, superior cable like Toxic Silver Widow - speaking of which, the SQ improvement the Toxic SW gave to my HEK V2 seams just like the SQ improvements written about the Susvara over the HEK. On top of that, I use Roon parametric EQ to very successfully tone down HEK V2's slight brightness as mentioned in comparisons to Susvara. Which leads me to the following speculation:

I wonder how much closer in SQ the HEK V2 would get to a stock Susvara if the HEK had the better cable and some EQ?

HEKV1 and Susvara are two differently sounding products, It's difficult for me to imagine a scenario where the former would sound close to the latter. I imagine that the story with HEKV2 is about similar.

 

[TheAttorney]

Or if susvara had a better cable, it was the final expression of its true self that needs to come through.

Yes, based on my HEK V2 experience, it is MANDATORY for Susvara owners to upgrade the stock cable to get the best out of the Susvara.
If the DHC Prion is just too cheap for the Susvara, then I've come across the Kimber Silver Axios at (only) $6,375 for 3m. One thing I can guarantee is that I personally will never try out if the Kimber upgrade is worth it.

 

[Matez]

Yes, based on my HEK V2 experience, it is MANDATORY for Susvara owners to upgrade the stck cable to get the best out of the Susvara.
If the DHC Prion is just too cheap for the Susvara, then I've come across the Kimber Silver Axios at (only) $6,375 for 3m. One thing I can guarantee is that I personally will never try out if the Kimber upgrade is worth it.

OK, now I've seen everything.

 

[AnakChan]

OK, now I've seen everything.

What if I were to say 3m Murakumo Brise Audio copper cable will cost you $13,200 ($4952 for 1.2m)?

Anyhow about connectors, I have a personal preference of the Lemo connectors that Utopia or Sonoma Model 1 uses.

I should open up the Susvara package as it's been sitting there for the past few days.

 

[Whitigir]

Lol....yeah, not for me . Why does it price that much though ?

What if I were to say 3m Murakumo Brise Audio copper cable will cost you $13,200 ($4952 for 1.2m)?

Anyhow about connectors, I have a personal preference of the Lemo connectors that Utopia or Sonoma Model 1 uses.

I should open up the Susvara package as it's been sitting there for the past few days.

 

[Matez]

What if I were to say 3m Murakumo Brise Audio copper cable will cost you $13,200 ($4952 for 1.2m)?

Anyhow about connectors, I have a personal preference of the Lemo connectors that Utopia or Sonoma Model 1 uses.

I should open up the Susvara package as it's been sitting there for the past few days.

Lemo is great, I agree. As far as build quality and contact go, it's the best one for me and a real pleasure to work with. One customer ordered one leash and several pigtails to handle various outputs. I have to say, that after doing this Neutriks seem so... well, you get the idea The obvious downside is price.

 

[Whitigir]

Talk about LEMO, I got it all down Correctly. Going to use Utopia connectors for my SA5000 to share same cables . Cost is out the windows, but LEMO is great, and it is being used more than we know in many critical applications. There are also possibilities to customize it to be super-highend quality as well. Everyone shall just adopt 1 Standard across the board...given that cables can be as expensive as the headphones or even more

 

[Whazzzup]

I need to try more headphones to want or not want susvara. Stax, well I got their head phone dust covers....

 

[mulder01]

If the DHC Prion is too heavy for such connections, then you could try a lighter, superior cable like Toxic Silver Widow - speaking of which, the SQ improvement the Toxic SW gave to my HEK V2 seams just like the SQ improvements written about the Susvara over the HEK.

Yeah ditch that crappy $3000 cable and buy a $500 one

He didn't run 009 to it fullest yet, don't know about those msb though

Yeah that $150k full MSB setup driving the 009s must be real ordinary.
Fairly safe to say the MSB amp gets the most from those headphones and he can draw a pretty fair comparison to Susvara with that.

 

[purk]

Yeah ditch that crappy $3000 cable and buy a $500 one



Yeah that $150k full MSB setup driving the 009s must be real ordinary.
Fairly safe to say the MSB amp gets the most from those headphones and he can draw a pretty fair comparison to Susvara with that.

I have no doubt that Susvara will sound great because I did really enjoy the HEK V2 out of the SuSy Dynahi as well. Still though, I will take the Utopia over both the HEK V2 or Susvara due to its ability to sound quite great with little to no amplification. Focal really deserve a full point for that.

 

[ChaseM]

Yeah that $150k full MSB setup driving the 009s must be real ordinary.
Fairly safe to say the MSB amp gets the most from those headphones and he can draw a pretty fair comparison to Susvara with that.

I wouldn't say its safe to say at all. There are plenty of well documented cases of high dollar stat amps that aren't selling anything more than a name. I've even seen impressions of the MSB Select compared to a BHSE and the BHSE has come out on top.

 

[mulder01]

Yeah of course people can subjectively prefer one amp to another. Especially when they are married to the amp they already own, and hear the MSB amp in a show environment and the expectation bias is working against it.

Seems like 009 owners can't just accept when people don't worship their headphone. Every comparison or every impression ever where someone doesn't love the 009 more than their children, or says that it could do something better, or that they prefer something else, no matter what the system was, the Stax fanboys will blame every other component. It's ridiculous. What if people heard the Susvara and didn't like it, but it's fans claimed that they needed to hear it off some specially designed speaker amp handcrafted by god himself and sold at a magical store on the side of train platform 9 and 3/4, otherwise you haven't really heard the susvara and don't know what you're talking about. It would sound desperate and people would laugh at them, yet every time someone someone suggests that maybe something else can beat the 009, that's exactly what Stax fans do and it's getting absurd.

 

[ChaseM]

Yeah of course people can subjectively prefer one amp to another. Especially when they are married to the amp they already own, and hear the MSB amp in a show environment and the expectation bias is working against it.

Seems like 009 owners can't just accept when people don't worship their headphone. Every comparison or every impression ever where someone doesn't love the 009 more than their children, or says that it could do something better, or that they prefer something else, no matter what the system was, the Stax fanboys will blame every other component. It's ridiculous. What if people heard the Susvara and didn't like it, but it's fans claimed that they needed to hear it off some specially designed speaker amp handcrafted by god himself and sold at a magical store on the side of train platform 9 and 3/4, otherwise you haven't really heard the susvara and don't know what you're talking about. It would sound desperate and people would laugh at them, yet every time someone someone suggests that maybe something else can beat the 009, that's exactly what Stax fans do and it's getting absurd.

Not sure if this is directed at me. I was just stating that opinions of the MSB setup varies.

And as far as the 009 goes, I don't even own one so that doesn't apply here either. I do have an 007MK1.

I do however own an LCD-4 so I am interested in opinions of the Susvara. And that's why I come here.

Now the reason I made the point I did is because you are blindly endorsing a product based on price and name (MSB). In this hobby that's about the worst path a person can follow. So stop it with all the Stax bashing and keep the post on topic.