[JimL11]

Back then, yes. The keyword in my comment is "always". When I went to Stax to interview them, they said in effect that it was unlikely anyone could compete with them, because of their extensive experience. Now MrSpeakers is about to knock that one on the head it seems.

Possibly, but MrSpeakers has been about to release their electrostatic for a couple years, and it hasn't happened yet. When it happens, then we'll see whether it beats the best Stax (007 or 009 depending on who you ask) or not.

 

[JimL11]

I already mentioned the Omega in my previous post #719 before yours. My list was not meant to be exhaustive, BTW, just to say that top quality headphones were relatively rare, but I'm not an audio historian. Haven't heard some of those you mention, but I have a Stax SR3, SR5, Gamma and Lambda Nova Signature, and those are good to excellent, but not as good IMO as the recent Stax SR007 or 009. I used to have a Sony V6 - meh. It's great that you've heard a working Jade, since I hear tthey are nearly extinct due to shoddy quality control. I think it's an exaggeration to say, as you did, "All these brand new headphones/ amps can't even come close to about 10 to 20 products from the 80s, 90s and 2000s." We should just agree to disagree on that.

And BTW, my turntable is a Garrard 301 grease bearing, and my speakers are Quad ESL57s, so I don't necessarily think that everything new is better than anything old.

 

[czy6412]

The thing is, when driving Susvara we need amps that have a extremely dynamic sound signature, like Headtrip. Other amps might have more output power but the sound siganture might be soft, which is not a good pairing with Susvara.

 

[AnakChan]

I would very much like to hear any reviews/impressions of the Susvara driven by "cheaper" speaker amps (where I define "cheap" to be $2000 or less). I know I'm driving mine off a RRP $4500 McIntosh MC275, and it drives it well.

I'm personally just not convinced that it has to be driven by amps of $7000 and above.

 

[czy6412]

I would very much like to hear any reviews/impressions of the Susvara driven by "cheaper" speaker amps (where I define "cheap" to be $2000 or less). I know I'm driving mine off a RRP $4500 McIntosh MC275, and it drives it well.

I'm personally just not convinced that it has to be driven by amps of $7000 and above.

Yes Headtrip is not necessary, the complement of sound signature is important. if GSX-MK2 has higher power it might do as good as Headtrip. So if there is a cheap speaker amp that has similar sound signature it could do the justice as well.

 

[Thaudiophile]

The thing is, when driving Susvara we need amps that have a extremely dynamic sound signature, like Headtrip. Other amps might have more output power but the sound siganture might be soft, which is not a good pairing with Susvara.

It's clearly a preference.I have been searching about Susvara on that rival site (which i can't name), and no one recommended me "headtrip", they recommended "ifi pro ican" and "Ec afficionado" instead headtrip.Headtrip got a pretty negative reception on those 2 rival sites.

 

[czy6412]

It's clearly a preference.I have been searching about Susvara on that rival site (which i can't name), and no one recommended me "headtrip", they recommended "ifi pro ican" and "Ec afficionado" instead headtrip.Headtrip got a pretty negative reception on those 2 rival sites.

Well of course if someone prefer the soft sound signature it is much easier for he/she to choose an amp. For me personally I want to have a headphone with sound signature like Abyss 1266 and comfort like Susvara, so the best I can get is to add a Headtrip to my setup. For those who prefer other types of sound signature there might be a cheaper option available.

 

[Thaudiophile]

Well of course if someone prefer the soft sound signature it is much easier for he/she to choose an amp. For me personally I want to have a headphone with sound signature like Abyss 1266 and comfort like Susvara, so the best I can get is to add a Headtrip to my setup. For those who prefer other types of sound signature there might be a cheaper option available.

How do you know that those amps sound soft?

 

[czy6412]

How do you know that those amps sound soft?

ifi pro ican sounds soft to me. I heard it several times at shows.

Ec afficionado is a tube amp which generally has a soft sound signature, but I won't judge it because I have not heard it.

Again this might be a personal prefernce issue as those amps might not sound soft to you, but what I want is 1266-level dynamic so my criterion is quite extreme.

This is open to discussion as I am also interested in a cheaper solution to drive Susvara.

 

[Thaudiophile]

ifi pro ican sounds soft to me. I heard it several times at shows.

Ec afficionado is a tube amp which generally has a soft sound signature, but I won't judge it because I have not heard it.

Again this might be a personal prefernce issue as those amps might not sound soft to you, but what I want is 1266-level dynamic so my criterion is quite extreme.

This is open to discussion as I am also interested in a cheaper solution to drive Susvara.

What about wells audio milo?People have said that it sounds pretty close to headtrip and only costs around 2000$.I seriously think that someone doesn't need to spend 7000$ on an amp.

 

[czy6412]

What about wells audio milo?People have said that it sounds pretty close to headtrip and only costs around 2000$.I seriously think that someone doesn't need to spend 7000$ on an amp.

It might be okay as I haven't try it to pair with Susvara, but it is sure that Milo won't reach to Headtrip level

 

[JimL11]

I would very much like to hear any reviews/impressions of the Susvara driven by "cheaper" speaker amps (where I define "cheap" to be $2000 or less). I know I'm driving mine off a RRP $4500 McIntosh MC275, and it drives it well.

I'm personally just not convinced that it has to be driven by amps of $7000 and above.

Based on its specs, the Susvara should be able to be driven to 120 dB with a 35 watt/channel speaker amplifier, so it doesn't need a super high power speaker amp, and at 60 ohms impedance, it should be an easy load. I don't know if the sonic character would be a good match, but in theory something like a Dynamo Stereo 70 should be able to drive it without problems, and that is about as cheap a tube power amp as you can get (a lot less than a McIntosh MC275 ). Of course, you'd have to wire up the appropriate headphone jack. Then there's the old NAD3020 integrated amp, which has a phone jack on the front panel, although I don't know if it had a resistor in series, which a lot of amps back then did, to cut down the signal going to the headphones.

 

[ostewart]

I would very much like to hear any reviews/impressions of the Susvara driven by "cheaper" speaker amps (where I define "cheap" to be $2000 or less). I know I'm driving mine off a RRP $4500 McIntosh MC275, and it drives it well.

I'm personally just not convinced that it has to be driven by amps of $7000 and above.

My review and some impressions were when I used it with my Marantz PM-5005 which is sub $200 I believe.

It sounded excellent, nearly as good as when driven by the Violectric V281.

Not quite as crisp and layered as the Violectric, but still very very good.

 

[Jozurr]

I feel that the Taurus MKII does a decent job at driving the Susvara. The Taurus is one of the cleanest sounding SS ampss and has plenty of clean power to boot. It's better with the Susvara out of single ended as it has more current and lower output impedance, and I feel that benefits the Susvara. You don't need very expensive amps to drive the Susvara. Does it scale? Yes. Are they definitely needed to Drive the Susvaras well enough? No.

 

[weasel1979]

Why do people buy expensive headphone amps for power hungry headphones when much cheaper speaker amps can do the trick? Really, I don't understand this. Thanks.