[Sajid Amit]

Wow GUCraftsman is so cheap. Would their Silver or Copper cable out perform the stock cable?

Yes, easily. I have tried their cables. Own a few personally. Here’s the copper cable with the Stellia.

He’s an Asian cable manufacturer who’s gradually increasing in popularity. Best to snag some before his prices go up, lol.

I think people have left headfi reviews as well, of GU’s work.

 

[FractalSound]

Wow GUCraftsman is so cheap. Would their Silver or Copper cable out perform the stock cable?

I happened to have both from GUCraftsman. Silver with 4.4mm and Copper with 4-pin. I can't tell the difference from Stock cable in terms of SQ.

 

[geomaso44]

Your offer is very nice and productive. I actually should be getting my set shortly so I can’t take you on my offer. Sad to hear the negative experience? I’m going to use the fully round rings from the HIFIMAN website. Have you tried the Eikon pads without the dust filter?but I might see this making the treble even more bright ?

I honestly did not expect some of you guys to be so interested in the ZMF Eikon Hybrid pads!

Therefore, to hopefully help you a bit more in future decision making, here is a measured delta in frequency response of stock pads vs the ZMF pads:

The tonal changes are located above 1 kHz, namely:
- More present upper mids
- Less emphasised low to mid treble

Be warned though that the pads not only influence the frequency response but also the overall timbre and some technicalities (e.g. soundstaging)! The overall sound character becomes much more HE-6/Audeze-like, not having that much in common with modern Hifiman house sound anymore.

Comparo with Sennheiser HD650 for further reference:

 

[BTD1]

The new signature works amazingly well with them. Amazingly.

Got the Pro ICAN Signature over the weekend. All I can say is that I was stunned at how good the Susvara sounded. With the x-bass feature engaged, the Susvara attained an even greater depth and richness. I have not experienced any protection circuit shutdowns. I did not engage the 3d circuit as it didn't add anything. I wasn't expecting the ICAN Signature to be this good. Sounds better than 60 wpc speaker amp (Ragnarok 2) directly connected to the Susvara. Tested with classical music only.

 

[ThanatosVI]

Got the Pro ICAN Signature over the weekend. All I can say is that I was stunned at how good the Susvara sounded. With the x-bass feature engaged, the Susvara attained an even greater depth and richness. I have not experienced any protection circuit shutdowns. I did not engage the 3d circuit as it didn't add anything. I wasn't expecting the ICAN Signature to be this good. Sounds better than 60 wpc speaker amp (Ragnarok 2) directly connected to the Susvara. Tested with classical music only.

How many db does the X-Bass increase the bass actually?

 

[Somatic]

I honestly did not expect some of you guys to be so interested in the ZMF Eikon Hybrid pads!

Therefore, to hopefully help you a bit more in future decision making, here is a measured delta in frequency response of stock pads vs the ZMF pads:

The tonal changes are located above 1 kHz, namely:
- More present upper mids
- Less emphasised low to mid treble

Be warned though that the pads not only influence the frequency response but also the overall timbre and some technicalities (e.g. soundstaging)! The overall sound character becomes much more HE-6/Audeze-like, not having that much in common with modern Hifiman house sound anymore.

Comparo with Sennheiser HD650 for further reference:

Looks great. Hope I like it. Also wondering if the frequency response for the Eikon pads are with or without dust filters? If with dust filter, how would the FR change? Thanks

 

[BTD1]

The settings are at 10, 20 and 40 hz. This is from the manual:
"The ®circuit is designed to correct different levels of bass deficiency inherent in many headphones/loudspeakers. It is NOT a gimmick to add artificial bass to recordings. Great care has been taken in the design to ensure there is no degradation of sound quality." I can't say how many db the boost is, but I have used it on all my TOTL headphones and it is not the same on each phone. It seems more sophisticated than just a bump at a set frequency. On the Susvara it added a nice foundation to the music rather than an out of focus boom.

 

[Widell]

I've resisted the lure of the TC primarily for the weight and fit issues. I'm sure I'd love it for the excitement but can't get past those 2 objections.
Meanwhile I did snag a LCD-5 and, as @jlbrach, @Sajid Amit, @MacedonianHero and others have said, it is a very nice hp and I do think it is a keeper.

Can we have some comparisons Susvara VS LCD-5?

 

[Somatic]

Can we have some comparisons Susvara VS LCD-5?

Just search for LCD-5 ... many have came back with comparisons in this thread ... same with the LCD-5 thread as well

 

[LarsMan]

Can we have some comparisons Susvara VS LCD-5?

There are also many YouTube videos comparing the two...

 

[FooFighter]

As It was discussed extensively before: will PAD modding make Susvara a technically better LCD-5, so render an additional LCD-5 useless or will there be still a gap?
Question goes to people who both tried LCD-5 and the Susvara mod.
I ve personally tried the Eikon-pad-Susvara mod yesterday night but have to confess that I wasn't wowed as I am currently too biased with my new TCs and everything is sounding kind of flat after taking them off
Would need some hours listening to stock Susvara and then try the modded pads to understand the change better plus I ve never listened to LCD-5

 

[Sajid Amit]

There are also many YouTube videos comparing the two...

This is true. I do some comparisons in mine as well.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Can we have some comparisons Susvara VS LCD-5?

I didn't like the LCD5 much. I listened to it for a few hours across multiple sources with my music. It was too bright and analytical for my taste. Resolution monster for sure. It might sound better on my tube amp. I much prefer the Susvara for its pleasant sound. The build quality and comfort of the LCD5 is fantastic. I would rather get an Abyss.

 

[Sound Eq]

Just got the Accuphase e-380 (@Sajid Amit) a couple of days ago and I've been running the Susvara's from the speaker taps. Before this, I was running the Susvara's with the Violectric v590. It has been interesting to compare the two. I'm going to spend some more time comparing them and I'll post some impressions soon.

really interested as i have the vio 590 and would like to read your comparison impressions

 

[Sound Eq]

I recently received the Eikon Hybrid earpads recommended by some forum members for use with a Susvara headphone.

Here is my experience.

I first stripped away the earpads from an old set of disintegrating Susvra earpads so that I could just get the rings. The first attached photo shows that the plastic ring is slightly teardrop-shaped with an extension near the bottom, and it is not perfectly round like those rings that other forum members have purchased from the HiFiMan store.

The 2nd photo shows a Susvara earpad on the left versus an Eikon earpad placed over the ring on the right. Ignore the superglue placed on the Susvara earpad's ring, which I used to help prevent the earpad from pulling off the ring too easily. Note that there are 4 clips used to attach the ring to the Susvara headphone. Note that three of the clips in the Eikon image (on the right) have the edge of the Eikon earpad's covering material wedged under the clips because of the way that the Eikon earpad slips over the ring. That made it very difficult to attach the ring to the Susvara headphone - it took me 15 minutes of twisting and pulling/pushing the ring to get all 4 clips to engage securely.

Sound impressions:

I was hoping that the Eikon earpads would decrease the slightly too-bright treble of my Susvara headphones in my following headphone-based audio setup-: Jays Audio CD2Mk2 CD-transport => Wyred-4-Sound 2v2SE 10th Anniversary Limited Edition DAC => Vioelectric V281 headphone amplifier => Susvara headphones.

However, the treble became much worse, and it sounds too sibilant and "fractured" (my word for a non-smooth sound where the clean treble is overlaid with a ringing/resonant/reverberant overlay phenomenon that distorts the clean treble sound). The same phenomenon happened in the mid-range and mid-bass causing a cello's lower range sound to sound unnaturally edgy (metallic) and not smoothly woody. I have repeatedly noted that my Susvara headphones are normally capable of producing 3-D sound images where there is "air" around the instruments and a black background with great separation between images. With the Eikon earpads there was an aura of resonance/reverberation noise that filled that "airspace" and made the soundstage more congested/ congealed. I could not find one positive element that the Eikon earpads were providing to the Susvara's sound quality, and after 2 hours I removed the Eikon earpds and went back to using the stock Susvara earpads.

I don't know why I am getting such a negative "sound quality" result when using the Eikon earpads because I have no "expert" knowledge regarding the physics of sound reproduction within the confines of the earpads. However, the 3rd attached image shows the difference between the Susvara earpads and the Eikon earpads when viewed from the ring perspective. I photographed that image against the window light so that one can see through the mesh covering. Note that the Susvara earpad's opening is more rounded and does not intrude very much into that space. By contrast, the Eikon earpads protrude a lot and the opening becomes much smaller and oval-shaped. Doesn't that cause a sound interference problem? I can imagine some of the propogated sound emitted by the flat planar diaphragm hitting that protruding edge and bouncing back towards the diaphragm or being deflected into the oval airspace within the earpad (= space between the mesh lining and the side of one's ear pinna) and producing unwanted distortions. Is my theoretical explanation plausible?

Anyway, I have wasted $90 purchasing those Eikon earpads because they are non-usable from my perspective. I am willing to freely donate the Eikon earpads/rings to any other US-based forum member who wants to try them out. My proposal is for a forum member (based in USA) to send me a PM (private message) containing their address, so that I can send them the Eikon earpads. I suggest that they try the earpads for one week to see whether they have a positive or negative impact on their Susvara's sound quality and then report their results in this thread. After one week, they should send it to another forum member so that he can try them out with his Susvara headphones. If this cycle is repeated a number of times, we should get a number of subjective impressions from many forum members that may be very different to my subjective impressions. If a forum member in the cycle cannot get another forum member to try out the Eikon earpads, then he can keep the Eikon earpads as a free gift and he does not have to return them to me.

Jeff.

dam i just the those pads and i am waiting for the rings, i will compare it to the other 4 dekoni pads i have soon