[thecrow]

Digital front end consists of Denafrips Hermes DDC and Sonnet Morpheus DAC.
Core Power Technologies 1200 sending balanced AC to all components. I think I have those areas covered pretty well.

ahhhhh.... that won't stop some people here

 

[hawk13]

I know it may not be a popular decision, but I sold my Susvara's and somehow I feel happier. It's a good feeling not to be worrying about if I'm getting the most out of my headphoness compared to just listening and enjoying the music.

+1

 

[dkar]

Currently running the Susvara’s off an Accuphase e-380 and I’m very tempted to give these a try.

So I just pulled the trigger on the Timekeeper 3X Grand Tourer. I'll post some initial impressions once I receive them and have had a chance to compare them to the Accuphase e-380.

 

[nekky]

So I just pulled the trigger on the Timekeeper 3X Grand Tourer. I'll post some initial impressions once I receive them and have had a chance to compare them to the Accuphase e-380.

Thanks for doing this! Community service and all that

 

[nekky]

Had both at the same time...preferred my HE1000v2 and still have it, and always will.

This is very interesting to me! Thanks for sharing.

 

[normie610]

So I just pulled the trigger on the Timekeeper 3X Grand Tourer. I'll post some initial impressions once I receive them and have had a chance to compare them to the Accuphase e-380.

That‘s interesting. Look forward to your impressions.

 

[sahmen]

Good Lord...I don't know what the hell to believe anymore.
This guy says do not use an amp or drivers may fail. That guy says an amplifier is the only way to go.
For the love of God, I'm losing my mind.

I've driven my Susvara with both a Luxman p-750u headphone amp and a Hegel H120 integrated from the speaker taps and frankly every moment of listening has only made me nervous. Every time I increase the volume I'm wondering if this is the moment when my $6,000 headphone takes a crap. Or, if the material is too bass heavy, etc.

So is buying a $5,500 Bakoon or Enleum the only way I'm gonna sleep at night?

This headphone has given me more worry than pleasure so far.

Go ahead... Send the comments of me overreacting. I'm ready.

No, the Susvara’s are very, very amp picky. I was never totally satisfied with the sound of Susvara on any amp I paired them with when I had them. I was always wondering if better sound could be had. You are not alone in feeling like you do.

Funny you say that because so far, on either amplifier, the Susvara haven't given me better, more emotionally engaging sound than my HE 1000se.
While I see the appeal of the Susvara's sound, I'm STONGLY considering selling the Susvara and keeping the 1000se.

I know it may not be a popular decision, but I sold my Susvara's and somehow I feel happier. It's a good feeling not to be worrying about if I'm getting the most out of my headphones compared to just listening and enjoying the music.

This pattern of "killjoy" obsessing over the quality of Susvara/amp pairing and synergy is very familiar to me, but for me, the ordeal began with ownership of the He-6, over which I agonized for 2-3 years prior to reselling it : My point is that this picture is unfortunately all too familiar to me, and I therefore find it very relatable, and quite depressing when an expensive piece of Audio kit positions its owner in such a purgatory of perpetual doubt instead of delivering to them all the joy of which they are capable.

Hell, I even tried a couple of touted speaker amps along the way, amps that had been mentioned on some head-fi threads as being up to snuff, but I personally found them to be exceedingly overhyped-i.e. not necessarily "bad-performing" when connected at the speaker taps, but not significantly better either than the headphone amps (such as the v281) that I had been obsessing over either.

Caveat : To be fair, this applies to two specific speaker amps (from Bryston and Emotiva) that I tried with my He-6. I have never experimented with the more expensive options that are often mentioned on this thread (e.g. those from Pass Labs, Kinki Audio, or Accuphase to name a few) so don't mistake my words for a complete refutation of the preferences of those who consider "Speaker amps" in general as the way to go for the Susvara.

My only minor quarrel with this party is that they sometimes make it sound as if "Speaker amps" as such (stated in an unqualified way) are better than dedicated "headphone amps" (as such, also stated in an unqualified way) in driving the Susvara, whereas the more measured claim to make would be that some specific speaker amps might work better than others and even headphone amps in driving the Susvara. But note that the last statement can be also made in reverse order with equal legitimacy and validity : Some dedicated headphone amps would perform better than some speaker amps (and other headphone) with the Susvara...

All of that may sound rather trivial and banal, but that is exactly my point : Almost every trivial/banal experience in audio can get overhyped out of proportion on head-fi, and no-one seems to be completely immune from the side-effects of such overhyping, except, perhaps those who are blessed with the luxury of being able to audition every component for themselves and separating the "wheat" from the "chaff," but how many head-fiers are lucky enough to belong in that group?

Now with all that said and out of the way, here is something I can say in the favor and in defense of the Susvara :

There is one day when I reported listening to several tracks on Keith Jarrett's At the Blue Note multiple-CD anthology with the Susvara in the Dark for several consecutive hours, and telling myself repeatedly that this was the best headphone listening experience I have ever had, bar none!

I was listening to the Susvara on my Uptone Etherregen ==>> Metrum Ambre/Roon ==>> Sonnet Morpheus ==>>Niimbus US4 chain, which I consider to be "adequate" and "up to the task", but it also struck me that none of the components in the chain are typically cited, here on head-fi, among the very elite TOTL models that are supposed to be super-optimal with the Susvara... And yet I did experience those almost miraculous epiphanic hours of musical nirvana on that day, alone with the Susvara in the Dark

For reference, and as a side note, I do own the LCD-5 (after the LCD-4), the Abyss TC, and other cans in a slightly lower Tier, such as the HFM Arya Stealth, the He6SEv2, THE LCD-X, The LCD-i4 and the Sennheiser HD800. While there is a lot I enjoy from all these cans at different times, none of them has ever brought me as much satisfaction and enjoyment at one sitting as I experienced in those "hours in the dark" with the Susvara I have been referring to, although I have not stopped hoping for a similar experience with any of those other cans in the future, i.e. a moment when all the gods and stars of Audio nirvana would align in favor of one of those cans to my ears...

Strangely though, what I took away from that experience is not the feeling of having found the most optimized chain for the Susvara, or its best supporting components. The lesson I learnt was that Audio nirvana listening bliss is possible only if/when one can switch off any concerns and all obsessions and manifestations of nervosa over components when listening, including obsessions and nervosas about the headphone one is listening to at a given moment. I do think that this "Switching off" is easier to do with some cans and chains than others (I doubt that this experience would be possible on chain made up of only crappy and subpar components, for example).

I'll be always grateful to the Susvara for making that experience possible, not only by behaving as if it was not there at all, and taking itself completely out of the way during the listening session, but also by making it possible for me to be oblivious to the existence of other cans as well, if only for those few hours of intense listening bliss....

 

[nekky]

This pattern of "killjoy" obsessing over the quality of Susvara/amp pairing and synergy is very familiar to me, but for me, the ordeal began with ownership of the He-6, over which I agonized for 2-3 years prior to reselling it : My point is that this picture is unfortunately all too familiar to me, and I therefore find it very relatable, and quite depressing when an expensive piece of Audio kit positions its owner in such a purgatory of perpetual doubt instead of delivering to them all the joy of which they are capable.

Hell, I even tried a couple of touted speaker amps along the way, amps that had been mentioned on some head-fi threads as being up to snuff, but I personally found them to be exceedingly overhyped-i.e. not necessarily "bad-performing" when connected at the speaker taps, but not significantly better either than the headphone amps (such as the v281) that I had been obsessing over either.

Caveat : To be fair, this applies to two specific speaker amps (from Bryston and Emotiva) that I tried with my He-6. I have never experimented with the more expensive options that are often mentioned on this thread (e.g. those from Pass Labs, Kinki Audio, or Accuphase to name a few) so don't mistake my words for a complete refutation of the preferences of those who consider "Speaker amps" in general as the way to go for the Susvara.

My only minor quarrel with this party is that they sometimes make it sound as if "Speaker amps" as such (stated in an unqualified way) are better than dedicated "headphone amps" (as such, also stated in an unqualified way) in driving the Susvara, whereas the more measured claim to make would be that some specific speaker amps might work better than others and even headphone amps in driving the Susvara. But note that the last statement can be also made in reverse order with equal legitimacy and validity : Some dedicated headphone amps would perform better than some speaker amps (and other headphone) with the Susvara...

All of that may sound rather trivial and banal, but that is exactly my point : Almost every trivial/banal experience in audio can get overhyped out of proportion on head-fi, and no-one seems to be completely immune from the side-effects of such overhyping, except, perhaps those who are blessed with the luxury of being able to audition every component for themselves and separating the "wheat" from the "chaff," but how many head-fiers are lucky enough to belong in that group?

Now with all that said and out of the way, here is something I can say in the favor and in defense of the Susvara :

There is one day when I reported listening to several tracks on Keith Jarrett's At the Blue Note multiple-CD anthology with the Susvara in the Dark for several consecutive hours, and telling myself repeatedly that this was the best headphone listening experience I have ever had, bar none!

I was listening to the Susvara on my Uptone Etherregen ==>> Metrum Ambre/Roon ==>> Sonnet Morpheus ==>>Niimbus US4 chain, which I consider to be "adequate" and "up to the task", but it also struck me that none of the components in the chain are typically cited, here on head-fi, among the very elite TOTL models that are supposed to be super-optimal with the Susvara... And yet I did experience those almost miraculous epiphanic hours of musical nirvana on that day, alone with the Susvara in the Dark

For reference, and as a side note, I do own the LCD-5 (after the LCD-4), the Abyss TC, and other cans in a slightly lower Tier, such as the HFM Arya Stealth, the He6SEv2, THE LCD-X, The LCD-i4 and the Sennheiser HD800. While there is a lot I enjoy from all these cans at different times, none of them has ever brought me as much satisfaction and enjoyment at one sitting as I experienced in those "hours in the dark" with the Susvara I have been referring to, although I have not stopped hoping for a similar experience with any of those other cans in the future, i.e. a moment when all the gods and stars of Audio nirvana would align in favor of one of those cans to my ears...

Strangely though, what I took away from that experience is not the feeling of having found the most optimized chain for the Susvara, or its best supporting components. The lesson I learnt was that Audio nirvana listening bliss is possible only if/when one can switch off any concerns and all obsessions and manifestations of nervosa over components when listening, including obsessions and nervosas about the headphone one is listening to at a given moment. I do think that this "Switching off" is easier to do with some cans and chains than others (I doubt that this experience would be possible on chain made up of only crappy and subpar components, for example).

I'll be always grateful to the Susvara for making that experience possible, not only by behaving as if it was not there at all, and taking itself completely out of the way during the listening session, but also by making it possible for me to be oblivious to the existence of other cans as well, if only for those few hours of intense listening bliss....

Without going into too much detail on specific points, I will just say that I agree regarding finding your specific, perfect listening experience. Furthermore, I appreciate you making the effort to write out something as thoughtful as the above.

 

[devilboy]

@sahmen Wow. Such an enjoyable read. Great description of your experience.

Loved the "switching off" reference.

 

[Law87]

does anyone have the stock 2.5mm XLR cable they want to get rid?

 

[migo]

My HE 1000se are vastly more three-dimensional than my Susvara. The Susvara sound TWO dimensional in comparison. Everything is immediate right and immediate left. The spaciousness, the air, the ambiance, everything is inferior to what I'm hearing on the 1000se. It's to the point where I'm wondering what the hell all the hype is about in relation to the many hours of reviews I've read and videos I've watched.

And with that, I'm sure I have become the least favorite Susvara owner on this thread.

Interesting, I had exactly opposite experience going from Arya v2 to HEkSE. HEkSE was 2D from left to right experience for me missing stage depth. Susvara has more depth for me but was narrower from left to right. I need to put Susvara a bit lower on my head (on click lower on both sides) compared to Arya and KEkSE to get better stageing experience.
After last modification I've made to my amp about two weeks ago soudstage exploded to all dimensions that much I cant believe this myself. Soundstage is "endless" now and I think that it is bigger than that of Arya V2, but have not chance to compare it directly.

 

[devilboy]

Interesting, I had exactly opposite experience going from Arya v2 to HEkSE. HEkSE was 2D from left to right experience for me missing stage depth. Susvara has more depth for me but was narrower from left to right. I need to put Susvara a bit lower on my head (on click lower on both sides) compared to Arya and KEkSE to get better stageing experience.
After last modification I've made to my amp about two weeks ago soudstage exploded to all dimensions that much I cant believe this myself. Soundstage is "endless" now and I think that it is bigger than that of Arya V2, but have not chance to compare it directly.

Hmmm... Also interesting.
Also, I just want to repeat that earlier I mentioned that the Susvara don't have many hours on them at all.
Maybe the stage opens a lot more.

 

[devilboy]

Earlier, someone suggested to check for any DC offset off of my integrated's binding posts. For what it's worth, the left channel was less than 1mv and the right was 10mv.

 

[chesebert]

10mv is on the threshold of acceptable for headphone safety.

 

[nekky]

Earlier, someone suggested to check for any DC offset off of my integrated's binding posts. For what it's worth, the left channel was less than 1mv and the right was 10mv.

Which is acceptable, right?