[dill3000]

The Rag is an amp for the HE6 and the Susvara - It certainly drives them volume wise but as I said the volume has to be cranked up in comparison to most all other headphones. The closest specs in regards to the HE6 and Susvara.

Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 10W RMS per channel - That is definitely enough to drive both headphones.

What I should have said instead of the Rag not fully driving them, is that I've heard them driven better.(I might be a bit spoiled) Most of the time its not really specs which is the be all and end all. You could put 20 amps with similar specs side by side and they'll all drive the headphones differently.

I've done so much amp tests with my HE6 over the years. They sound great on a select few. I've already got like 3 quality speaker amps for my HE6, I was in luck with the Susvara at my home as I could already put them through their paces. The Amps drive them to another level compared to all the headphone amps I’ve tried. I have tried a good few with the Susvara.

I’m a DIYer so I also build amps – mainly speaker amps tweaked for my HE6s. I know exactly what it needs for them to truly shine. When I mean shine I mean perform effortlessly without any struggles. When they have the power they need on a quality amp they’ll perform greatly, even at low listening levels. On my system, the Susvara opens up truly. The imaging and soundstage increase, the bass is really natural and not lacking.

I’ve even heard the Susvara give some of the HE1 magic in terms of the tonality, natural attack and visceral excitement (when needed). Not sure you would get to those heights with the Rag.

A quick note on the Hugo 2 – At the last head-fier organised meet I attended (2017 UK Head-Fi meet Milton Keynes) - I did hear the Hugo 2 connected to one of my systems, in fact, it was connected to my dual mono First Watt F7 amp – wow the combination was great! I’m thinking the Susvara would have loved that setup.

 

[FastAndClean]

lol the majority of people talking here are not willing to get a Susvara.

seems expensive

 

[oneguy]

I am willing to get susvara if it gets a positive reception from innerfidelity

I really hope that was a joke...

Sorry I couldn’t help myself.

 

[Thaudiophile]

I really hope that was a joke...

Sorry I couldn’t help myself.

It was a joke mostly, but there was some truth in it also as i consider tyll to be one my favourite reviewers.

 

[Jozurr]

The Rag is an amp for the HE6 and the Susvara - It certainly drives them volume wise but as I said the volume has to be cranked up in comparison to most all other headphones. The closest specs in regards to the HE6 and Susvara.

Maximum Power, 50 ohms: 10W RMS per channel - That is definitely enough to drive both headphones.

What I should have said instead of the Rag not fully driving them, is that I've heard them driven better.(I might be a bit spoiled) Most of the time its not really specs which is the be all and end all. You could put 20 amps with similar specs side by side and they'll all drive the headphones differently.

I've done so much amp tests with my HE6 over the years. They sound great on a select few. I've already got like 3 quality speaker amps for my HE6, I was in luck with the Susvara at my home as I could already put them through their paces. The Amps drive them to another level compared to all the headphone amps I’ve tried. I have tried a good few with the Susvara.

I’m a DIYer so I also build amps – mainly speaker amps tweaked for my HE6s. I know exactly what it needs for them to truly shine. When I mean shine I mean perform effortlessly without any struggles. When they have the power they need on a quality amp they’ll perform greatly, even at low listening levels. On my system, the Susvara opens up truly. The imaging and soundstage increase, the bass is really natural and not lacking.

I’ve even heard the Susvara give some of the HE1 magic in terms of the tonality, natural attack and visceral excitement (when needed). Not sure you would get to those heights with the Rag.

A quick note on the Hugo 2 – At the last head-fier organised meet I attended (2017 UK Head-Fi meet Milton Keynes) - I did hear the Hugo 2 connected to one of my systems, in fact, it was connected to my dual mono First Watt F7 amp – wow the combination was great! I’m thinking the Susvara would have loved that setup.

What are these three speaker amps you have for the HE-6 and which one do you like the best? What are the differences between them?

 

[Currawong]

A quick note on the Hugo 2 – At the last head-fier organised meet I attended (2017 UK Head-Fi meet Milton Keynes) - I did hear the Hugo 2 connected to one of my systems, in fact, it was connected to my dual mono First Watt F7 amp – wow the combination was great! I’m thinking the Susvara would have loved that setup.

I was just re-testing and comparing DACs and amps and was surprised to find the Susvara now responds more to changes in digital source than I felt it did before. I was thinking that the Susvara has more of a left-and-right presentation, but then I switched to the Hugo 2 as the source and that changed, resulting in more of a sense of depth to the music.

 

[dill3000]

What are these three speaker amps you have for the HE-6 and which one do you like the best? What are the differences between them?

The First Watt amps are my DIY built amps that I’ve built for my HE6s. I have built the F4 the F6 and the F7.

I’ll do a quick write up on each amp.

The F4 is a power buffer amp. It has 0 gain so it needs to be used with a good preamp or a DAC with a good voltage swing.

The amp predominantly doesn’t have a sound signature so it will take on the characteristic of the preamp, so if you have it connected to a tube amp it’ll sound like a tube amp without any other flavour. It’s really good in the fact that it powers the HE6 perfectly, even at low listening volumes it gives the headphone everything it needs. Not tried this with the Susvara but it’ll be the same results.

The F6 is a wonderful amp it only has 2 MOSFETs on each channel so it’s a very nice clean neutral sound with fast impactful bass. I have configured this amp with the stock PSU and also made it fully dual mono – doubling the PSU section which gave the amp a more natural easy sound. It wasn’t quite as crisp sounding as before but I preferred it dual mono as everything felt more natural and musical.

The F7 is my favourite of the First Watt amps – the default version of the amp is great – the staging is huge with the similar clean neutral sound to the F6 but the imaging is nicer and is more accurate.

The sound sig is also configurable so it can be as fast and clean as you like or if you prefer the darker sound with more 2nd harmonics, go for it. It has less of the bass impact of the F6, that was the only thing I didn’t like as much as the F6. I did fix this by making the F7 fully dual mono so it has a transformer and PSU board for each channel – this made the amp far better in my opinion – it has all the great characteristics of the F7 but with a more organic feeling and it brought the bass quality up!

The other amps I have is the Pass Labs XA30.5 and the Pass Labs XA30.8

They are both great amps! Wonderfully organic and super high-end sounding. They both are fully balanced from start to finish so they have a great amount of ease and power to drive either the HE6 or Susvara. I think the F6 and F7 could have a cleaner sound sig but hasn’t got the soul the Pass Labs amps have. Well that being send the F7 in my opinion, could beat out the XA30.5 but that’s the dual mono version. One thing more to say about the XA30.5 it greatly improves when being connected to a truly balanced DAC, wow it opens up a lot in terms of staging and imaging and layering.

The XA30.8 has everything the XA30.5 has but upgraded. It improves on staging and imaging – wow you get a type of holographic presentation with a huge soundstage – a really natural and transparent sounding amp with a great organic feeling. It’s also different on how it handles balanced and SE sources. The difference isn’t as great as with the XA30.5 – you will still get an improvement with a balanced signal but it handles SE better than the XA30.5.

I would say the best amp is the XA30.8 followed by the dual mono F7 or XA30.5 it’s a toss-up. To tell the truth, all the amps are top tier!! I’d be crazy happy with any of them. They power the HE6 and Susvara greatly!!


My next amp I’ll be getting is the XA25 – very excited on hearing how this amp sounds.

 

[dill3000]

I was just re-testing and comparing DACs and amps and was surprised to find the Susvara now responds more to changes in digital source than I felt it did before. I was thinking that the Susvara has more of a left-and-right presentation, but then I switched to the Hugo 2 as the source and that changed, resulting in more of a sense of depth to the music.

Wow, I think maybe the Susvara got broken in a bit more with use. I found out myself they opened up over time. One thing I do know is they scale greatly.

 

[JohanGao]

Anyone can do a side comparison between susvara and abyss phi? I found people praise abyss phi more then susvara on abyss thread, and for the price abyss seems more logical to purchased, except the weight and still not sure would it be comfortable when siting on my head...

 

[mahesvara]

Anyone can do a side comparison between susvara and abyss phi

I heard both the Phi and the Susvara from the Woo Audio WA33 at RMAF. They are VERY different beasts. What the Susvara gives you is the soft, non-fatiguing sounds that you can listen to for hours. What the Phi gives you is the powerful, visceral punch of the music. I would even say the music each one does best with isn't the same. Both of them have large soundstage, but I think that of the Phi is wider.

So it depends on what you want. Also, comfort-wise, the Susvara is much better than the Phi. The Phi isn't what you'd wear for hours.

 

[HiFiGuy528]

my unboxing and review. Susvara is the next level in headphones listening.

 

[JohanGao]

yes the one I worry about abyss only the comfortable issue, I were an LCD 3 Fazor user before, but sold it after the right side driver dead and never touch LCD again even I really like their house sound, Beside their driver issue, I always have issue with the weight, never pass 1 hour and i get my top head hurt.. Now using HE1000 and still considering to upgrade to susvara or abyss in the future...

 

[mahesvara]

yes the one I worry about abyss only the comfortable issue,

Sonic characteristics (and price difference) aside, if comfort is priority #1 for you ... uh, probably should pick Susvara. Though the Abyss doesn't come close to the Audeze weight discomfort, you'll REALLY notice the headphones on ... well, around your head.

 

[JohanGao]

Sonic characteristics (and price difference) aside, if comfort is priority #1 for you ... uh, probably should pick Susvara. Though the Abyss doesn't come close to the Audeze weight discomfort, you'll REALLY notice the headphones on ... well, around your head.

Sonic character is not an issue, because each character has its own place in music genre, abyss character could be more suitable for rock, metal, RnB and pop, susvara with their soft character would be suitable with jazz, blues, and vocal. I my self usually hearing jazz and vocal, which means susvara would be my cup of tea, but sometimes I do like to hear RnB, slow rock and pop too but not metal, beside I already have HE1000 which is have soft character too... So for character maybe I would chose Abyss because I already have He1000 for soft character, but if comfortable is worst than LCD3, I would stay away.

Is there anyone can tell about LCD3 and abyss comfort difference? Does abyss feel better then LCD3 when sitting on top of the head?

 

[mulder01]

The weight of the Abyss is a bit more concentrated and used to get to me after a while so I made my own headband. LCD4 pads feel like luxury at first when you put them on, but I found it too clampy after a fairly short amount of time. I found the vertical adjustment bit of the HEK headband (same design as susvara) dug into the side of my skull and that was quite uncomfortable quite quickly too...

From memory, I think the only pair of headphones I had that was comfortable was the ultrasone edition 8. Too bad it didn't sound very good.