The EC studio is more costly than I am willing to spring for and I am really looking for a solid state amp to drive the Susvara with transparency direct from Chord Dave balanced without a preamp. So far I have come up with two different options that may fit the bill for under $3K.I've had the Phi for close to 2 years now , and the Susvara for about a year ish.
I posted somewhere in the Abyss thread about my journey to find a great amp for the Phi as driving it out of the DAVE directly lacks slam and excitement.
Long story short, i ended up with a EC studio after going through lots of amps ( GSX mk2, simaudio moon 430ha, ragnarok , v281, Liquid Gold, Milo and a couple more that ive had extended listening sessions at stores like the WA33/Headtrip). The Studio was the only amp that can keep up with the transparency and resolution of the DAVE to my ears.
As for the Susvara, i went through similar headphone amps, and tried 2 speaker amps ( first watt f7 , almarro 318b ).
From what ive experienced, the Susvara really benefits from the extra power. The slam , space and sense of rhythm is completely different when fed with enough power.
I personally still like the Susvara paired with the Studio(Spacious, extremely resolving). Not that this paring lacks dynamics, but i feel it doesnt have the dynamics compared to the speaker amps ive tried.But for now, I have yet to find a speaker amp that is transparent enough so im sticking to the Studio anyway.
Ive tried the Phis with the same speaker amps and they just dont sound as good as when paired with the studio. It was bloated, and the detail loss was too obvious. However, ive heard that some speaker amps like the simaudio moon 600i will do a great job with the Abyss, but ive yet to try.
For now, i can say that my amp journey for the Phi has ended, but i feel that im still a long way from the end of my amp journey for the Susvara.
The Soundaware P1 balanced headphone amp versus more powerful First watt speaker amp J2 or F7 ($1k less but no balanced input). Finally, since I have a Chord Dave, wonder how the new Etude would pair with the Susvara. This could be a killer combination with Dave, Mscaler and Etude stack???
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