[donato]

Well i just connected The Susvaras up to my TT2/M-Scaler/ TToby with the Hifiman HE-1 Adapter. The Susvara turned into a whole new animal. I understand why you guys are saying you need to provide them with more power. I can't wait for this to fully burn-in.

I run my Susvara's directly off my Chord Mezzo 140 Speaker Taps. I did the same when I had my HE6's as when I used the Hifiman HE-1 Adapter with the HE-6 the sound quality diminished (very vailed) considerably by all accounts especially on clarity, separation, bass and sound stage.

I'd agree with @Bonesy Jonesy and consider trying without the adapter box. Your TToby does 100w into 4 ohms so that'll be about 6.25w into 64 ohms. I believe the HE-1 adapter is putting resistors both in parallel and in series. You definitely need a resistor in parallel for tube amps with transformer outputs (I've been testing my primaluna prologue tube amp lately) but generally this won't be an issue with most solid state amps, but there are always exceptions (current drive amps being one exception). Check out the speaker amp thread for more info.

 

[Bonesy Jonesy]

I'd agree with @Bonesy Jonesy and consider trying without the adapter box. Your TToby does 100w into 4 ohms so that'll be about 6.25w into 64 ohms. I believe the HE-1 adapter is putting resistors both in parallel and in series. You definitely need a resistor in parallel for tube amps with transformer outputs (I've been testing my primaluna prologue tube amp lately) but generally this won't be an issue with most solid state amps, but there are always exceptions (current drive amps being one exception). Check out the speaker amp thread for more info.

My Chord Mezzo 140 Speaker Amp delivers approx. 15 to 16 Watts to my Susvara's and my Chord DAVE provides 6V XLR balanced direct to my Chord Mezzo 140.

I have the volume of my DAVE from -35dB to -20dB max depending on the gain put on the original recording etc. so plenty of reserve power.

I tried also using my Chord Prima Pre-Amp fully XLR balanced to and from in-between my DAVE and Mezzo 140 but the sound wasn't as good as DAVE direct to my Mezzo 140.

One of the most important things for me using my Mezzo 140 is that it hasn't got hot at all, just warm like when I am using my Speakers. When I used it with the Hifiman HE-1 Adaptor Box when I used to have my HE-6's it would get quite hot.

And when I had the Raal SR1A's connected to my Mezzo 140 via the supplied Raal Adaptor Box it got very hot after only 10 minutes of SR1A use which was very worrying to say the least as when a Solid State Class A Mosfet Power Amp with an inbuilt cooling fan and a mass of aluminium heatsink casing gets very hot there is something not right...i.e. the Amp is getting massively over driven beyond it's normal designed operating requirements.

 

[Marco59]

[QUOTE = "thecrow, post: 16075888, member: 408826"]
[USER = 5362] @ SteveM324 [/ USER] Penso che abbia il susvara e il Luxman p700u (e alcune altre chicche) - mi scuso se ti ho buttato sotto l'autobus
[/CITAZIONE]
Grazie per il tuo consiglio.
Investigherò su questa cosa.

 

[donato]

Good post. Thanks! I don't really use the EQ any more after having sorted out my dac and amp gain issue. I only turn it on when testing out some bass heavy music, just for fun. The susvara can really slam hard.

So I tried the jaakkopasanen PEQ. It definitely retains more of the character of the Susvara, but with more bass and I like it more than the Oratory.. The Oratory PEQ, doesn't sound like a Susvara to me any more. It looks like the Oratory PEQ bumps up the (sub) bass more and doesn't quite bump up the mids as much relative to the bass, wheras the jaakkopasanen also boosts the bass (but less than oratory) and boosts the mids more than the bass so the balance seems better to me. I'm not sure if I'm going to use EQ at all though. It helps the bass a bit while I'm using this primaluna, but I suspect it will be too much when I go back to the XA25.

The white lines in each graph below are the net EQ changes from each of the individual filters

Oratory PEQ in Roon

jaakkopasanen PEQ in Roon

 

[sahmen]

So I tried the jaakkopasanen PEQ. It definitely retains more of the character of the Susvara, but with more bass and I like it more than the Oratory.. The Oratory PEQ, doesn't sound like a Susvara to me any more. It looks like the Oratory PEQ bumps up the (sub) bass more and doesn't quite bump up the mids as much relative to the bass, wheras the jaakkopasanen also boosts the bass (but less than oratory) and boosts the mids more than the bass so the balance seems better to me. I'm not sure if I'm going to use EQ at all though. It helps the bass a bit while I'm using this primaluna, but I suspect it will be too much when I go back to the XA25.

The white lines in each graph below are the net EQ changes from each of the individual filters

Oratory PEQ in Roon

jaakkopasanen PEQ in Roon

Yeah! jaakkopasanen! says Jaco Pastorius

That's strictly for laffs. I've no need to intervene in the EQ debate, either way.

My Susvara rocks as is, like Pastorius

 

[sonicsailor]

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed this behavior.

If I press sideways on either Left or Right headphone plug (2.5mm) while they are fully engaged in their respective jack, the signal is lost in that earpiece. It’s either disconnecting or shorting out.

Is this typical of Susvara’s or did I just get a bad pair?

 

[thecrow]

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed this behavior.

If I press sideways on either Left or Right headphone plug (2.5mm) while they are fully engaged in their respective jack, the signal is lost in that earpiece. It’s either disconnecting or shorting out.

Is this typical of Susvara’s or did I just get a bad pair?

My 2.5mm can do that a little if i play with it.

 

[UntilThen]

I'm completely satisfied with my Auris Nirvana driving my Susvara. I haven't tried KT88's but I recently rolled in a pair of Sophia Electric EL34 ST tubes and for the driver tube (it makes a big difference) I use a NOS Brimar CV4003. I think Ethereal Sound's impressions of this amp are spot on. The soundstage is holographic and the midrange is very natural with female and male vocals. The sound signature is full bodied, with just a slight amount of tube warmth that makes music more engaging. Bass is fantastic, and the amp drives my Susvara effortlessly with a 2V single ended input.

Love the Auris Nirvana driving LCD-4 at Minidisc where I spend 2 hours. I did not know what Nirvana is or how much it is but I just listen and was very impressed with what I heard from LCD-4 with it. Only toward the end did the shop owner told me it's from Serbia and that it cost nearly AUD $10,000.

 

[iFi audio]

Perhaps they are very complex headphones.

I can easily agree with this. They're not flashy in any way in particular to my ears, which is perhaps why time for them to grow on me was way longer than 100 hours.

 

[BassicScience]

I can easily agree with this. They're not flashy in any way in particular to my ears, which is perhaps why time for them to grow on me was way longer than 100 hours.

Interesting. It took me about 15 minutes to realize that the Susvara were something very special and superior to the Utopia I'd been using. As I've improved my overall setup, they've just continued to get better.

 

[iFi audio]

It took me about 15 minutes to realize that the Susvara were something very special

That comes rather quickly, and what I had in mind was full appreciation of what Susvara can do. But come to think of it, Senns HD 600 still can really impress me once in a while after all these years, so...

 

[Articnoise]

That comes rather quickly, and what I had in mind was full appreciation of what Susvara can do. But come to think of it, Senns HD 600 still can really impress me once in a while after all these years, so...

So you say, but can you tell me which audio gear you use to full appreciate what Susvara can do?

 

[dstubked]

Love the Auris Nirvana driving LCD-4 at Minidisc where I spend 2 hours. I did not know what Nirvana is or how much it is but I just listen and was very impressed with what I heard from LCD-4 with it. Only toward the end did the shop owner told me it's from Serbia and that it cost nearly AUD $10,000.

I just picked up a used Auris HA2 SE. It can seriously drive the Susvara very well! Very impressed with its clarity and layering.

I'm very surprised to be honest. Auris does puts out some very quality high end gear. I wonder how much more the Susvara can scale on the Nirvana considering the HA2 SE is already doing a very great job.

 

[jlbrach]

the law of diminishing returns does kick in rather quickly but more power will make improvements.....

 

[simorag]

I just picked up a used Auris HA2 SE. It can seriously drive the Susvara very well! Very impressed with its clarity and layering.

I'm very surprised to be honest.

Wow, if Auris amps are only half as good as they are beautiful they must sound heavenly (never heard one unfortunately)

According to its specifications the HA2 SE should output 1W max. If we rely on the nominal data from Hifiman (60ohm, 83dB), 1W allows to reach about 113dB SPL, which is a very respectable loudness indeed.

As already mentioned by many posts on this thread, and in a very informative way (thanks to all the contributors!), these basic calculations - while being a necessary starting point - seem to be barely scratching the surface of the topic "is this amp capable to drive the Susvara" - tacitly implying "at their best".

Subjective feedback from each actual user is most precious because it adds a data point to the topic above, but I believe that, to provide it with even more value some context would be very helpful. For example:

- what is the typical listening volume (or the volume at which the assessment of the amp in terms of capabilities has been performed)
- what is(are) the music genre(s) used for the assessment
- what (if applicable) are direct comparisons back-to-back with other amplifiers in the same system

Modern compressed music, listened via streaming at 85-95dB for example will be much less of a challenge compared to some very quiet CD recordings of large classical orchestral works, where the huge dynamic range and the need of preserving soundstage breadth and instrument separation / readability highlights ruthlessly the amp limitation, especially if concert-level SPL peaks are researched.

@dstubked, have you tried the Susvara with your Cavalli Liquid Gold? If yes, apart from sound signature differences, is it giving you the impression of the HA2 SE being underpowered in direct comparison?

I hope I will be able to provide my own 2 cents contribution in a couple of weeks when my pair should arrive