[Dramaticfanatic]

Does plugging a cable into the left ear cup have a different feel than to the right side? Also, how old is the Susvara? It does sound like a dodgy connection inside the Susvara (or possibly with the termination of the cable itself, though rather less likely). My advice would be to wait for a week or so and see if (and how often) the issue emerges again. Hifiman support is top-notch in my experience, but the fact that the OEM cable isn't exhibiting the behavior might mean they'd be less inclined to send you a new unit, although it can't hurt to ask, I suppose.

Brand new and second day using it. It doesn't have a different feel at all which is weird. I got it through Audio46 as an open-box, although they ended up sending me a brand new unit due to an inventory error on their end.

@thecrow thank you I will try this just to get a point of contact, that's a good idea.

 

[BassicScience]

tube pre + class D is great! I truly regret selling my Apollon purifi amp. I recently got the itch again, and remembered you had and really liked the NAD M22, so decided to try something similar and pulled the trigger on a NAD M23. it's purifi based so not sure how it will compare to Hypex, but am looking forward to class D again. my only gripe is it doesn't come in an all black chassis, so I have already bought a few rolls of black sheet tape.. lol. I do wish I still had my Susvara to try out with the m23.

Hey Roasty, congrats and I'll be quite interested in your impressions of the M23. When I was researching Purifi amps to try out with Susvara, I looked at the NAD C298 but noticed a few negative comments on various forums related to ergonomic issues (hopefully addressed in the M23), so ended up going with the Apollon Purifi Mini, as you had also done before me. The Apollon (once I ditched the Sparkos op amps for the far superior and less expensive OPA 1612s) sounded very similar (not surprisingly) to the M22 V2, but had the advantages of much smaller footprint, superior aesthetics, and more gain options (including 12 dB for medium sensitivity cans), but the Apollon also made an audible mechanical whine at all but the lowest gain setting. I tried to troubleshoot the issue with Apollon's assistance, but we never could solve it. Ultimately, I sent it back and just kept the M22 V2. NAD's design aesthetic (with the M22/M23 at least) is probably rather polarizing, athough I neither love nor hate it, but the build quality, functionality, and ergonomics are first-rate. As an added bonus, it drives my estats superbly in conjunction with the iFi iESL, and has even filled in admirably driving my speakers when my monoblocks needed servicing.

I assume you'll be driving your Solitaire P with the incoming M23? The Solitaire P sounded as good as I've heard it out of my NAD, but even on low gain the range of usable volume on my preamp was quite limited. I imagine you'll need to employ attenuation even on the M23's lowest gain setting. Again, I'm looking forward to your impressions. Cheers.

 

[Roasty]

I assume you'll be driving your Solitaire P with the incoming M23? The Solitaire P sounded as good as I've heard it out of my NAD, but even on low gain the range of usable volume on my preamp was quite limited. I imagine you'll need to employ attenuation even on the M23's lowest gain setting. Again, I'm looking forward to your impressions. Cheers.

yep both the P and TC. and perhaps the Raal SR1b too. much more power than I really need, but I like the idea of being able to use the speaker amp for speakers if I ever need to in the future.

my tube pre is really very quiet and I don't need to dial in much attenuation, but yea you're right I'll likely still need to use the lowest gain setting on the amp. Will chime back in the speaker amp thread once I've got it set up, and hopefully I can source a susvara for a few days.

on a side note, quite a few susvaras on the classifieds recently...

 

[thecrow]

on a side note, quite a few susvaras on the classifieds recently...

a friend of mine used to say:

”there are two types of people in this world: those who get it and those who don’t“

Hopefully i am in the first group - I highly rate the susvaras

 

[linshu1992]

A useful video from GoldenSound on how to measure listning volume:

Nice! Thanks for the info! I fully agree comparisons will benefits a lot if listening volume is matched, but in my current setup I need to rewire cables from amp to amp and as such volume will be set to 0 between sessions and re-adjusted when I start listening. I try to volume match when I feel "wait that sounds very similar.. was I imagining things?" and honestly it does happen switching from dac to dac.

 

[PointyFox]

Initial impressions of Susvara vs TH900 on the Topping E50 and Topping A90:

Susvara has less treble, sounds smoother, has a bigger soundstage, and more balanced sound.
I'm surprised how much bass impact it has. More than most headphones.

The smoothness is what I believe a lot of people are calling "natural sounding". It kind of reminds me of how the Ether 2 sounds, but with bass impact.

TH900 has slightly more bass impact and detail and feels a little less heavy.

The TH900 was my favorite headphone, now the Susvara is. I think I might try the Stealth next, so I'll be putting these up for sale too.

 

[dusty.ro]

Initial impressions of Susvara vs TH900 on the Topping E50 and Topping A90:

Susvara has less treble, sounds smoother, has a bigger soundstage, and more balanced sound.
I'm surprised how much bass impact it has. More than most headphones.

The smoothness is what I believe a lot of people are calling "natural sounding". It kind of reminds me of how the Ether 2 sounds, but with bass impact.

TH900 has slightly more bass impact and detail and feels a little less heavy.

The TH900 was my favorite headphone, now the Susvara is. I think I might try the Stealth next, so I'll be putting these up for sale too.

In all fairness, A90 is not going to make the Susvara bass come to life. You need more power. I'm talking from experience.

 

[801evan]

In all fairness, A90 is not going to make the Susvara bass come to life. You need more power. I'm talking from experience.

You don't more power. You just need a better amp.

 

[dusty.ro]

You don't more power. You just need a better amp.

Let's not kid ourselves here. You can have the best amp in the world but outputting 1W in 60 ohms and you're still not gonna drive Susvara well. Power matters. Even if your current is 5A you still get 5W. It might be some amazing sounding 5W, it's still not gonna be enough.

 

[PointyFox]

You mean a worse amp? What measures better than the A90? I think people are using speaker amps for their higher distortion.

 

[801evan]

Let's not kid ourselves here. You can have the best amp in the world but outputting 1W in 60 ohms and you're still not gonna drive Susvara well. Power matters. Even if your current is 5A you still get 5W. It might be some amazing sounding 5W, it's still not gonna be enough.

Ehh. I drove it with sub bass extension and all with just a 200mw amp. I also run it with diablo low gain perfectly and that's only 142mw.

 

[GoldenSound]

You mean a worse amp? What measures better than the A90? I think people are using speaker amps for their higher distortion.

The SINAD itself won't tell you how an amp will sound.
THX 789 and Rebel Amp have almost the same SINAD value but sound quite different. Same as SA-1 vs A90 for example.

 

[PointyFox]

The SINAD itself won't tell you how an amp will sound.
THX 789 and Rebel Amp have almost the same SINAD value but sound quite different. Same as SA-1 vs A90 for example.

Maybe if you don't volume match.
With the A90 I only need medium gain and have bass extension down to around 24 Hz.

I used to have a HE6se and compared the A90 vs. an Emotiva BasX a2m speaker amp and found them to drive the headphone identically after volume matching even though everyone was saying that it needs a speaker amp.

 

[dusty.ro]

Maybe if you don't volume match.
With the A90 I only need medium gain and have bass extension down to around 24 Hz.

Extension is not the same with slam and force. I used to think that I had enough also until I heard the Susvara on the Ferrum OOR or even better the Trafomatic Primavera. Now, that's bass. When you hear it you realize what you are missing. Susvara has a lot more to offer, we just fall into this trap thinking it's enough. It's never enough with them. Feed them as much as you can.

 

[PointyFox]

Extension is not the same with slam and force. I used to think that I had enough also until I heard the Susvara on the Ferrum OOR or the even better the Trafomatic Primavera. Now, that's bass. When you hear it you realize what you are missing. Susvara has a lot more to offer, we just fall into this trap thinking it's enough. It's never enough with them. Feed them as much as you can.

Mine has nearly as much slam as the TH900, the most slammy headphone in existence. "Feeding them as much as I can" will just make them louder and I'll go deaf. Having the ability to make them louder doesn't make any difference if the amp isn't providing that power.