[OCC7N]

There has been a secret a live footage Amir measuring the Susvara in a secret ASR audio meeting:
https://fb.watch/pd1wOOlQTr/

Sorry i'll stop now

I love her reaction

"This is something we need to study" ...haha! I have the same reaction as her.

 

[Malcyg]

The best thing about this journey is when you really find something that just works. No thoughts. Simply Music. The chain feels like "one"

This is spot on imo. But it can be quite a journey to ‘find something that just works’. As a long time speaker system guy, it took me quite a while to realise the importance of system synergies with headphones. I don’t know why that was since it took years to evolve my speaker system to where it is, but for a long time I had a naive assumption that headphones would be easy. Just grab a good pair, plug them in and off you go. Susvara taught me how wrong I was about that and they have been the hardest for me to optimise, but I have found that all the phones I now have sound at their best with one particular setup or another. The problem with that is that instead of my original objective of one good pair of phones for a portable alternative to my main speaker system, I ended up over time with a few pairs, each of which are tied down into one particular chain or other. Definitely not the simple ‘portable set’ solution I had in mind.

I’m not unhappy about that as I have learnt a lot and come to appreciate the benefit of choosing between different flavours for different moods and music and I now use headphones at least as much as my main speaker system, more so if my wife is around and I want to explore new stuff. But it was not my original objective when I first set out on the headphones path. I still think that speakers provide the ultimate sound experience, but it is amazing how good a system you can get for a fraction of the cost (and space) with headphones these days.

 

[orrman]

I have to say based on the last few weeks of listening.. Susvara on the Riviera AIC10-Bal is the most fun Susvara I heard, but on the Mass Kobo 465 it's the most real sounding Sus I heard.
Almost two years with Susvara as my reference (with a short break in the middle) and this headphone still knocks me out sometimes. So good…

 

[jody2k]

Owning my Susvara for 5days now, normally my honeymoon fase is passing after 1 or 2 days only this time... I don't feel it will pass anytime soon lol.
So i'll write my first impressions compared to my HE6SE V2, which I prefered (tonally wise) to the HE1000 stealth and HE1000SE.

Compared directly with my HE6SE V2 now, it does everything that the HE6SE V2 does, only more refined, even more open sounding and higher resolution by quite a leap.
I would decribe this headphone timbre on clarity level I have only heard on a electrostatic headphone like a stax I auditioned in my local audio shop.
Listening to genres like metalcore for example: guitars are sounding deligtful, they don't have this "rough" edge which I hear on most headphones.
I can feel the electric guitars, drums, and vocals rushing trough and outside my head like a whirlwind but everything is wrapped around a soft pillow.
In the treble area everything is sounding smoother but at same time it's revealing More detail compared to my HE6SE V2, weird right?

I thought the Susvara would lack a bit of impact because if it's electrostatic kind of capabilities, but compared to my 'impact king' HE6SE V2 it wasn't lacking any of it.
I might say the HE6SE V2 has maybe a bit more "punch in your face" though.

And the soundstage...well as mentioned here "ethereal" would indeed be a good description, I don't want to sound like a copycat.
As expected the stage is bigger, wider and deeper than my HE6SE V2, also wider and deeper than my hifiman edition XS.
I think the stage is comparable to the HE1000SE I previous owned, but maybe a notch wider and more this of "3D-ish" kind of stage depth (which my HE6SE V2 also has hard to explain)

So here I go, another Susvara impression added to this long thread this one will probably be a keeper

 

[bnb110]

My journey of finding best headphones to myself:

1. Trying to find better headphones to make music more enjoyable
2. Learn about Harman Target and Frequency Response can represents sound quality
3. Read measurements on the internet and get headphones matched to Harman Target
4. Realized those headphones sounds good but far from ideal
5. Realized the Harman Target is just an averaged preference curve
6. Realized the FR measured from artifial ear has huge variance to individual HRTF
7. Trying to use in-ear microphones to find the headphone that's closest to my HRTF
8. Trying to find headphones that's enjoyable regardless of FR by using ears only
9. Realized many things can't be captured by the measurement method we are using
10. Stop and enjoy the music with what I have

I see people stuck at 3, they keep buying new headphone/IEM that matched to Harman or some Reviewer's new curve, I think they will get out eventually, when they realized those "scientists" are only trying to make a very complex problem look easy and running sales operation in the name of science.
Anyway smart people will skip to 8 or 10 (Looks like the measurement topic is already over).

 

[trollbearpig]

So what precautions do you need to take running Susvara into a speaker amp? Can you do it directly just with the adapter and thats it, how do you make sure not to blow out the Sus? I also read that unplugging/plugging in the susvara into a speaker amp while it is on can damage them as well ?

 

[BassicScience]

So what precautions do you need to take running Susvara into a speaker amp? Can you do it directly just with the adapter and thats it, how do you make sure not to blow out the Sus? I also read that unplugging/plugging in the susvara into a speaker amp while it is on can damage them as well ?

Yes, you can run it directly with just an adapter. Precautions to take:

1) If your amp has adjustable gain settings, start on the lowest. Increase the gain only if you're using a preamp, and want or need more headroom on the volume control. You might also need to increase the amp's gain if your DAC (or other source) outputs a very low max voltage.

2) If you have a multimeter, it's a very good idea to measure the DC offset across the output terminals of both channels of the amp. If it's above 10 mV, either adjust it down if possible, or use a different amp. If you don't have a multimeter, check whether the manufacturer provided measurement data for the specific amp, or whether they've stated a maximum value in the specs.

3) If your amp doesn't have a mechanism to protect against transients at the outputs (resulting in loud pops) during power cycling, don't power cycle with the headphones plugged in. Or just get a better amp! There should be no problems with plugging/unplugging a headphone from a solid state amp when it's powered on. Best practice is to pause or mute the sound before plugging in a headphone.

4) Turn your source or preamp on before you turn the amp on to prevent power on transients from upstream gear from reaching the headphone. Turn the amp off before powering down upstream gear for the same reason.

5) Make sure the volume control on your source or preamp is very low before sending a signal through the chain.

This may sound like a lot to consider, but it becomes second nature quite quickly. In my current system, I just leave my Susvara always connected because my power amp makes only a barely audible click at power on, and my (tube) preamp mutes itself on power up.

One interesting thing that came out of the recent ASR review is that the Susvara (as most planars) can tolerate quite high levels of power without sustaining any damage. OTOH, the Susvara also sounds superb out of any number of higher-powered headphone amps, so a speaker amp is hardly a prerequisite to enjoying them.

 

[trollbearpig]

Thanks ! That's very helpful, I'm really looking forward to comparing my Susvara to my speaker amp vs headphone amp and seeing if it makes any difference, should be a fun test.

 

[therock10]

I have to say based on the last few weeks of listening.. Susvara on the Riviera AIC10-Bal is the most fun Susvara I heard, but on the Mass Kobo 465 it's the most real sounding Sus I heard.
Almost two years with Susvara as my reference (with a short break in the middle) and this headphone still knocks me out sometimes. So good…

@orrman , how about mass kobo 465 on 1266 tc , have u ever tried this combo?

 

[LucasKA]

Yes, you can run it directly with just an adapter. Precautions to take:

1) If your amp has adjustable gain settings, start on the lowest. Increase the gain only if you're using a preamp, and want or need more headroom on the volume control. You might also need to increase the amp's gain if your DAC (or other source) outputs a very low max voltage.

2) If you have a multimeter, it's a very good idea to measure the DC offset across the output terminals of both channels of the amp. If it's above 10 mV, either adjust it down if possible, or use a different amp. If you don't have a multimeter, check whether the manufacturer provided measurement data for the specific amp, or whether they've stated a maximum value in the specs.

3) If your amp doesn't have a mechanism to protect against transients at the outputs (resulting in loud pops) during power cycling, don't power cycle with the headphones plugged in. Or just get a better amp! There should be no problems with plugging/unplugging a headphone from a solid state amp when it's powered on. Best practice is to pause or mute the sound before plugging in a headphone.

4) Turn your source or preamp on before you turn the amp on to prevent power on transients from upstream gear from reaching the headphone. Turn the amp off before powering down upstream gear for the same reason.

5) Make sure the volume control on your source or preamp is very low before sending a signal through the chain.

This may sound like a lot to consider, but it becomes second nature quite quickly. In my current system, I just leave my Susvara always connected because my power amp makes only a barely audible click at power on, and my (tube) preamp mutes itself on power up.

One interesting thing that came out of the recent ASR review is that the Susvara (as most planars) can tolerate quite high levels of power without sustaining any damage. OTOH, the Susvara also sounds superb out of any number of higher-powered headphone amps, so a speaker amp is hardly a prerequisite to enjoying them.

Thanks for this very detailed information, hugely appreciated. Also is there difference between A/AB/D type amp?

Are there any integrated amp which is relatively foolproof (auto mute at on/off, for example) I have a 100w massive vintage amp but it seems like a big risk….

 

[orrman]

Nope sorry, recenyly received my 465 and sold my TC a long time ago. I know from audio friends that they prefer TC on AIC10 fwiw

 

[MartussDer]

Estoy de acuerdo. ¿Cuántos de ellos tienen Susvara de todos los modos? - Se están quejando de algo que ni siquiera escucharon....

Fin de la discusión... También espero que este tipo de discusión continúe en el sitio web de ASR. Siéntete libre de abrir un hilo allí o continuar en ese hilo.

----

Este es el

¡Gracias! Eso es muy útil, tengo muchas ganas de comparar mi Susvara con mi amplificador de altavoz y mi amplificador de auriculares y ver si hay alguna diferencia; Debería ser una prueba divertida.

I connected my susvara to my onkyo m5010 75 watts per channel. it drives the sus very well with a lot of slam and good dynamics. However, with a lot of weight and few resolution compared to my burson soloist and vioelectric v281. When I connected susvara to a topping la90d speaker amplifier, the result was simply excellent! Here is the video of my configuration:

 

[Tano]

Este es el

I connected my susvara to my onkyo m5010 75 watts per channel. it drives the sus very well with a lot of slam and good dynamics. However, with a lot of weight and few resolution compared to my burson soloist and vioelectric v281. When I connected susvara to a topping la90d speaker amplifier, the result was simply excellent! Here is the video of my configuration:

El Qudelix lo mueve mejor, bro.

 

[MartussDer]

El Qudelix lo mueve mejor, bro.

actually:

 

[up late]

i was hoping that we might have moved on from the asr 'noise' by now