[jlemaster1957]

For those that dabble in the dark arts of EQ: What adjustments do you find give the Susvara a bit of meat to its bones and tames the clinical edge?

I feel like sometimes these cans need just a sprinkle of something to tweak the flavour, and make them more agreeable with music that maybe isn’t recoded too well. I’ve tried some basic adjustments, and only slight ones at that, but they always feel heavy handed as I’m not that experienced with EQ.

Ok dabbler to the rescue.
First a few caveats.
What I share below is in the context of a headphone amp. I read somewhere else on the forum about a guy using a speaker amp for headphones who ramped up his bass shelf EQ many dB and blew out his HPs because he was also playing Hi-res files so the effective ‘power’ delivered in a unit of time increased beyond the limits of the driver’s tolerance.

Also- what everyone else before me said- in my experience as a convinced EQer (I had the LCD-X when I got started) I have noted a detriment to technical performance by adding these EQ adjustments to Sus- especially stage/imaging/detail retrieval in the treble region- there is no free lunch, EQ to one part of the FR affects the others. You are much better off adjusting pads or using an amp with a different topology- EQ is very much a poor second to any of these. Moreover, some amps are “voiced” warmer or otherwise, which can also impact how the EQ affects your SQ.
Having said that, if you are using a mid-fi amp, somehow have found yourself a Susvara owner and cannot afford to do any of that right now…

@Resolve from the Headphone Show suggested a +2.5dB bass shelf around 100hz and a 1.5dB boost around 2khz with a medium Q. I use Q=0.7 for the bass shelf and 1.4 for the peak at 2khz. -4 dB headroom adjustment.This is via Roon’s MUSE PEQ. DAC is Yggdrasil OG and amp is Burson3XGT. All totally optional.

 

[thefitz]

Pad switching is like
EQing. So sure, certain frequencies are louder but it won’t give you the full body sensation in the sound. (Sorry my audio vocab sucks. I’m new at this.)

Yep, it is like EQing! Except you have none of the supposed artifacts of EQing.

You'll just have this FR:

I can't credit the source of that image due to Head-Fi rules, but you see the upper midra;GE filled in and the harnessed reduced. Those two areas might even contribute to what some might call a "clinical edge", even!

 

[paradoxper]

If your tube amp pops it’s an issue with the power supply.
Tube amps are generally much safer than SS in this regard especially if they have tube rectifiers, because they turn on slowly, it’s why you rarely see soft start circuits in the high voltage parts of tube amps.
Having said that if the PSU doesn’t have a capacitor across the transformer primary, you can get a nasty pop, from the spike the power switch causes, but SS a amps can do that too.
I leave my headphones plugged into my amps, and just turn the volume down when I turn them off, I don’t think I’ve even owned a tube headphone amp in recent memory that pops on power on/off.
The one I designed and built did until I put a capacitor across the switch.
My 1990’s Melos preamp though is terrible in this regard, power on/off results in a big spike, but it’s not related to it having tubes.


I guess I agree with Jack Woo on this one.

This has been discussed many, many times.

It includes caveats such as tube integrated amps, solid state headamps without DC servo and protection mechanisms.
The distinction of tube amp vs headamp is important.

If you are using gear with transient spikes, be careful or you are likely to blow a driver as it's only a matter of time.

 

[psy472]

Yep, it is like EQing! Except you have none of the supposed artifacts of EQing.

You'll just have this FR:

I can't credit the source of that image due to Head-Fi rules, but you see the upper midra;GE filled in and the harnessed reduced. Those two areas might even contribute to what some might call a "clinical edge", even!

Well, Schiit Lokius can achieve similar benefit without much of the artifacts. It’s a very polite analog EQ. That’s why I usually use software EQ with it.

 

[thefitz]

Well, Schiit Lokius can achieve similar benefit without much of the artifacts. It’s a very polite analog EQ. That’s why I usually use software EQ with it.

Yep! Had it. Sold it. Bands are an octave plus in each direction. Currently listening to Susvara with these pads. Give 'em a try!

 

[psy472]

Yep! Had it. Sold it. Bands are an octave plus in each direction. Currently listening to Susvara with these pads. Give 'em a try!

So what’s with the normal HiFiman ring? How does that factor into this? And isn’t there amzf susvara pads? Why get the autuer?

 

[thefitz]

So what’s with the normal HiFiman ring? How does that factor into this? And isn’t there amzf susvara pads? Why get the autuer?

Susvara pads have a funky attachment system, but the pad rings that came with the OG circle HiFiMAN headphones work fine.

I currently own both ZMF pads - the sheepskin is great, very close to stock, with a slight bottom and upper midrange boost. The Hybrid has a much fuller midrange which is nice, at the cost of nonexistent sub bass.

I went with the Auteur after seeing the measurements and reading the impressions of the person who took them, who said that the Susvara with those pads dethroned the ZMF Auteur as his reference for natural sounds.

 

[psy472]

Susvara pads have a funky attachment system, but the pad rings that came with the OG circle HiFiMAN headphones work fine.

I currently own both ZMF pads - the sheepskin is great, very close to stock, with a slight bottom and upper midrange boost. The Hybrid has a much fuller midrange which is nice, at the cost of nonexistent sub bass.

I went with the Auteur after seeing the measurements and reading the impressions of the person who took them, who said that the Susvara with those pads dethroned the ZMF Auteur as his reference for natural sounds.

Well just tried the pads exchange. You are right the bass is a bit tighter and more pronounced. The original pads were likely leaking sounds. However I still had to EQ and preamp to get the sound I wanted though a bit less than before.

 

[plumpudding2]

I just put the ZMF Susvara Lambskin pads on and they're absolutely perfect. They feel durable and comfortable and they sound very much like the stock pads (I presume, when i received my Susvara the stock pads were already very worn)
Only concern I have is maybe breathability of the leather during summer, we'll see how that is soon.

 

[thefitz]

I just put the ZMF Susvara Lambskin pads on and they're absolutely perfect. They feel durable and comfortable and they sound very much like the stock pads (I presume, when i received my Susvara the stock pads were already very worn)
Only concern I have is maybe breathability of the leather during summer, we'll see how that is soon.

Yep, if you're after the stock sound, these are straight up better (and are about the same price.... and won't naturally disintegrate).

If you're willing to ship those old pads to Canada for me to harvest those mounting rings, message me haha

 

[Sand Dan Glokta]

For those that dabble in the dark arts of EQ: What adjustments do you find give the Susvara a bit of meat to its bones and tames the clinical edge?

I feel like sometimes these cans need just a sprinkle of something to tweak the flavour, and make them more agreeable with music that maybe isn’t recoded too well. I’ve tried some basic adjustments, and only slight ones at that, but they always feel heavy handed as I’m not that experienced with EQ.

What amp do you use? The clinical edge seems to be the sound when they are underpowered. Maybe im too used to aryas and i find susvaras even warm and meaty. But some music sound harsh, no matter what you do. You can kill that harsh with an eq but not without kill some soundstage and detail. And eq settings depends more of the music than the susvaras. For me, Harman curve doesnt work with susvaras. I only do small corrections in some highs when music needs, but with susvara it is less than 10% of the music, when my amp its supposed to be quite bright.

 

[psy472]

What amp do you use? The clinical edge seems to be the sound when they are underpowered. Maybe im too used to aryas and i find susvaras even warm and meaty. But some music sound harsh, no matter what you do. You can kill that harsh with an eq but not without kill some soundstage and detail. And eq settings depends more of the music than the susvaras. For me, Harman curve doesnt work with susvaras. I only do small corrections in some highs when music needs, but with susvara it is less than 10% of the music, when my amp its supposed to be quite bright.

I agree it may be an amp problem. I had hissing with the susvara on my MJ3 and even jot2 but they are mostly gone even at high volumes on my Flux Mentor.

 

[theveterans]

What amp do you use? The clinical edge seems to be the sound when they are underpowered. Maybe im too used to aryas and i find susvaras even warm and meaty. But some music sound harsh, no matter what you do. You can kill that harsh with an eq but not without kill some soundstage and detail. And eq settings depends more of the music than the susvaras. For me, Harman curve doesnt work with susvaras. I only do small corrections in some highs when music needs, but with susvara it is less than 10% of the music, when my amp its supposed to be quite bright.

System synergy, and not just amp. Never heard my Susvara sound harsh ever with Yggdrasil+ MIB + tubes even at loud volumes. Yggdrasil+ MIB produces silky smooth sound that you shouldn't hear any harshness on most amps at all

 

[tinariwen]

My ZMF Auteur Solid Hybrid Pad + Normal HiFiMAN rings method is much cheaper!

How do the pads change the sound?

 

[tinariwen]

What amp do you use? The clinical edge seems to be the sound when they are underpowered. Maybe im too used to aryas and i find susvaras even warm and meaty. But some music sound harsh, no matter what you do. You can kill that harsh with an eq but not without kill some soundstage and detail. And eq settings depends more of the music than the susvaras. For me, Harman curve doesnt work with susvaras. I only do small corrections in some highs when music needs, but with susvara it is less than 10% of the music, when my amp its supposed to be quite bright.

I use the Cayin Ha-300mk2, which by all accounts is enough amp.