3 days late,I frigging hate Fed EX!
Straight out of the box & right into the Burson Conductor3P(160mW@300ohms),absolutely NO issue with the Burson driving the almost 700 ohm load..I wasn't going to listen until they had at least 10 hours on them,yea right.SOOTB they seemed ok,treble was peaky,mids recessed,bass one note..Put them down & ran a few errands,about 2 hours later they were already different.Treble had smoothed out,mids seemed still a touch recessed,bass MUCH better,nice definition.
Fixed some dinner while doing laundry,another 2 hours & OMG.The VERY first thing that hits you is they actually show depth of stage.No longer is the sound coming from inside the skull,it's like the sound starts inside the skull but extends out & back,giving the illusion of being able to see instruments out in front of you,live recordings are AMAZING in this sense,crowd noise envelopes you,whistlers from hundreds of feet apart interplay as clearly as if you were there between their locations..You can picture drums set back & straight out from your face.
Tonealy they seem cut from the same HiFIMan Sundara cloth,nuetralish with a natural warmth that is more like good SE Class A Pentode running UL than it is the VERY slightly veiled warmth of a SET(ala HD650)...
Build quality is good BUT IMO the $350.00 Sundara could teach the HD800S a few things about a REALLY nicely built headphone..
Value for $ spent?Maybe,they certainly do some things no other cans do but compared to how much a $350.00 can like Sundara offers I would say no.Compared to TOTL from other makers then absolutely high value..
Oh 1 other thing,the cables..Most everyone HATES the LONG cables but my listening station is 12' from my chair,I LOVE the cable length,BRAVO Sennheiser!