[tfenton02]

I thought I would share my experience with the HiFiMan upgrade program from their website. It was like living on a razor's edge and quite often throughout the process I questioned whether it was legit and sweated it out until my Susvara's arrived a few days ago (phew). I'm posting this to share with other who may question whether it's legit. Here it goes (sorry for the long post))

- On their Website Store I inquired about the upgrade program from a HE1000 V2, to HE1000 SE. $1000. Not bad.
- Upon correspondence I inquired about upgrading V2 to Susvara. That was $2,500, I was amazed.
- I approved the upgrade and received the final quote with shipping. All good!
- Next day I received another email stating the shipping costs were off, and it went up $50. No big deal.
- I paid with paypal, but it wasn't from HiFiMan but an individual with a Chinese name, and....
- Instead of the price I had to change the order quantity from 1 to 2,566 which then calculated the price, LOL
- I was nervous at this point, who is this person?
- I then looked at the address on Good Earth for the warehouse in NY, it was an old bungalow with a run down toyota in the driveway
- I did some research and read this is legit so I threw caution into the wind and paid the invoice
- Shipped my headphones to this bungalow with a toyota and prayed!
- Sure enough, a little over a week later I got a confirmation email and it stated I would get another email when the item ships
- So, I received an email indicating the Sundara is shipping, Wait, what? Sundara? I quickly responded, didn't get a response so I called the phone number on the website, No answer, tried a few times.
- Finally. someone picked up, "hello" (no HiFiMan). In the background it sounded like a family was eating breakfast. It must be the bungalow with the toyota, LOL. The woman, in broken english, indicated she would look into it and call me back
- I did not receive a call back but the following day I received an email indicating it was a typo and they are shipping the Susvara
- I received the tracking number and 3 days later UPS delivered the Susvara. Interestingly, no signature was required. Can you imaging having a $6,000 UPS box sitting on your front door.

It was just a wonky, fun experience so I thought I would share. It did work, however.

The Susvara is everything you read, truly epic. I now need find a more powerful amp, currently using iFI iCAN.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Fantastic. Can you upgrade from an HE1000SE to Susvara?

 

[tfenton02]

The Susvara upgrade wasn't listed on their website but when I inquired they said "yes" to my V2. So I'm sure they will. Last year I paid $2,100 for an open box V2. So with the upgrade of $2,500 i picked up the Susvara for $4,600. Not bad!!! Send an email inquiry to their customer service.

 

[normie610]

The Susvara upgrade wasn't listed on their website but when I inquired they said "yes" to my V2. So I'm sure they will. Last year I paid $2,100 for an open box V2. So with the upgrade of $2,500 i picked up the Susvara for $4,600. Not bad!!! Send an email inquiry to their customer service.

Congrats on the upgrade! With $4.6k you can actually get a brand new Susvara though

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Congrats on the upgrade! With $4.6k you can actually get a brand new Susvara though

What is the best NIB price a person can get reliably?

 

[tfenton02]

I haven't seen a new one at 4.6k...interested to know where?

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

I haven't seen a new one at 4.6k...interested to know where?

I saw one discussion where a poster claimed that he could get Susvara anytime he wanted NIB for under $3500. I have not seen that anywhere myself, but those prices are probably not advertised if they even exist at all.

 

[normie610]

It depends on your dealer, whether or not he/she is willing to provide a discount.

 

[eee1111]

A V2 + 2500 sounds like something I’d definitely do

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

It depends on your dealer, whether or not he/she is willing to provide a discount.

Sure, but there is a price floor which is the wholesale price that Hifiman gives to them. It would be interesting to know what the dealer price is. That will give you the price floor.

 

[BassicScience]

Congrats on the upgrade! From my perspective, Susvara is clearly the best headphone out there, so I think you'll be really happy as you scale up your rig.

I recently replaced the head strap on mine, and also had to use the funky payment site where you enter the price as a quantity (of a generic $1 item). Definitely a first, but seemed like an efficient way for HFM to handle random payments, the more I thought about it. I was communicating with HFM support directly throughout the process, and their service was quite excellent. I had the head strap in about a week (to Cali).

 

[BassicScience]

Sure, but there is a price floor which is the wholesale price that Hifiman gives to them. It would be interesting to know what the dealer price is. That will give you the price floor.

Dealer cost is typically around 50% MSRP for consumer audio, or so I've been told by various people.

 

[HiFiHawaii808]

Dealer cost is typically around 50% MSRP for consumer audio, or so I've been told by various people.

That would explain a lot of the comments.

 

[BoyNamedSue]

Could the wonkiness be explained by covid WFH? I've been seeing my clients from home remotely (love it) but there has been several instances of family intrusion (e.g., my son sneaking into background of my zoom calls). I wonder if official hifiman can verify the legitimacy of the trade-in program in this thread.

 

[tfenton02]

ome thin ones, especially the latter.

Could the wonkiness be explained by covid WFH? I've been seeing my clients from home remotely (love it) but there has been several instances of family intrusion (e.g., my son sneaking into background of my zoom calls). I wonder if official hifiman can verify the legitimacy of the trade-in program in this thread.

I think it's legit for sure. Just not a premium experience