For me, it's a great open planar, a great open dynamic, and a great closed dynamic.
We are spoiled for choice these days, so, which one is up to you and your budget, best advice I can give is; ignore the flavor of the month and don't buy anything less than a year old
Hard to put a number on things like that but I don't think there's anything under $2,000 that comes even remotely close (80%) to a Susvara in terms of technicalities.
For me, it's a great open planar, a great open dynamic, and a great closed dynamic.
We are spoiled for choice these days, so, which one is up to you and your budget, best advice I can give is; ignore the flavor of the month and don't buy anything less than a year old
Long time ago the old trifecta HD650, K701 and the Dt880 were the fancy pants but I have not followed what everyone would consider as todays version of this.
Remember these were not the most expensive just the best sounding for their time and price.
Not to me. On an OTL amp the 600 has midrange timbre no HFM {on their preferred amp) w/o EQ can play piano from top to bottom with proper timbre. The HE-500 and HE-6 (all models) can battle esp in non classical music - but they need mods and EQ to get close (but not exceed the 600/OTL combo on fine acoustic classical recordings). Susvara, HEK v2 have many other advantages of course - but timbre - not w./o EQ. Stock HE-500 and HE-6's are quite off timbre wise unmodified/un EQ'd - IMO. Note: that I've posted more favorable posts in the 500 thread about the 500 than anyone the past 5 years).
Hard to put a number on things like that but I don't think there's anything under $2,000 that comes even remotely close (80%) to a Susvara in terms of technicalities.
I think the closeout HEK v2 for $1999 is about 95.5% of the Susvara. I think the Audeze X-2021/OG LCD-4, HE-6 6 screw "Code" mod (last two used) are in that ball park - or better than 95.5%. My modified/EQ'd HE-6 SE is at least 90% of the Susvara.
BTW, taking all costs into consideration, I'm quite sure the Susvara costs HFM less than $750 to get it to dealers, support, sunk costs, research, marketing, shows, materials, machining, labor - all of it. Retail mark-up is usually 40-50%. That's some over priced can. Either Final D8000 is a better deal at full retail - all IMO.
I repeat myself .... Objectively, the higher end cans offer better technicalities... ie resolution, speed/transients, soundstage, imaging, layering and also things like timbre and texture.
I own a HE1000V2 and it only beats the Susvara in soundstage size. Everything else is like 70-80%. Maybe even 60% in bass impact when the Susvara is amped properly.
Based on price/performance at the time of this post and 2010 retail prices, the iBasso SR2 should replace the HD650(or iBasso SR3, if you really want the 300 ohm rating), the Drop x Sennheiser HD6xx should replace the DT880, and the Philips Fidelio X2HR should replace the AKG K701.
The iBasso SR2/SR3 have dynamic drivers that are based on Tesla technology and make them amongst the lowest price new for something open-back with those drivers, making them beat out those 2010 HD650 drivers and tuning. The HD6xx is basically a warmer HD650 with a badge change, and beats out the 2010 DT880 (250 ohm, at least) in sound and price ratio. The X2HR has seen as much production drama as any AKG product and sounds a little bit more v-shaped than the K7xx-series overall, but I have seen the X2HR go for as low as $80 new by an Amazon 3rd party seller, so it takes the last trifecta spot for me.
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