Haha!! Now I’m going to hear it!
Focus on how smooth and liquid the music is! 
It can be amazing notes flow together beautifully and create an organic whole.
Smoove….
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I find if you go use something else for a week or two and come back to it, you’ve blown the issue out of all proportion in your mind, and it isn’t as big an issue as you remember.
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I think it only annoys me because of the cost. While sagra → 13r → sus is more detailed than p6p → 428 → d8kp, the seperation on the latter is a whole tier better making detail much much easier to follow while still staying nice and smooth. With more detail and less seepration it just feels like a tease tbh.
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Whooooa. The Hypsos is on deck.
This stack definitely makes the Susvara sound like a different headphone to me. So complete. I actually love the bass. My tastes in bass tend to skew towards turn my skull into dust, hence my plan to purchase a 1266 when I visit New York next month, but the Susvara sounds awesome on this stack. I may well end up moving this on when the new Holo amp comes out, but for now I actually finally feel like my Susvara is performing like it’s supposed to.
Adding some clarification, as I just gave the Mini a try and it sounds great. It’s such a good amp. The Oor sounds more mid-forward to me, with more warmth and impact down low. It’s the punch and impact that sets it apart from the Mini. Remember in Back to The Future how Marty keeps that photo of his brother and sister with him, and as the movie progresses and things aren’t going to plan they start to slowly fade away? And then when his parents kiss during Earth Angel they suddenly fill back in again and it’s this big climax, and you know everything is going to be OK? That’s like using the Oor - the outlines and all the details are there with the Mini, but with the Oor/Hypsos it all becomes a solid image.
I’m not saying that listening to the Oor is like watching my parents kiss.
It’s the difference (for me) between feeling like the Susvara is a natural, polite, detailed headphone that pulls its punches when it comes to the low-end, and feeling like this a really balanced headphone that represents all frequencies equally well.
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The Susvara really doesn’t sound terrible on anything, but to my mind two thing suffer if it’s under amped.
The Bass tends to lack any extension and the micro dynamics (to my mind this is the real strength of the headphone) get smoothed over.
To me there are other headphones I’d rather have than an under amped Susvara, but with the right amp it’s still my favorite headphone.
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It’s almost misleading in a sense, on its own it’s pretty hard to tell it’s being under spec’d on the source gear department because it really just won’t sound bad (given you haven’t already heard what it can do), nothing will immediately stand out that calls attention to less than ideal source gear. But once you realize how far it can go and what it truly is capable of, it’s really hard to go back lol. Just one of those where it might not seem rewarding to keep going up at first, but as you move further up it becomes more and more worthwhile
Totally agree here, the susvara excels at anything related to nuance and low level information, and on lesser chains it just sounds dull and inoffensive because it’s not being given that information to work with, but when you get it on something nicer that can both assert great control over the headphone and allow it to present that nuance it really comes alive as a whole and starts to show why it’s actually worth it’s cost
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The first time I plugged my Sus into a mediocre amp I was floored at how not horrible it was, haha. In fact, even on a JDS atom it’s pretty nice!
There’s so much internet talk (not talking about this group) about X can’t drive the Susvara, it will sound bad on Y. I think I expected a low quality amp to sound objectively bad,… like static and smoke bad. What it really sounded like was “very very good, but not worth $6k MSRP.”
Of course that level of nuance usually doesn’t make it through on the Internet forum “telephone game.”
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Pretty much, there are some higher end headphones that will sound flat out bad on lacking source gear, but the susvara isn’t one of them. But it’s also one that I’d really suggest people pass on if they aren’t going to put up what it needs source gear wise, they’d be better off grabbing a hekse and taking the rest of the budget to spend on source gear, I’d rather have a hekse with appropriate source gear vs an underspec’d susvara
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I’m so conflicted
Get a Sus let it sound good, even with my current system its better than not having Sus…
Don’t get a Sus until I have the proper source…
…lol
I suppose it is for me then a “Pay your money take your chances” situation.
I’m lucky that I have two sets of phones that I Really, Really, Truly like with my current source, and I can take time to let things sort out.
Now getting back to the thread topic - I still am quite interested in the OOR/Hypsos regardless, as I’m down to just one notable HPA and I’m considering another amplifier to build a second system around. That’s what I’m in this thread for, just soaking up bits n pieces of info around the Ferrum gear.
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You are at the point where the sus is a viable option lol
Def worth looking into, I’d say pretty compelling for the amp and psu stack for what it goes for
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I remember when you said you’d take a clear w/ good source gear over the utopia w/ not so ideal source gear, but I spent a good amount of time with the utopia w/ soloist and I much prefer the u over the clear already…maybe they just happen to be a “good enough match.” Although if I put it with a lower-tier amp then yeah I probably would have to agree (thinking about it now).
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On that chain I’d be 50/50 but it would depend on the dac, if you would be running your spring then I would rather have the utopia, but if it was still at something like a bifrost I’d likely go for the clear
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Oh yeah, forgot I had the spring connected to it. I would not want it paired w/ an rme. lol
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That’s true for the Utopia especially, in my experience. That headphone actually does sound bad on bad source gear. It’s an ear microscope, and it’s focused on the source chain. Bad source chain, bad sound.
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It’s really been 23 days since any last activity hype or cautionary statements - is the shiny wearing off already?
I am still interested in this pair, but also in no hurry and waiting too to see if the HoloAudio camp will deliver what they have been working on, even if they have a prototype to show that it is still an active work in progress.
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I haven’t really posted since what I think really hasn’t really changed all that much, still using it from time to time
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So TLDR is middle of the road given the price (for sus and 1266)? Have you tried utopia on it out of curiosity? It actualy seemed like a fairly good pairing to me but I only used 2 songs on it
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I wouldn’t really call it middle of the road (since middle of the road to me would be more something like an amp 13r or xi form s + powerman for a susvara and 1266), but it’s likely one of the best options in it’s price class for a susvara or 1266 compared to other offerings imo
Actually yeah, and while at first I didn’t notice anything noteworthy, it has grown on me a bit there, wasn’t expecting it to be as good as it is (although at this price point I’d rather go for something else if I were focusing a utopia)
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I mean, both those are a fair bit more than the combo. Hypsos + oor is 3300 new, while I’ve never seen a form S + sub 3500 used and 13 is more if 4.5-5k
About my impressions. Seemed very clean and well controlled with good seperation (something I think utopia often lacks tbh) and mega punch. Not something I woulr buy for utopia but if someone had the stack already and asked if utopia would work I’d give the thumbs. Good to know my brief impressions were at least somewhat on point
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Yes, I think the form s and 13r are middle of the road I mean. Since I think they sit in the middle of the available amp options for those headphones. So I’d put the ferrum a step behind the middle of the road. If that makes sense. Since I think you have amps like the niimbus/v550, ferrum stack, luxman, and then a more middle of the road like a lau, 13r, form s + powerman, modwright ha300, and then you have higher up the road like a wa33, cha-1, viva, etc
Would agree
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