I haven’t heard the Sundara but I do have the XS. Worth checking out some comparisons as I’ve seen people mention they’re a better sounding Sundara. I’ve also heard the LCD 2 is along the same lines. The LCD X is a darker headphone from what I’ve seen
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I’m also interested in the Arya. It’s one that’s been on my list for a while. Once I build up my savings a bit more 
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It’s time to sit down and enjoy some music. I’ve been building this set up since November and it’s time to let my wallet recover!
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That’s also something I heard 
only thing that kept me from getting some tbh is that I’m worried they might not have soul lol.
Focal clear is a very different headphone from anything else, its intimate and detail is not its priority, but resolve and cristaline sound are. Also extremely dynamic and fast. Would recommend demoing a focal product unles you really like dynamics and intimacy.
I would second the LCD X recommendation as its way more comfy, and I think has what you are looking for. X is definitively darker than hifiman, XC is more heavy and brighter, more aggresive, but it never really annoyed me for several hours of use.
The XC version can achieve way more punch and slam with proper EQ while the X is more linear / darkish oriented, while still having the obvious audeze house signature
LCD 2pf is also very recommended here but I havent tried it, its said to be rumbly, punchy and kinda relaxed/liquid presentation. Gonna get one soon to see whats the best under 1k audeze.
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Just came back from a Susvara demo session on very expensive gear I can never afford.
Weakest link would be the DX311mk2 because I wanted to limit varables and know the sound of that DAP quite well.
DX300->WOO WA33/Volelectric Nimbus->headphone
Personally I wasnt really wowed by the WA33 pairing with the Susvara. Sure it had humangous soundstage but alot of the minor details like vocal grit and the individual distortion peaks on the electric guitar was all gone. Was a very jaring contrast to the hyper detailed macrodynamics of the individual plucking of the strings. Almost like a noise floor but instead of noise its a smooth blend robbing away the final level of detail that I crave.
The shop owner took my comments into consideration and graciously provided the solid state Nimbus to use as a amp.
The difference is like night and day, its like a viel had been lifted on the susvara where every microscopic detail is in full display and not forced like how it is with with Beyer headphones. The only dealbreaker is that that vocals sound rubbery in that they are excessively thick and sounds like its following the drivers shape and not having its own imaging shape in the soundscape.
At first I thought it was just aviators since he synthesizes his voice to give that etheral voicing. But even with kalafina and nana mizuki with minimal editing vocals still kept having that rubbery effect. Was particularly egregous with Lacimosa by kalafina since both the main and supporting singers are all layered on top of each other and what I use to test layering due to that mastering querk. All vocals were mushed together. You can hear the different singers but no distinct layering happening.
Not sure if thats a querk of the hifiman of that era but I happened to noticed the XS he was burning in and honestly in everything from soundstage to imaging to proper controlled dynamics to timbre(amazing considering its a “cheap” hifiman planar) is on par with the susvara with the only the microdeatail being worse. Also the thiner images gives much more play with the soundstage and honestly Im super impressed.
The next time I go there I need to bring my iha-6 since powering the XS on a 10k sgd amp isnt realistic and I am temped to just get that instead of the DCA Ether 2.
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Personally from what you describe with the XS being very close and the experience with the WA33, that really sounds like a large dac limitation there, the WA33 will be very picky on what it’s being fed, and I’m not surprised it wasn’t a pleasant experience and the niimbus was more forgiving and capable pairing with the DX300. I’d assume with the XS vs Susvara the limitation is also with the dac, but I’ve not heard a XS yet and people do praise it for it’s technical ability for the money, need to hear that
That’s cool you got to have those amps on demo, will be curious if you go back how the XS plays with your iHA-6 (and if you end up grabbing one lol)
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I can’t believe the XS comparison to Susvara honestly. Either the thing scales impossibly well or the Susvara is a sub par headphone. I just sold my XS after owning them for a month because my Arya v2 came in and the XS was dropped to its knees because its one true savior had finally arrived. The Arya crippled the XS into a 2 dimensional being in a world where 3 dimensions exist. I sold the XS 30 minutes after I got the Arya lol
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I mean I can just based off my experience with the Susvara, it is a headphone that will end up feeling somewhat lackluster for the money if the source chain isn’t the best, it is very demanding. And when you have a dac limitation, the headphone can only give you as much as the dac provides, it can make up for what isn’t there. It’s one of the reasons why I personally suggest people who are looking at the susvara but can’t quite afford the cost of the chain to go with it to instead go for the he1000se and spend the extra money they saved on the source, as I think that will be more rewarding. So I wouldn’t be surprised of the XS is closer than it should be if the dac is limited
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yeah sadly the store didnt have the usb C->B OTG so I could use my DX300 only as a transport for a better dac(honestly Im not sure what they have but im sure they have matching high end dacs). I suspect as much that thats the limiting factor since thats a AIO DAP designed primary for iems
Just curous on high end Sources the WA33 doesnt have that minor viel? Since the store owner said the smoothing of minor details is common for tube amps.
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Ah dang, that’s a handy cable to have sometimes lol
The dx300 is good as a dap as a whole, but as a line out dac I personally thought it was somewhat at or below like a bifrost 2 or ares ii tier of dac, which is really low for a susvara + wa33 combo imo
I personally don’t find a veil with higher end sources, I do agree it’s a smoother amp, but with higher end sources that information isn’t smoothed over, but is instead incorporated into the smoothness and it sounds very liquid. That amp has a tendency to become somewhat cloudy sounding/dulled in low level resolution and microdynamics if fed with either a lower tier (in comparison to the amp) or poor synergy dac which can lead to it sounding very lackluster like you experienced. It really comes alive with some of the dacs around the similar price range, and the susvara will really really pull ahead on that nicer combo
The susvara is a headphone that’s real magic lies in it’s lower level resolution and microdynamics, and imo it’s only worthwhile if you have a chain good enough to truly portray that nuance/lower level info
Ah and another potential aspect of the experience can be if the amp is warmed up or not, and also what tubes are being used, that can affect things as well, but not as big of a deal as the dac is in this case
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Thanks alot for your insights I’ll see if I can get a C->B OTG cable myself so that I dont have to rely on the stores to provide that cable for testing.
Sigh another 200sgd down the drain, but at lest its better to get from my customer cable maker that cares about sound and knows my preferences than some random C->B off amazon that potentially can roll off the high frequency(I still donno how a USB cable is able to do that but cables are so unexplored science wise that its people that specialise in cable making consider it a liberal art)
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You’d think that the vendor would relay a lot of that required synergy info as you leaving there not satisfied mean no sale on a Susvara and serves no one. Maybe they either didn’t know or you caught them on a bad day?
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It’s a handy cable to have anyways as it can be nice to just use daps as a transport if you don’t want any distractions vs using a pc or phone, and can sometimes improve sound on some dacs as well so worth trying and see how that goes on dacs you already have too
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Nah I contacted them 4 days in advance so that they could warm up the WA33 in the morning. Maybe Canjam is the way to go to truely hear how good Susvara is. Hopefully the Singapore tour doesnt get canceled again this year.
Along with experencing how good estats can actually get it would be a good learning experience for me I think since I feel the other shop(Zepplin and Co) estats dont seem to provide the same drug like factor that I’m reading and Im not sure whats the issue.
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Oh if you can visit zepplin and co, have you demoed anything from mass kobo? I know they sell them, not sure if they have demo units. The mass kobo amps will not drive the susvara well, but they are fantastic with other more efficient headphones specifically dynamics like audio technica, sennheiser, and focal along with some of the more efficient planar, worth going to listen imo
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I’ll try and be brief, I understand HiFiman better now. The low sensitivity models they make are not really HP’s, they are simply really small speakers you wear on you head. 
I read about people all over other sites talking about how they sound perfectly fine on their THX amps and SPL Phonitors along w/ a very wide variety of other good HP amplifiers, and you know what, yes they can be played on a ton of perfectly fine amplifiers and reproduce music.
My mistake when I sampled the pair i was loaned was to first play them on my 2 channel. That was dumb, I should have taken them and promptly spent a day or 2 using different HP systems before moving down to the 2 channel set-up. I don’t understand why or how they scale so differently on certain amplifiers but the “feel” of the music, especially on points I myself can well understand like soundstage, separation, depth and general spacial aura is different.
Had I sampled them in proper order, generic HP amps first, speaker amps afterwards I think I would not have spent a day comparing them to other HP’s… that was wasted time. These are their own little style of different, similar to some of their brethren. Many a more trained ear than mine has given you all the fine details on their sound reproduction abilities. Same as the HE6 series these simply were designed to play well with particular styles of amplifiers. I enjoyed them just fine on a few different HP amps, but the greater sense of space was not there and that was real easy for me to discern based just on a few tracks.
I have plenty of other HP’s that I simply prefer for a variety of reasons. Seriously though, if I only had a good 2 channel set-up I would consider a pair of HP’s that work well in that type of set-up hands down over anything else available. The Susvara would be a perfect fit and I feel I would be doing an injustice to the abilities of this piece if i did not speak up.
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Sadly for both Jaben and Zepplin and Co, Mass Kobo are by pre order only and no demo units are available.
Personally at lest on the dynamic side of things
Fiio k9 Pro->iHA-6/AT-BHA100(depending on mood)->ATH-AWKT is pretty much my end game and I dont see myself changing this chain soon but yeah if I can find a place to demo mass kobo I would be more then excited to give it a listen.
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I think zepplin also sells mysphere, so that’s also worth a listen potentially as another interesting headphone to try, but also might be pre order only
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Perhaps I should look into an AHB2 for the Susvara. I think I have a couple days left to return the Ferrum stack. However, since I do not see it get any mentions here perhaps there’s something I’m missing - yet again…
Edit: I’m not really ready to turn in the Ferrum Stack or the V550, but I am wanting now to try something like a Hegel H120 or an AHB2.
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