Also from what I’ve seen, the difference in the 550 and the 590 is just the dac in it. And its something to consider honestly. Because the cost and import can drive up that rather significantly. So the question is get the 590 with the dac or say a 550 and ifi idsd neo via Amazon Canada. and feed it via single ended and my Hugo TT2 via balanced until I can order that mapletree switch box
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Yep
I’d go for a 550 imo, I don’t think the internal dac is really worthwhile
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Added a few more amps, redid the shit system to cover headphones individually which I think gives more information
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FWIW the stock rectifiers in the DNA make them sound much slower than they can be.
It’s always going to be a laid back amp, but changing the rectifier can address some of the excessive laziness it can display, especially on the HiZ out.
The DNA also has the worlds most not obvious output impedance (and it isn’t documented).
Balanced out is always 8 Ohms no matter how you set the switches.
SE is 110/8 or 3 depending, and the lower impedance’s do make things feel less lazy.
Yep. I personally feel you need to swap the recti to get the utopia on there, but it’s still too chill and smooth and soft for what I personally like out of the utopia
BUT with the mysphere 3.1, I actually think even stock recti makes it sing, so that was surprising to me, it worked well either way
For the utopia on se lowest setting was where I enjoyed it, but for the mysphere I actually did find balanced to be preferable
When rating the amps, I rated them as best possible pairing, so that means fiddling with settings, rolling tubes, other tweaks etc. So all amps were given best possible chance
:sips my hot cocoa: one day ill be in this realm.
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I’m surprised to see the Formula S in the same “scategory” as Bakoon for pairing with the Susvara. To read it around the forums the Bakoon can’t be beat for that headphone.
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I get an “oh shit” with my Susvara and Form S , but I am intrigued by the bakoon. I’m sure both amps are oh shit with both Susvara and 1266, just somewhat different flavors.
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I would still prefer the bakoon over the formula s for the susvara, but they still operate in a realistically similar performance category. Also if someone doesn’t enjoy a warmer richer smoother leaning amp, they actually might find the formula s a better pick than the bakoon.
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Makes sense. You’re very helpfully organizing into broad categories m and here I am splitting hairs, lol. Thank you for doing all this, it’s very helpful for those of us who can’t try every one!!
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It’s my fault for being more vague about it lol. I do think there’s valuable traits to all the amps, but that’s something you would kinda have to piece together so I would need to be more clear about it. I should have limited it to what I actually liked the most lol. If you have any questions about a specific amp pairing just let me know so I can elaborate there.
I’d say that with the formula s + powerman the susvara does have great micro aspects, but can be lacking from a macro sense, deeper but smaller stage, generally fairly neutral, a bit more dulled down, whereas I think the bakoon adds more body, life, and sweetness to the sound so improving macro, along with maintaining the great micro performance. Generally has a wider stage, more impact and slam, better tonal density, more dynamic, over the formula s. So I would say the bakoon is just a better match overall, but the formula s + powerman still isn’t bad and will still give you alot of what makes the susvara worthwhile.
Actually let me go back and order the shit categories to have best in the category be on the top, that might help
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Reordered
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Would it be fair to generalize that silver would be preferred over copper for the Susvara? Or would this sort of judgement have to be more cable-to-cable?
Yes, I wouldn’t get locked into the silver vs copper thing, as different silver designs can sound very different from each other, same for other cable materials as well. Generally I would say that a neutral yet technical cable tends to be nice on the susvara, perhaps something a bit more forward as well. Generally dislike cables that lean too far one way with the susvara
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Thanks @M0N for this incredible amount of work and for laying it out so clearly. In regard to the amplifier section, the adds of “you may not like this if…” were extremely helpful as well as the rankings.
This answered a question for me that I have been pondering over for several weeks for reasons both inside and outside of this discussion.
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That makes the 590 a heckuva value, considering the nimbus is twice the price.
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Or it makes the niimbus a poor value, depends on how you look at it lol
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Good point!
I try to be a cup half full kinda guy… Especially after a weeks vacation. 
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Yes, it does. For myself personally the 590/550 have other qualities that attract me over the US5 further increasing their value proposition, for me.
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Oh, I’m curious. What qualities? A feature like the preamp? Or something else?