Perhaps. You should be good with any dac/amp with the Hifiman Sundara. I have not yet listened to any Ifi amplifiers, so I can’t help you there.
My only Focal is the Elegia which is also of no help to you. In your search for a desktop, if that becomes your path, perhaps you might look into tube amps. I love tube sound over solid state sound. But, depending on the tube amp, there is a little more to deal with that some may not enjoy. Just another choice to consider.
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I haven’t read through the thread, but @generic 's point is excellent. But if you are so open about this, you might look at a wireless adapters for IEMs that have removable cables, or specifically something like the Audeze LCDi3, which is sort of an IEM (but more comfortable), and comes with a bluetooth cable that goes around your neck, a CIPHER cable that works with your iPhone and includes a DAC and EQ, and a regular cable that you could use if you want to in the Surface (or you could use Bluetooth).
There are threads here if you search on them.
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Hi @a_pid, as an owner of the Shure se846 I can say that they are great iem’s. They are well made with a great overall package of accessories. As for sound this can be changed via the filter system that the 846’s employ. I won’t go into a detailed sound breakdown as much has been written about them. If you look on the forum you will find plenty of information regardig this.
As has already been stated the 846’s have been about a good number of years now and have been superceded by many more expensive and technically better iem’s. There are also lots of more competitively priced iem’s with better all round sound. At today’s prices they are hard to recommend unless you love the Shure sound and are a big Shure fan.
If you can get them in a sale or used then they are much easier to recommend. I love the 846’s and although I far better iem’s performance wise these still have a place in my heart.
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I can’t speak for the Sundara but the Clear will scale with better gear. What this means are two things:
First, a stronger or superior amp will produce a better sound even though the Clear are easy to drive. There are a few posts about this on the forum, including some excellent ones by @generic, I believe. You don’t need a lot of power; rather, what you should look for is a suitable, synergistic pairing.
I have the (out of production) Massdrop Cavalli Tube Hybrid amp (MTCH), which pairs exceptionally well with the Clear. As its name suggests, it is a kind of tube amp, but one that is a hybrid, which means that it also has a solid state component to the design. You should beware of pure tube amps with the Clear. Some work well, many others don’t. The key issue is impedance matching. The Clear is a relatively low-impedance headphone, at 55 ohms. If you pair it with the wrong tube amp, you’ll end up with bass being too bloated and flabby and overdone.
Some other desktop amps to consider are the Schiit Audio Jot 2 (solid state), Asgard 3 (solid state again, although do some research first to check it synergizes well with the Clear), and the Lyr 3, which is another tube hybrid. Another option is the solid state RebelAmp, which @generic has recommended for being an exceptionally good pairing withe Clear. There are other amps out there, too, that might work well.
Second, the Clear will also scale with a better source. What this means is that, if you’re playing digital music files, a good DAC would also improve the sound quality. I have listened to the Clear from a entry-level $100 DAC, a $350 one, and a $700 one (the Bifrost 2), and with each upgrade, various improvements were immediately apparent through the Clear. These improvements included, among others, detail retrieval, instrument separation and layering, and macro- and micro-dynamics (i.e. the ability, respectively, to represent either big changes from quiet to loud passages in music, or to distinguish between tiny shifts in loudness, such as with a pianist playing with varying gentle touches).
Remember that overall synergies matter. At the moment, my Clear is being driven by a fairly pricey, relatively high-end DAC (the Bifrost 2) and a more modest amp, the MCTH. The pairing works well; I find the Clear to be fairly neutral (to me, it may sound slightly more or less neutral to others, depending on their preferences or points of view), but the Clear can have a bit of hotness, or a slightly hard, almost crystalline quality to the treble. The MCTH does little to alleviate this but I use it because it has excellent bass response, it reproduces macrodynamic shifts exceptionally well, and, as a combination of these qualities, it also slams very well. (It should be noted that the Focal headphones are famous for macrodynamics and for their slam). The Bifrost 2 makes for a good pairing because it is slightly warmer sounding than the MCTH, and its treble response is less pronounced, which takes the edge off the Clear’s treble and, for me, produces a nice balance. You would need to find similar balances and synergies with other DAC and amp combinations.
Now, if all this is sounding overwhelmingly complex and daunting, or if you’re not interested in desktop gear at all, I’d recommend a couple of other options:
First, you might find a good DAP. I wonder if warmer DAPs might work well for you. Examples of these might include the Sony and the Astell & Kern DAPs. (Remember, your Clear don’t need lots of power to sound good, so a DAP could work nicely; you’ll also have a cable that’s terminated for portable sources in the Clear’s box). Other DAPs that could be good are the Cayin ones, including those that have tubes in them like the Cayin N3 Pro, which seems to be a nice little device, to judge from some of the commentary about it on various forums. It’s basically the equivalent of a tube hybrid amp, if I understand it correctly. There are also more expensive options from Cayin that also include tubes. (I’m tempted myself by the N3 Pro for my Clear and for my IEMs).
Second, you might consider an all-in-one unit (AIO). The Schiit Asgard 3, Jot 2, and Lyr 3 can come with DACs installed inside them, so they’d be transportable, if chunky options. More portable AIO units include those by Chord such as the Mojo or the more expensive Hugo 2 (the Hugo 2 is transportable, not portable, and the Mojo is long in the tooth now and might be superseded at some point, although no ones knows if this will actually happen).
Finally, yes, the iFi gear might well be excellent with the Clear. I’ve not heard my Clear with iFi gear; it would be worth taking the time to see what people’s impressions of the pairings are, and, as I mentioned above, be mindful of synergies. I’d avoid neutral, analytical, or brighter sources and amps for my Clear.
Wow, this got way too long. Sorry. Good luck!
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In the spirit of complicating things, the 5K has 3 times the power when using the 2.5mm output. You would need what’s called a balanced cable for the Sundara in order to use the 2.5mm connection. I don’t know what cables are included with the Clear so you might need a cable for them also.
HartAudioCables.com has these for about $75 which include several connections - 3.5mm, 2.5mm, 1/4", XLR, etc. You can pick a package (and custom color if that’s your thing). This avoids having to pay full price for several different cables just to have different connectors and avoids spending more money if you get a different amp.
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Note also that the massive RebelAmp is the size of an old school VCR or stereo rack CD player. It’s the polar opposite of a mobile solution and too large for many desktop setups too. Quality sound through extreme overkill.
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Awesome, thank you Nick and @Tchoupitoulas! So, all up, I have the Clear, Sundara and Qudelix 5k coming. A slightly more powerful Amp sounds like it might be a good bet to both get more out of the Clear and perhaps get the most out of the Sundara. The folks at Headphones.com recommended the Questyle M12 and I have read a lot of good things about the AudioQuest Dragonfly Red. I am open to small-ish “desktop” size like the Chord stuff. Not a big deal as my need for “portable” just means to different couches around the house. I don’t travel.
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That makes for more options. The Chord and iFi mini/micro lines are popular. They are considered to be more like “transportable” than portable but moving inside the house is easily doable.
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Do you know much about Schiit Audio? Their products hit all price and quality levels, and come in small, medium, and large sizes.
A lot of this depends on your budget and willingness to get your toes wet versus dive in headfirst. Some people go to one extreme or another, but odds are your views will change after a year or two of experience. Some enter an endless upgrade cycle and are never happy, or worse they get into an endless sidegrade cycle where they spend the same $$$ over and over for slightly different versions of similar performance.
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That might work. I’ve got a Lotoo Paw S1 for my IEMs and I very much like it for the price and for its size. I’ve not tried it with my Clear but I’ll give it a whirl tonight with my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook Air, and I’ll report back later for you.
Since you’re getting the Clear, I have two separate suggestions for you. Get one of these (or equivalent) headband covers. The underside of your headband may discolor quite quickly if you don’t.
If you intend to keep the Clear for the long haul, get a replacement set of pads now, while you can. They last a decent amount of time - mine are 3+ years old and are still fine - but, as a closeout item, the Clear will be gone in the not too distant future, and I don’t trust Focal to keep making the pads. At most retailers the pads cost around $200. Right now, they’re available for half that from headphonesdotcom (here).
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Regarding pads, if you are a heavy user consider Dekoni’s after market Focal pads too. Buy a set for $59 and use them, while you set the factory pads aside to keep them pristine.
Buy another $59 set and another. Then you’ve paid the cost of one $200 factory set.
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This is really, really sound advice. Don’t hesitate on this @elliot
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Absolutely, this is great advice but know, @elliot, that the Dekoni pads may alter the sound (potentially for the better)
They’ll most certainly alter the sound. Fortunately, Dekoni measures the differences and posts them on their website (click the pad and scroll down to see the comparison measurements). I don’t know what equipment they use for measurements, but it sure is a nice feature.
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Yes, good call! I forgot, @Resolve did a nice comparison of them here:
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Sorry I disappeared a few hours… apparently a limit on how much newbies can comment 
We talkin’ this thing here, @NickZ ? - Multi-Kit 1: Includes 3" variant of IC-1 through IC-6 – Hart Audio Cables
And @generic - yes, read lots about Schitt and its offerings. I don’t think (who knows ofc) I will be the endless upgrader, as I have other hobbies that are larger parts of my life. I don’t mind dropping some coin on something like the Jot or Lyr if it’s going to supply me with all that is needed to fully drive something like the Clear, Sundara, and a very quality IEM for when in bed with a sleeping wife. That’s a purchase yet to be made and would probably want something super easy that would run right into my iPhone exclusively. Perhaps Blessing 2.
I know how rabbit holes work (I have more than 100 kitchen knives), but ideally, I could set up something that is quite strong in short order and then really spend time learning. So, I figure, between those two headphones, the chords mentioned by Nick, and then a solid piece like the Jot/Lyr or one of the iFi pieces (all seem out of stock) in similar size, I probably cover a pretty strong base. Hope that makes sense?
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I think you’ll be all set for a while (until you’re not haha). Well done on putting in some research time and consulting the folks on this fine forum. I hope you truly enjoy your new purchases.
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That would work but you might not need all those options. You could get multi-kit 6 with 2.5mm for half the price. It depends on what you think you will need. You can buy individual connectors also but you save with a kit if you were going to buy 2 or more.
Also, you have to buy the headphone cable - the one that attaches to the headphones. Those are about $40, add in $36 for multi-kit 6 and that’s $76.
It winds up that when you get to the $500 range for amps and dacs you won’t find one piece that is head-and-shoulders above everything else. It’s more about small differences, often called side-grades.
If you were to get a solid portable (Chord, iFi or other) you may find that a desktop amp in the same price range gives a different flavor but not something that is clearly superior. Accumulating multiple pieces in the same price range may not be the best bang-for-buck, but as always you can’t know without jumping in the pool.
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Gotcha. So this thing in 2.5: Multi-kit 6: Budget Friendly – Hart Audio Cables
And then this guy: HC-2: 3.5mm TRRS Balanced Headphone Cable – Hart Audio Cables