It’s really not about total power with the hard to drive planars, you’ll get loud enough with a couple of watts, the issue is really about how the amp behaves when delivering that amount of power.
I recently picked up a Susvara, and I have at least 5 amps that will get them more than loud enough, but what you lose on most of those amps is what makes them special.
To my mind what differentiates them is the ability to display exceptional dynamics even at low volumes (rivaling estat’s in some ways) this is readily apparent on high dynamic range recordings, but the lower end amps I have while they get loud they lose that.
They still sound like exceptional headphones, but they aren’t as special.
The only amps I have that deliver that fidelity at lower levels are the Cavalli Liquid Gold and the DNA stratus.
What the F is that supposed to mean? How does it relate to listening on a headphone? Even if it means something, do you think you could hear it? If you could hear it, would it matter? Explain how in 25 words or less.
Please search Amazon for a good set of BS detectors.
That’s just my opinion, YMMV
No clue honestly, as I mentioned that’s what many people said on the reviews. Ask them, we can purchase it and rewatch the reviews and see what is detected
I wouldn’t doubt it for a second, honestly for someone in my shoes you just try to cover the variables. I am just looking at the consensus of what people who own/loaned it and review it were saying. Some people were using the micro BL on turbo.
I think what you said is pretty much what they all said. Hopefully this headphone amp delivers, fingers crossed. But we won’t know until we try.
The only thing that comes to mind is, and you obviously have the experience, of what is lost and gained.
What amp do you use?
Audio reviews and data interpretations are often packed with BS. This follows from inconsistent reviewers who don’t compare blind or compare systems back to back and forget prior quality, overt conflicts of interest (i.e., if I say anything bad I won’t get more equipment to test), and efforts to stand out in a crowd by saying esoteric stuff that few may perceive or understand (e.g., sound stage verticality).
Some low volume or expensive products may be owned or tried by a few hundred or few thousand people during their commercial lifetimes. Your opinion may well vary.
So, without trying directly for yourself there may not be much to be learned.
I totally agree, I’ve mentioned before that asking for specific audio advice is difficult. You can give a general idea, but you like I may hate or vice versa.
Second, some of these guys want to say a bunch of good things about products, because if they say bad the manufacturer won’t send them free demo units.
That’s why I said when people say things on reviews I turn to ASR to see if we got a matching profile. I had this way back with the Pro-Ject dac I wanted to purchase, so many people said it’s amazing. ProfFalkin told me probably not do that, at that time I didn’t use ASR. But with time I went back to see for that price the performance is alright, and simply that made it not worth it. I’m sure that’s why he mentioned that.
Like you said, placebo and lack of true ownership and experience, in addition memory loss. It’s hard for the 9 to 5 reviewers.
Prior to ever coming here I always watched the headphone show with Andrew. He seemed like a very knowledgeable guy and felt like he would try to be as unbiased and the most detailed reviews and comparisons. Way before I even knew what he was talking about.
I just say again, I am trying to do my best to get experience. And not waste any of the effort people on here put to give me direction. Even though I haven’t fully listened to certain advice. This is an expensive hobby and bad mistakes can be costly, however sometimes you got to gamble. I am alright with that especially once my stable income returns I plan on getting a few very. All this mindfulness and anxiety will go away.
I’m sure you will hear somethings I say that blow your mind, besides my decision making, like @pennstac. Take into consideration I only own 1 pair of headphones, no dac, just purchased my first amp and it’s only been 4 months. That’s why I cite what other people say, and even mention for others to correct me if I’m wrong to help individuals. I’m just regurgitating what might be garbage. Probably should refrain from doing so, but this is not an everyday thing for me and the product mentioned is what I’ve been really looking into and researching.
I promised myself that I would not respond to another one of your posts, reason being is you seem to be a dichotomy of genuinely looking for information while also trying to disprove our collective recommendations.
Some things truly do not add up, questions you ask have been answered and references you make to other websites are vague enough not to confirm. In other words some of the traits of your posts possess are related to disinformation. You have an easy explanation as you self-admittedly indicate you are pulling information from others. That is usually how disinformation campaigns usually start. I will use your recent reference to the RME DAC, as others have pointed out, WTF on your description. You claim to have not heard this DAC, yet are relaying information that seems contradictory to what owners of the DAC have stated.
While I am no authority on the different DACs, headphones, and amps you have inquired about, some things do not add up. Such as is your name Mike, or John? As your summary indicates one thing, and the name under your screen name is something else. Also you had indicated some challenges in visiting local retailers in Los Angeles, they were inaccurate to say the least.
So I’m willing to fall on the sword here and be reprimanded for this post, I do not believe your are genuinely trying to contribute to this community but to cause a bit of chaos.
I don’t disagree or agree, and am certainly not naive in responding [i.e., see my single “no involvement” response in the recently closed thread that got out of hand]. However, many hundreds of people do in fact visit this website without joining or posting. The lurkers likely see 99 posts for every new question. I can easily find my own posts by searching with Google or DuckDuckGo for a random, odd phrase that pertains to headphones. This site seems to be in the top 5 of the English language headphone forums.
So, I respond neutrally to repeated questions or discussions that aren’t moving forward because it’ll improve the outcome for those who want to make a quick and reasonable purchase decision. Very few are going to review all 1,053 prior posts in this thread for context or to learn the personalities of everyone on the forum – I’m happy if a reasonable answer is present within a few posts up or down.
Confusion is chaos my friend. Second, if you were to consider I’m trolling, which is what people purposefully do. You’d have to assume I didn’t just spend nearly 5000 on audio integration over 4 months.
I wouldn’t doubt people would come in ask a bunch of questions and never end up following through with any of it.
I already dedicated 1200 on headphones, 800 on an amp, and now trying to search for a dac which could possibly run up anywhere from 200-1000. So hopefully if someone is going to invest 3000 they would try and ask questions and seek information from all the possible sources. My home theater was the rest of that total. And undoubtedly I did the same thing with home theater set up, but I got a lot of advice which really paid off and might purely be luck.
And if that isn’t passion and dedication, that’s with money I really don’t have, I’m not sure what is. I got no income/work and I’m spending money I got saved to try and reach a happy place in music.
I listen to music nearly 8 hours or more a day now.
I don’t blame you, nor am I mad, everyone has provided sufficient information to cover the fundamentals. Now we going back to that situation because of decisions I made.
However, I realized few posts back as I said I don’t think anyone can truly help so I stopped bothering. General advice and direction works, but not specifics.
If that all doesn’t add up nothing will. Don’t need to get into the other topics you mentioned because it doesn’t change the validity of what I said above.
I will say again, I didn’t want to bring this chaos here. Your forum moderator put my question into this thread. Nor did I expect any of you to go to that post and provide help. So I think what you are saying lacks consideration of that. Not sure how many more times I need to say it, just in the case you missed that here it is again. Did not want to drag anyone into my poor decision making and disregarding advice.
Completely clearing any negative intentions.
$ spent has nothing to do with it. Your posts are scattered and all over the place, wander off on tangents, are ill informed, and are just confusing walls of text with many broad generalizations. You’ve asked for so much advice, and heeded none of it. You give advice on how products sound, yet you haven’t heard any of these things. Further, you keep coming back with out-of-left-field purchase decisions and asking us for some kind of justification for it. It’s no wonder people think you are trolling.
Let me clear the air on this. Your post was solidly in the category of general advice, which is why it was moved here. Your original request was not special, unique, or deserving of its own thread. Don’t try to pass the buck on your behavior to the moderators because they did their job to keep the forum organized.
There are several forums I can think of that wouldn’t put up with any of this. You’d have been banned or ostracized long ago at these places - we have been exceedingly patient with you.
I’ll be honest, trying to help you has been more frustrating than herding cats.
I normally don’t announce such things, but I’m going to put you on ignore now. I just don’t need to deal with this much crazy.
Wait, we can do that? Can I do that for every time you post something referencing suede? 
Can we be doubly notified every time there’s a chair shot?
Ha! It’s not that selective.
Can I ask where to get a cool recliner in this thread?
As you requested:
I will say once more, I appreciate what you have done and everyone else who has reached out to help.
I’m not putting a gun to your head and forcing you to help me. You could have merely ignored me without having to reach this point.
I’m in no position to give advice, and citing what I hear wrong or right shouldn’t create a catastrophe. Just correct me and move on to actually helping the person asking for help.
Also just because I am ill informed and make bad decisions that doesn’t mean I don’t need help or does that make me a troll. Anyone who is novice would be in the very same position.
I’m obviously not only asking but trying to experience new things so I can grow and develop my knowledge further.
I may not be entitled to my own thread, and that is fine. Point being I mentioned I wanted these headphones and I saw many of you say that’s not wise. I’m not trying to come back here post that same question to you guys.
I just wanted to get advice direct from people who actually own a pair. Is that to make trouble and make that persons life hell?
I’m not sure what you expect of me, but unfortunately I’m not going to meet those standards.
But once again I didn’t want to bring any of this or have what’s happening now occur. I am simply just asking for help, and that’s what people come on here to ask for.
If me posting a question is aggravating or frustrating that falls back on you cause you are not required or obligated to respond or read it. If I post someone else’s opinion and it’s completely wrong is aggravating?
What else is left? Tell me to leave or not post because I am new and not able to comprehend all of this information I am taking in.
I think of everything you guys have all said I’ve only disregarded one thing. Which was not to buy these headphones and that took things over the top? I gave advice once that I shouldn’t have? My only reason for being here is to toy with people? Not sure the type of people you guys have come across here or what makes you so paranoid that you would feel this is my purpose.
And what if you are completely wrong about that?
My intention is not to blame the moderator, but on the opposite clear that I’m not trying to piss people off and still can’t conceive how that would piss someone off in the very first place.
All I want to know is are you John, or Mike? And why such biblical names? Is that a plot?
What if I told you I’m both, what if I announced I have a middle name. What if I told you most people call me MJ?
If this brings peace and sanctity
Dang it, Dwayne, them pictures don’t prove a dang thing. Ya coulda seen them on ASR.
I just wrote that out myself to maintain martial law
In a shocking plot twist at the end of Act 2, @HeadphoneNoob is revealed to be the alter-ego of none other than @Torq! [Play the clip for the appropriate sound effect]
In Act 3 we learn that @Torq developed the ‘sailing away’ story in COVID isolation to assume a new identity, probe security all across the Internet, and root out nefarious audio advice. @pennstac, @Roark, and @ProfFalkin are ruining it all, as they remain in the dark. As we reach the grand finale, @pennstac inadvertantly reveals several secret identities: John, Mike, and Dwayne.
How will it end? Find out after the break!