I’d do this. I have a Magni 3+ mainly for my Dan Clark AEON Flow Closed (planars). Planar headphones suck down a lot of power. They’ll work on a weak/mobile amp but may be relatively congested, rough, and shaky.
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I second this. My Atom stack makes my Sundara sing.
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I recognize the significant other discussion 
. The hobby tends to get very expensive very fast, and it is easy to get sucked into wanting better and better gear…
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Very true. And with the normalization of flagship headphone prices reaching higher and higher into the stratosphere it’s very easy to accept and brush off the high prices as simply the cost of participating in the hobby. When you’re used to seeing 3.5-4k headphones on a regular basis you start to say to yourself, “Well spending 700-1k on this new pair isn’t THAT bad. Look at these crazy guys spending buku bucks on these flagships! I’m fine! I don’t have a problem!” 
Hard to believe that just a few years ago spending $800-1k for headphones was considered a very high end luxury purchase, when today it’s about enough to get you in on the ground floor of the upper echelon of this hobby.
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What exactly are the differences in your set-ups? Also, could you post the average of your left and right channel measurements for the Sundara? As this will give a better indication of the frequency response actually perceived.
Crin’s setup is on a mobile fixture, while mine sits on the desk with a block underneath. I really like his setup for this stuff because at the very least it ensures coupling consistency. Where as for me I have to continuously test the coupling to make sure everything lines up with how I hear things. This is kind of what Oratory was talking about when we did the live stream with him - the consistent need to test coupling integrity is real haha. I may end up setting it up with the rig on its side eventually like the way Crin has done. The downside for the mobile setup though is that, when measuring in loud environments (like at Z & Co where he does them), it may be difficult to get readable distortion measurements. But on the whole, for most stuff we’ve compared it’s all lined up closely - close enough to where any differences are within unit variation tolerances.
By the way, I did ask Crin if he could find out how old the demo Sundara was that they have there and he said it was definitely an older unit, so this makes sense with everything we’ve been assuming so far.
Anyway here’s the L/R average:
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So my replacement pair just failed. Same issue. Badly distorted sound and decreasing volume. 2 weeks after they arrived. I must have the worst luck in the world. I love the Sundara sound and for now they are my endgame, but it is SO frustrating to have to keep going through this again and again. I don’t know of any other headphones that offer what the Sundara do for the price. Oh well. Time to wait again… 
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If broken…the end of the headphone hobby for now?
A wide range of evidence suggests this is an inherent design flaw with HiFiMan’s drivers. I’d cut my losses and move on. I did just that.
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Not quite yet. I contacted hifiman directly this time for a replacement. They asked for proof of purchase and a brief summary of the issue, telling me to specify that this has happened twice now so they could inform the factory of the issue. Not sure if that will change anything but I’m hoping receiving a replacement straight from Hifiman will make a difference.
Paolo
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Is there any headphones that directly compete in terms of resolution, clarity, and detail with the Sundara’s in the $350 and below price range?
I have the Sundara’s for a few weeks now and compared them with multiple other headphones, but I’m not finding anything in this price range that can compete. Any other headphones around this price range that I should look at before just keeping the Sundara’s?
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The only thing that can compete at that price range in my opinion is either the Sennheiser HD650 (HD6XX) or HD600 when run off a higher end source. It’s not exactly a fair comparison though because you’d have to spend quite a bit more overall to get the HD6XX to have better detail. But, the headphone itself does scale higher than the Sundara does off of something like the SPL Phonitor X for example. If we’re JUST talking headphones though, no I don’t think anything else competes.
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When you say “Just headphones” what would compete at this price range? Are you meaning in terms of IEM’s?
That’s the problem I am running into, The Sundara’s are one of the few headphones that seems to punch well above it’s asking price. My only concern with them is the longevity. I wish there was a dynamic driver headphone that could perform as well as the Sundara for $350.
If Sennheiser used the HD 6x0 series driver in the new HD 560s, that would probably have been my choice over the Sundara, but the 560 driver is no where near the quality of the Sundara and I can’t seem to find anything that competes until you get to at least $500, but realistically the next step up, that I can find, is the Focal Elex.
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Hmmm. I’m not sure if you have go that high on the amp. The THX (and seemingly Topping, Schiit Heresy, JDS Atom, etc) amps retrieve a lot of details in the $100 to $300 range.
Maybe not that high but I don’t think it’s nearly as comparable off of those sources.
I actually have some of those here (Magni Heresy and 3+, Topping L30) and the Sundara still sounds more detailed off those than the HD6XX does. But yeah you don’t have to go as high as the Phonitor X to enjoy the scaling benefits of the HD6XX, that’s just the high end example I have here at the moment. I will say though, even on the IHA-6 the Sundara sounded ‘better’ to me, meaning there was still some distance between the IHA-6 and the Phonitor X for the HD6XX’s scaling. I imagine there are some other options out there like tube amps and whatnot that would also make the HD6XX sound ‘better’, but strictly from SS sources, while the HD6XX scales like crazy, you inevitably run into the problem of the whole system costing more than a similarly priced ‘better’ headphone.
No, I mean if you don’t factor in the amp/scaling.
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Yeah, Elex and Ananda are the next step up from the Sundara.
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Would Fiio K5 Pro be a good DAC/AMP combo for Sundara? I know that they are enough to power the Sundara, but I wanted to get some sound impressions before buying.
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That’s what I’m using and they sound great on it. Plenty of power, I keep it at the 12 O’clock position and adjust the gain switch depending on how much volume I want. It’s very convenient.
While the measurements are not the best out there, for $130 used or $150 brand new, I don’t think you can find a better deal right now for a combo stack with the amount of power it has.
While the measurements suggest it’s not the best, reviews state the opposite and most people love it. It’s not a $500 DAC/AMP, but paired with the Sundara’s, I’m very pleased with it.
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I’ve been using Sundara for a while and really like them. This is my entry to hi end headphones. I was blown away by the sound quality coming from regular headphones.
What is the next significant upgrade? In terms of sound stage and detail. Something that’s makes me feel when I switched to sundaras
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For anyone who was unsure about the Sundara revision, here’s Oratory’s measurements of the new one: https://www.dropbox.com/s/j8r9im6d3s5zglk/Hifiman%20Sundara%20(revised%20earpads%2C%20preliminary).pdf?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR10XVYohQTd7QKRtU47RDodutHPRxqmsihx4Oec-oEfNyuEgJLqwaT06to
This very closely matches the one I posted initially as well - so hopefully we can finally put this question to rest haha.
Here’s what we know for sure:
- There is some difference in the frequency response
- There is some difference for the pads (look/feel)
While there may be other factors that account for these changes that go beyond simply different pads, at the very least we can be confident that there was a revision at some point with this headphone, and the new one measures better.
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Is it possible you have a bad piece of gear in the chain that’s wrecking the Sundaras?
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