Um, ok, I had no idea that there was ‘variety’. When I first got my Sundara (sanskrit for ‘beautiful treble spike’) it was just screeeeeamin’ at somewhere like 12.5K. Like i could hear all this detailed stuff I have never ever heard before. It was odd, a bit scary, but also kind of cool. But mostly it was just super noticeably annoying. I am pretty sure that it has calmed down since then, but I have a 3 EQ thingy in which your choices are Bass, Midrange, and Treble (it kind of reminds me of one of those old stereo systems where you just turned a knob) and I set them like this:
Bass: +1.6
Midrange: +2.0
Treble: -.6
I like using that EQ because I think they are like smooth shelves instead of drastic small changes.
Just that little bit less of treble calmed down things to the point where it was a little less noticeable.
Part of the reason I bought the Sundara was for bass, and yes there is some seriously impressive bass in the way down low rider arena. But my headphone has this super interesting issue that I have never heard before. It has a ‘ghost’ range in the bass. It’s somewhere around right where the 6XX sounds its absolute slight punchy best in the bass range. Somewhere between 90 and 120hz, I could find out exactly where it is happening. But it’s like there is bass, and then when the bass sounds the ‘frequency that has the issue’ there is just nothing there. It’s as if the bottom just drops out of it completely. It is odd. And I have not been able to fix that. Not with EQ or anything. And let me tell you it totally bums me out. And here is why… because this is the first planar magnetic headphone I have ever owned and it massively blows me away. I have never ever heard music sound SO AMAZING! Even the midrange I was able to bring back the life/recessed vocals a bit with the +2.0 shelf boost and pretty much the whole friggin’ thing is just poppin’. But now the whole reason I am looking to upgrade is because of that one area in the bass that just ‘ghosts’. It sounds so unnatural and out of place. Especially since there is mucho carnivorous bass meat in the frequencies below that, and above that. It’s as if you have one note on your upright bass that is either broken or won’t sound right. It’s an odd phenomenon because it’s just ‘gone’, like it becomes invisible, aurally.
So I guess then my question is: Does the HE1000 Stealth also do this? Do they all do this? Because as I started to analyze more (looking at more detailed frequency response graphs), I noticed that so many of them have that weird 11-13K thing going on up there (I analyzed my hearing and I can easily hear up to 14K loud and clear). And the way I hear frequencies together I like to think of it kind of like an otter or seal or dolphin or shark in the ocean. Everything is either right at the surface of the ocean or it is ‘surfacing above’ and now you can see it (hear it). That 12.5K peak is like a sharp swordfish or something and it becomes the loudest part of the frequency spectrum that I hear (without EQ, but even with, it’s still kind of there). I would imagine most people can hear it.
However, aside from that I find the Sundara mind blowing. The only things I would change are:
1.It seems like they chose ‘instruments over vocals’ in the 2K midrange area, because no matter what I do the voices sound more relaxed than the instruments. And don’t get me wrong, this is not always bad. On some tracks/songs it balances things out so that the voice/s are not so much louder than the background instruments. But to me, compared to the 6XX, it does not sound right/correct/realistic.
2. Mainly just the one super high treble spike somewhere around 12.5K, but yeah, the treble in general is pretty fricking bright (Coincidentally the supersonic high dog whistle thing, it kind of reminds me of one those old CRT television/computer monitors where you would get a ‘stuck on pixel’). I mean when I go back and forth from the 6XX it’s like oh wow, the 6XX is seriously ‘missing information’ in the treble. Honestly, Sundara treble just makes 6XX treble sound like some 1984 called and wants its muffly boombox heard from a few blocks away. The treble on Sundara is actually intensely incredible. Frigging trumpets especially, it’s like oh yeah, that sounds like a flippin’ trumpet blowing high notes right in my ear. It can be very spectacular. Same with like a hard snare drum hit.
3. The ‘ghost note’ frequency in the bass. That ‘ghost’ seriously needs some of ‘your mom’s meatloaf’. I adore bass, and Sundara has some kiiiiller bass, that is fletchin’ deep, and clear, and detailed, and lovely. But then that one note, or right around that range, it just fricken’ ‘ghosts’. Whyyyyyyyyyyy? Dadddy wants to knowwwwww.
Other than that, Sundara is absolute heaven with/for music. It’s the best I’ve ever heard, but I guess I don’t get out that much, because I want to hear something even better now.
For me Sundara is the ‘gateway treble spike’.
