you will be thrilled with the bakoon and susvara…a special combo and the bakoon is such a small footprint…such a nice looking unit and has a remote which comes in handy!..expensive but outstanding
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Got the Susvara today, don’t have the Bakoon here yet but listening to it from the RME’s headphone tap directly and the music is, for the lack of any better word, grand. Haven’t heard anything like this before!
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Congrats! Excited to hear your thoughts on the Bakoon!
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Finding an amp for this thing is hard. I need something with a relatively small desk footprint (especially vertically), so the A90 seems like the best option with 4.8W@50 ohms. It would be fed with an RME ADI-2.
Thoughts? Has anyone else used the A90 with this? Is it sufficient?
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I’ve been looking at portable options.
An interesting DAP option seems to be the A&K KANN Alpha - 12 Vrms ≈ 2880 mW @ 50 Ohms. I’m not sure if this is powerful enough, though, because even the A90 is considered borderline, and it runs at around 4800 mW.
The iFi iDSD Diablo at 5000mW has received good reviews for use with the Sundara. It is a clunky solution, however, compared to a DAP.
According to the Headphonesty Power Calculator, plugging in the proper parameters (60 ohms, 83 db/mW, 105 dB max vol), 3.5 Vrms is all that’s needed, making all of these options way overkill! The 12 Vrms of the KANN should give more than enough headroom.
Hell, even the 4 Vrms of my Qudelix 5K in balanced mode should apparently be enough, which makes no sense, so my calculations ought to be wrong somewhere.
As I’ve stated before a 1W amp will get the Susvara’s loud.
I have lots of amps that will make them loud, but only 2 that I think make them sound like they should.
And it’s not about pure power, they sound OK on a lot of amps, but they require a VERY good amp to sound like Susvaras. If you never hear them on a very good amp, you would just assume they aren’t much better that the other high end hifimans.
However, your spending let’s say $4K+ on a headphone, you really should consider a similar investment in the electronics to drive them.
The Bakoon, is probably the most convenient form factor for most desks.
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The Burson Soloist 3X might be worth a look. It has lots of current for its size.
Soundnews did a review and said it’s the best amp for Susvara that he’s tried that isn’t a speaker amp.
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the a90 is not up to the task of driving the susvara…yes it will work but if you are going to buy a 6k HP I suggest aimong higher
Listened to the Sus with Bakoon for an hour and it’s amazing, the headphone really opens up in a way it didn’t when I was driving it from the RME’s headphone tap(as expected).
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yes, my experience with the bakoon and susvara has been eye opening or should I say ear opening…the soundstage expands and the detail is extraordinary…the bass is terrific and in general it is a great match plus the form factor is the best of any HP out there…really attractive and small as can be…before I got the bakoon I didnt realize how expansive a soundstage the susvara was capable of
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Can you run the Bakoon with headphones only, not use the speaker outputs? I could not find a manual online.
Of course you can, running it and the Susvara is connected to the headphone out.
yes, you set the output to high gain and you are good to go
Oh interesting, I have been keeping the Bakoon to low gain and it has been plenty loud for me. Have you tried both and found that the high gain works better?
I use my bakoon with both the abyss and the susvara and both need the high gain setting for my use
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Hi Friends, exploring this thread after ages. I have spent most of my time on the Head-Fi thread. Good to see a lot of the same people here!
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Welcome to this forum!
Did your amp search get you to any conclusions?
Hi guys, I’m getting the Susvara (and selling four other headphones to make that happen). I currently have the GS-X Mini and the Pendant SE. I know that there’s a camp of people who think that those two amps will be really good with the Susvara, but there’s also this other camp who say that neither of those is going to be powerful enough to showcase them at their best. I’m reluctant to get a speaker amp solely for the Susvara, as none of my other headphones will benefit from it, and I don’t even own any speakers.
My question is, is there a solid-state headphone amp in existence that is actually up to the task of providing the Susvara with what it needs, but would also serve other headphones well too? I’m aware that it’s not just about pure wattage - the Phonitor X/XE are more powerful than what I have, but I’m assuming they wouldn’t be a step up from the GS-X Mini. The Flux amps also obviously have a big output, but no one seems to talk about them in conjunction with the Susvara.
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I don’t own Susvara so don’t take my word as 100% truth, but I’ll share what I know.
Soundnews reviewed the Flux FA-10 and the Burson Soloist 3x and said the Burson was able to sustain bass notes longer on Susvara. So even though the Flux is rated for more power it seems the power supply in the Burson is more robust.
Hard to know exactly how the GSX Mini compares, by the wattage ratings it should be stronger at 60ohm than the Burson but it seems to be more about sustained current. I don’t think it’ll sound bad by any means out of the GSX mini just maybe not every last bit of performance.
Another thing to note though you say you don’t want to buy a speaker amp just for Susvara, I know people that use the Benchmark AHB2 with all their headphones and even IEMs as it’s quiet enough. So it doesn’t need to be Susvara only.
Lastly you asked solid state amps that are able to, one that a lot of people are paring with Susvara is the Bakoon 13r, not cheap but the build and form factor is beautiful. Holo audio is also working on building a headphone amp around Susvara. Others here might have more input too!
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