šŸ”¶ HiFiMan Sundara

Nice choice and congrats :beers: look forward to your thoughts

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Asgard 3 should be good. Get an enog for a dac. In my experience the schiit stuff + enog worked great. Only thing is all my cheap schiit shit broke eventually. So thereā€™s the rub.

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Man, these cans really rock. Iā€™m very happy and feel like they are fully broken/burnt in. Also, I think my xbox1 spidf isnā€™t the best source. I hooked my el dac usb to my laptop on a whim which i havenā€™t done in awhile since getting the Enog2. There is a noticable clarity coming in. El dac and Asgard3 is a GREAT pairing with the Sundaras. The enog and asgard3/Erish does still sound good though, but i feel like its missing some clarity a bit, however i still enjoy it. It must be from my xbox1 hahahā€¦so time to build a computer???

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Glad to join this group. I am enjoying mine so far.

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Me too! They only get better. The forum has helped me pair them and continuously find better ways to get more and more out of them

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Soon!

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Let us know whatcha think! and what amp you plan on using?

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Will do!
For now, Schiit Hel and BTR5.

I also have a Loki + Magni 3+ on backorder, but Schiit seems to be having some production delays, the orderā€™s been pushed back to the 16th now.

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Kinda hate the stock cable, but this is nothing unusual. I have a Dyson cable to run through the XLR out of Monolith 887; or stock cable and a liquid Spark.

These are excellent headphones. At first I slightly preferred Verum-1 sound. But it was real close. Now with a little brain burn in I am not sure at allā€¦ i like the weight of the Sundara more and have been reaching for them more. Maybe today prefer the sound slightly? No firm decisionā€¦

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Do they sound any different balanced? I have some Hart Audio cables coming, but I didnā€™t get the 3.5mm one. I might make one myself.

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@fxxr what terminations did you get? If you have an amp that has an option for balanced, you should generally use the balanced for more power, which the sundaras wants. so in theory it should perform better on balanced

Wellā€¦ on my set up the balanced connection has a whole lot more wattage, so thereā€™s the whole volume matching issue. I perceive differences that may just be up to that. Also the way I am set up the SE is a Liquid Spark, so thereā€™s that difference ā€¦

But I am going to go out on a limb and say no. ;-). I mean, power difference is there, but I donā€™t think the headphone output being balanced or not matters with these in other ways. Or matters with almost anything (separate discussion for iems and maybe some outliers).

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interesting view. I keep hearing that Iā€™m missing out on not having them hooked up balanced. But neither my amp of dac has balanced outputs, and the starting price for balanced amps and dacs, besides the ifi zen is usually significantly higher.

If the difference is only a volume thing then the problem is more or less solved with having a powerful enough amp with SE output to begin withā€¦IF the volume thing is the only difference,

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People disagree with meā€¦ I was browbeaten to confess that thereā€™s a huge difference in the Verums (on a less gentle forum)ā€¦ even though there isnā€™tā€¦ so youā€™ll find people to contradict me absolutely. I think theyā€™re wrong, is all.

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It just depends on the amp really, and balanced amps tend to be higher priced and generally better sound improvement depending on headphones, but your paying moreā€¦the asgard3 at $200 is probably the best bang for your buck with the sundaras and most people wouldnt need to go higher after spending $300 + for a headphone.

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great. I guess this is why even some very serious amp manufacturers, or artisans, such as Feliks-Audio in Poland donā€™t even bother with balanced outputs for headphones. They have more than enough power that I suppose they figure that balancing outputs isnā€™t necessary. Especially since theyā€™re not a cost-cutting company either. I think even their flagship Euphoria amp doesnā€™t have balanced headphone output.

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I think there is a good reason for balanced inputs, ā€œjust in caseā€ for ground loops. Especially if you have an electronically-crowded desk, but maybe anyway with computers. Certainly there are amps , single ended only, that are more high end than I will ever have; but it might be true that on a given amp, like this Monolith, the balanced (which is kinda balanced, really) is more ā€œhigh endā€ or better-implemented than its single ended connection. Seems to me thatā€™s a vanishingly small difference next to the power differential, with this particular amp anyway.

But then, if I had a Feliks or some such and no ground loop noiseā€¦ Iā€™d lose zero sleep over it.

And I could sort of see the ā€œbrowbeatersā€™ā€ point on the Verums since they impedance is so absurdly lowā€¦ theyā€™re moving toward iem territoryā€¦ but thatā€™s another kettle of fish for a Verum thread. I donā€™t think it matters for Sundaras;, and even the Verums are more complicated than a simple no or yesā€¦ maybe.

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Yea for the sundarasā€¦if you have an amp that has a balanced input, use itā€¦but dont go searching for a balanced amp to make much difference than an asgard3, however the Erish does offer a bit of a different sound than the asgard3 for the sundaras, but they are the same price, and you need to buy a cableā€¦ so whatever the preference isā€¦and on my hip dac, the balanced input does sound better than the single ended,but it doesnt sound better than the asgard3 or erish

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Iā€™m likeā€¦ I got a balanced output, Iā€™m gonna use it. I like the versatility of the power. Even if it does cost a bit more on cables. Butā€¦ in several cases, Iā€™m getting new cables anyway, so itā€™s not like the price difference in terminations is huge (or the cost of a Hart adapter, either). But the difference isnā€™t really whether the headphone output is balancedā€¦

Erish looks sweet. I want one.

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I feel the Erish has lots of potential with higher end headphonesā€¦and for how good it sounds on the sundaras compared with the asgard3, its worth it to have it imo.

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