Yeah, theyāre pretty amazing!! Love mine.
Nice review. I listen to a lot of Orchestral and female vocals. Emilie is my favorite.
Try this oneā¦and be sure to catch the timbre on the fluegelhorn solo. 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCgRuK6LIvYHow would these compare to the koss 958x?
If you wonder why I ask such a weird question, itās because although I LOVE how my koss sounded, the right cupās wire has issues despite me getting them repaired once (life warranty) and I am getting a bit tired to deal with that again so I would like to settle on a pair of headphones that has 2 main things:
Would planar at least give me close to this?
If itās not these that I am looking for, open to suggestions, would spend up to like 400-500 usd.
Oh right, I will be getting a THX AAA one, my jds labs atom seemed to have died so getting a better amp.
I think speed, openness and separation are things that you admired.
Sundara should be a nice step in the right direction at the pricing theyāre at.
A bit over-budget, but the Ananda might be worth a look too. Gives the giant oval driver experience that might be familiar.
So these are 350 usd and they are good, but thereās something much better at 700 usdā¦do you have something in between in that same direction?
700 usd isā¦a lot
Youāre reading more there than I wrote.
If youāre set at your budget, buy Sundaras.
Itās not a product market where there is a new answer at every price internal.
Ended up doing a compromise: I got the ananda, but open box to save 100 usd.
Weāll see how that goes when I get them, but I do look forward to it because everyone have been saying theyāre very open, good highs and decent bass (which is actually something that lacked in the koss and itās the main reason I still use my 58x which have excellent bass)
Is there such a thing as too much power for the Sundara? What happens when you run these on a 4W capable balanced output? Does the volume knob stay at 9 āo clock? Do they have a wattage sweet spot?
They are mineā¦ wellā¦ with my current budget 
Would LOVE to get Aryaās (non stealth)
Good question. When I put the Sundara on my SP200 which delivers 6W/Ch I can get the volume knob up to the 11:30 position. And that is LOUD. I realize the SP200 is not technically a true balanced amp, but it does produce much better sound when connected to the XLR input/output and it is a high power unit, so there is perhaps some kind of reference for you. I wouldnāt want or need any more power than that.
The Sundara asks for power, but you donāt need to turn up the volume.
I donāt know how to describe it or why this is.
Sure. One of the benefits of power is loudness.
But letās say my PC at 90% produces the same volume as my SH-9 at 15. It will still sound way better on the SH-9. Eventhough itās the same loudness, it has more slam, more bass, itās fuller, itās wider,ā¦
So yeah. It needs more power than you will use because it will just sound better.
4 Watts? Plenty! Will do the job just fucking fine 
From personal experiences Sundaraās need at least a watt to sound like Sundaraās
For further reference, my Asus laptop sets at 100% > Topping e30 (2 v. output) and my
Asgard 3 I typically run at 10 or 11 o"clock. Plenty of room to spare. Compared to my earlier JDS Atom, the Asgard really brought the Sundaras to life!
I know exactly what you are saying. The Sundara does require adequate power (I generally put that value at about 2W/Ch) but it has this ability to sound wonderful even at lower volume levels. So you get all the soundstage, width, depth etc. without having to abuse your ear drums!
You might have finer ears than me
Iāve seen 8Watts (4 per channel) thrown around so Iām assuming the difference gets smaller and smaller
But yeah, my SH-9 has a powerrating of 6 watts (3 per channel) and sounds amazeballs!
Copy that. I have pretty much lost my patience with these fools at Schiit waiting for a Jot 2 that is apparently never going to come and have been looking at alternatives. I just wonder if the SH-9 is an actual step up from the SP200 I already have. The amp presents itself as such for sure, but I just donāt knowā¦
The SH-9 is powerfullā¦ but a bit ādullā. Itās a clean amp in the boring way of the word clean.
I was thinking of running the Frostās output through an MT-604 and feed either the SP200 or the SH-9 (if I get it) that way. That might add some color to the sound field. Just one of many ideas floating around in my head at present.
Thanks bro. This, and the other comments help me better understand the power question. Been running the Sundara on a hip dac v1 for about 6 months and now Iām reaching/exploring stacks or combos to get more out of them.
You might want to look again at the preout section of the MT-604.
Exactly what I ended up doing.
SU-8 to MT-602 to SH-9
Iām not even sure you can evaluate the power needed for a given headphone with the room you have left on the volume.
Iām thinking out loud here, and maybe I will tell some technical absurdity, but Iāll say it anyway, for the sake of the idea. So, we know that DD headphones are driven by tension. Planar on the contrary are driven by current. Given the vast majority of the headphones are DD, most of the amps are made for āhighā voltage. Thatās what they are optimized for. These amps having a similar construction/conception, you still have a kind of proportionality between voltage and current output capabilities. Thatās why you need much power to drive a planar properly.
Now, I imagine one could design an amp that would be optimized for current output without having an high voltage. This amp would be far better at driving planar without being that powerful.
Thatās the end of my thinking. Can anyone please tell me where Iām wrong? And can a ācurrent optimizedā amp exist? Does it exist already, maybe?