If Iām not wrong amps that donāt have a linear drop off till 50ohm are often current driven, for example a violectric v280 has its highest power delivery at 50ohm and less power at 32ohm, where most other amps have a linear drop off from for example 16ohm
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So Iāve been listening to these since I got them on Monday morning; just wanted to add some quick thoughts for anyone like me who was curious about these.
HiFiMan has always made me nervous particularly regarding QC issues. It seemed like there was a never-ending spree of pictures and complaints posted on here a few years ago regarding any headphone at the Ananda price point or lower. Drivers failing, pads ripping or falling off, etc. But so far I can say that the build itself seems okay and I agree mostly with Lachlan from Passion for Sound on the overall build quality being acceptable which was my biggest concern.
Sound-wise theyāre really good. Really good. This is only my 2nd planar (DCA Aeon 2 Noire) and I can see what people mean about the sound being natural and detailed. Decent soundstage although generally thatās a low priority for me, and the imaging is great from what I can tell so far.
Iām running them through the Bifrost 2 and either my Loxjie P20 for a tube sound or the Jot 2 for solid state and it sounds great on both into a Hart Audio balanced cable. I actually disagree with a lot of the reviews saying the low end is lacking, I think with the BF2 thereās a distinct presence there and sure itās not a bass cannon but the bass is punchy and fast. I probably wouldnāt reach for these first listening to electronic music but they do just fine. You could probably add a little EQ here if you so desired.
Acoustic guitar sounds GREAT. Very crisp and natural sounding. Iāve really been enjoying listening to classic rock (Marshall Tucker Band, Doobie Brothers, Pink Floyd), Nickel Creek, O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack, etc.
Now for my totally unfair comparison: Iāve been A/B testing these alongside my Focal Clear Mg and there are 2 things it blows the Sundara out of the water on: the bass response and the dynamics. At first I thought this would be a knock against the Sundara but after thinking about it for a while, I was like, well yeah I mean weād expect a $1500 headphone to be way better than a $350 in most if not all areas. The fact that the Sundara holds up so well in detail really shows itās strength. A Sundara gets you 80-90% within $1XXX headphones and thatās an incredible value.
So, barring no unforeseen QC issues, this is a SOLID headphone at the price point and I agree with the near unanimous reviews that this is best in class at the price point, and would make a great all-around headphone for most kinds of music, particularly where there is a focus on the vocalist and on instrumentation.
I have some various ear pads laying around so I ordered a pair of the rings from HiFiMan and will try some pad-swapping out to see if I like any pads with it, but so far I havenāt had many complaints with the stock pads.
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lol, itās funny to read this after I just posted my comment above. Yeah, thereās no question that theyāre a really great value. I mentioned the Clear Mg and youād be hard-pressed to find a non-audiophile who felt it was really worth $1150 more than the Sundara.
Donāt get me wrong, the Clear Mg are still my favorite headphones, but I know itās all relative and I would have no problem daily-driving these, they sound great.
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One of the 3.5mm connectors was just loose in the earcup on mine 
Opened them both up. Saw one was glued on, the other one wasnāt not a trace of glueā¦ Underpaid factory worker just ran out of glue in her glue gun and decided to just use the empty one? Who knows!
Anyway some superglue later it was sitting perfect. Theyāre super easy to open up and mess with yourself. So even with clear QC issues, mine turned out fine in the end 
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All aboard the sundara hype train, I really would of saved myself alot of money if I heard this headphone firstā¦
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Soā¦can we call it The Sundara Gang yet? 
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Yes. We need to come up with a secret handshake nowā¦
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i also did this because i have MT-602 lying around. everyone should buy this. amazing value.
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Ummmmā¦ yeeeah. Nevermind! LOL!
welcome to the family and i just joined a month ago and am also in love. you know the feeling when you wake up and cant wait to go to your desk and sit and binge listen
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They are a time machine. Whenever I put them on I somehow lose 2 or 3 hours!!
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Yes exactly! Thatās what I have been doing everyday for the past week haha. It is like a drug to me 
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Might wanna take a look at the MT603
Oh, now we are talking. I did not know this product existed, though I always wondered why they went from MT-602 to MT-604ā¦ I just thought it was because, you know, 602 has 2 tubes, 604 has 4. The 603 fits the bill! The price is certainly right. And I like that it uses the 12AU7 tube.
As it turns out, I had an AH-HA moment this weekend and decided to try running through the TA-20ās line-out function and feed the SP200 amp that way, and was blown away by the result. I wonder if the 603 would be even betterā¦
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Just a note. I havenāt tried the MT-603. Just the 602 (as preamp) 
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Hey all, just picked up the Sundara 2020 not too long ago. Iām in the market for a new DAC/AMP stack, but will only be buying the amp for now. Any recommendations for these headphones?
Be careful you have a clean source if youāre not gonna buy a dac. I almost send my Sundara back, thinking they were broken because my amp just amplified the shitnoise from my pc
As for an amp. The Subdara LOVE power. Anything else depends on your taste. Want warm and cozy? Maybe a hybrid tube? Want clean and cold? THX amp?
Whatās the budget? Where you from?
I currently have a Liquid Spark DAC. What are the benefits of a THX amp? Budget is ideally $400 and under but 500 and under is okay too.
THX does a lot of power. Very clean. Very cheap. But thatās it. Itās not exciting, thereās no specific signature, thereās no āsoulā.
Just very clean (as in distortion and stuff), cheap power. I run an SMSL SH-9. It sounds boring as fuck. But itās 270$ and providing 6 watts of power. And some people just love clean boring power. They donāt wanna hear the amp. They just want the amp to āamplifyā the sound without coloring it too much.
Basically the opposite of tubes. Very colored. You really really hear what the tubes at toyour music, but itās on paper āworseā because of distortion numbers and shit.
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