Sundara is far more technically capable headphone, handles EQ very well, and is really one of the best values in the headphone space with EQ to bring the bass up, in my opinion.
HD6xx is loved for it’s warmth, midrange, and timbre, known to scale very well, but not nearly as technically capable as the Sundara and really is a vocal focused headphone.
I tested a ton of over ear headphones and find the 2020 Version of the Sundara with a bit of EQ to bring the bass up to be a super value and absolutely incredible for the price.
It needs a good amount of power though and EQ helps it a ton as the bass is incredible on it but just a bit low for my tastes.
In terms of detail, tuning, staging, imaging for music, resolution, etc. It’s really hard to beat.
If you want the best value for an all around headphone, the Sundara is the one, in my opinion.
The only clear upgrade sub-$1000 from my experience is the Hifiman HE6SE V2, but it needs an absolutely insane amount of power so it goes well over $1k once you factor in the Amp required to drive it. They are an incredible value though when they are on sale for $650 from Adorama. After owning the Sundara, they were the first headphone to make me go “wow” again.
The 6xx is a great headphone but much less versatile in my opinion, it’s really a vocal focused headphone with excellent timbre. Even at much higher prices, there are few headphones that do vocals as well as it.
I hate the word better. It is different. The HD6XX is well known as being some people’s endgame headphone. I believe M0N from this site still claims it is one of his all time headphones ever.
The HD6XX has some of the most natural timbre and perfect midrange tuning of any headphone ever. It is the benchmark many other headphones are compared against and usually can not match.
It is not that well extended in the treble or bass but for it’s price, it is unbeatable. It also scales with better and better amps and dacs. In addition, it excels with tubes.
I have owned a lot of headphones and have sold a lot of headphones. I have very expensive headphones in my collection yet I could never think about parting with the HD6XX.
In the end, both the Sundara and the HD6XX are both very good headphones. But when it comes to the HIFIMan stuff, I rec other sets other than the Sundara. If you can swing it and find it on sale, get the HE6se V2. BGGAR rates it #2 under the Susvara.
I’m playing with the graph, it’s another Tea like graph, deceiving. But this one will need comparitions for sure. Will be hard to measure it vs Oxygen by FR without libraries.
So the O 2 still rules then ? I guess we will find out soon. Please state how it does with fast complex music also. I look forward to your review. I suspect as a 1 did iemyou will like that is almost a given.
The o2 is the specialist, while the Falcon is the versatile one. So they are aiming at different things and hard to score them that way, it is entirely library depended. With my library, I do believe the Falcon is edging out the O2 but for acoustic/vocal music with female vocals (the stuff it is specialized for) the O2 is probably better.