This can make S’s sound a bit unnaturally lispy in recordings that are already predisposed to sibilance, and it can give cymbals an extra sheen. Amplifiers are required to provide adequate power to your headphone or IEMs to perform at their best. Simply put, amplifiers allow a weak audio signal to be boosted to a powerful one. The sound signature of the Sundara can best be described as clear with a wide soundstage, solid bass response and extension while still fun enough to be non fatiguing. It’s not only a balanced signature on all frequency ranges but also dynamic enough to sound good with close to any genre. There’s also a nice peak in the upper mids which adds a sparkle onto most string instruments. These headphones are designed for discerning music lovers. If you are someone who cares about audio quality "deeply," you'll want a pair of headphones like these. Perhaps it was said to stir up some thought within the HIFIMAN design team and open up the possibility of an improved version of the iconic headphone down the road.

HiFiMan Headphones UK | London Showroom - Audio Sanctuary HiFiMan Headphones UK | London Showroom - Audio Sanctuary

As for me, the Sundara is right up my alley, handling many of the genres that I consider close to home supremely well. Classical, ambient, and drone are some of the genres that suit the Sundara best, with the Sundara bringing what Tyll Hertsens calls an “ inviting and pleasant softness to the sound” while boasting the resolving power necessary to play even the busiest orchestral passages. The Sundara I will be reviewing today is the 2020 model. There is some confusion around whether or not there is a new, different 2021 model. I reached out to HiFiMan support and as it turns out, there’s actually no other version of the Sundara. What’s in the Box?Gone are the elaborate display cases of the HE series such as the wood of the HE560 and the faux leather of the HE400i. In part, I guess it saves a little on budget costs for the project and more on the headphones but I do miss those cases a little. This headphone, along with the HD6XX, show that price and sound quality have nearly zero correlation in headphones. You can expect them to present a refined listening experience. The audio quality exhibited by these headphones is a beautiful mix of musicality, technical brilliance and high precision. Given how popular this headphone is, If there was a dekoni pad around suitable for he series, it would be interesting to see comparable data with hifiman pali pad vs dekoni on sundara Headphones and IEMs require a certain level of power to sound their best and work at their full potential. When your headphones or IEMs are underpowered, they can sound thin or muffled.

HiFiMan Sundara - Review 2023 - PCMag UK

But when I first listened to his album Ravedeath 1972 played through the Hifiman Sundara while standing in the mid-fi aisle at the famed E-earphone in Akihabara, I heard a kind of synergy between music and equipment that was entirely new to me. I was amazed, almost to the point of tears. My only gripe against Hifiman Sundara, is the cable. While there’s nothing bad with the quality of cable; it’s just that annoying quality of the cable to hold shape. It refuses to be straight or lie flat on the table. They can rightfully be called—The memory cable.What about me? The drivers, while the channels are relatively well-matched, exhibit a curious whine at specific higher frequencies, indicating some artifact of the poor construction within the sound – but it’s not audible when listening to music. At least, not usually. for those like me who own the 400i, try to sell them to buy Sundara, or would you get little to choose to sell the 400i? For example, the driver itself looks to be a never before seen driver design, different from all the other drivers within the HIFIMAN lineup. The driver is not a round type and it seems to be oval and around 80mm x 60mm in diameter or at least the frame does. Also, instead of the driver being installed vertically, it’s mounted horizontally. The new mounting system still uses a six-slot system that clips onto the driver’s mounting base instead of onto a metal mounting trim ring. One of the big selling points in my research was they could be enjoyed and experienced without the need for an EQ amp. Even though next on my list, I wanted to start with a straight connection to my integrated amp. My research lasted a couple of months, and I can attest the Sundara headphones are the best fit for the beginner audio enthusiast. Theyare affordable and excellent value.

Hifiman Sundara Review (headphone) | Audio Science Review Hifiman Sundara Review (headphone) | Audio Science Review

This should, to hear Hifiman tell it, allow the drivers to “ produce tremendously low distortion levels yet offer a highly dynamic response.” The distortion levels of the Sundara are indeed relatively low. It boasts the typical low impedance and low-ish sensitivity of a planar headphone, meaning it won’t be the easiest to drive, but more on that later. The flip side: the smoothness of the Sundara’s mids, while it can be a very nice quality, does come about at the cost of a loss of “detail” in the upper mids. Don’t get me wrong – the Sundara certainly has the ability to resolve most everything that comes its way, but it’s not always going to be starkly evident. But, although the Sundaras are scalable, they really do sound remarkably pleasant even when under power. If I plug my K712s into my phone, they sound weak and thin and unpleasant. Recently, I tried running the Hifiman HE-5SE off my phone, and it sounded like dog crap. The Sundara, on the other hand, maintains its soundstage and its general majesty driven by my phone, even if I have to have my volume almost at max to get there. That headband, on the other hand, is kind of a different story. I don’t like the little silver accents that clumsily strike a horizontal line across the otherwise vertically-oriented headband. And where it says “Sundara,” I’d rather it not say anything at all – it really does mess up the minimalist design of the earcups. I trust that the new headband easily beats the previous designs in terms of comfort, but in terms of looks, I’m not sold. Ground-Zero’s Consume-Red, for example, ends in a nearly 30-minute assault of constant cymbal crashes. Heard through the Sundara, these cymbal crashes are quite bright, and also clearly hazy and blurred-together. Detail in the treble becomes hard to make out because of the ringing here.

Customer Reviews

Since the unit I’m reviewing is mine, I can successfully evade certain suspicions that I’m being encouraged by a distributor or manufacturer to give a positive review for some kind of monetary gain. Unfortunately, the Sundara also exhibits a bit of a speed problem right around the 11kHz zone – a problem that’s corroborated by solderdude’s measurements, which indicate resonances around 5.5kHz and an octave higher at 11kHz. The ringing in the lower treble isn’t so much audible to me, because I’m not terribly sensitive in those frequency ranges, but it’s certainly audible in the upper treble, sometimes casting an ugly haze over cymbals.