HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled Planar Magnetic Headphones

[VSG]

HIFIMAN's new planar magnetic flagship is one of the boldest designs ever made. The Susvara Unveiled builds upon the already-excellent Susvara and ditches the grilles for a fully open-back design aiming to improve sound quality and accuracy. It also has more efficient updated drivers tuned to be more engaging than before.

Show full review

 

[Chomiq]

It's a damn $8000 pair of headphones. They should offer lifetime warranty at this point.

 

[VSG]

It's a damn $8000 pair of headphones. They should offer lifetime warranty at this point.

You'll not get many people disagreeing here, some brands are slowly starting to steer the industry towards lifetime drivers warranty atleast but it's a lethargic industry in general.

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

HiFiMan always has to have the most expensive headphones.

But the Susvara trend pretty much went like this over the years:
- Outcry about how ridiculously expensive it was.
- Then that it was THE flagship/best headphone outside of $50k Sennheiser HE-1.
- Then years later Audio Science Review measures and reviews the Susvara.
- Turns out the headphone was trash all along (huge upset in the audio community).

Obviously Audio Science Review won't get sent a pair, but man I hope we can skip all the nonsense this time.

But congratulations on being one of the first to review this headphone VSG.

 

[Nin]

Goodness me. You could buy a new motorcycle for that price.

 

[Courier 6]

Do they really sound that good? I mean to human ears, not a machine

 

[VSG]

Do they really sound that good? I mean to human ears, not a machine

Yes, as mentioned in the review.

 

[Courier 6]

Yes, as mentioned in the review.

yes sorry, I was just kinda thinking out loud

 

[Scrizz]

I think I'll stick to my Focal Elex for now

 

[Waweq]

Sony MDR-Z1R WW is better (because i have it )

 

[VulkanBros]

Out of my league - bought a SVIGA SV023 im May, for $410. Must say, for the prize, these a phenomenal ...

 

[VSG]

Out of my league - bought a SVIGA SV023 im May, for $410. Must say, for the prize, these a phenomenal - for the money asked.

Yeah, I like that too. No one buys a $8000 set of headphones right away, by the time people are settled in life and can afford something like this they would have tried different headphones and know what works and doesn't work for them.

 

[forgotten05]

finally an affordable flagship thats under 10k. looks like a great buy

 

[stimpy88]

A great and detailed review as always! Thank you.

But I will have a tiny rant now... The prices of headphones in general are totally out of control. Most headphones that cost over $5000 are made with at most, $300 of materials and parts. Yeah, R&D blah blah. Well 8 years of R&D has done very little to these headphones that probably got the vast majority of the different/updated/improved sound from the physical design of the enclosures themselves, rather than millions of dollars' worth of so-called R&D on the actual drivers.

Headphones have become a fashion accessory and a class/wealth status symbol. Very few people who buy these kinds of headphones do so because they can hear the difference. But they look great next to a valve amp on social media and brings that lovely clout though.

 

[Pictus]

Thank you for the review.
It is as expensive as fragile.
It is the perfect headphone for the manufacturer as they will always have broken units to fix...

 

[Lew Zealand]

Headphones have become a fashion accessory and a class/wealth status symbol. Very few people who buy these kinds of headphones do so because they can hear the difference. But they look great next to a valve amp on social media and brings that lovely clout though.

Which is why I love products like these in all industries. People with money like to spend it and giving them products they want (obviously these are never a need) encourages them to get their money out of their pockets and moving through the economy.

 

[Endymio]

Which is why I love products like these in all industries. People with money like to spend it and giving them products they want (obviously these are never a need) encourages them to get their money out of their pockets and moving through the economy.

Yet the same people who scream about and NVidia board costing $2500 -- a product in which literally tens of billions of dollars of R&D went into -- see no problem with these $8,000 headphones. If the wholesale bill of materials cost on these headphone is a penny more than $250, I'll eat a shirt.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Yet the same people who scream about and NVidia board costing $2500 -- a product in which literally tens of billions of dollars of R&D went into -- see no problem with these $8,000 headphones. If the wholesale bill of materials cost on these headphone is a penny more than $250, I'll eat a shirt.

It all depends on your favorite hobby I suppose. I have $300 HiFiMan PM cans (HE 400S) from 9 years ago but that's my limit and any additional investment will not result in enough improvement to be worth it. I bought <$300 GPUs for a while but now use a $570 one. The improvement is tangible and appreciable in most games. Would a $1600 one be better? Yes but 3x better? In a couple of games but not in enough (yet?) to be worth it to me. And in a parallel, does my $1600 EDT refractor show the night sky much better than my $100 achromat or even $350 smaller ED doublet? Well yes in important ways it does, but 16x or 4x better? No.

But IMO still worth it.

 

[stimpy88]

Which is why I love products like these in all industries. People with money like to spend it and giving them products they want (obviously these are never a need) encourages them to get their money out of their pockets and moving through the economy.

You know most of it goes to China, right?

 

[Lew Zealand]

You know most of it goes to China, right?

Sure, lotsa rich people there. Might as well grab their money too.

 

[stimpy88]

Sure, lotsa rich people there. Might as well grab their money too.

The money, not the product.

 

[The Terrible Puddle]

I don't know how aware people are of this, but in China people are obsessed with displaying wealth.
Doesn't matter if it's really the best or not, just that it is the most expensive.

HiFiMan is a Chinese brand and naturally it caters a lot to Chinese consumers.