Comparisons

The obvious comparison for the Susvara Unveiled would be the HIFIMAN Susvara, which was released over seven years ago. The name suggests the newer set is an update and yet the two are different enough to merit being sold simultaneously—HIFIMAN agrees as much. The two share a similar chassis and industrial design, so there is not a lot to talk about from a build quality perspective. I mentioned before how my sample of the Susvara Unveiled has smoother travel for headband sizing, but that may be an anomaly based on what others mentioned since. The original Susvara has grilles on the back whereas this does not, so from a usability point of view the newer Susvara Unveiled necessitates a more rigorous routine each time you listen to it. There will be some anxiety associated in the beginning, which does lessen over time as I can personally attest to, yet just the part where you need to think about whether your hair is too long and may potentially damage the drivers is a new factor that I am not sure I want to see associated with my headphones. I can see people opting for the original Susvara simply for this reason, and this is even before we get to how the two sound.

The answer is weirdly similar to the user experience—the original Susvara is more effortless to listen to, the Susvara Unveiled keeps you on the edge and is easily the more engaging set. The Susvara is what you will put on to chill out after a hard day at work, especially if you like slow, instrumental music. The Susvara Unveiled will energize you, make you want to get up and dance, and yet provide you that larger-than-life experience with the same slow, instrumental music should you be so inclined. The Susvara Unveiled is more dynamic in the bass and is arguably more impactful with a wider range of amplifiers too, this alone will make many choose it over the predecessor. In fact, the Susvara Unveiled will feel ~2x as loud as the Susvara at the same amplifier setting, but may well be more than that since my Susvara, as with some others, is even less sensitive than its rated 83 dB/mW. As such, if you end up comparing the two, please remember to volume match lest you fall for the "louder is better" train of thought humans can be prone to in shorter listening sessions. The Susvara Unveiled also has the mids more filled out and the treble comes off smoother with less pronounced resonances, making for a more natural presentation and timbre for many instruments. Male vocals come off generally better on the Susvara Unveiled, whereas higher-pitched female vocals and associated harmonics are more agreeable on the Susvara. The Susvara Unveiled trades blows when it comes to detail retrieval, perhaps being more resolving by a touch, but absolutely wins out with a wider and taller soundstage than the older Susvara. I personally think the Susvara Unveiled is a technically more competent set than the Susvara, although the Susvara is more likely to offer a safer, more amenable tonality. The Susvara Unveiled costs significantly more than the Susvara though, especially since you can get the latter for less than MSRP by negotiating with dealers and it has a reasonably healthy refurbished/second-hand market too.



Things changed after the HIFIMAN Susvara launched, with others noting the market is willing to pay multiple thousands of dollars for headphones that don't take months to make. In fact, there are now dynamic driver headphones which cost over $10,000! The end result is companies have been more willing to put in the R&D for headphones that should ideally last a lifetime to provide a fantastic experience amortized over years. Such flagship sets have come up from various manufacturers around the world, and we have covered some already. Take the Audeze LCD-5, for example, which heralded in a complete overhaul of the classic Audeze design language and prioritized two things—mass reduction and a highly resolving set capable of being used in a variety of applications. While not the first Audeze set to do so, the LCD-5 is most associated with its newer tuning that has more pronounced ear gain. This in turn makes for a less bassy, slightly darker sound that those who loved the Audeze LCD-4 struggled to get on board with. I personally find the LCD-5 to be a detail monster, even more so than the Susvara Unveiled, but it can be overwhelming if you simply want to relax with music. The LCD-5, as with the Audeze MM-series released thereafter, is better suited as a tool you customize to your preferences with EQ. It can then be highly engaging too, or help you make money if you are a mixing/mastering engineer—although realistically you would use a less expensive set. The LCD-5 also has grilles, as with pretty much anything else on the market, so you can be rougher with it I suppose, and yet I find the Susvara Unveiled more comfortable in use. The ear pads are also easier to swap on the Susvara Unveiled compared to the LCD-5 with its adhesive-attached pads, and the updated tuning makes for a set that has a wider soundstage and has significantly more upper mids and treble energy than the LCD-5. I'd personally choose the Susvara Unveiled out of the box and likely also with EQ.

Focal also updated its flagship dynamic driver headphones with the New Utopia, which is more colloquially referred to as the Utopia (2022). As with the LCD-5 and Susvara Unveiled, the Utopia (2022) got a price hike compared to its predecessor as well as a different tonality. This time it was more subtle, with a small treble dip that makes for a warmer tonality. I didn't have enough time with the original Utopia to say conclusively whether these were for the better, but it does feel like most people ended up liking the previous Utopia anyway—especially given the difference in asking price with the former, now-discontinued unit available for significantly less. I wonder if this was perhaps a factor that led to HIFIMAN keeping the original Susvara in circulation. Regardless, I think the new Utopia looks and feels fantastic, especially with the Focal headband seemingly more durable here, and the overall build quality is certainly a step above the Susvara Unveiled. The all-beryllium drivers in the Utopia also make it more dynamic and the punchiest set I've heard to date, and it's quite resolving at the same time even if the Susvara Unveiled bests it most of the way. Ultimately I found the Utopia to work exceptional for a few music genres and the Susvara Unveiled is far more versatile, on top of being more comfortable over longer listening sessions. I suspect the older Utopia might pose a tougher challenge, but I can't really speak for it even if it wasn't discontinued.

The ZMF Caldera is a unique set that offers a decidedly warm, relaxed tuning which is not commonly found in high-end planar magnetic sets. It does this without compromising on vocals either, with an early ear gain that does not stray out of the chosen path thankfully, although the Susvara Unveiled is certainly more resolving. I know many who would take the Caldera over most headphones, including the original Susvara, even if the latter was priced the same. By offering a well executing different sound presentation, ZMF has managed to carve a niche for itself despite being very new to planar magnetic headphones. The Caldera also comes in a variety of different wood compositions, be it natural or stabilized, as well as optional pads, tuning meshes, and even different chassis materials to allow for customizable comfort, weight, aesthetics, and even tonalities. It's tough to compare the Caldera as a single product given how many options there are, but ultimately comes down to your tuning preference. There's also the Meze Elite, which continues to be Meze Audio's flagship even after the release of the new Meze Empyrean II. I have yet to listen to the latter, or even the former with Meze's new pads, so I will keep this comparison short until then. I found the Meze Elite to be the best designed and most comfortable pair of headphones I've used so far, and there are even some special editions with different colorways and materials. But it strays down the warmer colored tonality too far for my liking, with the ZMF Caldera being a more balanced and nuanced take on the same. The Elite will no doubt work very well for those who know they want this tuning style, I am just not one of them.



The HIFIMAN Susvara Unveiled is priced such that you can actually get some flagship electrostatic headphones and a good e-stat amplifier/energizer for the same cost. This, combined with how the Susvara Unveiled is targeting a more natural sound presentation and a more ethereal-yet-detailed playback, I can see some people looking to see how this planar magnetic set fares against e-stats. You will notice right away how even the very best tuned e-stats can end up being less bassy than what many people will like, although newer flagships are not bass-light. The Audeze CRBN is a good example, with very cool engineering and a great design coming together to make for extremely comfortable headphones. The original few batches seem to have had more excursion of the diaphragm for that increased bass, which in turn increased the chance of it sticking to the stators. Audeze never confirmed a change, although newer batches have consistently been doing better in avoiding the sticking without compromising on bass to a noticeable degree. That said, while it is my personal favorite Audeze set to date, I acknowledge it will be even more divisive than the LCD-5 owing to the mids being prominently forward followed by darkness in the lower and mid-treble, which takes away from what an e-stat is most associated with. The Dan Clark Audio CORINA posed the toughest challenge to the Susvara Unveiled for me. I mentioned before how it is the set I pick up most often since it sounds exceptional for pretty much everything in my music library. The CORINA also has the best vocals reproduction of any headphones I've ever used, and this includes the Susvara Unveiled. The measurements here are also slightly misleading in that the CORINA has decent treble despite not looking as much in the graphs—it feels close enough to the Susvara Unveiled, some of this is no doubt due to the e-stat drivers having very little in the way of the diaphragm and your ears. However, the Susvara Unveiled really shows what detailed and dynamic bass sounds like by comparison, and it's arguably more engaging too. The CORINA and Susvara Unveiled would be a dream combo for anyone lucky/rich enough to afford both. They are certainly the top two in my hypothetical headphones ranking list now, just trading places depending on my mood and what I want to listen to.

The HIFIMAN Shangri-La Jr. has often been said to be the e-stat equivalent of the planar magnetic Susvara, mostly because of the tuning in the mids onward and the very similar chassis/pads used. You can actually get the full Shangri-La Jr. headphone and amplifier package for the same asking price if not less, as the Susvara Unveiled. I like what the Shangri-La Jr. does with tuning, but honestly it comes off too safe for me at the price range it is in. I don't get the e-stat sound presentation as much, and it feels less resolving than equivalent planar magnetic headphones that cost less, let alone the Susvara Unveiled. The Shangri-La Sr. might as well be called the Susvara Unveiled Sr. too based on how I hear both. The Shangri-La Sr. costs a whopping $18,000 though, so I suspect it's already out of the conversation for anyone who is reading this far down the page. I will say that if you basically liked what you hear from the Susvara Unveiled and decided you wanted a tonality more tilted towards the higher frequencies with a massive soundstage, the Shangri-La Sr. is worth a demo at the very least. But overall the Susvara Unveiled is where most people will stop in the HIFIMAN stack, especially given its harder hitting and deeper reaching bass, and it will end up being the realistic (within some reason anyway) HIFIMAN flagship too.