![]() Since I don't own a Susy and don't plan on getting one anytime soon, I'll rest my case here. Here too the Susy sounded quite dynamic and lively but lacked the textures and absolute detail of the ABH2. I've also heard the Susy tapped from a Sudgen A21se. I've never heard the Susy play that well before. The sound was not only detailed but quite engaging. There was enough body, texture and dynamics with sufficient headroom to spare on the ABH2. On the contrary I'll call the Bliss "anemic" in comparison. It's not as good as my home server/renderer setup but it gets the job done.Īnyway, coming to the point about ABH2 being anemic, I have to completely disagree with here. It's a great source and lends consistency to auditions. I carry my Quloos QA390LE for this very purpose. It's nearly impossible to have consistency while auditioning. I think this is the most overlooked area in a lot of systems too. The AHB2 takes on the character of the preamp used in front of it, in your case a passive preamp and that’s probably how it sounded, “passive”. The AHB2 was anemic and lacked body because you used a passive preamp in front of it. In my experience, the source to the DAC (by source I mean the streamer/server and any network switch, transport, laptop or CD player) makes just as much difference to the overall sound quality as the DAC or amp. ![]() Imo, the sound quality of a system is only as good as the weakest link. I can’t understand why but when most people talk about the system they’re using with the Susvara (or any other headphone for that matter), they only mention the DAC/amp combination and not the source to the DAC. My Bliss KTE source is an Aurender W20SE streamer/server feeding my May KTE DAC. My sources for my comparisons were my Grimm Audio MU1 and Bricasti M1SE (recently upgraded to the M1S2). The AHB2 takes on the character of the Holo Audio Serene and a very similar character to the Bliss KTE. The best preamp with the AHB2 for my preferences was the Holo Serene KTE (the least expensive of the 4 preamps). None of them were anemic or lacked body but clearly some were better than others. Each active preamp made the AHB2 sound different. I’ve tried 4 different preamps with the Benchmark amp including a McIntosh C2600 tube pre, a Linear Tube Audio Microzotl reference preamp, a Woo Audio WA23, and a Holo Audio Serene KTE. I own the Bliss and the AHB2, and several other headphone amps that are listed in my profile. It's just so damn complete and seamless to me from top to bottom that it just sounds as close to perfection as I've heard through a headphone in my life.Ĭlick to expand.The AHB2 was anemic and lacked body because you used a passive preamp in front of it. Everything is cut from one complete Sonic cloth. After spending months with it, I've come to realize, or at least my brain has been tricked into believing, that its greatest strength is its top to bottom coherency through the entire frequency range. To be honest, I wasn't super thrilled when I listen to my Susvara for the first time. ![]() So this brings me to my next observation. The highs have enough detail without harshness. Tonality on Susvara from Bliss is absolutely beautiful. The AHB2 simply didn't have enough meat on the bones for the Susvara for me to enjoy it. I think the Bliss has, for me, and acceptable level of trade-off by losing just a touch of transparency and speed of the AHB2 while still giving me body and weight and slam. This happens over and over again on multiple tracks I listen to. Playing the same cut on the Bliss, The bass is less focused and ever so slightly muddier but the slam is there. The bass notes on the AHB2 had unbelievable resolution and detail but no weight or oomph behind it. There's one recording I have by Erik Truffaz. If you want to hear the air conditioning turn on in the jazz Club, Benchmark all day. Speaking of transparency, if it's your thing, get yourself a Benchmark product and look no further. I especially didn't want to use an active in this setup so I could reap the full benefits of the ULTRA transparency and uncolored sound of the AHB2. I thought I would be good in that regard. I set the AHB2 to 4 volt input sensitivity. I thought this would be okay because the balanced output of the Spring 3 KTE is outputting like 5.8 volts I think. I was using a passive Luminous Audio Axiom II. In its defense, I did not have an active preamplifier ahead of it. What shocked me was that the AHB2 sounded extremely anemic and thin with not enough body or weight in the music. In my experience, the Bliss KTE has been the clear winner in every category. With the Susvara, I've owned the following.
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