In the mids, it doesn't play "in your face", but a bit distant. You don't sit in the front row, but 1-2 rows behind. The stage seems sufficiently dimensioned in depth as well as width. Instruments sound natural and voices also not nasally discolored. You have to go into the > 1000 € class to hear clearer differences here. Very solid! Hiroyuki Sawano – Lose (string version) (01:22-01:59), Cello tonality could be a bit warmer, more textured but is clean and detailed with good timbre. Violin tonality could be brighter, but good treble-extension and detail with good timbre. Mids are different. Sundaras’ mids are more forward than most of the other planars but they won’t shadow the rest of the frequency response. HD600’s mids does. But HD600’s mids, with their exceptional timbre is to die for.

With the Sundara the music was enjoyable, having good channel separation and clearly focused central information.” ’Hi-Fi News’ – Editor’s Choice. Sundaras overall brighter headphones. Although I like their energy, they can get fatiguing. Relative to Sundaras, HD600 sound veiled but can be easily listened for longer sessions. Treble is similar in amount but much better in quality than on the Sundara than on the 560S. Much more detailed than the 560S.Build, Comfort and Trivia​Hifiman, as a brand needs no introduction, at least for the Audiophiles and Sundara is undoubtedly one of their most successful headphones.

Hiroyuki Sawano – Scapegoat (00:57-01:17), both vocal and instrument tonality needs to be warmer but very clean and detailed. aravamudan, krishnan (2014-09-22). Pure Gems of Ramayanam. PartridgeIndia. p.369. ISBN 978-1-4828-3720-9. Midrange is the real star of the Sundara and it is presented with a slight accent on the upper region which gives it added clarity and sparkle. Violins, trumpets and female voices shine, but not to the detriment of other, “warmer” instruments which sound as good as them. This bit of emphasis makes some details pop up more than others: the vibrations of guitar strings, the air moving inside trumpets and flutes, or the small fluctuations of the harmonica (e.g. in Max De Aloe Quartet’s L’aria in mezzo). Tonality is approaching neutrality with a touch of brightness, which many find ideal. The Sundara offer great clarity that goes hand-in-hand with the good amount of detail that the driver offers. Oh wow! The transformation was dramatic. Sub-bass came into play like nobody's business. Even at lower volumes I could feel the nice vibrations in my head! The notch filter took care of the highs being exaggerated and a bit harsh. And the fine but broad filter around 2.1 kHz helped the spatial qualities improve even more. Overall tonality now was warm with tons of detail especially in string instruments. Very lovely.The headphone frame, yokes and cups are all metal. The cups swivel and are stiff to do so. It uses a suspension headband design which I prefer for minimizing the amount of weight on the top of your head. The headstrap and pads are pleather, and the pads have a nice surface texture. Long term durability of pleather is always questionable, we'll see how this one does in that regard.

Hiroyuki Sawano &Z (02:18-02:57), slightly better tonality on the Sundara, a lot cleaner and more detailed as well with better timbre. The Sundara is reputed to be a relatively stylish headphone, and I do like the way the earcups look. They’re very nice and circular, and the minimalist design hits all the right cues – it’s perhaps a bit less special than something like Audio-Technica’s Air Dynamic series, but it certainly looks relatively nice. I tried some jazz guitar with Charlie Christian and the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra (1935Columbia LP) and big band sound for themids. The presentation and detail were fantastic with the Sundaras. Wanting to get more perspective on thehigh-midfrequency, I went to Bill Frisell’s Blues Dream (1995 NonesuchCD). The atmosphere of this album is mesmerizing. Here, the Sundara’s take in good air and dynamics and they found the necessary space for the guitars, rhythm section, and added horns in this great recording. Smooth upper mids, something many headphones in this price point struggle with - no offensive grain or harshness in the upper mids, no classic planar recession here either. Comparatively, the Sennheiser HD 650/HD 6XX is a grainy mess in the upper mids. The HE-5XX is more forward in comparison, and has slight upper mid recession resulting in less "air". Vocals sound very authentic. Technicalities: Shiro Sagisu – Hundred years war (02:24-02:57), a lot wider soundstage on the Sundara and slightly deeper. Separation, imaging and detail are leagues ahead on the Sundara. Timbre is similarly natural.HIFIMAN Sundara + iBasso DX220 (AMP7)– This is the DAP I think that sounds the best at this moment. I have a ton of flagship DAPs in my possession, and I really am fazed every single time I plug in DX220. In fact, I sometimes take a longer path when going somewhere, just so I can listen to a few more songs and just to hear it a bit more. The dynamics, this is exactly what caught me. Don’t get me wrong, I think that DX220 is excellent even with AMP1MKII, but it is nowhere near DX220 with AMP7, in this combination, the dynamics are simply, real. Now, the sound of this pairing is one of a dream, I could easily tell that the headphone in the pairing costs 1500 USD or more, if you blindfolded me and placed this pairing on my head, just so much dynamic and clarity, such a deep and impactful bass, and everything is so controlled and clear. And I haven’t even scratched the surface, DX220 can do MQA, Streaming, Tidal, and much more. This is the choice, if you have the money for it, DX220 can drive pretty much everything, and will do one of the best jobs out there with it. Mids: Hiroyuki Sawano – OldToday (01:25-01:52), vocal tonality is slightly better on the Sundara, more detailed and more refined, timbre is similar. Instrument tonality is a lot better on the Sundara and more micro-details while the timbre Is similar. Treble: Linkin Park – Shadow of the Day (03:24-03:42), very sharp electric guitars on the HD560S and a lot more fatiguing.

Neutral and technical. These have the best frequency response that I have ever heard. Bass extends well, never boomy or bloated. Mids are dead neutral, no upper midrange shout. Treble is wonderfully balanced with no large peaks and dips. 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. All products sold on Headphone Zone carry a GST compliant invoice and all products sold include an 18% GST.Bass: Djuro – Drop that bass (01:15-01:30), extends lower on the Sundara but similar rumble. Punch quantity is a bit higher on the Sundara and a lot tighter, faster and more textured on it as well. Tonality is better on the Sundara (cleaner and more detailed as well) but slightly better timbre on the Phoenix. Mids are more recessed than the 560S, but not bad at all. Similar level of midrange detail at first listen. Doesn't have the same awful midrange shout of the 560S. (Yay!) 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. I have had a pair of HE-560 for quite a while now and I’ve always felt like it was one of the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever tried. The Sundara are not as comfortable, but they’re really close. HiFiMAN manages to create very comfortable headphones thanks to a suspended headband design that uses a soft headband with some padding. The reason why the HE-560 are more comfortable is that they have a bit more padding and a larger headband, so the weight is better distributed. They also tend to press on the ears more with the earcups, so a bit of weight is lifted off the top of the head. Sorry, this is the Sundara review. So, the Sundara are pretty comfortable, so much so that even with my scalp being hyper-irritated (a situation which alas happens more often than I’d like) they do not cause any discomfort for more than half an hour, which is quite remarkable.