• WANTED: Happy members who like to discuss audio and other topics related to our interest. Desire to learn and share knowledge of science required. There are many reviews of audio hardware and expert members to help answer your questions. Click here to have your audio equipment measured for free!

Can the Topping A90D run the Susvara

Definitely can drive the Susvaras. I have the the preveious one the A90 I can cofirm that it will drive any headphone on the market to very loud levels. It may not be the most impactfull and meatier sounding amp ,but it will work wonderfully.
I had the A90 before moving up to the A90D. While both were still in my possession, I found the A90 better equipped to handle Susvara than the A90D. Same with the AB-1266. I don't know how. That made no sense to me. I thought, by the specs, the A90D had more power to play with, but I could push the A90 amply high to get a decent sound out of the Susvara. With the A90D, I would top out (no pun intended) before I got there. I ended up selling them both and getting the Ferrum Oor/Hypsos combo at a substantially higher price but with more power. Even with the Oor, I still have applications where I could use more power. Listening to movies on Netflix, I top out, even with the Oor. I have other headphones, like the Focal Utopia and the LCD-5, that I turn to when I'm watching a movie.
 
Last edited:
How did you like the move? For what it’s worth I ordered a Bliss to see how it goes.
TL;DR - I liked it but, in retrospect, I'm not sure it was a day/night difference.

The Oor/Hypsos combo gets louder. There's more headroom for Susvara and the AB-1266. There are a million voices out there touting them as the cat's meow. But to be perfectly honest, I'm not sure the hype is real. I've no major complaints with the combo. They sound great together and I've got enough power - unless I'm watching a movie off of something like Netflix, in which case, I find myself craving more cowbell. I even had the Wandla to complete the set, but it never felt like the Wandla was worth the $3k price tag.

I A/B'd the Wandla and the Chord Qutest back and forth, which was really clunky. The Oor has a switcher for RCA and XLR. Every time I changed DACs, I had to switch them on Tidal. I would hear a section of music, pause, make the two switches, rewind, and hear it all over again. (I also had to adjust the volume because Wandla has a volume control wheel and it took some adjusting to match the two devices, especially with start/stop/switch/switch/start/stop/switch/switch. I didn't have a second Hypsos (or one of those bricks allowing me to share it between the Oor and the Wandla) so maybe I missed the finer nuances. What I heard was very nice but I'm not sure it was any better than the A90 or A90D - just louder.

After a seemingly endless amount of going back and forth, I convinced myself that the Wandla had a slight edge in clarity, which could easily have been placebo, especially since I also came away with the impression that the Qutest had a little more meat on its bones downstairs. Both impressions could be created from a slight disparity in tone. How many headphone listeners have been fooled into thinking their cans had more "detail" because of a slight difference in treble? Without test data, there's no way to know. I also should have swapped the inputs to rule out any differences based on which input I ran the DAC through. Opportunities missed.

I sent back the Wandla, which have features galore over the Qutest, because I didn't care about so many of those features. I don't need an LED display. I don't need a remote. I didn't care for any of the filters either DAC brought to the table. I'm not sure I buy into all the Chord hype about the taps. What motivated me to stick with the Qutest was the way it made me aware of artifacts in tracks I'd listened to for decades. I'd listen to a track and out of the blue, I'd hear something I hadn't noticed before. That may or may not be a result of resolution or timing. I really don't know. When I'd run A/B on the two DACs, I hardly heard any difference between them, just that slightest of tonal differences squeezed out of a very flawed attempt to A/B the two.

The reason I kept the Qutest was that I had these "aha" moments, when not A/Bing it, just listening to music, just enjoying it. I never had any similar experiences with the Wandla, so there was no compelling reason to keep it. I was a little bummed because, from a certain aesthetic, it would have been cool to have sported the triple stack of the Wandla/Oor/Hypsos. The only thing I care about is the subjective listening experience. I'm not an engineer. I have nobody to impress. I like noticing little stuff I didn't know was there. On that measure, the Qutest periodically delivers (for whatever reason), so I kept it, despite its odd shape and size and all those goofy little buttons.

As for the Oor/Hypsos vs something like the A90/D90 combo, Ferrum makes a product that delivers more power, enabling me to comfortably enjoy the Susvara for music, if not for streaming movies off of sites like Netflix. If you have something other than the Susvara or the AB-1266, Topping's A90SE/D90D provides one hell of a bang for the buck. Most headphones lovers would be more than satisfied. I had a lucky moment when I was able to fetch these Ferrum products, and I'm reasonably happy with my purchases, but the hype cloud is always larger than the mountaintop.
 
Why and how? I'm not trying to debate you. I'm interested in your take.
index.php


The Susvara has an impedance of 60Ω.
At that impedance, the A90 and A90D output about 4.2W, while the A70 Pro can do about 5.5W
That increase in output power translates to less than 10% more playback volume.
 
Anyone wondered why HifiMan don't specify the power capacity of their headphones?
Answer: to create confusion, in order to boost headphone amplifier sales.
For an impedance of 60 ohm, an efficiency of 83 dB/mW and an estimated power capacity of about 500 mW, one would need an amplifier capable to deliver about 1W (1000 mW) of power at 60 ohm to ensure about 3 dB of headroom.
Therefore, any headphone amplifier capable of delivering between 850 mW to 2000 mW at 60 ohm will be able to ensure optimal drive of the HiFiMan Susvara.
Personally, I would never consider the Susvara for listening sessions, simply because for the price and loud listening levels, I would always choose a pair of good full blown loudspeakers.
 
Last edited:
Anyone wondered why HifiMan don't specify the power capacity of their headphones?
You mean the max power handling specs? I am not sure but I'd guess because it is not very relevant? Some manufacturers do specify, like Audeze for example. According to them, LCD-X can handle up to 5W according to official specs. Good to know that LCD-X can be my choice of weapon if I wanted to make myself deaf.
 
You mean the max power handling specs?
Yes, the maximum power handling or the power capacity of the headphones speakers has to be specified, in order to asses the maximum sound pressure level they are able to handle and the power requirements of the headphones amplifier at the nominal impedance.
Even if the headphones can reach 120 dB SPL, that doesn't mean one should even listen to that level.
Once again, if I need to listen loud for long sessions, I prefer to do it on loudspeakers.
 
Last edited:
You mean the max power handling specs? I am not sure but I'd guess because it is not very relevant? Some manufacturers do specify, like Audeze for example. According to them, LCD-X can handle up to 5W according to official specs. Good to know that LCD-X can be my choice of weapon if I wanted to make myself deaf.
I was looking at that output curve for the A70 Pro (which I have on order) and thinking about the ear-splitting levels it will drive my 25 ohm LCD-Xs to. I better be careful.
 
I'm currently looking at Susvara headphones and looking to pair with a headphone amp. I see that some suggest that Topping A90D is enough... but I have seen some YouTube videos where they have the below connections with an AHB2 Amp.
  • DAC -> Preamp -> Benchmark AHB2 Amp -> Susvara
  • DAC -> AHB2 -> Resistor box -> Susvara
They seem to suggest that using AHB2 is much better than going with either a HPA4 or any other headphone amp.

Before I had AD90 on my list but was considering the HPA4. If I go with AHB2... it doesn't make sense to go with HPA4.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks.

 
I'm currently looking at Susvara headphones and looking to pair with a headphone amp. I see that some suggest that Topping A90D is enough... but I have seen some YouTube videos where they have the below connections with an AHB2 Amp.
  • DAC -> Preamp -> Benchmark AHB2 Amp -> Susvara
  • DAC -> AHB2 -> Resistor box -> Susvara
They seem to suggest that using AHB2 is much better than going with either a HPA4 or any other headphone amp.

Before I had AD90 on my list but was considering the HPA4. If I go with AHB2... it doesn't make sense to go with HPA4.

Any suggestions would be great.

Thanks.


Holo Audio Bliss, just go with the standard version. Insanely powerful and measures up perfect.
 

Aune S17 PRO Review - Could this be The One?


 
I hope that this headphone amp can be measured in here. Very curious about the results.
 
index.php


The Susvara has an impedance of 60Ω.
At that impedance, the A90 and A90D output about 4.2W, while the A70 Pro can do about 5.5W
That increase in output power translates to less than 10% more playback volume.
Thank you for the chart. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words.
 
Update: I bought the Wandla back, so now I have both the Wandla and the Qutest. With both units, I hadn't considered adjusting the output. The Qutest has a maximum output of 3V. After making that adjustment, I had plenty of headroom for Susvara and the AB-1266. The Wandla has a maximum output of 4.65v out of the RCA jacks and 9.3v out of the XLR. After that, I didn't have any more issues running either headphone through the Oor. I'm still in awe of what the A70 can do, especially for the price.
 
Update: I bought the Wandla back, so now I have both the Wandla and the Qutest. With both units, I hadn't considered adjusting the output. The Qutest has a maximum output of 3V. After making that adjustment, I had plenty of headroom for Susvara and the AB-1266. The Wandla has a maximum output of 4.65v out of the RCA jacks and 9.3v out of the XLR. After that, I didn't have any more issues running either headphone through the Oor. I'm still in awe of what the A70 can do, especially for the price.

Crazy hot outputs there. I had to attenuate my Schiit Yggdrasil+ MIB from 2 volts RCA out to 1.6 volts out with unity gain from my Saga preamp to play well with my KT88 triode strapped SET amp or else the amp will clip with Susvara on a full 2V input sensitivity from the DAC since the amp only needs about 0.7V input sensitivity to get to full power
 

Just pulled the trigger on an open box Warwick Acoustics Aperio system for 25k. What sold me was the portable storage box :rolleyes:

 
Back
Top Bottom