As per title. Obviously just about any potato will provide enough volume (like listening to the 400SEs straight from a phone or laptop), but I'm talking about the Hifiman planars reaching their true potential and transforming from underamped ugly ducklings into whatever they were meant to be, which includes (importantly to a gamer) a comfortably large and open stage with good imaging, which is something a lot of people characterize the Sundaras as not having, just as about as many praise them for having it (which kinda suggests the latter group just might have better amplification). My uneducated impression was that they simply need 2W — vs. e.g. 1 from Atom or 1.5 from Zen or K5 pro — and if they don't get that, they sound narrow and shallow and fail to show their true potential in technical terms and even tonality. However, I've also been told that things aren't as simple as that, and it should be possible for less strong amps to also be able to drive them properly if they meet some other conditions. And that's from where things begin to fall beyond the limits of my understanding.
Also: How badly insufficient will my non-pro K5 be?. (No standalone DAC. Using the one that's on the SB Z instead.)
Also: How badly insufficient will my non-pro K5 be?. (No standalone DAC. Using the one that's on the SB Z instead.)
