Susvara Unveiled

Reviewer: Srajan Ebaen
Financial interests: click here
Main system: Sources: Retina 5K 27" iMac (i5, 256GB SSD, 40GB RAM, Sonoma 14), 4TB external SSD with Thunderbolt 3, Audirvana Studio, Qobuz Sublime, Singxer SU-6 USB bridge, LHY Audio SW-8 & SW-6 switch, Sonnet Pasithea, Laiv Audio Harmony; Active filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Power amplifiers: Vinshine Audio x Kinki Studio Dazzle & Gold Note PA-10 Evo in mono on subwoofer; Headamp: Enleum AMP-23R; Phones: Raal 1995 Immanis; Loudspeakers:Qualio IQ [on loan] Cables: Exact Express Flame, Furutech; Power delivery: 2 x Kinki/Vinshine Tai Hang on amps and source stack, Furutech DPS-4.1 between wall and conditioners; Equipment rack: Artesanía Audio Exoteryc double-wide 3-tier with optional glass shelves, Exoteryc amp stands; Sundry accessories: Acoustic System resonators, AudioQuest FogLifters; Room: 6 x 8m with open door behind listening seat; Room treatment: 2 x PSI Audio AVAA C214 active bass traps
2nd system:Source: FiiO R7 into Soundaware D300Ref SD transport to Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with POW; Preamp/filter: Lifesaver Audio Gradient Box 2; Amplifier: Kinki Studio EX-B7 monos; Loudspeakers: Virtual Hifi Cobra [on loan]; Subwoofer: Zu Method; Cable loom: Exact Express Earth; Power delivery: Vibex Granada/Alhambra, Akiko Audio Corelli Corundum & Castello Solo; Equipment rack:Hifistay Mythology Transform X-Frame [on extended loan]; Sundry accessories: Furutech cable lifts, Furutech NFC Clear Lines; Room: ~3.5 x 8m
2nd headfi system: DAC: Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with POW; Headamp: Cen.Grand Silver Fox; Headphones: Raal 1995 Magna, HifiMan Susvara
Desktop system:Source: HP Z2 work station Win11/64; USB bridge: LHY UIP; DAC + Head/preamp: Audalytic DR70 + HP70 both on LHY LPS-80 Dual; Speaker amps: Topping B200 monos; Loudspeakers: Virtual Hifi Viper; Headphones: Final D-8000, aune SR7000, FiiO FT7
Upstairs headfi system: FiiO R7; Headphones: Meze 109 Pro, Fiio FT3
2nd upstairs speaker system: Source: FiiO R7; Integrated amplifier: Simon Audio Lab i5; Loudspeakers: ModalAkustik Musikboxx with Dynaudio S18 subwoofer
2-channel video system: Source: Oppo BDP-105; All-in-One: Gold Note IS-1000 Deluxe; Loudspeakers: Zu Soul VI; Subwoofer: Zu Submission; Power delivery: Furutech eTP-8, Room: ~6x4m
Review component retail: €8'800

Part Deux. Following my prior excursion into no-veilocity at the hands of Ananda, Arya and HE1000 without rear grills, today takes a closer look at Susvara Unveiled whilst contrasting my OG Susvara and the resident ribbon opposition of Raal 1995's Immanis & Magna. These are all pricey statement efforts in their respective categories. They warrant premium ancillaries for maximum joy. Budgeteers will call it Part Deuce. They best stick to N°1; or fortify against the devil called envy. Parking close to €10K on one's head where others are thrilled with €70 earbuds is a very exclusive venture. That said, even exclusivity has layers of zeroes. Audio Group Denmark's Børresen brand recently launched €1'000'000/pr loudspeakers. Moving right along. To take the proper measure on my top HifiMan loaner, I vacated the earlier desktop where its 'lesser' three siblings had played. Upstairs, a FiiO R7 as SD-card transport feeds a Soundaware D300Ref USB bridge. That outputs reclocked digits via I²S over HDMI into a Cen.Grand DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe which resamples all to DSD1'024 on the fly. Set to fixed output, its analogue XLR hit a Hattor ARP-S quad of silver attenuation autoformers. Their XLR outputs aim at a fully balanced Cen.Grand Silver Fox dedicated headphone amplifier in BTL mode. The amp's quad-pair FET outputs deliver 20wpc into 32Ω. This assemblage was my most ambitious HeadFi system. It would welcome my high-tariff loads on hopefully their very best terms.

Just then my office had climbed the very same ambition pole with a Gustard R26II loaner so 26-bit fully balanced discrete R2R DAC with separate 1-bit decoder; FangSound's 40wpc/32Ω Dionysus amp; and a loaner sample of Lavri Cables' very best pure 6n silver leash all shown below. I now definitely had the right stuff for the occasion; two times over. OG Susvara back when used 2.5mm plugs so mine still do. Today's Unveiled flaunts 3.5mm. I couldn't match cables so tarted up either with my best on hand: Lavri for Unveiled, a LessLoss C-MARC prototype for OG from Forza Audioworks not yet in production so still unobtainium. The first thing to categorically state is that Unveiled didn't eat its elder's lunch. OG wasn't rendered obsolete, passé or, um – trumped. Whilst my cable mixeroo couldn't help influence these results, I couldn't help that. Helpless in Seattle, a new movie starring Forrest Gump? Using a simple but telling guitar track from Kevin Seddiki's Spontaneous Reflections keyed me into a subtly different tonality. I'm no guitarist to know how these textures and sounds are generated. I can only report how my two loads diverged. OG played this very lit-up fare with somewhat plusher roundness whilst Unveiled felt marginally more needly. Of course we all know about the gold x silver traces. Going there feels cheap in the extreme but something about cooler silvery moon light vs warmer golden sun light did figure.

As I recently wrote in another review, the chemical symbol for silver is Ag. It derives from argentum, Latin for silver which itself stems from Sanskrit for shining or white. It's a transition metal known for having the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of any metal. Silver and shining? That strikes me as a very white or fair summation. One gent's bright—bright all over, not just as imbalanced top octaves!—is another gal's shiny. It's one quality judged two ways. Splashy incidents like cymbal or triangle hits modulate with distance. The closer our microphone, the more uncut the overtone blitzes we capture. Their rise atop the struck material's fundamental frequency isn't yet shallowed by distance in the reverberant field; and the harmonic intensity not yet mellowed by reflective overlay. In that sense the nearfield is very obviously brighter and faster than the farfield. It isn't about audiophilia's 'bad bright' but avoiding reality's distance losses. And, placing microphones even closer than any human ear would be in an actual performance isn't realism but hyped so a special effect. Now enter this picture with the extreme proximity of headfi for zero distance losses; then Susvara-type extreme thin-film membranes which are close to massless but bathe in powerful magnetic flux. The degree of explicit exposure such on-ear transducers create when driven by ultra-quick powerful electronics whilst being fed well-recorded intimate perspectives should go without saying. It's the nearfield squared then squared again. In that context, my original Susvara on the Lithuanian wiring was just a mite mellower than was the newer still costlier alternate which clearly isn't its successor since OG remains current.