Bakoon's main man Soo-In Chae stepped in to inform me about the AMP-13R's hidden game and gain changer. Its gorgeous red Urushi-lacquered knob held for several seconds grants access to a sub menu wherein I happily unlocked 22dB of voltage gain for its 6.3mm output now fronted by the amp's main circuit at zero attenuation. Now this socket's power was on par with the speaker terminals to spell 25wpc into 8Ω… for headphones. Insert maniacal laughter emoji. Upon asking Srajan about the super-secret gain switch, I could almost see his virtual chuckle. The man told me that he'd tackled this subject in his own Bakoon review but I'd clearly skipped that bit. "Works awesome" is how he paraphrased the AMP-13R/Susvara combo in one of his emails. I was so blown away by it that I penned today's exposé. But there was more to it still.

A number of proud Susvara owners feed their cans from regular power amps with supposedly sterling results. I had several such machines on hand plus the Bakoon plus two regular headphone decks. This and my desire to know what the big fuss was about these cans and full-sized speaker amps led to today's comparisons. Multiple questions demanded answers. Was 100wpc hardware truly key to conquer Fang Bian's inefficiency bastards? Was it mere overkill driven by the latest fad propagated among the headphone communities? Perhaps something of less power would still grant me access to the aural heavens? Where might regular headphone amps fit in?

My methodology was stark simplicity. My fidata HFAS-S10U sent digital music to the LampizatOr Pacific DAC which then fed the Bakoon AMP-13R, Kinki Studio EX-M1, Thöress DFP, Trilogy 925 or iFi Pro iCAN. GigaWatt's PC-3 SE EVO+ plus LC-3 EVO and several LessLoss C-MARC cables handled power while three iFi Mercury3.0 plus an iGalvanic3.0 and micro iUSB3.0 were on USB duty. Susvara connected to each amp via Forza AudioWorks Noir HPC Mk2 headphone cable terminated with a male XLR4. This bonded to one of two pigtails which terminated either in a 6.3mm Furutech jack or four BFA-style bananas. I could tap the speaker posts of my integrated amps directly whereas 6.3mm operated as usual. What could go wrong?

Five machines on standby required some planning so I split them into two groups. At first Susvara saw the three integrated amps to flesh out the best companion for this notorious load. Once that base line was drawn, my top pick would go up against the remaining two headfi decks. It's worth pointing out that neither integrated sports a separate headfi circuit, not even the Bakoon. Their main speaker circuits also drive headphones. This worked to my advantage since I'd already reviewed each to be well familiar. Having used them on multiple occasions with various speakers led me to think that with a headphone as tonally balanced as Susvara, I should hear three distinctive but very familiar core flavours. Not only wasn't I wrong but here the comparison was over before it even started. The amps' relative potency in driving this story could have been a caveat but wasn't. The Bakoon AMP-13R's volume knob fixed around 35 out of 50 in high gain, Trilogy's 925 locked in at 30 out of 63 and the Kinki EX-M1's at 80 out of 255 in low gain. All resulted in equivalent SPL for plenty of headroom for each. All three drove Susvara effortlessly, with authority and to deafening levels upon demand.

The key disparity between each narrowed down to sonic quality exclusively. Each behaved according to its profile already mapped out. To keep it short, the Trilogy 925 was the heaviest and most round, Kinki Studio's EX-M1 the most chiseled and lean while the Bakoon AMP-13R secured the position of most balanced but stood far closer to the Chinese than Brit. It's safe to say that three different voicings clashed and each worked truly well but only one was far superior on sheer refinement and sonic maturity.