The 925 was milder and calmer but the difference was less than expected. With Susvara, the 925's own voice toned down to be more balanced than usual. The Brit still sounded gloriously smooth, gentle and soothing but also more effortless, lighter and upon demand significantly snappier than I knew it on loudspeakers. The 925 as exploited for headfi morphed from a very much situational product in need of careful matching to a proper do-it-all of top quality. It was still expressive and focused on more pleasure than hi-res but now with most its drawbacks banished. This substantially elevated my listening experience. I'd still easily pick the more balanced and technically quite unbeatable Bakoon but disparities between both now involved more apples and oranges than steep better/worse. As much as I had enjoyed the EX-M1's shove, crack and torque, the sportier-than-ever yet more humane 925 had the upper hand on aspects related to musical beauty. And that my ears fancied more.

At this point my to-do list still had the iFi Pro iCAN as a reality check plus a Thöress DFP linestage used as headphone amp. Both already fought each other with Susvara and two other cans which you can reread here. The important bit now was how the DFP would do versus the Bakoon. In general terms the DFP is a tastefully executed stunning headfi amp – very energetic, nimble, airy, silent, with surprisingly feisty and tight bass. It's smooth, tangible, exceptionally clean, generous on harmonics and not overcooked in any particular way. By cutting the distance to the closest virtual sound sources and then locking them all in an artfully presented generously oxygenated bubble inside a listener's head, the DFP renders spatial images different than any other in this report. With Susvara the sensation was a tad odd at first but past a short accommodation phase, my ears had nothing but pleasure from it.

On refinement and overall completeness, the German had its sonics dressed in a suit sharp enough to score as many points as the AMP-13R. If I were driven exclusively by these criteria and forced to pick one, I'd be truly torn. However, Thöress' horse power was insufficient to be as effortless and fully developed in the bass as this report's other heavyweights, let alone the Bakoon. On minimalist recordings with two stringed instruments and one voice, the Bakoon had to make room to share the podium with the DFP. But a substantial chunk of my daily music includes synth bass as my guilty pleasure. With such repertoire I could push the German's volume knob all the way up yet the appetite for more remained. That never was an issue elsewhere. So I look forward to the day when Reinhard Thöress decides to make a headphone amp capable of driving anything. And he just might.

With its abundant setup options, the Pro iCAN wasn't as straightforward. It's fair to label iFi's top headfi deck as a chameleon which doesn't sport one universal sound profile. Set to transistor pure, it approached the EX-M1 and AMP-13R on speed, slam and soundstage size but wasn't quite as nimble, potent or complex. It didn't move as much air and wasn't as free but sported mild tension. Figuratively speaking, the Pro iCAN shifted all gears capable enough to drive Susvara to the destination without bumps along the road but didn't do it as swiftly and fluidly as its opponents. With its valves fully engaged for Tube+ mode, the iFi unleashed its inner expressiveness enough to land overall somewhere in the DFP's ballpark. But on evenly dosed harmonics, articulation and background silence, it wasn't quite there. It reached very high for its price but not as high. Still, all battles here were of minor import in the grand scheme of things. The Pro iCAN's ability with Susvara is a fact. This versatile amp drove a notorious load despite being a less exalted fit than my others. But shifting from those to iFi's amp was painless and that's the takeaway. I honestly couldn't complain with it in Tube+ mode when fed from my quick and resolving Pacific DAC. Many seasoned headphone veterans would be surprised by how good this setup was in fact.