SUNDARA Closed-Back Over-Ear Planar Magnetic Wired Hi-Fi Headphones with Stealth Magnet Design, Detachable Cable, Wood Ear Cups for Home, Studio, Recording

I was quiet skeptical after reading all the reviews of these headphones. For £119 I thought it is a must try ... if no luck will be returned. I really wanted a good-sounding closed back for everyday use, which is comfortable to use for many hours of listening, gaming, video conferencing while having some isolation from home noises. First impression: Extremely comfortable, good weight/support balance. Breathing pads, with good seal even with thick plastic glass temples. Soundstage - exceptional for this price range. I just love it - being a huge soundstage fan. Treble - average, with good separation, noting exceptional. Mids - a bit muddy but actually fits well into the overall sound signature of thh headphones. Bass - very good, detailed and punchy, especially for planars. Overall - no fatigue for long time with a broad range of listening (movies, music (most genres (probably not for rock and vocals)). Compared to: Beyerdynamic DT770Pro 250ohm closed back. The HifiMan has more detailed treble and punchier bass. Equally comfortable. For the same price I would go with the HifiMan. Sony MDR-1AM2 closed back. Different league. The Sony is my travel companion, very versatile and VERY comfortable. Interestingly the overall sound signature of the HifiMan is so uniquely and well balanced that it is easy fall in love with. At home the HifiMan will have more head-on time. Monolith M1060C closed back. The HifiMan is way more comfortable. The Monolith is heavy and difficult to keep in place if I move my head around a bit. Also I had to modify it by replacing the internal foam inserts with wool which actually achieved similar sound signature that the HifiMan has out of the box. For almost third the price the HifiMan is probably better out of the box.

i dont have any other planar headphones to compare, but comparing them to my other 'normal', these are great. These are well-built, and sounds great - ok - they need very slight more bass, but the clarity is new experience ;-) make sure you have good source as spotify, youtube or mp3s are not enough ;-) as well as good 'sound card' where higher resolution and sample rate 'unlocks' the benefits of these headphones. ...and they are really nice and confortable

Pretty great. Although adm8ttedly they suffer high treble noise when not going through an eq. For example If I play them through my tablet I eq. But if its just tv thees no eq and YouTube trebles can attack you

Maybe you need to be British to understand the headline, but essentially it seems that these headphones split opinions and people either seem to love them or hate them. Personally, I really like these. Many reviews on the internet point out the wierd 300Hz hump in the midrange frequency response, but honestly I think unless you are a purist with different sets of cans for different genres of music, you will neither notice nor care much. Taken as a whole, these are still very good headphones that provide very good sound quality. They will likely sound far better than anything you are coming from if you are not already an audiophile. If you are an audiophile, then you will probably want a set of open backed headphones and not accept any compromise with a closed back. And that's ok. But don't slam these for what they are just because they don't offer £1000 performance. And as for the price - at the current price for £149, the value proposition is amazing. Perhaps they would be a harder sell at £399 and I can understand if people feel the quality doesn't match that price. But at the current price point these are really good. Nice bass response, great clarity, nice midrange and the trebles are not harsh. I would agree with others that these sound a bit darker/warmer. Listening to something intimate and jazzy like Diana Krall presents an amazing warm silky vocal with awesome details in the soundstage and her voice. The experience is made so much better if you use a balanced cable and appropriate DAC/headphone amp. It still sounds good with the standard cable, but switching to a balanced cable and amp does seem to open up the sound and add a little bit more sparkle. So in conclusion - and in my own humble opinion as I'm not trying to tell you what is right and wrong - if you are on a budget there is one question you need to ask yourself first. Do you want open back or closed back cans. These will not replace an open back. Once you have that question out of the way, I really think you should give these a try. For the price they are amazing. And if you don't like them, you can return them. However, I am keeping mine!

As someone who owns several pairs of premium headphones AKG and Beyerdynamic (£250 being my limit in price) these are top quality ... Sound quality is very balanced...mids I have read are slight reserved but through a headphone amp etc these headphone deliver a premium quality sound. Bass response is the deal for me ...very balanced but not shallow ....presence is very much there which is refreshing for a more expensive rating headphone. Treble does not lack ...vanilla eq is the base point ..work from there. Construction is high quality...fit is secure but not uncomfortable...i would easily wear these for long music listening sessions, feel and weight is premium. Sound isolation is very good..buy these if you want a premium closed back experience...recommended

Good , but not as loud as some less expensive headphones I’ve been using . Did some research online and it seemed like the ideal set but didn’t work out as imagined

Great if you don't want to disturb people around you. Nice sounds, decent quality and well worth it at the sale prices.

I'm a big HiFiman fan already - have got the Drop 4XX & Mk1 HE560's (both planar) as well as the Drop Senn. HD6XX. Wanted to try a closed back and this had good reviews - specially at the reduced price. Build quality & presentation were good but that's where it ended. Don't know if there was something wrong with mine but even after a week it was still so strident and 'toppy' they were impossible to live with. Not 'sibilant'......just very high frequency with a bit of bass. Not what I expected. I really wanted to like these but maybe it was because they are sort of a 'hybrid' being a closed back PLANAR... After reading a few more reviews I went for the Fiio FT1. It has a BIG 60mm (conventional wood pulp) driver - no more HF 'stridency' & a LOT MORE bass! Its far from perfect but 'different' to what I already have - which was the point.

Simplemente una opción muy buena por este precio sonido claro y suave, un sonido más juguetón y cálido qué hermoso, pero no deja de ser muy bueno, el único contra que tienen es que te presionan la cabeza y más aún si eres cabezón como yo, y que la unida qué me llegó tiene un defecto y es que el auricular del lado izquierdo es mucho mas rígido qué el del lado derecho por lo que al momento de ponérmelo el ajuste se complica, incomoda y cansa con largos periodos de escucha.

Once you've EQ'd them they sound fantastic. They are very competent headphones. They're also very comfortable and leak very minimally on my head. For their discounted price, they are a steal. If you're up for EQ, I recommend you give them a go.

Looks fine, better in person compared to the product photos. It sounds a little honky stock, but cleans up remarkably well after Oratory’s eq. It’s definitely a recommended buy if you eq it. It sounds cleaner and more spacious than my Beyer DT770 and a lot more fun than my Senn HD650.

The Sundara CB (closed back) is an underrated hi-fi gem. Pairs very well with the Fiio Q3 (AKM4452). The Sundara CB is paradox in itself, smooth yet detailed, closed yet open sounding. Well suited for long listening sessions. Bass has a solid slam that doesn't muddy or colour the mids, sub bass adequately rumbles, mids for vocals and pianos deliver very well without any of the 4khz peaks or honkiness, trebles have a good sparkle without any glare or sharp discomfort to the ears. As a design package, the Sundara CB provides good clamping force that is just about right, headband rests on top of the head without additional pressure, the ear cups are round but large enough to accommodate my Dumbo ears. The earpads are soft hybrid leather-velour combination which provides comfort, bass seal and stays cool. The only gripe will be the yoke length adjustment. It's very, very tight. But once you have that set, you won't have to do it again. I highly recommend it. 5/5 stars. *other headphones I have used as a means of comparison* Hifiman HE400i 2020 AKG K612 Pro Audio Technica R70x Audio Technica AD900x Audio Technica M40x Sennheiser HD598 Sennheiser HD58x ISK HF2010 ISK HD9999 HyperX Cloud 2

Equipment used: Fiio R2R DAC, Denon DSD DAC, Schiit Sys, Schiit Magni, Douk Audio U10 Tube Amp, 2024 Mac Mini. Software: Audirvana Player for Mac. Headphones I own: Hifiman Sundara Closed Back, Hifiman R9, AKG Quincy Jones Q701, Sennheiser HD 280 Pro, Sennheiser HD 569 and a few other headphones. I am a proud Audio Enthusiast. I will do my best to clear up the fact from the fiction about this headphone. If you listen to some online reviews, you would think that this headphone is not good and that purchasing it will be major mistake. That is far from the truth. This headphone needs a minimum of fifty hours of burn in before it sounds the way it was intended to sound. I wish Hifiman could emphasize this important information about this headphone because most if not all of the negative reviews NEVER state if they allowed the headphone to burn in before they provided a biased review. This headphone carries the Sundara name. Sundara is a Sanskrit word meaning beautiful or sweet. Hifiman released their Open Back Sundara which was a huge success and then released this closed back version of the Sundara. So called Audiophiles severely criticized this closed back version because they based their reviews on this headphone out of the box. I used a pink noise and burnt it in for fifty hours before I started to using it. The first so called audiophile criticism is that this headphone doesn’t have the open back Sundara “signature”. Well, this is a closed back Sundara. Different headphone altogether, it doesn’t have to conform to other headphones “signature”. Music doesn’t have to be dull, boring and lifeless. Music has to be fun and enjoyable. Now to the Closed back Sundara. It is beautiful with Beachwood ear cups which gives it a Premium look and feel. Its very comfortable and can be used for hours with ZERO ear fatigue. I listened to the Open Back Sundard and it became very fatiguing after about an hour. That was a huge disappointment. The Closed Back Sundara on the other hand is a great all rounder headphone and provides hours of relaxed listening. Some so called audiophiles complain that the bass is exaggerated on this headphone but that is far from the truth. Don’t be fooled by an audiophile. My first impressions after burn in were very positive. This headphone definitely needs a headphone amp to drive it and to experience the real Sundara sound experience. I used it with the balanced headphone jack out out on the R2R DAC and also with the Schiit Magni Plus and the Douk Audio U10 headphone tube amp and in every case, the headphone never failed to impress. It actually sounded Better, yes better than the Open Back Sundara which was too fatiguing for my liking. This headphone has a punchy and dynamic sound. The sub bass response goes deep and much better than the open back Sundara. I can describe the midrange as clean and clear and the vocal response is just simply perfect, they sound lush. Instrument response is well defined. The Open Back Sundara sounds tinny to my ears, unlike the Closed Back Sundara which has more body to it. Treble response is very clean and detailed. What more can anyone ask for a premium, well priced closed back headphone ? This headphone is highly recommended. I would purchase this Headphone over the Open Back version and spend the savings towards purchasing a 2R2 DAC like the one sold by FIIO right here at Amazon. This hobby need not be expensive. Don’t be fooled by so called audiophiles. This is my honest review.