HiFiMan Electronics is a Chinese company founded in 2007 by Dr. Fang Bian. HiFiMan produces hi-end audio products, especially headphones but also amplifiers and high-performance portable music players. In just a few years, the company has built a solid reputation among enthusiasts thanks to its line of advanced technology planar magnetic headphones. Among all HiFiMan headphones, without a doubt the most famous is the Sundara, the subject of countless enthusiastic reviews, comments, and suggestions from both enthusiasts and specialized magazines. The reason is very simple: it offers an overall sound quality that has very few equals in its price range (it currently costs just over 300 euros, but the comparison easily extends to headphones costing 400 or even 500 euros).
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Presentation
The Sundara makes excellent use of planar magnetic technology perfected in recent years by HifiMan. Headphones of this type, thanks to the use of a diaphragm suspended evenly between permanent magnetic fields with no physical contact between components, are characterized by incredible transient response speed and extremely low distortion. However, the technology also has some drawbacks: the weight and total surface area of the required magnets lead to the construction of rather heavy and bulky headphones that are difficult to transport. In addition, being characterized by low efficiency and low impedance, they require a good headphone amplifier capable of delivering a fair amount of current in order to perform at their best.
We were able to test for several weeks the latest revision of the Sundara, dated 2020, which introduces improvements to the ear pads by slightly angling them to make them more comfortable and also to achieve improvements in tonal performance. The product comes in a box with an elegant design, placed inside a custom-shaped insert. The box includes a user manual, a 1.5-meter cable with a 3.5mm mini-jack, and a 6.35mm adapter.
Features and sound reproduction
The headphones require a long burn-in (about 150 hours) before performing at their best. After many hours of burn-in, the listening impressions can only be extremely positive: the Sundara impress with detail and dynamics across the frequency range, especially in the mids and highs, as well as with their extremely fast response to every sonic variation, a characteristic of planar magnetic headphones. The soundstage is truly wide and very stable, with all instruments well defined. This is helped by the open-back design, which does not isolate external noise but gives great airiness to the reproduced music. The bass is rather dry and clean, not overpowering. The overall sound signature is very balanced and engaging. However, the quality of the recording sources plays a very important role: if the CDs, vinyls, or music sources are not well recorded or well mastered, the Sundara will make it very clear without mercy.
The Sundara V2 is rated at 32 ohms impedance and 94dB sensitivity. To perform at their best, they require amplification with good power and current delivery. Connecting them directly to the headphone output of a PC, smartphone, or iPhone is possible but absolutely not recommended. This is not only due to insufficient output power but also because the DACs and built-in amplification circuits in these devices are almost always of poor quality and do not allow these excellent headphones to perform at their best.
Let us now move on to comfort: this is a very important parameter not to be underestimated, as even the best-sounding headphones in the world, if uncomfortable, risk being used very little and ultimately turning into a poor purchase.
The Sundara are undoubtedly large and heavy headphones. There are planar magnetic headphones that are even heavier and more “demanding,” but even the Sundara’s 372 grams are noticeable and can make long listening sessions (several consecutive hours) rather tiring compared to lighter dynamic headphones such as Grado, Sennheiser, or Beyerdynamic. For shorter periods, say a couple of hours or less, the Sundara—especially in the new version with rounded ear pads—prove to be very comfortable and pleasant to wear.
A definitely improvable aspect is the included cable: its 1.5-meter length proves insufficient in several situations, and even in a typical use case (connected to a desktop headphone amplifier, with the listener sitting at the desk), the cable length barely allows you to stand up while wearing the headphones. Fortunately, the cable is detachable and easily replaceable with a longer one.
Conclusions
In conclusion, the Sundara are headphones with undeniable sound quality and a stunning price-to-performance ratio, which due to their size, weight, and technical characteristics are essentially aimed at music enthusiasts who listen in a fixed location. Thanks to their affordable price, the Sundara can represent for many an opportunity not to be missed to enter the world of true high-fidelity headphone listening.
The price of the 2020 Sundara V2 allows them to be paired with a good budget DAC/headphone amplifier (such as those from iFi or Topping) to create a headphone listening system capable of delivering satisfaction for 500 euros or slightly more, and of course, as you move up in amplifier/DAC quality, satisfaction increases as well. The Sundara sound great with the Beresford Caiman SEG and with the iFi Zen Signature HFM Set, and of course with the excellent EF400 from HiFiMan.
If you are looking for headphones under 400 euros for desk or armchair listening (or during long trips, if you have a portable DAC), you will hardly find anything that can rival the Sundara from HiFiMan in terms of sound reproduction quality.
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