HifiMAN Sundara and Sundara Closed review – two interesting takes on affordable planars
HiFiMAN Sundara and Sundara Closed Back are two planar headphone models offered by the well-known manufacturer that has already established its position among audio enthusiasts all around the world. While Sundara can be seen as already something of a classic, the other one – the Closed Back version – may also be perceived as an interesting variation on the subject. Moreover, both headphones are affordable and also of a low-impedance and high-sensitivity variety. That also means that they can be used both with bigger sources and with most of the DAPs and dongles as well.
Starting from the packaging, it’s quite okay, nothing especially fancy here, but at the same time it’s practical and you know that your money didn’t went into any unnecessary bling. With both versions we get the detachable cable, 3.5 to 6.5 mm adapter as well the quite practical foam stand with the open Sundaras. As for the design and the build quality – it’s very good for the price. I would say that at their current market prices (especially here in Poland) both versions are really well-made, especially the beech wood cups on the Sundara Closed Back.
The overall material quality is good. And the weight of both Sundaras is also on the light side. Also, compared to – for example – to the previously reviewed HE400i – both Sundaras are more comfortable. This is thanks to their much more advanced headband that allows for much better weight distribution and adjustment. I did use both versions for much more than half a year, and found no apparent weaknesses in their mechanical construction.Moreover, both are really comfortable longer-term.
And as for the isolation from the outside world in the Closed Back version – there’s some of that. But I feel that it’s more about isolation in the different direction. Anyway, those that would like to listen in really loud environments will go for anything with ANC anyway. We’ll get back to this later on, so now let’ get on with the sound.
HiFiMAN Sundara vs Sundara Closed Back – sound comparison
First things first, let’s start off with saying that while both of the Sundara versions (open-back and closed) sport the same kind of – planar – transducers, they are somehow different takes on the whole concept of the planar sound. And both can give completely different impressions, depending on the repertoire, the listener and – obviously – the ancillaries that they are paired with. At the same time, I would also like to mention just at the very beginning of the sound description part of this review that the differences between them when compared directly warrant such a comparative review alone.
Moreover, they can be a great example of the situation where it’s not necessarily all about the fact that one version will have more stereotypically open sound than the other one. Obviously, some general traits that can be connected to the open-back or closed design will be there, yet we actually live in really interesting times, where this will all depend on many factors. And with the closed version in this case not only not being inferior, but also at the same time even more surprising. Yet to form a certain and understandable baseline, we will begin with describing the sound traits and the overall characteristics of the open-back Sundaras and then move to the closed-back version. This will also be interesting, since we already have both the HE400se at hand that we reviewed some time ago as well as other headphones at hand from HiFiMAN, like the Deva Pro or HE-R9.