Seriously, if I didn’t know what kind of headphones I am listening to (and especially did not know their actual price), I would say that this level of sound reproduction is more akin to a good mid-range headphones, and not to heapdhones that are actually that affordable. The singer’s voices on both Aimee Mann “One” and Kate Bush “Wuthering Heights” were rendered with both delicacy and the definition that well surpassed the open-back Sundaras price-point.
Then there’s that thing with both the treble and the sound-staging. The latter one is really good for the price, Sundaras sound spacious and they at the same time sound rather wide than deep. What I mean by that they offer a good insight into the space, but more expensive open-back headphones provide better insight into what’s going on in the deeper layers. Yet at the same time, I would not see this as any kind of disadvantage, but rather something that is in this case more of a trait and can only be realised with a direct comparision with something like the HEDDphone TWO or the Stax (SR-507 in my particular case). The treble is just good, and since I mentioned electrostatics above – clearly the entry-level Stax will be better here (it will also have completely different tonality and the texture-to-transparency ratio as well as different midrange).
But the thing with the treble offered by the Sundaras is that they are actually unfatiguing and really well-woven into the entire presentation. While I would not say that the open-back Sundaras are mid-centric (more on that in the next part, just soon), their sound is rather presented as a whole. By that I mean that the bass and treble follow midrange, yet the the whole balance is – but this will really depend on the source components – is just slightly tilted towards bass. The lower registers and the midrange play the most important roles with the treble following their lead. And this is a really good combination that actually sounds much better than many might expect. Just take into the consideration that, with all things considered, they really need a quality source (not necessarily an expensive one) to sound their best.
Sundara Closed – a different take
This is actually when things get really – I mean really – interesting. While the Closed Back obviously has smaller soundstage these are not your typical closed-back headphones when it comes to the space projection. While the open-back version really had the with the alternative so as to call it version still has the ability to give the sense of depth in their reproduction. I started my listening with Nils Frahm’s “Spaces” album. And the image they provided was actually quite intimate with really good rendering of the overall atmosphere. Also compared to the open edition, closed-back version has a different overall balance.
And it’s not only about the frequency response, but also more about the saturation of the midrange. You could say that the Closed Back is actually more saturated and more fun sounding, but that’s just the part of the story. On the Frahm’s “Says” track the sound was well focused and also the ambience of this track was reproduced well above these headphones’ asking price. The Closed Back version sounds also much closer to the listener. The soundstage that the open version provides is more distant, but in this case it’s also more about the different perspective altogether.