HiFiMan Sundara Closed-Back Headphones

In a time when high-end wireless headphones are all the rage and have invaded my home, I am happy to get back to those old wired cans that I love and cherish. This is a review of the HiFiMan Sundara Closed Back Headphones ($399). I consider these cans a good example of entry-level audiophile type of headphones. The more affordable price range (I’d say from four hundred to a thousand dollars for headphones) makes it better suited for many; this competitive dynamic is good for audiophiles as it encourages companies to try their best technology in their lower-tier products. Let’s find out how the HifiMan Sundara closed-back handled themselves.  

I often get asked on social media what are the best-wired headphones to start the audiophile journey. I try to keep it clear and simple, but sometimes I get ahead of myself and feel I don’t do a good job expressing my thoughts. Why? Audio is almost always a chain of components. A sound is an event, formed by a sound chain. As philosopher Roger Scruton comments in ‘Understanding Music’ (2009), “Sounds are ‘objects of hearing’ in something like the way colours are objects of sight. Sounds are audibilia, which is to say that their essence resides in the way they sound”. I’m describing our listening, through sound, facilitates the expressiveness of music, so in this event, I am suggesting a sound chain needs to be present for music to be experienced in its optimum form, let’s call it the audiophile way.

But this in itself is complicated. Wired headphones have to be connected to an amplifier, and driven, to bring out their best sound, so you need a source (like your phone, PC, or tablet) able to download through different streaming platforms with varying resolution capabilities—and don’t forget cables (balanced or single-ended). So the sound of headphones always responds to what you are pairing them with.

HifiMan Electronics owner and designer Fang Bian has been delivering quality components at fair prices since starting the company in 2007. HifiMan has continually shown they care about sound (including having its high-end Stealth Magnets in its more affordable headphones). They have many designs, styles, and some of the most high-end premium audio equipment, like their flagship Susvara headphones coming in at $6000, but also headphone amplifier systems like the $50,000 Shangri-La. HifiMan Electronics is, as young people say, killing it.

Design

The new Sundara closed-back headphones have an interesting oval planar driver under the cups, with HifiMan’s now well-known Stealth Magnets. These cans have big shoes to fill. The Sundara open-back original (and its subsequent version) is praised by many as the best starting point for an audiophile headphone, for the price (it’s dropped to $299) and its sound. In a review I wrote for Audiophilia, I mentioned that the original Sundara planar open-back headphones checked almost every box: design, sound, and build quality (except for the stock cable, which continues to be HiFiMan’s Achilles’ heel). So, of course, I was eager to get my hands on the Sundara closed-back version with its new design and drivers.

The new Sundara closed-back has beautiful eye-catching beechwood cups (3.5mm plugs and 6.35mm headphone jack). They also have the same frame, metal headband, and leather head strap as the open-back Sundaras—the aesthetics aim to please, and their feel and weight are experienced as high-end. The ear cushions are very comfortable with soft padding (removable pleather cushion). After hours on my head, there was no annoying sweat on the inner material. Clamp pressure is just right for my ears. This aspect of the Sundara open-back was a bit annoying for me, the clamping on my ears was and still is fatiguing; but not here, the closed-backs are one of the most comfortable wired headphones I’ve ever reviewed.

These cans look ready to wear, and their colour and overall look reminded me a little of the more expensive Audio-Technica ATH-WP900 and the Denon AH-D9200. But also of HiFiMan’s first closed-back from 2021, the HE-R10D ($5499), and their newest closed-back, the Audivina Studio Headphones. HiFiMan knew what they were doing in choosing these colour cups. They also have a magnetic quality (pun intended)—something about the wood, the colour, and the black frame makes them almost irresistible.  

These HiFiMan come with the planar magnetic driver technology, the Stealth Magnets Design, and the NEO Supernano Diaphragm. HifiMan comments, "Compared with the rectangular shaped magnets of traditional planar headphones, Stealth Magnets significantly reduce reflection and diffraction that are detrimental to sound quality, resulting in dramatically improved sonic output”. This in turn brings to mind that housing the sound in a closed-back should have a good bass extension, more on this later. As for the diaphragm in these cans “The Neo supernano diaphragm (NsD), is “80% thinner than diaphragms in more common headphones, and the end results in fast response, and better detail, and better overall sonics”.

Specifications

Frequency Response: 6Hz-50kHz

Impedance: 20 ohms

Sensitivity: 98dB

Weight: 432g

Audio Components Used

Headphones: Focal Elegia, Focal Bathys (wired), Sundara Open-back Planars.

Cables: NewFantasia balanced cables, HiFiMan stock cables.

Amplifiers: Schiit Magnius, Monoprice Liquid Platinum Balanced Alex Cavalli, Ifi xDSD Gryphon Headphone Amplifier/DAC.

DAC: Schiit Modius, Cambridge Audio DacMagic 200M.

Sound

As soon as I listened to the Sundara closed-back headphones (breaking them in took over 100 hours) a difference with the Sundara open-back emerged quickly: a little more mid-bass came through. You might expect this from the closed-back, but it’s not that it just closes its grip on the sound, they are very focused and have a fast (transient response) as well. Another difference is I found myself wanting more instrument separation. The imaging of the instruments was there, but just too close for my taste.

The soundstage was very good, but not great. If I were to compare it to the open-back Sundara, I’d choose the latter. This is not a criticism of the closed-back headphones, in audio you can’t have everything. The detail was impressive, perhaps the best characteristic of these headphones. The Sundara closed-back has an expressive level of clarity that you don’t find easily until you reach the seven-hundred dollar and up tier of headphones (I’m thinking here of the Focal Bathys in wired form, review forthcoming).

Along with the Sundara open-back, I wanted to compare these cans to another set of closed-backs to put the Sundara closed-back to the test. I have Focal’s first closed-back headphones, the Elegia (they were close to $1000 when they came out, but now they’re almost the same tier price as the Sundara). A beautiful black and metallic cool-looking set of headphones that have Focal’s ‘M’-shape dome, and dynamic sound. Here, it was very interesting, the Sundara not only held their own but for some music genres won me over the Elegia.

I’d say that the Sundara closed-back sound is full, by this, I mean that the acoustic room (your ears), holds onto the sound for the full range of the recording, and you hear everything. Perhaps the fast response that HiFiMan mentions of the Supernano Diaphragm is doing its job. Although not always a clear-cut instrument separation in all the music I listened to, it did have a fuller-sounding acoustic chamber-like sound compared to the Elegia, which at moments felt dull in comparison. For separation and soundstage, the Elegia did better, but not by much.

The amplifiers also gave me a better sense of the reach of these headphones. With Schiit products, you get what you paid for: a neutral and fast response amplifier, that’s it, no fireworks here. But the Sundaras handled it well, cleanly, and fast performing. The Alex Cavalli tube amp is where I found the Sundaras lacking a bit in the high-mids, however, the mid and low bass complemented their sound. I tried the Sundaras outside with the iFi balanced xDSD Gryphon and had a lot of fun with them, very little external sound distorted my experience, and the closed-backs had me enjoying my evening walks.    

While listening to Anoushka Shankar’s “Dancing in Madness” the Sundaras expressed a pristine sound of her sitar and jumped briskly into a beautiful-sounding soundstage. The myriad of sounds was attacked cleverly by percussion instruments in this recording. I then tried Narciso Yepes’ chamber concert of Scarlatti’s Sonata in B-Flat Major, here in a more intimate setting, the closed-backs might not feel as clear as the open-back Sundara, but that’s not to say that they didn’t deliver. The acoustic recording shined and Yepes’ engagement and dynamic interpretation filled me with a sense of wonder. Lastly, Faith No More’s “Ashes to Ashes” with Jon Hudson’s guitar power chords and distortion and Mike Patton’s vocals sounded crystal clear. No doubt it’s where these cans shined, fifth and eighth chord voicings coupled with Mike Bordin's drums had me rockin’. I can safely say that these Sundaras have range in their sound, their drivers pull off a combination of subtlety in chamber arrangements and nice treble response for heavy metal guitars and vocals, with a mid-bass that complements a good mid-range.

Conclusion

There’s a passage in Oliver Sack’s book “Musicophilia”, where he mentions a physician that lost all hearing in his right ear, he goes on to describe it as “The perception of the specific qualities of music-pitch, timbre- did not change. However, my emotional reception of music was impaired. It was curiously flat and two-dimensional”. I believe I remembered this passage because this is the opposite of what I experienced with these headphones, they felt lively, comfortable, and clear.

HiFiMan has again done us a service, an affordable audio component with their newest technology and very good acoustic chamber-like in-your-ears headphones that look the part. For one hundred dollars more than the original open-back Sundara cans, the new closed-back delivers a fuller sound for $399.