SUNDARA Planar Magnetic Over Ear Hi-Fi Headphones

There's nothing else quite like the HiFiMAN Sundara for £300 or less. Planar magnetic headphones are still a relatively rare choice of driver for headphones with only a few companies attempting to make them. HiFiMAN is not only unusual as a company for making planar headphones, it specialises in them. Planar magnetic headphones are essentially a thin sound producing diaphragm stuck between two rows of magnets. The diaphragm is suspended in the air between the two rows and produces sound from the fluctuations in the magnetic field as current is passed through the magnets. Planars specialise in reproducing fine detail from a recording for relatively little effort. At least, in theory. In practice, with a solid enough design, traditional dynamic driver headphones and planars can and do trade blows in fidelity on a regular basis. What is true for sure though is that planars have a totally different character to their sound than dynamic drivers - planars have a habit of throwing that fine detail they can retrieve in your face whether you're listening out for it or not. The Sundara model currently being sold on Amazon appears to be the July 2022 revision or newer. The Sundara was originally released in 2017 and has been modified several times since then, but this review will focus on the version I received. If you have an earlier version of the Sundara and want to update the headphone, all you need to do is replace the earpads with the latest revision as that is the only build change. The version I received came with the redesigned and much more modest cardboard boxes with foam inserts instead of the more elaborate display cases of earlier versions. The foam insert in the box includes a removeable piece that functions as a free headphone stand if that takes your fancy. It barely weighs anything so it's a little difficult to keep in one place on a desk. You also will receive a complementary dual 3.5mm to 3.5mm headphone cable and a 3.5mm to 6.5mm jack adapter. I had no problems with this cable, but this is easily replaced with aftermarket cables if it's not to your liking. The Sundara supports balanced audio input, and I recommend using it this way if you're able to do so. Unlike most of HiFiMAN's more expensive offerings, the Sundara uses their older round earcup design. It's quite snug on the ears and takes a little getting used to, but you should soon forget you have it on your head after a while. The headband is a simple metal band with a faux leather support band designed to even out the pressure on your head. In my experience this design is quite effective and comfortable, even if it feels a bit cheap. It's clear the budget is going mostly to the actual headphone drivers themselves, and I'm fine with this tradeoff. HiFiMAN has a house sound that all their headphones broadly adhere to like most headphone companies do. The sound signature is bright-leaning - the treble (3 - 10KHz) and air (10 - 20KHz) regions are emphasised slightly more than in a completely flat frequency response - and there is also a significant dip between 1000 and 3000Hz which further emphasises the treble and air regions. These regions contribute the most to a sense of detail and precision in what you hear, so this house sound is likely designed to highlight the planar's favourite party trick. Bass is audible but rolled-off - you can hear it all the way down to the lower audible limit of 20Hz but it's quieter than it should be in a flat response. If you are used to bassy headphones or a typically tuned car stereo, this will come as a shock at first, as this is the inverse tuning of what you're used to. Overall though, while there is light emphasis and de-emphasis in places, the sound signature is mostly neutral, not drawing specific attention to any region and giving every section of your music and audio equal attention in the presentation. As the cliché goes, you'll hear things in your music that were always there but that you never noticed before, over and over again. If you end up dissatisfied with the way they sound, they respond extremely well to EQ, so you can fill in and/or boost the bass and eliminate the 1-3KHz dip if you so wish. In other words, these are audiophile-grade reference tuned headphones with significantly better detail retrieval than the average. If you're unfamiliar with what makes a headphone or speaker audiophile-grade, it can be described as what was originally recorded and mastered is what you hear played back. If you're listening to a recording with a violin way off at the back of the room, an acoustic guitar right next to the recording mic and a cello slightly off to the side, on an audiophile headphone you will hear an acoustic guitar right in front of you, a violin that sounds very far away, and a cello slightly off to the side. This sense of a space instruments are playing in and how big it is is referred to as the soundstage and being able to precisely locate where the instruments are playing in the room is referred to as the imaging. If you wish to watch movies with surround sound or game on these headphones, the imaging and soundstage become much more important. Headphones can use binaural audio playback to mimic (or exceed!) surround sound in movies and games while still using a stereo signal. By audiophile headphone standards though, the Sundaras are nothing special in either imaging or soundstage. That is not to say they are bad - they will blow your socks off still if you're coming from mainstream audio but they do not particularly excel in either category - they are simply good enough for the job on both the vertical and horizontal axis, and that will probably be enough for most people. There is one caveat to this, however. You will probably get better imaging performance out of a HiFiMAN headphone at any price point if you feed it with a "dual-mono" source. This is a form of audio reproduction that keeps the left and right channels completely separate - the channels use separate amp circuits and never have any chance to mix by mistake at any point in the chain. If you do not do this, you may experience a "deadzone" of sorts in the centre image, where sound lightly panned less than ~15 degrees in either direction is artificially snapped to the centre channel at 0 degrees. This can subjectively make music sound more coherent in the centre but could be quite disorienting when gaming. The iFi Zen DAC v2 and the FiiO K7 are both dual-mono amps and you need to use the balanced 4.4mm connection on these amps to keep the channels truly separated, which will require a specialised aftermarket cable that you can find right here on Amazon. I said there's nothing else quite like the HiFiMAN Sundara for £300 or less. That's because there is no other headphone on the market that is this close to the complete package with the planar sound signature that doesn't cost more money. If you just want to buy one audiophile headphone and get it over and done with, this is the one to buy. If however you like the planar sound but want a headphone with exceptional soundstage and imaging, not merely adequate and dead-flat bass extension without the rolloff, consider extending your budget to £500 and looking at the HiFiMAN Edition XS. EDIT: Since this review was originally written, the prices for HiFiMAN headphones have crashed dramatically from the £300 and £500 price points mentioned just now. While this is great for the end user of course, it does change the calculus pretty dramatically for this product, which is now typically £169 instead of the £300 it was when I bought it. The HiFiMAN Edition XS mentioned above is now also only £189, so with only £20 difference between them, this now comes down to whether the Edition XS fits your head comfortably or not. If it does, it's easily the better headphone of the two especially for only another £20! If not, and you're not willing to pick up the popular aftermarket comfort straps for the XS, then the Sundara remains no slouch at its new price range. If you also just find the egg shaped HiFiMANs to be unwieldy then you have to spend a lot more than £169 to get HiFiMAN's next circular headphone in its current range, the HE 600. Also since this review was originally written a bevy of "budget" headphone options have hit the market, one of these being FiiO's JT7 which is a planar headphone for £105! Check that new option out too before pulling the trigger on these. Just remember though that I reviewed the Sundaras at £300 and thought they were worth that money easily.

Solid metal construction that doesn't feel heavy and fits snug on my head even with glasses on. The earcups have a strange shape but it fits better than my previous cans " DT990 Pros, AKG K712-Pros " Soundstage for Music is fantastic.... Now it has reduced horizontal soundstage compared to my previous 2 cans but not by much.. However vertically it smashes both of my previous cans! Outstanding to tell you the truth.. Gaming is rather impressive and not only does it easily destroy my AKG 712 pros but it beats out the DT990 pros too which was somewhat surprising! Very pleasing as a gamer. Comfort is brilliant but not as good as AKG 712 pros. I used to be able to GAME all day long on my AKG cans if I wanted too and would get up and forget that they were on my head! Now these do feel great and are very comfortable but just not the best! But I can still game for 4+ hours before I feel like I HAVE to take them off! Probably would be better without glasses to be fair as I do feel that added pain right by my ears and not the headband area or squashing the head! I'd say yee without glasses would fair better here. I use an IFI Zen DAC V2 connected to my desktop computer with balanced cables and it does sound outstanding....Balanced cables did improve sound slightly but it isn't night and day as expected anyway. I also own a Creative G6 BlasterX DAC/AMP - Creative G1 BlasterX DAC/AMP - Creative Sound Blaster Z - Fiio - FIIO E07K DAC/AMP and my onboard Realtek 1200 chipset. IFI ZEN DAC V2 blows the rest of them out of the water.. pointless having anything else except for the IFI ZEN DAV V2. Creative have lost their identity.. soundstage for gaming was laughable...useless trash.....IFI just blew my mind.. shocking actually.. This is a great buy to be honest.... if you want something that sounds great for music, great for movies especially with Dolby Atmos and Netflix! and when it comes to gaming.. I was gobsmacked..very impressed with how they perform! Very wide soundstage and no need for virtual surround.. it just works right out of the box without the need for any of the fancy creative SBX controls..... finally after 15 years I don't use a creative sound card.....

The Sundara open backed headphones from HiFiMan are a long established favorite amongst those seeking to venture beyond the shallows of audio perfection. These headphones may be your first glimpse of the uncharted depths of your very own hi-fi obsession. Over the years the price has tumbled, starting at $399 and steadily dropping even in the last month or so. I bought these at £169, but they were over £200 just last month (which was December 2025). At that price it may be true to say there is very little competition in terms of pure sound quality. These headphones may actually reach beyond personal preference (for which there is no accounting!) into a place where almost any "style" of listener will be well served. My primary use for these headphones was to provide an uncoloured, neutral sound image for final mixing and mastering of music. To that end they have performed amazingly well, and I've also enjoyed using them for listening. Compared to the Audio Technica ATH-M50x cans that I've been using for the last few years, and the in ear Linsoul KZ ZS10 Pro buds, the Sundara is very much a step up. Gone is the muddy lower mid-range of the ATH-M50x and the ridiculous over extension of sub-bass on the Linsouls. The planar design of the Sundara headphones really does allow a perception of detail that can be quite breathtaking. To give just one example, one of my first listens was to a track I'd already mastered, one that I knew intimately. There was a percussive shaker sound at one point, which had always represented itself as a little "pssshh" of white noise. The Sundara actually presented that same sound as a tightly grouped series of small "tck" sounds, which was the sound of the individual grains of rice in the shaker hitting the plastic shell! The same kind of detail is available throughout the audio spectrum. However, there are a couple of downside to these headphones, which will bother some greatly and some not at all. First of all, they are VERY revealing. Bad mixes will not be flattered. These are not a comfortable listening experience. If you are looking for sweetness or amelioration of less than perfect audio, look elsewhere. To give one example, I was listening to a recent acquisition of The Grateful Dead's In The Dark, having not heard it for many years. Whilst it did sound great, there was a point where the bass guitar was unacceptably prominent, and having heard it I could not unhear it. Checking with my other monitoring headphones and speakers I found the problem to be somewhat masked, less apparent to the point where I would probably not have cared. More importantly, these headphones are rated at a massive 37 Ohms. Thankfully, I have a very capable amplifier (Kenwood KAF-3030R) which is about twenty years old now, and it copes admirably with the demand, although I do have to turn the volume pot from around ten o'clock all the way up to somewhere mid afternoon, depending on the source material. I tried them with my phone (OnePlus Nord 4) and audio interface (Behringer UMC204) and neither coped well, producing a very coloured, somewhat muffled end result, which I can only imagine is a result of the headphones never being driven fully. So, your experience will depend heavily on the amplification you have available, and like I sad at the start, these headphones may well lead you into a search for perfection that could see you buying new stuff just to get the best out of them. Thankfully, I got lucky. Lastly, it's not really a downside, more of a characteristic of the design, but the Sudaras are open backed, meaning you will pollute any space you occupy with that treble leakage so beloved of public transport users everywhere. Even if you could drive these headphones fully in a mobile situation, they clearly not intended for such an environment. To sum up, a fantastic set of headphones if you can get them at the right price. HiFiMan may have other models that occupy their production line these days, and who knows, they might sound even better. But I feel like one other reviewer on YouTube who said it was hard to imagine there ever being a better sounding planar design. Yes, the Sundara headphones give a wonderful listening experience just as long as you are prepared to meet their demands.

Okay, so: I used to be a headphone and hifi hobbyist when I was a student in my late teens/early twenties. That was 10-15 years ago, and I amassed quite allot of equipment (amplifiers, CD players, loudspeakers and headphones) so I consider myself to be experienced in the world of hifi despite having been out of the game, so to speak, for a good number of years now due to other commitments taking over my life. It has been several years since I last purchased a quality headphone, and the audiophile jargon has gone lost on me, so i'll be using simple words to describe my experience so far with the Hifiman Sundara. I should also state that I have no experience with any of the following competitors to the Hifiman Sundara: The Sennheiser HD660S, Beyerdynamic Amiron Home, AT ATH990Z, Meze 99 Classic, Focal Elegia, Denon AH-D5200/7200..and so on - I only have experience with much older headphones. And I only have experience with 1 other similarly priced Planar Magnetic headphone that is no longer in production. From what I can surmise, despite having never heard any of the Sundara's modern rivals I listed above, but based on my expert-level understanding of the technical differences between dynamic transducers and planar magnetics,- the Sundara would be the one to go for and not those other headphones I listed above. This is because, as I see it,- the Sundara has a technical advantage over those other dynamic transducer headphones because of the "stealth magnet" design. A technical advantage that translates as a sonic (audible) advantage. It is certainly a very different sounding headphone to anything I have ever heard before, and by different I mean it has a kind of musicality to it's sound signature I have never heard before in a headphone. It just sounds so very musical,-soulful even..it just has this visceral quality to it's sound that makes you feel the music and not just hear it. I would describe the sound signature of the Sundara as possessing a uniquely responsive/musical/soulful (visceral?!) quality to it's sound whilst managing to maintain a smooth neutrality, with no annoying treble spikes or sibilance; it's sound signature is completely neutral to my ears. It doesn't output more bass than is needed but it's certainly not lacking in the lower end of the frequency spectrum, a listen to the sub-bass-heavy song "Boom Boom Pow" by the Black Eyed Peas with the Sundara shows that it can perform exceptionally well in the lower end of the frequency spectrum, with exceptional precision, depth and accuracy. It also has a warm, smooth and natural midrange, but the key point to remember is that whilst it performs exceptionally well in the lower frequencies, mid frequencies and high frequencies - neither area of the audible spectrum dominates the other- everything is in order and balanced to the point that I would describe this headphone as being one of the most neutral I have ever heard. Those are the positives-but 9 times out of 10 there is always at least 1 negative aspect of a headphone, and the Hifiman Sundara has 1 or 2. Indeed,- rarely have I come across a headphone that to me is perfect in every way-and the Hifiman Sundara doesn't quite meet my criteria of a perfect headphone. The Sundara has however won me over because of the uniqueness of it's sound signature being musical as well as neutral ( a rare thing-I find that most musical headphones are mid-centric) but the planar magnetic drivers in these headphones seems to lack the ability to extract every detail in a recording of music. And I find the soundstage of this headphone to be really quite narrow,- it's good, don't get me wrong, the imaging capabilities of the Sundara are holographic,- which is to be expected since it is a Planar Magnetic headphone. And it does have exceptional clarity, but struggles to extract the level of detail from music that I would expect especially for a £300-£500 headphone. But I would say that overall, the Hifiman Sundara would still be the headphone worth buying over the other headphones I mentioned above, due to the nature of it's drivers design, meaning it has the potential to improve even further, perhaps with modifications or a high-grade aftermarket cable, it has the potential to completely outperform those other similarly priced headphones, going beyond the maximum of their capabilities by a long way. I highly recommend The Hifiman Sundara, particularly to someone who may be just starting out in the world of hifi, looking to buy their first high-end headphone.

Having started with full seperates and still have also, my first set of headphones were Grado SR60 and at the time was very impressed with what headphones could do. Some years later moved up to Grado SR32e. Loved the detail. A tiny bit bass light but not terrible, and the odd moments of a shrill treble that beng blunt coud make you cringe, though different pads helped here, but all in all had heard several others through the yeas. My ex partner has the Grado Blutooth open back headphones, and very similar to the SR60's in tonality and detail but very very impressed what Grado achieved all through aptx lossy bluetooth, also with the opyion to wire them in. Had an extended home trial of a pair of Audeze LCD-1 and while ok, wasn't particulalry seeing the fuss over them. Balanced and neutral but to the point of boredom. These arrived today and read a good 20 hours run in before they really shine. Well if that's the case then all I can say is roll on that 20 hours because I haver never heard such a balanced unflapable perefctly detailed set of headphones with timing that has made all listeming sessions before feel I've not been hearing these tracks as they should sound. The timing is in my opinion what makes these so addictve. Excellent treble that runing through my Dragonfly Cobolt never at any time has peaked to being uncomfortable. Almost as if they have been tuned to reach the perfect limit to shine but not be too bright. Creating an atmospher taking the sound way beyond your ears. A midrange just sitting as in place beside the bass as the treble to both creating a cohesive sound where nothing needs to compete to be heard. Nothing jumps out at you but you hear every detail present. Having been in Hifi as sales, advisor, and owner for around 30 years, owning high end sepeartes of many kinds, I can honestly say nothing has put a smile on my face so quickly and removed any doubts that I made a great choice as these have. On ending, if you're a bass head, or someone who prefers you music to be in your face that it is exciting maybe but unbalnced and not natural then these may not be for you. These can rock and push out beats and anything you thow at them, be certain of that, but also be clear if you want a very natural clear sound, full of detail, with impecable timing, and very controlled bass that does not try to dominate but is more than enough, and to top it off, exceptionally comfortable for my head the minute I put them on I could wear these for hours no problem, then don't hesitate. I can only add that I am amazed that for this price I have probably the best end line producer of music I have ever owned. Cant praise them enough.

I purchased these to replace a Audio-Technica M50x, first impressions where ok, just ok. Comfy yes, sound quality paired with a Fio Dac was ok, nothing special. After a year of constant (every day) use and two sets of replacement ear pads, the head strap has now detached, its not easily repairable or can be replaced. I dug out a set of slightly cheaper Audio-Technica AD700X from 2019 i had mothballed and the difference is huge with the Audio-Technica AD700X being far superior in both sound quality and feel, it really puts these Hifiman Sundara's in perspective, i would say heavy and dull in comparison, make up your own mind if they should fall appart after 365 days of use.

First of I'm no audiophile and my hearing probably isn't brilliant but I can hear the detail of the music with these headphones. I work from home and had been listening to Tidal with a pair of closed back Sony bluetooth noice cancelling headphones or on my speakers. I use my laptop with Tidal and the hip dac. I struggled with I know it's gross but sweaty ears when using the closed back Sonys. I'd read reviews and researched these headphones. In my opinion they have a well balanced sound, not to bass heavy and the detail is fabulous. Lyrics I struggled to understand before I can now make out clearly. I listen to a lot of synth music and I find them great for this type of music. They sit on my head and ears so comfortably. They don't make my ears hot and I can easily wear them all day while I work. In my opinion they are worth every penny and I'm very happy with my purchase. Only negative I can see and it doesn't really affect me is the cable isn't really long and you might struggle if using an amp if your chair isn't very close to it. Otherwise they have a great sound, are comfortable, appear to be well built and my main method of listening to music now.

I wanted to upgrade my headset, So I went looking on the internet for some headphones. I used to use the Sony XM4 and the Corsair Virtuoso SE, but found XM4 having too much bloated bass and the Virtuoso are super flat and boring but still pretty. I had many recommendations and after so many videos & threads , I decided on the Sundara. I liked the way they looked, and the name sounds cool. I read many mixed reviews on it, and started to question myself if i should buy it. I also found the HE400se, a worthy contender because they cost half the price and after some more research and compering the two together. I found personally as the Sundara was worth investment. When I got them, I was amazed by them. The build quality is fantastic, and I realised how much misinformation I gathered from the videos & google research. So after unpacking I plugged them in straight to my computer and played some tunes, and again amazed, but, I had no amp so they didnt sound as loud as a my other headphones, but it was loud enough so i wouldnt blow my ear drums out. Needing an amp I decided to go to the store and bought the JDS Amp without a Dac as I didnt see it necessary for now Its like I rediscovered music, and I cant get enough. These headphones are super light, exceptionally comfortable, you could wear them hours on end. The sound they produce is pure elegance with tasteful thump & rumble making you want to bob your head, unlike the XM4 sounding aggressive and deafening after you take them off, which can be fun for a short while. Meanwhile the Sundara has no difference putting them on your head and off, cause their open back and you hear everything around you, making it even more easier to wear for a long period of time. To any one having doubts about build quality given HiFiMAN reputation on the internet and if its worth the price your getting what you pay for, and for a 300£ price tag its competing far beyond its category.

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Ho acquistato le HIFIMAN Sundara (ultima versione) con aspettative alte, ma devo dire che mi hanno sorpreso ancora di più. Il suono è equilibrato, con bassi profondi, medi presenti e ben definiti e alti cristallini che non risultano mai affaticanti. È una firma sonora molto piacevole, adatta sia all’ascolto rilassato che a sessioni più analitiche. Con un cavo bilanciato e una sorgente pulita queste cuffie danno davvero il meglio: la scena si apre, il dettaglio aumenta e la risposta in frequenza diventa ancora più controllata. Per essere un modello entry‑level nel mondo delle magnetoplanari, il rapporto qualità/prezzo è impressionante. Punti di forza - Suono equilibrato e naturale - Bassi profondi ma mai invadenti - Medi chiari e ben definiti - Alti puliti e cristallini - Ottima resa con cavo bilanciato e sorgente di qualità - Comfort buono anche per ascolti lunghi - Prezzo eccellente per la categoria Da considerare - Richiedono una sorgente decente per esprimersi al meglio; non sono pensate per essere pilotate da uno smartphone. Conclusione Sono rimasto davvero soddisfatto: per questo prezzo è difficile trovare cuffie magnetoplanari così complete, equilibrate e piacevoli da ascoltare. Viene quasi voglia di prenderne un secondo paio. Un acquisto che consiglio senza esitazioni.

These are definitely at home headphones due to their size and fragility. They sound great connected to my ifi Zen dac 2 streaming Spotify off my desktop iMac. Comparable to my sennheiser drop HD6xx although not a major difference. I’m hard pressed to pick a favourite. Headphone sales work on a principle of diminishing returns once you get into the midfi range with versions costing hundreds more producing almost imperceptible benefits. If you want a rock solid set of headphones buy sennheisers but if you want to dip a toe into the quagmire of midfi headphones you’ll enjoy the highly regarded HiFiman Sundara’s just don’t expert an epiphany of audio enlightenment.

Son una maravilla de sonido si buscas unos auriculares que no tengan los bajos potentes. Los bajos suenan como tienen que sonar, sin colorear. La construcción y la comodidad, muy buenas. Pero necesitarás un amplificador de auriculares o, al menos, un buen dongle dac. Yo tengo un Ifi Go Link para mi movil y suenan muy bien, pero creo que un ampli de auriculares de más potencia le irán mejor. Por su precio, los mejores auriculares que se pueden comprar junto a los hd 560 s de Sennheiser.

J'avais commandé dans un premier temps le HIFIMAN HE 400 SE et j'avoue que sur ce casque avoir été resté plutôt extrêmement frustré sur la qualité de l'amplitude et l'étroitesse de la scène audio. Très déçu par les aigües et surtout les basses brouillonnes, en même temps le casque est un des premiers dans la gamme de prix et ceci explique sans doute cela, ça reste un bon début dans l'univers du "planar". Et Là j'avoue que je découvre au fil des écoutes le SUNDARA, qui n'est pas encore rodé car juste sorti de sa boîte, mais c'est un condensé de mes premières frustrations sur le HE 400 HE : du coup, un large spectre audio une amplitude incroyable, une finesse des sons incroyable, des basses qui sonnent profondément merveilleusement bien (pas de boom / boom marqués comme certains casques genre SONY / SENNHEISER), des voix parfaitement bien placées, des aigües neutres (j'adore) . Je recommande fortement, et j'avoue que je vais attendre mais sans doute écouter des modèles supérieurs de HIFIMAN.