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sundara sound

I purchased a pair of Sundara refurbished from HiFiMan and January and just got around to trying them over the weekend.  

i plugged them into both My Hegel 160 and my McIntosh hybrid MA 252.  I can hardly hear anything!  I have to crank up the volume by about 20 points from my usual listening volume (50 for Hegel) and even then they sound rather puny. What am I missing? Could they have been improperly fixed, or am i not using the plug properly. Never had headphones before so am mystified.

 

pharmacylaw
tooblue
2,079 posts
 

The Sundara is a really nice headphone, especially for the $$. Don't know why they aren't showing their wares on your set up but if you have a friend or relative with a dedicated headphone amp, plug them in and see what you think. Enjoy the music

g2the2nd
344 posts
 

I have a pair of Sundara closed backs. They play well off the phone, but really shine with my inexpensive Schiit headphone amp.

soix
11,230 posts
 

The Hegel has 270 mWatt output that should be ok for the Sundaras.  It’s not abnormal to have to turn the volume knob up a bit to get sufficient volume.  Do the headphones get loud enough?  If not then there may be a problem somewhere, and they also may require some playing time to break in to sound their best so there’s also that.  Just some thoughts FWIW. 

nogaps
165 posts
 

 The Sundaras need 126 mW to reach 85dB SPL.  You should have enough power, though the Hegel will require a higher volume volume setting, I expect.  The Mc should handle the Sundaras fine. 

Wiggle the jack connections in the phones and at the amp to see if there's a bad connection. ..or try a different cable. 

I received a small USB DAC recently..very nice DAC, but they included a charge-only (2 wire) USB cable with the unit...useless..oops. 

cptrips
33 posts
 

Sounds like bad phones. I would return them.  

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