GimmickMusik1 t1_j16lvld wrote on December 22, 2022 at 1:17 AM

Reply to comment by Accomplished-Edge426 in First step into Hifi and first problem, leading to first post on Reddit by Accomplished-Edge426

I own both the Sundara and XS and would say they are both quite different. The XS has a much larger soundstage than the Sundara, but I would say that the Sundara has better imaging. I can definitely understand why people compare the two since they are relatively close in price, but I think the Edition XS is much closer the the Hifiman Ananda than it is the Sundara.

As for the AKG 712 and Sennheiser HD660S, I’ve heard great things, but I’ve never personally heard them so I can’t really recommend any actual opinions on them.

Accomplished-Edge426 OP t1_j16oiyq wrote on December 22, 2022 at 1:37 AM

Damn, now I have to do the try them all triathlon. Amazon is not going to like the amount of return I'm going to be doing on a weekly basis lol.

Accomplished-Edge426 OP t1_j1cro3o wrote on December 23, 2022 at 9:43 AM

One last thing,

Is it normal for the center imaging to be in the middle of your head or is it supposed to be in front of your face?

GimmickMusik1 t1_j1d32j2 wrote on December 23, 2022 at 12:11 PM

My experience with center image in music is that it tends to sound more “in your head.” The only way to really get a truly out of your head experience with headphones is when a track is mixed with that in mind or if you use an audio engine/dsp to simulate it.

Headphones are stereo devices by default. Good imaging on a stereo spectrum means pinpoint positioning of audio between far left and far right.

I commonly see people mention imaging in gaming and while it can be achieved (there are many game engines that support positional audio as well as simulate surround audio) the reality is that not all games support imaging through headphones. So keep that in mind if you plan to use your headphones for gaming.