17% of 352 verified HiFiMan Sundaraowners don't recommend it, and 4 describe specific problems — based on real owner comments from Reddit, enthusiast forums, and YouTube.
For balance: 53% recommend it. This page collects the complaints so you know what you're signing up for — read the full owner report for both sides. How we score
“Put them on normally, I heard a crack and I saw the break on the first picture, afterwards that devolved into what you see on the second picture.”— Trumpkin95 on Reddit
“The clamping force was insane and would give me pains in my jaw and headaches within 30 minutes. Pitty, as I really liked the sound from them.”— ric0shay on Reddit
“I honestly don't love them, though they are widely considered exceptional for mid-fi. They feel cheap, the headband on my pair broke.”— Whatever801 on Reddit
“I didn't like the Sundaras on the day I got them, and I didn't like them 3 months after so I ended up selling them to someone else.”— Smugsie on Reddit
“I did NOT like mine to the point where I returned them. They were very airy and didn’t have the depth of sound I was looking for.”— tnick771 on Reddit
“the standard tuning is easily my least favorite tuning of the 30-40 different headphones I’ve had the pleasure to listen to”— bojangler69420 on Reddit
“Mine desintegrated after 3.5 years of use, I ended up replacing the whole headband and yokes for an aftermarket one.”— PomPomTiramisu on Reddit
“I was always super underwhelmed with them, I thought they sounded super flat with not many redeeming qualities.”— DepressMyCNS on Reddit
“In my opinion, not really. My first audiophile headphone was the sundara and I didn’t find it very impressive.”— fantseepants on Reddit
“I'm basically afraid to use my 1 year old Suns due to cutting out on channels depending on how I'm positioned”— starmartyr11 on Reddit
“I couldn't make my old Sundaras have the same stage size, detail retrieval, dynamics, etc as the HE1000SE.”— MrLycans on Reddit
“I think the. Sundara is super overrated. It's fine, nothing special, has some quirks/problems that many better headphones in and above its class don't.”— drwafflefingers on Reddit
Not complaints — practical notes from owners that didn't affect the score.
“230mW @ 32Ω from your ZEN Air DAC will be plenty for the Sundara. Edit: This also means 84mA RMS for the "It needs more current" people. Which is also enough for the Sundara.”— SilentIyAwake on Reddit
“Haven't heard the Pandas, but the two are completely different headphones for different use cases. Sundaras are big, heavy and definitely not portable (not to mention open-back).”— jsp_varta on Reddit
“An OTL design isn't necessarily the best amp design for lower impedance headphones like the Sundara (37 ohm) or Meze 109 (40 ohm) though, and you'd likely be underwhelmed by the results.”— mjstealey on Reddit
“Have you replaced the cable? I had a problem with cutting out too until I replaced it. Plus sometimes I have the slight impression that there might be a channel imbalance...”— MangoAI on Reddit
“Their fairly easy it does get to a reasonable loud volume on my lg v30 at high impedance mode and on my one plus 5t but do benefit from an amp like the atom or schiit heresy”— EelChato on Reddit
“I run mine out of my laptop, it's fine. Not hit any boundaries due to power. The mediocre quality of the built in dac is audible compared to my dedicated ones though”— K_T_Oxy on Reddit
“Yeah but the roll-off after 40hz is very steep with a small boost just before this due to the little trick Hifiman have done with the resonance frequency on these”— DanstortedDis on Reddit
“Seems like average wear tbh. Also, I recommend the audeze style headband. The one you selected has weird yokes making it hard to mount on the sundara specifically (though possible)”— ThatsPurttyGood101 on Reddit