Shout-out to
@TeamHiFiMAN for taking me off of the naughty list (JK) and sending me the Ananda for demo.
Fit, finish, packaging:
Personally, I care the least about this part so it’ll be quick. Package was nice before I put it on the shelf, finish held up considering however many other hands have had this pair, no weird creaks for me. We should collectively tell Greta Thunberg about this stock cable; it should be an environmental crime that you have to throw out TWO of them when you inevitably get something better. Physically it sucks but it does work.
Overall sound signature impression:
The Ananda is definitely on the warmer side of neutral with a more aggressive (some would say forward) presentation. It's not aggressive to the point that you couldn’t relax with them, the music will always flow nicely, but they certainly aren’t afraid to get up and rock when you want to. The Anandas manage to maintain the smoothness across all frequencies that defines the planar sound for me. No music every really sounds like its forcing the Ananda to struggle, but if the music is too busy the Ananda (to me) did sound congested. It would throw up its hands and forget the technicalities in order to sound fun. In its defense that is partially due to the headphones I have in my reference stable (comparison in a separate post). What the Ananda never fails to do is sound musical and engaging, even comparatively dead recordings still sound infectious if the song has the PRaT. The Anandas strongest sonic point (imo) is musicality, everything sounds enjoyable and it doesn’t really worry about the genre. It performs equally well with reggae, rock and movies as well as my standard fair for me. Generally, I found the Ananda to lack a bit of body, never so much that it came across as thin but always enough that I wished for it to gain a touch of weight.
I
magining and Soundstage:
To me this is where the Ananda either falls short or just meets the minimum depending on your comparison. When I did my initial impressions of the Ananda, I noted that it had an open sound but had a narrow soundstage; overtime I realized that was wrong. The Ananda has what I have come to describe as a “Panoramic blob”; the soundstage is wide but the center image is pushed more in front of you, in turn there isn’t great separation or definition to the individual sounds.
Quarter Master by Snarky Puppy showed the Anandas tendency to bury things when the song picks up the pace and piles on the information; granted, this is an exceptionally busy song and its only in comparison with a few other headphones that I hated this. Even
CIYA by Theon Cross (which isn’t a particularly busy song) managed to lose the lines between the soloists, instead you are invited into the seductive groove that the quintet lays down. At points I lost the rhythm guitar completely. The tuba, which artfully lays down the bassline becomes the whole background as opposed to an object
separate from the background. The Ananda steers towards musicality over technicality, though the soundstage is big the imaging is poor.
Treble:
Here is where the overall forward character and planar smoothness was on display. My go to treble test track is
Death by Dishonor by Ghostmane featuring Shakewell, Pouya and Erik the Architect; after the ominous intro Ghostmane blasts in with what can only be described as a ferocious staccato word salad. This verse can be butchered by a too bright treble (everything will sound earsplittingly sharp) or a rolled off/ dark presentation (you won’t be able to pick a single word out). The Anandas gave one of the best annunciations of that verse that I’ve ever heard without sounding like a rapid-fire nail gun was pressed to your head. However, every verse did get a little buried in the mix. Violins and Gottan were clean and present throughout
Devil Wind and
Pursuit by Kaoru Wada; flutes and cymbals were rendered nicely as well. Overall, I never heard the Ananda as dull in the treble but I did hear it as remaining clear throughout the whole experience. A little on the forward side of my preference but in a very good way.
Midrange:
The mids of the Ananda to me are its most interesting albeit complicated part. I find them to be a little bloated and inarticulate while still being musical. There seems to be a bit of congestion or smear centering on the midrange that adds this interesting smokiness or haze to the sound. It manages to be both dry and overdone; in my initial impressions I compared it to a chocolate cake that has been left in the air for too long, dry but perfectly sweet. For all that it is smeared it still managed to be the source of where the Anandas thin sound came from. Xzibits voice on
At the Speed of Life lost a bit of its characteristic gruffness through the Ananda but the overall sound was still quite musical. Mick Jenkins voice in
Gwendolynn’s Apprehension acquired a burr I had not heard before while still losing a touch of its normal gutsiness. The thing with Anandas midrange to me was that if you are moving up into it, it will sound musical and fair, but if you are stepping down into the Ananda the midrange is the first place you notice bloat. This is where most of the “Panoramic blob” happens.
Bass:
Again, the Ananda maintains composure but stands out as aggressive. There is a big midbass bump that helps the Anandas thump for rap, pop or movies, but it likes the tight cleanliness of a superior headphone. Also, the extension into the lowest registers didn’t really knock my socks off, on
Stagger by Skream, the boomy bass around 2:56 lacks the furthest reach and control to make it impressive. It’s certainly not bad but (to me) it’s not perfectly taut, however, because of the overall forward signature and the size of that midrange bump it stands out quite clearly. I think the Ananda aims to split the difference between good dynamic bass and well-done planar bass. Another phenomenal bass test track is
Coconut Butter by Uncle Flex (his productions are really hard to find now that he has pulled off of soundcloud but they are phenomenal for headphone testing). This track showcases bass speed, texture and placement within the soundstage; at several points throughout the song the bass will move from the far left to the right of the soundstage as well as up and down. The Ananda made sure that the song sounded fun but I felt that a little bit of the texture was lost overall in the bass, also, the size and precise placement was obscured throughout the song.
Driveability and pairing:
Here is where the Ananda brings great news, it wasn’t too much more inefficient than my K7XX and roughly as efficient as my Mr. Speakers Ether Flow 1.1. I had great success driving it out of my LG V30 so I suspect that any reasonable DAP will drive it perfectly; to me this tells me that Hifiman succeeded in making a great planar that can run off of portable equipment. Simultaneously, it was transparent enough to show me the sonic differences between my CXN and my DVD3910; I would wager that any decent all in one DAC/amp combo would drive them admirably. I certainly preferred My Kenwood KA-9100 driving the Anandas but I spent a good amount of time sitting outside and enjoying them through my phone. The first time I used them like this was taking an extraordinarily pleasant quarantine walk. The Ananda seems to be at home with any level of power and could be very rewarding as an “upgrade to end the hunt” for some people.
Conclusion:
For all of the negative I may have said about the Ananda it's actually a great bargain headphone. If you have a [insert your DAC/amp combo] and want a reasonable upgrade from your AKG K7-series/Sennheiser HD6-series/[insert your entry level headphone], the Ananda will sound great out of your system without a problem. IF, however, you have a higher end planar or dynamic headphone the Ananda might only be a sidegrade or even a downgrade with added comfort (see my comparisons post for details). I would unhesitantly recommend the Anandas as a mid-fi -and for some people- end game headphone (you have to pay a good amount more or do some modding to get better) but if you already have an extensive stable you might want to look elsewhere.
