I wonder how the new Deva compares to the Ananda BT in the sound quality department? The Deva is a much cheaper option.
HIFIMAN ANANDA-BT Loaner Tour
- Thread starter TeamHiFiMAN
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This may help you , there is a comparison inside
https://www.headfonia.com/hifiman-deva-review/
https://www.headfonia.com/hifiman-deva-review/
He pretty answered all the questions I had running around in my head about the Deva in comparison to the Ananda BT. Good read, thanks!
Rensek
Headphoneus Supremus
Allrighty, First off I want to thank HIFIMAN for sending me the ANANDA BT and letting me keep these longer than usual. HIFIMAN has been very generous. With the whole Covid-19 deal I let them sit for a good while before trying them out, even with multiple wipe downs, and then because of the whole CV thing my schedule has not been as cooperative to HP reviewing as I would like.
So first impression – Bluetooth doesn’t like some of the older 70’s folk/acoustic rock that I listen too. I have a playlist I put together when I first got into HP’s (HD6XX’s with a Magni 3) that I have since used when listening to any new audio gear I get my hands on. What I heard with the Bluetooth connection made some songs sound very poor according to what I am used to. For example – Jim Croces – I Got a Name. On Bluetooth the bass line present throughout the song sounds bloaty and over accentuated, whilst the string parts sounded like they were 2 rooms back from the stage. Jim himself sounded great and his vocals were very clear. (I really really really like how vocals sound on these HP’s). I have a few more examples of this, that I won’t bore anyone with. Basically Bluetooth and older singer songwriter recordings don’t seem to mix on these HPs. That being said my playlist runs the gamut from 1950’s pop to 2010 pop with every genre mixed in. I generally play one song from one band/artist on this playlist. Some classical, some country, rap, rock, jazz, etc.
I want to make sure it’s understood I don’t blame the ANANDAS for my dislike of some recordings via Bluetooth. I blame Bluetooth in general. The stuff I am complaining about was recorded/mastered years before Bluetooth was conceived.
Listening to those same songs via the hardline connection USB from PC (TIDAL) into the ANANDA was great. This tells me the internal DAC must be decent.
If you are listening to new recordings or newer remastered recordings you will likely really enjoy these headphones, with or without bluetooth. I loved the way Sturgill Simpson, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Deadmau5, Eminem, Beck, Little Big Town, Iggy Azalea, Nikki Minaj, Black Keys, etc sounded on these headphones.
Bass depth, texture, and control are great and vocals are fantastic. I love love love Van Morrison, but sometimes, his vocals can be difficult to make out every syllable. Not with these HPs. Also if you are like me, fast talkers can sometimes be difficult to understand. With these HP’s I was able to clearly hear lyrics from rappers that I hadn’t been able to understand before. This impressed me, and I am assuming it is because of the lightness of the diaphragm. Planar ribbons are supposed to be fast, and I would imagine this is why I liked the vocals. It did make me wish I had set of analogue capable ANANDAS to test with an external DAC/AMP. I have a bunch of Schiit stuff in house.
This leads me to my one and only major gripe. I wish the ANANDAS accepted an analogue input. It would have been great to take the preamp feed off of my Bifrost 4490 & Asgard 2 stack and put it into the ANANDAS to really see how the internal dac/amp compares to an external dac/amp. As I don’t have a regular pair of ANANDAS I was unable to make that comparison. My buddy @Ripper2860 has a pair of regular ANANDAS, but he was unwilling to send them to me. Likely because he’s afraid I might get smoked oysters or kipper snacks on them J.
This comparison would have been great, because I really really like the ANANDAS when they are hardlined to my PC. They do everything really well and some things great. Bass and Vocals are awesome/spectacular/amazing/(insert your own superlative). They do miss out a little bit on the lighter upper frequency detail of my HD600 powered analogue stack, but the details I am talking about are miniscule, faint, easy to miss, and the ANANDAS did capture SOME of it, just not as much (Van Morrison, Moondance, very very faint squeaking from the 1:59 thru 2:23 mark, fingers on a guitar string I’ve been told). The ANANDA and USB Cable does capture some of it, just not as much as what I’ve heard on my HD600 analogue stack. Its very minute details like this that made me wish I had an analogue input on the ANANDA BT or a regular version of the ANANDA.
A number of things that I loved.
Fit, Feel, Build Quality.
Man these things were comfortable, and stable. I wore em for hours. Very stable, very comfortable (if a bit warm). I started wearing these things outside while walking the dog. I typically walk for 45 minutes to 1 hour at a time, and they never moved at all. Very stable, and I walk at a good pace. I will be very sad to go back to earbuds when these get returned.
The ANANDAS, even with Bluetooth are worlds ahead of the wired earbuds/iems I usually wear.
Build quality as indicated above is great. They feel very sturdy and well made. I have read some drop comments that the HE4XX’s can be fragile. I didn’t get that sense at all with these HPs. HIFIMAN seems to have done well for us listeners.
I liked that I could listen at a reasonably loud level and still hear vehicles approaching behind me, kids playing around me, or my wife calling for me from upstairs. I really enjoy the open aspect of these HPs.
I liked how loud they got. I typically listened at 50 % volume, but when the mood struck I could get them to a desirable level of loudness.
The addition of the microphone was very handy during meetings as I am working from home right now.
If you are the type that wants to invest in a one stop solution for your Hi-Fi needs I would wholeheartedly recommend the Anandas (if nothing else, test them out to see how they fit your genres of music). I can see how it would very nice to have something of this quality to bring with you everywhere (home, office, anywhere in between). I am not entirely sure about the price without an analogue in, but that is up to each person to decide based upon their wants/needs/usage.
I will say this, I don’t want to send them back. My walks will not be nearly as enjoyable without them. I do wish I had some analogue ANANDAS to compare them too. That would have been fun.
I will likely be looking for a pair of standard HIFIFMAN hps to buy after this. I see the DEVA accepts analogue or the digital dongle, which is very nice and convenient.
I am probably missing a few things and will edit this as I recall what else I wanted to say.
Thanks again to HIFIMAN for the opportunity to try out the ANANDA BT’s
So first impression – Bluetooth doesn’t like some of the older 70’s folk/acoustic rock that I listen too. I have a playlist I put together when I first got into HP’s (HD6XX’s with a Magni 3) that I have since used when listening to any new audio gear I get my hands on. What I heard with the Bluetooth connection made some songs sound very poor according to what I am used to. For example – Jim Croces – I Got a Name. On Bluetooth the bass line present throughout the song sounds bloaty and over accentuated, whilst the string parts sounded like they were 2 rooms back from the stage. Jim himself sounded great and his vocals were very clear. (I really really really like how vocals sound on these HP’s). I have a few more examples of this, that I won’t bore anyone with. Basically Bluetooth and older singer songwriter recordings don’t seem to mix on these HPs. That being said my playlist runs the gamut from 1950’s pop to 2010 pop with every genre mixed in. I generally play one song from one band/artist on this playlist. Some classical, some country, rap, rock, jazz, etc.
I want to make sure it’s understood I don’t blame the ANANDAS for my dislike of some recordings via Bluetooth. I blame Bluetooth in general. The stuff I am complaining about was recorded/mastered years before Bluetooth was conceived.
Listening to those same songs via the hardline connection USB from PC (TIDAL) into the ANANDA was great. This tells me the internal DAC must be decent.
If you are listening to new recordings or newer remastered recordings you will likely really enjoy these headphones, with or without bluetooth. I loved the way Sturgill Simpson, Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, Deadmau5, Eminem, Beck, Little Big Town, Iggy Azalea, Nikki Minaj, Black Keys, etc sounded on these headphones.
Bass depth, texture, and control are great and vocals are fantastic. I love love love Van Morrison, but sometimes, his vocals can be difficult to make out every syllable. Not with these HPs. Also if you are like me, fast talkers can sometimes be difficult to understand. With these HP’s I was able to clearly hear lyrics from rappers that I hadn’t been able to understand before. This impressed me, and I am assuming it is because of the lightness of the diaphragm. Planar ribbons are supposed to be fast, and I would imagine this is why I liked the vocals. It did make me wish I had set of analogue capable ANANDAS to test with an external DAC/AMP. I have a bunch of Schiit stuff in house.
This leads me to my one and only major gripe. I wish the ANANDAS accepted an analogue input. It would have been great to take the preamp feed off of my Bifrost 4490 & Asgard 2 stack and put it into the ANANDAS to really see how the internal dac/amp compares to an external dac/amp. As I don’t have a regular pair of ANANDAS I was unable to make that comparison. My buddy @Ripper2860 has a pair of regular ANANDAS, but he was unwilling to send them to me. Likely because he’s afraid I might get smoked oysters or kipper snacks on them J.
This comparison would have been great, because I really really like the ANANDAS when they are hardlined to my PC. They do everything really well and some things great. Bass and Vocals are awesome/spectacular/amazing/(insert your own superlative). They do miss out a little bit on the lighter upper frequency detail of my HD600 powered analogue stack, but the details I am talking about are miniscule, faint, easy to miss, and the ANANDAS did capture SOME of it, just not as much (Van Morrison, Moondance, very very faint squeaking from the 1:59 thru 2:23 mark, fingers on a guitar string I’ve been told). The ANANDA and USB Cable does capture some of it, just not as much as what I’ve heard on my HD600 analogue stack. Its very minute details like this that made me wish I had an analogue input on the ANANDA BT or a regular version of the ANANDA.
A number of things that I loved.
Fit, Feel, Build Quality.
Man these things were comfortable, and stable. I wore em for hours. Very stable, very comfortable (if a bit warm). I started wearing these things outside while walking the dog. I typically walk for 45 minutes to 1 hour at a time, and they never moved at all. Very stable, and I walk at a good pace. I will be very sad to go back to earbuds when these get returned.
The ANANDAS, even with Bluetooth are worlds ahead of the wired earbuds/iems I usually wear.
Build quality as indicated above is great. They feel very sturdy and well made. I have read some drop comments that the HE4XX’s can be fragile. I didn’t get that sense at all with these HPs. HIFIMAN seems to have done well for us listeners.
I liked that I could listen at a reasonably loud level and still hear vehicles approaching behind me, kids playing around me, or my wife calling for me from upstairs. I really enjoy the open aspect of these HPs.
I liked how loud they got. I typically listened at 50 % volume, but when the mood struck I could get them to a desirable level of loudness.
The addition of the microphone was very handy during meetings as I am working from home right now.
If you are the type that wants to invest in a one stop solution for your Hi-Fi needs I would wholeheartedly recommend the Anandas (if nothing else, test them out to see how they fit your genres of music). I can see how it would very nice to have something of this quality to bring with you everywhere (home, office, anywhere in between). I am not entirely sure about the price without an analogue in, but that is up to each person to decide based upon their wants/needs/usage.
I will say this, I don’t want to send them back. My walks will not be nearly as enjoyable without them. I do wish I had some analogue ANANDAS to compare them too. That would have been fun.
I will likely be looking for a pair of standard HIFIFMAN hps to buy after this. I see the DEVA accepts analogue or the digital dongle, which is very nice and convenient.
I am probably missing a few things and will edit this as I recall what else I wanted to say.
Thanks again to HIFIMAN for the opportunity to try out the ANANDA BT’s
Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
Very good review. BTW -- I had Ananda HPs previously, but upgraded to Arya. Arya vs Ananda BT wouldn't be a fair fight. 
@TeamHiFiMAN
Hi guys, I volunteered for the Loaner tour, but was never contacted. Has the Loaner Tour now finished? I see no more updates in this thread ...
Hi guys, I volunteered for the Loaner tour, but was never contacted. Has the Loaner Tour now finished? I see no more updates in this thread ...
hey, same for me. i just volunteered pretty early but never get any contact. seems, i need to stay with my cabled HE1000...
Ripper2860
Headphoneus Supremus
I think the whole Corona Virus thing and sanitizing/shipping from one person to another along with related shipping delays has pretty much put this on indefinite hold.
Last edited:
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Hi, We sincerely appreciate your interests to our products, but sorry to say that we have closed this loaner tour because of the COVID-19, if we can restart the loaner tour in future, we will let you know!
Wish everyone could be safe!
April
Wish everyone could be safe!
April
GUNHO
Head-Fier
I would love to participate. I am from the US, Georgia. I am an upcoming YouTube audio reviewer and influencer and my subscribers have been asking about this unit.
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