[kid vic]

Exactly what I experienced with the Ananda. I really liked its sound signature, but its technical drawbacks made me look to other Hifimans (HE-6, Arya, and HEXv2) to upgrade my HE-500. At the end of the day, I feel that the HE-500 still offers me something different from the other cans I've tried and purchased after it. I can say that my HE-500 is a can I won't sell anytime soon.
When I posted up my review of the Ananda, I remember @kid vic mentioning shortly thereafter how their name was placed in the Product Tour thread several months before and had yet to hear anything from Hifiman. I'm glad to see that @kid vic is able to participate in the tour finally.

Right, the sound signature is actually really enjoyable. At first blush I think its perfect for someone who wants a light portable and enjoyable planar that can be driven via a phone and still sound great. My initial feel is that the Ananda is perfect for a DAP user but mediocre in comparison to more power hungry Planars with a system that can drive them well.

 

[kid vic]

Hmmm. I guess I didn't listen to it intensely or long enough? I preferred Ananda overall to HE500. I know HE500 has more slam, but I thought overall sound presentation wss superior. I guess it's more preference between the two due to each have their own pluses and drawbacks. I'm wondering if HE500 has more holography and depth to the sound? Does it have more bite to the tonality as well?

I know classic Hifimans have good width to sound, not vertically spatial like the teardrop cups.

That's the main thing that differentiated from HE1000 series, was the depth presentation of Ananda, which was lacking compared to HE1000 series.

So the major caveat I left out of my initial impressions is that I drive all of my planars off of the 110watt speaker taps of my integrated receiver, the Anadas didn't come with a balanced cable so I can't do that here; instead they are being driven by the headphone out of the same amp. I know from personal experience that that headphone out tends to sound warmer, slower (with planars) and a little bit congested. The last time I listened to my HE500 was through the speaker taps but I attempted to mentally adjust for that in my impression. When I do an actual back to back shootout it will be using the headphone out for both.

The first thing I noticed about the Ananda is a comparative lack of body in the midrange and treble, I like the sonic images to have a level of size and weight to them overall.
Depth is slightly better (so far) on the Ananda but holography and width is a blowout in favor of the HE500.

I'm gonna use the Ananda with my LG V30 and my laptop next, which I think will benefit the Ananda overall.

 

[kid vic]

HE-500 is unsellable. Get them while you can. Even found a completely new HE-500 a few months ago. Got it for the guy who modded my HE-6.
Transients are harder on the old ones, it adds to the overall tactile feel that most later Hifimans cannot match.

HE-500 is more liquid, tactile and weighty than the Ananda which is lighter, more controlled, drier. Ananda wins in separation, clarity, more (micro)details, drivability and is overall faster. HE-500 wins in overall tonality, has fantastic, engaging mids, offers more bass power/punch/weight. Staging and Imaging go to the Ananda which also make it the better movie and gaming headphone.

Arya takes a lot of things from the Ananda and does them all better and adds great depth to the stage. Arya is pretty good overall but it it lacks the mid clarity and cleanliness of the HD 800. Voices on the HD 800 are better, clearer and don't have that slight roughness.

I agree wholeheartedly with part of what you are saying and disagree strongly with another part, but I'll need more time with the Ananda to flesh that out

 

[Fegefeuer]

Do you consider Arya worthwhile upgrade over Ananda? However, another good variant with similar price is HEDDphone, so maybe it's better to look at them as it seems completely different beast.

Check out the Arya review page, I compared both the Ananda and the Arya during the whole review. Generally yes, the upgrade is substantial and really worth it.
Price-wise though? I don't know. Hard debate. That's up to you.

Don't know about the HEDDphone, I'm skeptical and looking forward to better reviews, won't buy one though. Let a few gens pass.
I'm really fine with my old headphones. HE-6, 500, 4, HD 800, 650 etc.

No new headphone really took my interest to lay down a couple of grands. My heart would only skip a beat with a true HD 800 successor that does not have any treble issues and extends lower.

 

[omniweltall]

Check out the Arya review page, I compared both the Ananda and the Arya during the whole review. Generally yes, the upgrade is substantial and really worth it.
Price-wise though? I don't know. Hard debate. That's up to you.

Don't know about the HEDDphone, I'm skeptical and looking forward to better reviews, won't buy one though. Let a few gens pass.
I'm really fine with my old headphones. HE-6, 500, 4, HD 800, 650 etc.

No new headphone really took my interest to lay down a couple of grands. My heart would only skip a beat with a true HD 800 successor that does not have any treble issues and extends lower.

Tried both the Ananda and Arya side by side a month ago.

To me, they are of different character. Maybe the Arya is more detailed. Not that much difference to my memory. The biggest difference is that the front stage is pushed further back in the Arya. Ananda is more upfront. In a way it's good, but, to me, it makes Arya sound more distant, subtler, more boring. Doesn't stand out as much as the Ananda.

Also, tonally, the Arya feels flatter and can be harsher than the Ananda. The Ananda is fuller and lusher in comparison. The Arya is even drier than the Ananda.

What turns me off the most about the Arya is the build. The Ananda is not better, but at least it is only $750. Even that is still a very cheap build for the price.

 

[bagwell359]

Ori pads is a pretty good upgrade. No doubt the unmoded 500 > 400.
I'm with you - I'm pretty sure when the price of the Arya used goes down under $900 because of an Arya 2 or its 3 years since they came out - then I'll have a pair.

Oof! Let me withdraw that. Ether Angled >> Ori, on everything but added bass, less upper mids/lowest treble - which are both false and can be done better by EQ. The soundstage in particular on the Ori is absolute trash compared to the Ether on the 500 w/ the rears off. See the main 500 thread for my full review.

 

[kid vic]

After almost a full years wait I finally received the Ananda this afternoon!

Initial impressions after 2 hours:

The cable really does feel like a thick condom or some hospital tubing.

Surprisingly narrow soundstage for how open the headphones are; the Ananda sounds capable at all times but gets overwhelmed by busier pieces and sounds congested easily. Imaging and separation is only ok, but image height is great.
Overall signature is very musical, slightly warmer than neutral but very dry, think chocolate cake with the perfect amount of sweetness that has been left to open air for a couple days. Manages to be great with most genres but sounded best (so far) with RnB and easy listening (Minnie Ripperton). Bass is great but the rest of the sound sometimes lacks body, especially at lower volumes.

No direct back and forth comparisons as of yet but I feel confident in saying that my HE500 (dekoni th900 fenestrated sheepskin pads and grill mods) is sonically better.

One week of continuous listening (I haven't put on any of my other headphones save for my portable set), here are my impressions thus far:

Treble:
The treble is fairly close to perfect for me, overall its the portion of the sound signature I notice the least about this headphone. It never sounds sharp to me or overly dark, details in the treble are generally well represented, I haven't found it to sound too dark either.

Mids:
Seems to lack a bit of body, though the image height is excellent everything seems to lack the last bit of realistic weight for my tastes. Female vocals are well portrayed but some gruffer male vocals lose their growl. Also, I find the midrange to be a little murky or smeared for my tastes. It can sound a little indistinct imo.

Bass:
Bass has great impact, fairly good decay and pretty good speed. Compared to how tall the image seems the bass seems to come from pretty low in the stage. These are not the greatest for skull crushing genres but it will deliver pretty well for them for sure. Bass is only there when it is required in the song and does not smear anything else or over stay its welcome.

Overall the sound signature is still warmer than neutral but not far from it. I could see these being a great be-all headphone for someone; fairly easy to drive (didn't have much luck with my V30), genre chameleon, comfortable, light and interesting to look at. I will wait until I do my comparisons to say how I would feel about recommending them.

 

[Dramlin]

Great impressions so far, most of which line up with my views. There was one thing said a bit back I wanted to follow up on though:

Surprisingly narrow soundstage for how open the headphones are; the Ananda sounds capable at all times but gets overwhelmed by busier pieces and sounds congested easily.

Up until to a few days ago I never thought the Ananda's had a narrow soundstage. I did suddenly have that realization when I received my Periapt cables though. Going back and forth between the Periapt, stock, and about 5 other cables the soundstage differences were the first thing I noticed with the Periapt cables having a much wider stage. However, there is a big caveat here in that my Periapt cable is balanced so this wasn't a fair comparison. I think that the stock cable itself is limiting the soundstage on these headphones, but I'm still testing to rule out that it is balanced vs non balanced instead. What is certain though is that these headphones are capable of a much wider/more open soundstage than what you hear in pure stock form.

 

[Module]

Great impressions so far, most of which line up with my views. There was one thing said a bit back I wanted to follow up on though:


Up until to a few days ago I never thought the Ananda's had a narrow soundstage. I did suddenly have that realization when I received my Periapt cables though. Going back and forth between the Periapt, stock, and about 5 other cables the soundstage differences were the first thing I noticed with the Periapt cables having a much wider stage. However, there is a big caveat here in that my Periapt cable is balanced so this wasn't a fair comparison. I think that the stock cable itself is limiting the soundstage on these headphones, but I'm still testing to rule out that it is balanced vs non balanced instead. What is certain though is that these headphones are capable of a much wider/more open soundstage than what you hear in pure stock form.

Interesting, I hear something like that already from others. Make me wonder if re-cabling is really an upgrading sound, however I don't have any balanced outputs on my amp, so I wonder if changing to another SE cable would make any difference.

 

[misteral201103]

One week of continuous listening (I haven't put on any of my other headphones save for my portable set), here are my impressions thus far:

Treble:
The treble is fairly close to perfect for me, overall its the portion of the sound signature I notice the least about this headphone. It never sounds sharp to me or overly dark, details in the treble are generally well represented, I haven't found it to sound too dark either.

Mids:
Seems to lack a bit of body, though the image height is excellent everything seems to lack the last bit of realistic weight for my tastes. Female vocals are well portrayed but some gruffer male vocals lose their growl. Also, I find the midrange to be a little murky or smeared for my tastes. It can sound a little indistinct imo.

Bass:
Bass has great impact, fairly good decay and pretty good speed. Compared to how tall the image seems the bass seems to come from pretty low in the stage. These are not the greatest for skull crushing genres but it will deliver pretty well for them for sure. Bass is only there when it is required in the song and does not smear anything else or over stay its welcome.

Overall the sound signature is still warmer than neutral but not far from it. I could see these being a great be-all headphone for someone; fairly easy to drive (didn't have much luck with my V30), genre chameleon, comfortable, light and interesting to look at. I will wait until I do my comparisons to say how I would feel about recommending them.

I apologise in advance if a) you know this trick and it's offensive that I imagined you might not and b) we've already had this exchange in another thread!
With the V30, do you know the 'workaround' whereby you disconnect the cable from the headphones, plug the cable into the phone (infinity resistance makes the quad dac kick in) and the reconnect the cable to the cans? This is the way to get the most grunt from your phone and might make a difference with the Ananda (must be honest, I've never tried with them but I did used to do it with the 400i)

 

[misteral201103]

Great impressions so far, most of which line up with my views. There was one thing said a bit back I wanted to follow up on though:


Up until to a few days ago I never thought the Ananda's had a narrow soundstage. I did suddenly have that realization when I received my Periapt cables though. Going back and forth between the Periapt, stock, and about 5 other cables the soundstage differences were the first thing I noticed with the Periapt cables having a much wider stage. However, there is a big caveat here in that my Periapt cable is balanced so this wasn't a fair comparison. I think that the stock cable itself is limiting the soundstage on these headphones, but I'm still testing to rule out that it is balanced vs non balanced instead. What is certain though is that these headphones are capable of a much wider/more open soundstage than what you hear in pure stock form.

What material is your cable made from? Copper? Silver? Silver Plated Copper? I've been using SPC and been very happy but interested to know if there might be even more to gain from changing...!

 

[Dramlin]

What material is your cable made from? Copper? Silver? Silver Plated Copper? I've been using SPC and been very happy but interested to know if there might be even more to gain from changing...!

Copper. Periapt doesn't explicitly say what it is, just that they are are using "ultra-flexible oxygen free Japanese copper". To my ears the quality is somewhere in-between OCC and PCOCC. Or perhaps it's PCOCC-A with some minor quality loss from solder or the connectors. In any case, at this point I'm still testing the cable to see how it compares to stock and the others in my collection. I'm planning on doing some more critical listening, then I'll post comparisons of all the cables in my collection compared to stock.

 

[bagwell359]

Great impressions so far, most of which line up with my views. There was one thing said a bit back I wanted to follow up on though:


Up until to a few days ago I never thought the Ananda's had a narrow soundstage. I did suddenly have that realization when I received my Periapt cables though. Going back and forth between the Periapt, stock, and about 5 other cables the soundstage differences were the first thing I noticed with the Periapt cables having a much wider stage. However, there is a big caveat here in that my Periapt cable is balanced so this wasn't a fair comparison. I think that the stock cable itself is limiting the soundstage on these headphones, but I'm still testing to rule out that it is balanced vs non balanced instead. What is certain though is that these headphones are capable of a much wider/more open soundstage than what you hear in pure stock form.

HFM stock cable even on $1899 list headphones suck, and suck hard. HE-500, HE6se, HE5se, Ananda, HEX v2, etc. all bad news.

No question that both the HEX v2 & Ananda long cup headphones have taller and narrower soundstages then the HE-500. These two are at least 20% taller than any other headphone I've heard, and they are both at least 20% less wide at the extreme edges compared to the HE-500. If all my SOTA/near SOTA stereo speaker systems I had between 1978-2015 are a guide, the HE-500 is close to a normal sound stage (percieved of course), and those other two are malformed and incorrect.

My amp behaves far better on balanced than SE, so I wouldn't compare the two directly on cables and hope for a reliable result.

 

[kid vic]

I apologise in advance if a) you know this trick and it's offensive that I imagined you might not and b) we've already had this exchange in another thread!
With the V30, do you know the 'workaround' whereby you disconnect the cable from the headphones, plug the cable into the phone (infinity resistance makes the quad dac kick in) and the reconnect the cable to the cans? This is the way to get the most grunt from your phone and might make a difference with the Ananda (must be honest, I've never tried with them but I did used to do it with the 400i)

Thank you for your politeness! No, I didn't know that trick but I will try it shortly.

 

[kid vic]

HFM stock cable even on $1899 list headphones suck, and suck hard. HE-500, HE6se, HE5se, Ananda, HEX v2, etc. all bad news.

No question that both the HEX v2 & Ananda long cup headphones have taller and narrower soundstages then the HE-500. These two are at least 20% taller than any other headphone I've heard, and they are both at least 20% less wide at the extreme edges compared to the HE-500. If all my SOTA/near SOTA stereo speaker systems I had between 1978-2015 are a guide, the HE-500 is close to a normal sound stage (percieved of course), and those other two are malformed and incorrect.

My amp behaves far better on balanced than SE, so I wouldn't compare the two directly on cables and hope for a reliable result.

Agreed, the Ananda tends to make voices almost match the height of my head with vocal forward music whereas the HE500 is shorter but has better width and body to the send.
Overall it is less jarring to go from my Dynaudios to the HE500 than any other headphone so our impressions match thus far.