I find the Ananda to be one of the best tuned headphones out there with a very natural (not neutral) frequency response.
There are some shortcomings but nothing is perfect , especially headphones!
I might come to that conclusion but not until I put a 6 band parametric on them. Sans EQ, I just cannot not find them natural or neutral in the highs.
diyaudioheaven:
That's a honking big rise centered at 8.5 kHz
They even have two different filters to counteract it:
Ananda needs a passive or active EQ, so do all 4 of my "reference" headphones, not a sin.
Looking at that chart with an Ananda in my hands, I'd set Toneboosters EQ:
550 Hz -2.5 db Q=1.5 in an attempt the lower the 200-1k area
1800 Hz +3.8 db Q=1.8 in an attempt to fill the gap from 1300-2300 Hz
3k -2 db Q=7.5 very narrow band cut (this could get axed for a sub 50 Hz bass boost if that's more called for)
6k +2 db Q=6, Narrow band add plus to counteract major cut in next settings at the lower range.
8.5k -6.0 db Q=2.5, can't -11db the whole thing, just get it generally down, might need more
17.5k -2 db Q=1.4, there is some fairly active stuff just over 20k, if you pick the midpoint to 15k where there is more you can set the Q broad enough to quiet the whole area.
Guarantee after an hour, I'd have all six settings refined/changed, and after about 10, they'd be pretty good. Given the low list recently. good chance for used Ananda's poking into the low 4's before the year is over.