[227qed]

Your description was of the 3D switch seems to be pretty accurate to me. I suspect that I do like a bit of treble energy, but just don’t have enough experience with many headphones to say whether or not I like bright. I think I really like a lot of everything, so on paper, the neutral FR of the Ananda sounds like it’ll be perfect for me, especially since all the review seem to indicate that it’ll take a good bass EQ without distortion.

 

[shady1991]

Does anyone here have any experience with any third party pads?

I remember someone mentioned zmf oval pads, but I am not very sure it will fit. (Of course, I plan to attach the ring of ananda's old pads to the third party pads)

 

[Twizzleshnizzle]

I have some EMu Teaks as my daily drivers right now. About to pull the trigger on Ananda, but I’m not quite there yet. Convince me! I like to EQ the bass up and do a lot of gaming. Music ranges from Vivaldi to infected mushroom and everything in between. Looking for better soundstage, imaging, layering, and detail. The Emu is good, but I know there is better (had an Elear but got rid of it because it couldn’t do bass like I liked). I feel like the one negative I read about hifiman is a lack of impact, but the emu has me covered there—it was even better than elear. What to do?

The Ananda responds brilliantly to EQ, better than any other headphone I've tried to EQ. I use mine for gaming as well, wonderful amount of detail. I found them too bright for my own taste with music without EQ, then I used the Oratory settings and fell in love with them. I didn't need EQ for gaming at all.

I shrank my collection right down recently. I auditioned so many headphones to find a combination that satisfied me. In the end I very happily settled on the Ananda as my most open back, then the ZMF Aeolus and DT 177x (and my Nighthawk Carbon, they're more novelty). I feel like I've got all bases covered and I'm over the moon with all of them.

 

[Firevortex]

Does anyone here have any experience with any third party pads?

I remember someone mentioned zmf oval pads, but I am not very sure it will fit. (Of course, I plan to attach the ring of ananda's old pads to the third party pads)

Don't think there is a third party pads for the Ananda as the shape is rather unique to the ear shaped series of Hifiman.
I modded mine by sticking 20mm high-density audio foam i had laying around onto the pads extending the thickness and i'm some what enjoying listening to it now. i couldn't stand the poor sound stage and the warm sound with lack of bass impact that's coming out of those cans. i'll burn it to around 100hrs and see if it improves anything. if not i'll prob jump ship and buy a HD800s or something thats more clinical with bigger bass.

 

[Twizzleshnizzle]

Don't think there is a third party pads for the Ananda as the shape is rather unique to the ear shaped series of Hifiman.
I modded mine by sticking 20mm high-density audio foam i had laying around onto the pads extending the thickness and i'm some what enjoying listening to it now. i couldn't stand the poor sound stage and the warm sound with lack of bass impact that's coming out of those cans. i'll burn it to around 100hrs and see if it improves anything. if not i'll prob jump ship and buy a HD800s or something thats more clinical with bigger bass.

The Fostex TH909 might be up your street. I tried them for a couple of weeks recently, very highly detailed with a great natural soundstage, plenty of bass slam as well. But too much detail for me (I prefer a warmer sound), really impressive though. The build quality was through the roof.

 

[sebek]

Don't think there is a third party pads for the Ananda as the shape is rather unique to the ear shaped series of Hifiman.
I modded mine by sticking 20mm high-density audio foam i had laying around onto the pads extending the thickness and i'm some what enjoying listening to it now. i couldn't stand the poor sound stage and the warm sound with lack of bass impact that's coming out of those cans. i'll burn it to around 100hrs and see if it improves anything. if not i'll prob jump ship and buy a HD800s or something thats more clinical with bigger bass.

There is some problem, probably due to how you wear them, because the Anandas are not warm at all and the soundstage is really very wide. I think that's everyone's experience on Ananda ...

 

[omniweltall]

Don't think there is a third party pads for the Ananda as the shape is rather unique to the ear shaped series of Hifiman.
I modded mine by sticking 20mm high-density audio foam i had laying around onto the pads extending the thickness and i'm some what enjoying listening to it now. i couldn't stand the poor sound stage and the warm sound with lack of bass impact that's coming out of those cans. i'll burn it to around 100hrs and see if it improves anything. if not i'll prob jump ship and buy a HD800s or something thats more clinical with bigger bass.

Your DAC/amp will affect this, but I get you mean. Ananda is what I call a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Nothing about it really impressed me, but it was an easy listen and recommendation. Especially if we listen to modern pop.

Agreed that the Ananda doesn't have a wide staging. In fact I would say its staging is quite restricted, even from my amp. Layering fares better and does help to keep it from being congested.

And yeah, it has somewhat warmish tonality. I thought it was fine and its biggest strength (again, depending on your chain). Somewhere in the treble can bother me sometimes.

Out of my desktop amp, the bass had enough oomph for me, but yes it is not its strength as well. But I felt it was enough for me to enjoy it.

Its worst weakness is in actually dynamics. I couldn't stand its flat sound. I realized it when I went back to my HD600. But no issue for gaming or modern pop.

 

[Twizzleshnizzle]

Your DAC/amp will affect this, but I get you mean. Ananda is what I call a jack of all trades, but a master of none. Nothing about it really impressed me, but it was an easy listen and recommendation. Especially if we listen to modern pop.

Agreed that the Ananda doesn't have a wide staging. In fact I would say its staging is quite restricted, even from my amp. Layering fares better and does help to keep it from being congested.

And yeah, it has somewhat that warmish tonality. I thought it was fine and its biggest strength (again, depending on your chain). Somewhere in the treble can bother me sometimes.

Out of my desktop amp, the bass had enough oomph for me, but yes it is not its strength as well. But I felt it was enough for me to enjoy it.

Its worst weakness is in actually dynamics. I couldn't stand its flat sound. I realized it when I went back to my HD600. But no issue for gaming or modern pop.

I wasn't impressed until I applied EQ, then it sang to me. Totally agree on soundstage, clearly wider than the HD6 series but not by a large amount.

 

[omniweltall]

Totally agree on soundstage, clearly wider than the HD6 series but not by a large amount.

Agreed.

For intimate vocal tracks, smaller staging is actually better imo. That's why I never considered it as Ananda's weakness. Otherwise, I wouldn't use my HD600. Depends on what we use it for.

 

[227qed]

Edit. Forgot to quote.

 

[227qed]

The Ananda responds brilliantly to EQ, better than any other headphone I've tried to EQ. I use mine for gaming as well, wonderful amount of detail. I found them too bright for my own taste with music without EQ, then I used the Oratory settings and fell in love with them. I didn't need EQ for gaming at all.

I shrank my collection right down recently. I auditioned so many headphones to find a combination that satisfied me. In the end I very happily settled on the Ananda as my most open back, then the ZMF Aeolus and DT 177x (and my Nighthawk Carbon, they're more novelty). I feel like I've got all bases covered and I'm over the moon with all of them.

I’m really glad to hear all that, thanks! Planning on getting an RME ADI-2 at some point, so definitely not afraid to EQ. have the Loki to tune them by hearing in the meanwhile. Can’t wait!

 

[Firevortex]

There is some problem, probably due to how you wear them, because the Anandas are not warm at all and the soundstage is really very wide. I think that's everyone's experience on Ananda ...

Have to disagree with you there, regarding the soundstage been "very wide" maybe when compared with a HD600 but having the K1000 and listened to a HD800s its not even close. but those headphones i've mentioned has one of the widest soundstages for headphones. The Amanda soundstage is just outside the ear thats with the 20cm foam insert. with out it its even smaller.

The lambskins are slightly thinner than stock pads, and softer so I assume they're compressing more against my head. As we know, when hifiman drivers are moved away from the ear the bass increases. By lifting the drivers just ever-so-slightly away I can feel the bass noticeably increase. Therefore I think these pads may have rolled off a bit of the bass. However my Arya is brand new and still breaking in, if that applies here.

I'm thinking to use some kind of 1-2 mm thick lightweight material to create kind of riser for these new pads just to keep the driver a little further away from my ear.

This is posted in the Ayra thread. looks like i'm not batsh1t crazy to mod my pads to move away from my head to get the best bass response out of the Ananda. optimal distance seems to be 20cm. i suggest you guys try it out.

i'm running it with the Topping A50s amp single ended. my balanced cable is coming so we'll see how it goes with balanced input.

 

[227qed]

What’s the packaging like on these new? I ordered new and am half-paranoid about getting an open-box set instead since that happened to me once before buying some dt990s on a Amazon.

Bought them from moon-audio, hopefully that’s a good place? Was supposed to be 2nd day “shipping”, did I misinterpret that as “delivery”? Was expecting to have them tomorrow or Saturday but now I have to wait til Monday I think. The horror!

Should I have bought direct from Hifiman perhaps? I feel like their website is just so terrible. On iOS at least, the ananda is not even listed in their “products”. And when I tried to check out, it only let me enter the address info, there was nowhere obvious to click to move to the next sections, including “payment”. Pretty big oversight unless I’m just going mad.

 

[fsi22]

Have to disagree with you there, regarding the soundstage been "very wide" maybe when compared with a HD600 but having the K1000 and listened to a HD800s its not even close. but those headphones i've mentioned has one of the widest soundstages for headphones. The Amanda soundstage is just outside the ear thats with the 20cm foam insert. with out it its even smaller.



This is posted in the Ayra thread. looks like i'm not batsh1t crazy to mod my pads to move away from my head to get the best bass response out of the Ananda. optimal distance seems to be 20cm. i suggest you guys try it out.

i'm running it with the Topping A50s amp single ended. my balanced cable is coming so we'll see how it goes with balanced input.

Yes, pulling away increases the hifiman bass response, pulling them closer increases midrange. Pick your poison.

 

[227qed]

Yes, pulling away increases the hifiman bass response, pulling them closer increases midrange. Pick your poison.

Not completely Ananda related, but I can confirm that switching to thicker pads, i.e moving drivers farther away from ears, increased the bass response of my EMu Teak. I’ll have to test this when my ananda gets here. I’m a huge basshead, hoping the ananda will deliver.