[yeboyi]

Sad to say the right side of my Ananda died on me, asked someone to open it up and it seems to be Micromold or something, some of the tracers are gone just from this stuff,
I'm so out of planar game, I'd rather stick with tried and true DD and keep drivers that need more sensitive care away from my collection, it just doesn't gel well with the climate in my country I guess.



Yeah did nothing to it literally plugged in my amp one day and the right side is just nonexistent.

Hey are you me ? Same issue. My driver died when i was using it though. Right driver suddenly died. I increased gain and volume knob of my amp and the driver came alive for a minute and then go out forever. How did you open it ? Magnets were extremely strong. I tear the diaphragm during the surgery. This is mine

 

[Sp12er3]

I asked a pro who had the tools to safely open up planar for me. I think fixer or something.
He urged me to get a dry Cabinet if I want to keep my collection safe, a 50L Everbrait mrd 55s that also has controllable heater.
Maybe I should, the price of my Z1Rs, all of my IEM and etc are way way more than a price of a single dry Cabinet

 

[yeboyi]

I asked a pro who had the tools to safely open up planar for me. I think fixer or something.
He urged me to get a dry Cabinet if I want to keep my collection safe, a 50L Everbrait mrd 55s that also has controllable heater.
Maybe I should, the price of my Z1Rs, all of my IEM and etc are way way more than a price of a single dry Cabinet

I live near sea but i don't have any humidity issues at all. I send a message to @TeamHiFiMAN couple of days ago. They haven't respond back yet but i'd say try your luck. How is your left driver ? Why the right one affected ? I saw couple more people like us with a dead right driver. How old is yours ?

 

[Sp12er3]

My room also doesn't feel humid at all, but this still happened to me. I know humid room, I used to live in one, it smells and feel different living in one, my current room ain't like that at all. Have good circulation with constant air moving around inside as I also turn my pc on 24/7 to mine ETH.

Mine is more than a couple years old, I bought it when it hadn't had a price cut yet. Not sad about the age, tho really headphones still should last more than 5 years at least IMO, at least in its core functionality, pads, headband, etc are fine to deteriorate, but the driver? Sheeesh, am sad about how I did nothing and are punished for it.

 

[yeboyi]

My room also doesn't feel humid at all, but this still happened to me. I know humid room, I used to live in one, it smells and feel different living in one, my current room ain't like that at all. Have good circulation with constant air moving around inside as I also turn my pc on 24/7 to mine ETH.

Mine is more than a couple years old, I bought it when it hadn't had a price cut yet. Not sad about the age, tho really headphones still should last more than 5 years at least IMO, at least in its core functionality, pads, headband, etc are fine to deteriorate, but the driver? Sheeesh, am sad about how I did nothing and are punished for it.

Mine was less than a 1.5 year old. I have 10 year old headphones. It really shouldn't die.

 

[Sp12er3]

Mine was less than a 1.5 year old. I have 10 year old headphones. It really shouldn't die.

Same, my T1 is Old, and it's still going being my daily driver.

 

[yeboyi]

Same, my T1 is Old, and it's still going being my daily driver.

Is it T1.1 ? What was the release price of T1.1 and T1.2 ? They are too expensive right now. Beyer should still produce these around $600-$700 to compete against Ananda/Elex/2C. They are as pricey as HD800S in my country lmao.

 

[Matte Black]

As the Ananda BT seems to be discounted by EUR 300 at various European authorized dealers, does this mean we can expect a new iteration of Ananda that will be compatible with the Bluemini?

 

[Vatnos]

In fairness my Edition X lasted 5 years, I was the 3rd owner, used it nearly every day for the 4 yrs I had it, and I am starting to wonder if its death was caused by frequent unusual power surges we have been getting at my new place. I'm investing in a UPS to protect the replacement Ananda.

 

[HTSkywalker]

Hifiman were working on their QC the last 2 years, thought the dead drivers issue resolved, will keep my fingers crossed.

 

[jerhowe]

I think all of the newer companies are going through the same process. When they first started, it was just part of the new comer quirks. Now the expectations are they deliver the same consistency as the companies that have been around for decades, and obviously that just isnt happening. That being said, I think we as consumers should keep demanding they get there. I want the now established new companies like HFM, Audeze, and Schiit to have Sennheiser and Beyer consistency. But it's certainly proving to be a bigger challenge than what anyone would imagine. IMO the only recent company I can think of with a great track record is DCA. They are not tuned to my liking but I think they have done amazing things in the time frame they've been around.

 

[firesign]

As the Ananda BT seems to be discounted by EUR 300 at various European authorized dealers, does this mean we can expect a new iteration of Ananda that will be compatible with the Bluemini?

Ananda BT 300 €?! Where???

Ah, ok, I read it wrong, it’s a 300 € discount

 

[HTSkywalker]

I think all of the newer companies are going through the same process. When they first started, it was just part of the new comer quirks. Now the expectations are they deliver the same consistency as the companies that have been around for decades, and obviously that just isnt happening. That being said, I think we as consumers should keep demanding they get there. I want the now established new companies like HFM, Audeze, and Schiit to have Sennheiser and Beyer consistency. But it's certainly proving to be a bigger challenge than what anyone would imagine. IMO the only recent company I can think of with a great track record is DCA. They are not tuned to my liking but I think they have done amazing things in the time frame they've been around.

Schiit are doing well in this regard, remember Beyer are still manufacturing in Germany, same with Sens high end line and with strict QC abroad. HFM after sale support is making it up for the QC in the US, didn't hear much technical complaint about Audeze though. Have a Focal and they stood firmly behind their products too.

 

[Alex May]

didn't hear much technical complaint about Audeze though

I had two headphones directly from Audeze. Both with defects. They often have channel imbalances, not to mention their inherent design flaw that's causing phase issues depending on the earpads. I had to return my LCD-XC due to a channel imbalance which Audeze didn't acknowledge from the very beginning (I had to start a dispute process). They claimed that their headphones cannot have channel imbalance because their company is genius (literally).

In terms of HFM, I once returned and replaced my Arya. As opposed to cocky Audeze, Hifiman acknowledged the fault even without testing the unit, apologized and sent the new one without a problem, adding a complementary gift. And my new Arya indeed came without a flaw, and better sounding.

Have a Focal and they stood firmly behind their products too.

Sudden death of drivers is what Focals are notoriously famous for. Especially in Elex. Every second Elex dies within the first month. Even Oluv who praised Elex like crazy had to replace it three times. All the forums are full of complaints about dying or rattling Focal drivers.

However, I agree about still very high QC in Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic. They are still holding on. But overall, the drastic fall in production quality and QC seems to affect the majority of production companies equally.

 

[the1andonly]

I had two headphones directly from Audeze. Both with defects. They often have channel imbalances, not to mention their inherent design flow that's causing phase issues depending on the earpads. I had to return my LCD-XC due to a channel imbalance which Audeze didn't acknowledge from the very beginning (I had to start a dispute process). They claimed that their headphones cannot have channel imbalance because their company is genius (literally).

In terms of HFM, I once returned and replaced my Arya. As opposed to cocky Audeze, Hifiman acknowledged the fault even without testing the unit, apologized and sent the new one without a problem, adding a complementary gift. And my new Arya indeed came without a flow, and better sounding.

Sudden death of drivers is what Focals are notoriously famous for. Especially in Elex. Every second Elex dies within the first month. Even Oluv who praised Elex like crazy had to replace it three times. All the forums are full of complaints about dying or rattling Focal drivers.

However, I agree about still very high QC in Sennheiser and Beyerdynamic. They are still holding on. But overall, the drastic fall in production quality and QC seems to affect the majority of production companies equally.

Audeze measures all headphones they send out so they are correct that they should not have imbalances, so it's really not true they didn't test it, they both burn it in and test it before sending it off, I seriously doubt a channel imbalance at the point they send it off wouldn't fail QC, anyone who has ever gotten a B-Stock wood unit can look at it and scratch their head wondering what the defect is (these units have the same drivers as the other stock the only issue is the rings). I am not saying you didn't hear a channel imbalance btw I think it is possible. Interested to hear about the "inherent design fl[a]w" you are talking about and with what earpads, surely not Audeze's OEM ones?

Schiit are doing well in this regard, remember Beyer are still manufacturing in Germany, same with Sens high end line and with strict QC abroad. HFM after sale support is making it up for the QC in the US, didn't hear much technical complaint about Audeze though. Have a Focal and they stood firmly behind their products too.

Most of what a consumer knows is anecdotal, for me personally I fall back to warranty, I own a Focal and it's the cheapest one with the least QC(as far as I can find) I really really wanted to buy a few Radiances I saw on here but just could not due to the fact I cannot get extra years of warranty purchasing new like my Elegia... Also for Hifiman I did buy my Ananda used but would stop at going higher, I think those 2 companies, which are known to have QC issues anecdotally could go a long way by adding on at least a year to match one like Beyerdynamic... My favorite headphone is my Audeze, and they offer a 3 year warranty that is explicitly transferrable, for me I consider the combination of the headphone and service heirloom quality, the last time I asked them about a quote to fix the LCD-3's drivers it was $580 including $80 pads... with another 3 year warranty, Sennheiser has 2 year warranty not sure if transferrable, Beyerdynamic has 2 years non transferrable, and regardless of it they are transferrable or not IIRC Hifiman and Focal are 1 year. Audeze has 3 years transferrable warranty, they are leading the market, when I bought my LCD-3 I had an extra 2 years tacked on for using a specific card, and if I am buying a $2000 item it's such a huge grand slam to have 5 years of warranty 3 years of transferrable if I want to sell, and know if it breaks after that time the cost for whole new drivers is 25% of the unit and comes with another 3 years, with such a reasonable cost I might just upgrade just to upgrade!

I think I have developed a steadfast rule I refuse to pay over $1000 new if the warranty is not at least 2 years, I refused to pay over $500 for any reason if the warranty is not at least 1 year left and transferrable, and I refuse to pay over $2000 unless the warranty matches Audeze's or beats it.

I might break this to get an AB-1266, we will see I guess.