HIFIMAN ANANDA Over-Ear Open-back Planar Magnetic Headphones, wired-Black

Product Information

If you haven't seen them before, they are quite big, no matter how big your ears are, these will cover them just fine.

Pros: Great soundstage and imaging, near neutral performance with a couple elevations for increased musicality.Hex V2 doesn't handle louder volumes as well as the Ananda though but don't expect Ananda to let you crank it up like a HE series oldschool Hifiman, which not only sustain much more power but are more dynamic as well and therefore also give you a better reason to crank it up. Ananda and Hex V2's compressed dynamics don't allow for the "startling effect" anyway. This startling effect describes the explosive power of the HE-6 to fire at you from total darkness, nothingness with a hail of supernovae. I'm exaggerating here but you might understand what I mean. I didn't find much difference when running the Ananda balanced (Gain 1) or single-ended (Gain 2) on the THX AAA 789. With regards to amplification, the Ananda sure scales with the amplifier, but seems to not require a lot of power – which is a good thing. I did not test it, but would be surprised if the Ananda will not sound great from a good portable amp. Bass is in line with my definition of “neutral”, with good extension down to the lowest area. While sub-bass is not in line with the rest, with a relatively steep slope that starts around 100 Hz, it still is more than present enough to be clearly audible and has enough force to come across as almost physical, like the rest of the area. Still, it’s worth noting that the Ananda do not offer the same deep rumble as other headphones like the HE-560, with sub-bass being noticeably recessed in comparison. On the other hand, mid-bass is more present and has much more strength. What you can find in the general bass area is a great amount of detail and good layering, together with impressive speed that collectively make instruments really come to life.

The Aeon Flow was notably harder to drive than the Ananda and much more source sensitive. Big planars are rarely a good match with tubes, but the Aeon seems particularly poor where as the Ananda actually paired well with the Valhalla2/Bifrost MB combination. The Aeon can sound a bit clouded with pairings it doesn’t care for and is probably best paired to neutral to a bit dry/cold solid state gear. The Ananda on the other hand doesn As its Sanskrit name implies, Ananda produces sonic “bliss.” With its advanced planar-magnetic technology and ultra-thin diaphragm, the Ananda sounds similar in many respects to the company’s more expensive offerings. Better still, it can be used “on-the-go” with a smartphone or portable audio device. The Ananda is a top performer in its price class and a great value." Disclaimer: Hifiman sent us the Ananda Nano for this review, free of charge. This article reflects my unbiased opinion about the product. HIFIMAN disclaimer: I received the Ananda as part of the Head-fi tour and would like to extend a thanks to Hifiman for giving me the opportunity to try them out. I received no guidance or incentives to write this, and upon completion the Ananda (sadly) went on to the next reviewer.

The microphone is more than decent: your voice is heard quite loud and clear on the other side, though it’s best used in silent environments. Soundstage is open and one of the best I've ever heard, its very spacious and equally wide as it is deep not only that the details and separation make the imaging near perfect. HIFIMAN Ananda + Lotoo PAW 6000 (100 USD + 1200 USD) - This is the kind of DAP you get when you want a softer, more musical and more nuanced presentation from your headphones. PAW6K is perfect if you also want to EQ and can become, from a softer sounding DAP to the hardest hitting piece-de-resistance out there, especially if you match the EQ profile with the headphone perfect. I never felt like Ananda needs any kind of EQ, but it is always fun to play with PAW6000's default profiles, and their ATE setting of Sweet and 701 and 990 works well with Ananda giving a new perspective about their sound. At any rate, PAW6000 has more than enough power and dynamic for Ananda, and especially if you grab an aftermarket balanced cable, you'll be delighted to hear the punchiness and control that such a tiny DAP with a good battery life can exhibit over Ananda, a large planar magnetic headphone. Pads do not rotate on the vertical axis (as all HiFiMAN’s headphones), but since they are so big, they still remain very comfortable"