fretit OP t1_jdsa5bz wrote on March 26, 2023 at 8:11 PM

Reply to comment by blorg in Any more news about a possible Ananda V3? by fretit

You just painted me a picture of a chaotic company. If they can't properly manage such extremely simple things, why should I not think their headphones aren't made with the same sloppiness? Just slap on there whatever drivers or pads come out of some big random bin.

I suddenly have this uneasy feeling that it is a very suspect company. With all those measurements of the Arya/Ananda/XS being so close, almost within the variation you see between left and right side drivers, I am suddenly envisioning all the drivers coming from the same bin and just getting slapped on whatever egg-shaped cup model is being assembled.

blorg t1_jdsav8n wrote on March 26, 2023 at 8:16 PM

Whatever they are doing, their headphones sound great. They are also very consistent in hitting their target, indeed over multiple headphones never mind batches or supposed revisions of headphones.

I do think the Edition XS and Arya sound very very close to each other, the tonality is very similar.

OG Ananda is a bit lighter/rolled off in the bass. From VSG's measurements they may have fixed that with the stealth edition.

https://vsg.squig.link/?share=HIFIMAN_Ananda_(2022_Stealth_Magnets),HIFIMAN_Edition_XS,HIFIMAN_Arya_(2021_Stealth_Magnets)

Well worth it, pick based on price and fit. Edition XS is far and away the best value, I recommend that.

Other companies like Audeze, there is far far more batch to batch variation, even with no "revisions", stealth or otherwise.

One indication I think is how close Oratory's EQ work, they seem to just work exactly on my Hifiman. Have to modify quite a bit for LCD-X, I think mine is different to his one.

fretit OP t1_jdswyzs wrote on March 26, 2023 at 10:57 PM

Yeah, I think I overreacted a little bit.

I actually tried the XS. It is a great headphone except for some very slight artificial "sheen" to the sound. And even though my head was big enough for the band (one click seemed to be the best position), it felt a little loose on my head when I leaned forward or when I moved side to side. So I returned it and got the Ananda, but they sent me the older version, so I returned that as well.

I am just going to wait a little for the dust to settle and probably order directly from HIFIMAN instead of Amazon.