I'd even 1 up you on this one, I want high end koss PERIOD

I love every product I've bought from koss (maybe an exception here and there), but their engineers are just trolling us at this point. I'm fully convinced that they're acting maliciously on purpose to make the shittiest most fragile headphones as possible. Some of the oversights are so blatant with easy solutions that it's hard to think that it's a coincidence. Kph30i headband failure and KPH40 adhesive failure are all but guaranteed to happen within a year of ownership. 12 months of moderate daily use will break at least 60% of the time if not more.

I know your post is focusing on sound improvements, which I'd like to see improved upon as well, but i'm not throwing over $100 on anything until koss can pull up their pants and get their shit together, regardless of how good they sound.

Good taste in anime :)

Edition XS is equal to the Ananda in most respects and can be found at around $400

Beyer headphones have always been given too much credit for how bad they sound. There are some exceptional models, by not most. They do make great gaming cans though.

The 820 is one of the most hated headphones without a good reason. It's a worse than the 800s in some ways, better in others. In general, I'd say the 800s is better by a fair bit, but considering they were able to do what they were within the constraints of a closed back headphone is nothing short of incredible. There are fair complaints to make, but I wouldn't take advise from anyone saying that it's a bad sounding headphone. Bad for $2400? , fair enough. Bad outright? Nah. It's good.