I mean if they don’t fit what I am looking for I will just end up crossing them off… I don’t want to up and spend time on a purchase that doesn’t fit the bill ya know? drop takes forever to work with on returns I guess back to the drawing board… I created a seperate post asking about this…
Woo man, goodness me it’s been a busy few days. So, I have been sitting down with the Sendy Aiva, Hifiman Ananda, Sundara, aeon open x, amiron home, and jbl gaming headset titled quantum one(review on that crapshoot in another forum).
So, I actually really didn’t like the Sendy… it’s pretty up there in brightness which I can forgive and is close to the amiron with in some cases the S sound can be uncomfortable to my ears. Headphone itself is gorgeous and the cups while not fitting completely to my ears are very airy and comfortable I had no heat problems at all and despite the subtle pressing down on the top of my ears this actually didn’t bother me here due to its very nice design and plush padding. Outside of the design though I feel it was a bit too bright for me I did like it’s aggression and it had a fairly unique sound signature at the same time though I felt the lacking bass really through me off as I like a good deep bass if the lows are recessed or lacking I tend to notice that pretty quickly and it makes me not like a headphone I equalized it and fixed it up a bit but I don’t feel this is better than my aeon open x in this case that I just enjoy more in the planars. This would be one of those niche headphones that I would have in my collection strictly for certain types of genre where the bass isn’t as prevalent.
As for the amiron home. These are quite a beautiful headphone I wasn’t sure what I was expecting out of the box… Immediately I was hit with the sound very much like the dt 1990s and I had to swap to the dt 1990s just to be sure… these sound very similar but the amiron is sharper on the treble and slightly warmer however I do feel 1990 is much more analytical with a better sounding bass to it it just has more detail and sounds a bit cleaner imo meanwhile amiron is a warmer take that feels like they went towards a bit more of a relaxed or fun approach to it. Acceptable and I would definitely buy one of these if I could find a way to dial back the sharpness to more acceptable levels as these are friggin comfortable.
Ananda: These earcups really are friggin big I will defiinitely give them that haha. It does sound like an upgrade to the sundara and is more comfortable a bit wider a bit cleaner and across the board I did like the sound more. not sure how i feel on this just yet…
Jbl… kill it with fire lol no really… horrible headset for its pricing
I was actually thinking about this in order to dial that treble back. I will consider this more after I get the T1 in a week or so since it will be coming in… I want to compare the three and figure out which of the 3 sounds I prefer more since they all have a pretty high treble to them. Don’t get me wrong… I am all for switching the pads to the amiron though… since they are suede? I think they are alcantara actually. I prefer the velour so Not sure if the pads on the other beyers would work here.
do you still have any of the cheaper beyers on hand? I would try the 880/990 pads on them see how it works out
nah unfortionately or I would try my 990s on them… T1 have a different pad if i recall correctly and I don’t have the 1990s on hand I would have to drive to pick those up since I gave them back till the T1 came in, he doesn’t particularly like me messing with his pads lol. Curious if this fixes the sound a bit since they should work fine on them… perhaps the analytical or balanced pads from the 1990 or just the normal velour from the 990s. This is pretty interesting because I do REALLY like these amiron… however I do feel the 1990s are more open sounding and analytical it could also be because of those pads as well… these pads are much thicker in material and they don’t breath as good as the velours. I am wondering if switching those pads to the velour will open up this headphone without making it even brighter.
Velour might add more breath to the sound maybe kill or alleviate the treble but might really change the warmth of the headphone for the worst but we never know till we try
I’d have to order some pads in that regard… maybe someone on here owns the amiron and has some extra pads they can try. Do we even have an official forum for the amiron to begin with? lol dont look like it. @Grant lol alright I can’t really type of a comprehensive review between these two as I haven’t sat with the ananda for too long but I will give it a shot.
So, to my ears the aeon is a lot warmer of a headphone while Ananda seems a bit linear and flatter sound. Personally, as far as pads go ananda feels a bit more spacious however in terms of plush pads the aeon wins here hands down for being the thicker plusher padding, both are fine but it depends on ear size as my ears slightly rub against the aeons. Build quality, no competition here aeon feels sturdier and looks better and just screams durability in comparison to ananda which felt pretty cheap to me, as in if I tossed it or dropped it I would be more worried in terms of damaging this headphone unlike the aeon which my only concern would be the colored plastic looking covers, that could be metal hard to tell honestly. In terms of seperation of sound this was pretty noticeable as the Ananda seems to do very well here unlike the Aeons which didn’t seem to even be as accurate on it’s imaging. bass on the aeon was definitely a more lush enjoyable sound compared to ananda which has a more neutral take on it but they do sound a tad cleaner in this regard still due to the aeon having a better lift in its bass in songs I found this much more enjoyable. higher frequencies I think held quite a bit of difference here as the Aeon is rounded off in this area meanwhile ananda was more aggressive and prominent here I suppose this will boil on preference as aeon could be classified as soft in this regard whereas ananda would be seen as more in your face and more aggressive. However, As far as the higher frequencies are concerned I did notice that the aeon despite being the softer sound had much more body to it. Spacious sounds… vast sounds… however you wanna call it… that wide sound you tend to compare to going to a concert hall. Ananda actually wins here as it sounded wider and had more detail while aeon was the more intimate in this case and not as detailed or analytical making it more forgiving Ananda takes the win here on its spaciousness and sound staging while also having the better imaging.
between these two it definitely boils on preference… I personally enjoy the warmer tone of the aeon over the ananda but I wish the aeon had that more spacious sound that the ananda can provide. I think dynamically speaking though if you prefer a more spacious in your face sound then the ananda is a very solid choice over the aeon as the aeon has many complaints for sounding boring or dull which in some cases I can agree to this statement. It’s just my personal preference but I do believe in general the ananda will be much more preferred here instead of the open x
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That sounds like a hex v2 or xx imo. Glad you are liking the ananda so far. With a higher tier amp, it will get a bit more full sounding, and expand further (cough cough asgard 3)
It’s definitely very different to the aeon but that open sound to it is incredibly enjoyable. I am at a extreme toss up between these too… I love the warmer tones from the aeon… but I love that spacious more accurate sound stage with the slightly more aggressive mid from the ananda.
I’m working on the amp already jeez lol I don’t like paying full price for things okay? Why spend full when I can save money to put towards other equipment
Lol just screwing around here, I agree on the full price thing, I really only buy used especially for higher end gear
lol your good. Yeah agreed… I think a good example of this was when I was looking at amiron home and dt 1990s… whereas normal price tag is $600 I just saw amiron home on amazon for $350. Thats $250 that I could use towards a pretty damn nice amp and dac.
Personally speaking though, I am also waiting on the new Fidelio X3 since the X2 has a wider more vast sound than both of these. Very curious if the X3 will suddenly take the place on my shelf over my aeons since both of those are warm headphones. Meanwhile the Ananda is in a special place to me… Sundara and ananda go head to head but there is no competition here that the Ananda is better in virtually almost every category. As far as Ananda is concerned considering its more linear and a flatter sound I think I can wager this as a replacement for the 58x and 6xx… it just has a better sound to it. Personal note… after listening to the ananda I am definitely sure this is more linear sounding… this will probably benefit alot from a more linear amp rather than a liquid spark
However, none of these are gonna replace my dt 1990s unless its amiron or t1. Seriously that headphone is ridiculously good lol
Wild, your description of the differences feels a lot like the comparison I left on the x and aeon 2 closed
well those two also have different signatures so it’s definitely interesting. If the ananda is anything like the aeon 2 that would be some hard toss ups for sure but in that regard I would go with aeon since I just like it for the comfort. After a while I started to get used to the ear pads despite the subtle rub against my ears and when the clamp force started to recede quite a bit it became very comfortable… however the biggest issue I have with actaully both of them is they seem to put some pressure on the Jaw line due to their design. Outside of that I want that large concert room like feel to the sound… aeon and ananda provide this… but I think they can take notes from x2 fidelio which does this really well.