Hifiman Ananda Stealth V2 Headphone Review

[muslhead]

Guess nobody will confuse these with the Dan Clark Stealth, will they...

why would they? They are 10x the price.
Silly comparison if they did. Apples and bananas

 

[Ahmonge]

Hifiman Arya Review (headphone)

This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hifiman Arya (2021 edition) planar magnetic open back headphone. It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $1,299. This is a very large headphone: It is also on the heavy side: Yet it provided very good comfort. It actually feels...

www.audiosciencereview.com

Thanks for the link. I overlooked it

 

[audioholic63]

Grado makes the most absurd headphones in the galaxy. The most unlistenable headphones without EQ but the brightest and clearest with a very wide soundstage when you EQ them. Only after buying the SR80x and equalizing them did I understand the true power of this frequency correction system. Everyone should buy a cheap Grado, change the pads and EQ it. After this positive experiment I convinced myself to buy a Grado TOTL model... I bought a limited edition Grado "the White Headphone".... a tragedy... 50mm driver, wooden case, super cable... nothing to do. ...it was such an incorrigible headphone that after 24 hours it was already on its way to the seller...the frequency response graph was a meaningless scribble.... Grado is at its best with the economical SR60/80 x models and with a nice equalization.... spending 1000/2000/3000 euros on a Grado is the most absurd thing an audiophile can do... incidentally the SR80x and GW100x equalized and with large pads are among my favorite headphones and they are the only headphones that can match the soundstage of my 800s....

Which pads specifically?

 

[virtua]

Grado makes the most absurd headphones in the galaxy. The most unlistenable headphones without EQ but the brightest and clearest with a very wide soundstage when you EQ them. Only after buying the SR80x and equalizing them did I understand the true power of this frequency correction system. Everyone should buy a cheap Grado, change the pads and EQ it. After this positive experiment I convinced myself to buy a Grado TOTL model... I bought a limited edition Grado "the White Headphone".... a tragedy... 50mm driver, wooden case, super cable... nothing to do. ...it was such an incorrigible headphone that after 24 hours it was already on its way to the seller...the frequency response graph was a meaningless scribble.... Grado is at its best with the economical SR60/80 x models and with a nice equalization.... spending 1000/2000/3000 euros on a Grado is the most absurd thing an audiophile can do... incidentally the SR80x and GW100x equalized and with large pads are among my favorite headphones and they are the only headphones that can match the soundstage of my 800s....

I've had the SR60 and SR225e before, and subjectively the SR225e was much worse to me. It was brighter and had absolutely no bass extension, and it didn't even give any impression that the sound quality was better in any way either.

 

[Brubaker]

Which pads specifically?

g pads (chinese copy) sound better than the original g pads by grado...i've measured more bass... 5 eur on Amazon ... marked "kwmobile" .... better soundstage.... but i think we are Off Topic.... sorry...

 

[IAtaman]

Just finished reading the review, not a good sign that the left & right drivers are different re distortion because that's a manufacturing quality issue. I've seen worse frequency responses though and it's not a super expensive headphone, but it's not a budget headphone either, so in my mind it's not quite up to par given the manufacturing quality issue and just passable frequency response, so I didn't vote it the lowest, but not far off! Distortion quite high for a planar but likely not an issue for the fairly low levels that I'd listen at.

EDIT: at the original $999 price they'd be a proper rip off, but my comments above were based on $399. So for $999 I'd be tempted to give it lowest marks.

That is one of the reasons why I think it makes no sense to take price and value as a parameter for evaluation. Not only it is not stable, especially in the case of Hifimans, but also it also only makes sense if you know every product in the category. E.g. $399 might be "not bad" but what if there is $199 products that performs a lot better, would that still be not bad?

Overall, I think Ananda does not really make a lot of sense from a consumer perspective, and it is only exists in my opinion as an attempt from Hifiman to extract the maximum value from the market. It is for people who can pay a bit more than whatever XS costs at the time, but is not willing to go full Arya prices.

 

[Robbo99999]

That is one of the reasons why I think it makes no sense to take price and value as a parameter for evaluation. Not only it is not stable, especially in the case of Hifimans, but also it also only makes sense if you know every product in the category. E.g. $399 might be "not bad" but what if there is $199 products that performs a lot better, would that still be not bad?

Overall, I think Ananda does not really make a lot of sense from a consumer perspective, and it is only exists in my opinion as an attempt from Hifiman to extract the maximum value from the market. It is for people who can pay a bit more than whatever XS costs at the time, but is not willing to go full Arya prices.

I think you gotta take price into account, because after all money doesn't grow on trees! It's intrinsic to the value of a product, and people voting in the poll will use their best knowledge to grade it - so on average a headphone probably gets a pretty accurate grading if you have enough people voting in the poll, which can be useful for newbies to glance at the poll to see if it's a worthwhile purchase. (My vote would swing between "not terrible" at $399 and "poor" at $999, so a newbie looking at this review will see that most people voted it "not terrible" with second place vote coming in at "poor", so newbies wouldn't touch this headphone with a bargepole - and good on them for not doing so!)

 

[Tachyon88]

tnx Amir... my doubts were justified... I have been observing Hifiman's commercial policy for more than a year. I was intrigued by the exaggerated discounts and their products and I was convinced to buy one, but every time I searched for information on Google I found dozens of messages from users angry about the quality problems of the materials. I spent weeks evaluating their graphs to try to understand which headphones had enough bass and were closest to the Harman. One day I superimposed them in a single graph and they were really very, very similar. At that point it almost seemed to me (but that's not the case) that they had taken a single driver model and used it in 5/6 models, changing only the name, the headband or the colour. But only to me does it seem like they are practically identical with differences of 1000 or 2000 euros? I believe that the differences between a driver and the next model are so small that they make the entire price list just a meaningless marketing policy. In the end the differences in sound, if we exclude the inefficient he6 and Susvara, will be truly negligible. This borderline ridiculous discounting also reinforces my thesis. With prices varying by 50/80%. We then add the number of headphones put back on sale after repairs or returns is always very high. It doesn't give me the impression of a company that renews or invests in innovative models but more of a company that is exploiting a model, always the same, which among other things shows a lot of quality problems. Perhaps the value of Hifiman headphones is measured on the Sundara models, 299 euros.... at a discount...

I had similar thoughts as well. I kept wondering if they were stuffing the drivers from the HE1000 line into these endless "new" models of arya's and anadas. They "update" the arya every quarter it seems ! Arya owners will be curious what the difference is, when the measurements show they are soooooo close anyways and end up buying the newer model. I think hiffiman figured out their business model and tapped very much in the FOMO psychology of their consumers, that consume. When all they had to do is put a 2db bass shelf and now you're listening to the "newer" model.

 

[virtua]

I had similar thoughts as well. I kept wondering if they were stuffing the drivers from the HE1000 line into these endless "new" models of arya's and anadas. They "update" the arya every quarter it seems ! Arya owners will be curious what the difference is, when the measurements show they are soooooo close anyways and end up buying the newer model. I think hiffiman figured out their business model and tapped very much in the FOMO psychology of their consumers, that consume. When all they had to do is put a 2db bass shelf and now you're listening to the "newer" model.

It's quite annoying to be honest. A little while ago their lineup made a little bit of sense. You had the Ananda using a similar diaphragm to the Sundara - but it got you the 'egg-shaped' form factor and the bigger drivers, the Arya was using the diaphragm from the HE1000 series and had a better headband. HE1000V2 was semi-deprecated when the Arya came out but it represented a more neutral tuning and had a different build quality. The HE1000SE had their stealth magnet technology first used on the Susvara etc. Objectively it mightn't have made sense either way, but they had a little bit more reason to market their stuff on the features they gave to each headphone which differed.

Now the new Ananda has the same diaphragm as the Arya, basically all openback HiFiMan headphones have stealth magnets in them now. You also have the "Arya Organic" which mellows out the Arya tuning, but in turn cannibalises the HE1000V2 (which also comes in a stealth magnet version now too... leaving the HE1000SE's only defining feature it's brighter tonality) and for some reason they basically go for almost the same money. I'm pretty sure HiFiMan knew that doing what they are doing was going to make a lot of their products make no sense, but I feel like they did it as quick cash grab and killed the second hand market (atleast for a little while).

And you know who holds the bag for all this cannibalising that HiFiMan is doing to it's lineup? The previous owners, because now all the sudden every single headphone they bought a year ago isn't worth even half of what they paid in the second hand market now. Doesn't make sense though, because whether most of the new models are better or not is dubious - but FOMO gonna FOMO. Beyond the quality concerns (both objective measures, and build quality/QC), THIS is what truly makes HiFiMan headphones a bad value. It's not even the initial purchase price, but the depreciation YoY is insane.

I figure for the new buyers it's good for them, but I also think it might only be a matter of time that the same thing happens to them. What HiFiMan is doing to their lineup is certainly a great way to alienate their owners though and I've personally seen this conversation on many different forums.

 

[bidn]

tnx Amir... my doubts were justified... I have been observing Hifiman's commercial policy for more than a year. I was intrigued by the exaggerated discounts and their products and I was convinced to buy one, but every time I searched for information on Google I found dozens of messages from users angry about the quality problems of the materials. I spent weeks evaluating their graphs to try to understand which headphones had enough bass and were closest to the Harman. One day I superimposed them in a single graph and they were really very, very similar. At that point it almost seemed to me (but that's not the case) that they had taken a single driver model and used it in 5/6 models, changing only the name, the headband or the colour. But only to me does it seem like they are practically identical with differences of 1000 or 2000 euros? I believe that the differences between a driver and the next model are so small that they make the entire price list just a meaningless marketing policy. In the end the differences in sound, if we exclude the inefficient he6 and Susvara, will be truly negligible. This borderline ridiculous discounting also reinforces my thesis. With prices varying by 50/80%. We then add the number of headphones put back on sale after repairs or returns is always very high. It doesn't give me the impression of a company that renews or invests in innovative models but more of a company that is exploiting a model, always the same, which among other things shows a lot of quality problems. Perhaps the value of Hifiman headphones is measured on the Sundara models, 299 euros.... at a discount...

Brubaker,

you are making very important points!
I have the following personal evidence to share, to illustrate your points about the unacceptable quality of Hifiman materials.

I purchased and still own these five Hifiman headphones (they came with protein, fake leather earpads)
- HE6SE
- Sundara: the earpads fell apart within 2 years
- Ananda: the earpads fell apart
- Arya v1: the earpads fell apart within 2 years and during a period when I was not using them
- Shangri La Jr: the earpads fell apart within 2 years and during a period when I was not using them.

This is not something one will read in the corrupt audiophile reviews of the professional fake reviewers (paid in money or in the form of freely given very expensive items....)

The Sundara was very cheap, but the Arya was expensive, and the Shangri La Jr very-expensive (about € 4500)!!

Luckily, I could find some real leather replacement earpads made by Dekoni (but expensive in EU) for the Sundara, Arya and Shangri La Jr, but none was still available in the EU for the Arya v1 about two months ago.

This absolutely unacceptable material quality, and unacceptable short lifetime of these highly priced items disgusted me so much that this had the positive effect of healing me from wasting my money on buying and collecting headphones....

Would I ever buy some headphones again, then:
- never again Hifiman
- and never again headphones with protein, fake "leather"earpads, but instead with genuine, long-lasting leather (as can be found with some headphones by Focal or Audeze. Focal has even a bluetooth headphone, called Bathys, with real leather earpads, which I have been extensively using without any wear).

I am appending pics of my most expensive Hifiman headphones with their "self-destructing" earpads
(I made these photos just before I installed the Dekoni real leather hybrid earpads):

The round one is the very expensive Shangri La Jr:

The ovale one is the Arya v1:

 

[amirm]

That is one of the reasons why I think it makes no sense to take price and value as a parameter for evaluation.

I do that to some extent. If a product is superbly engineered and costs $10,000 I will still give it highest honors. But if it performs poorly *and* it is very expensive, then the ire comes out. If you have unlimited budget when engineering something, it better be the best it can be.

At the same time, if an amplifier sells for $80, I have to give them a break for say, having load dependency. Go up to $500 and this is no longer acceptable.

All of this is also in the context of money not mattering. Members are free to take that into account and vote accordingly to their budget in both the poll and their commentary. After all, that is why reviews here are in the form of a thread. People should be free to bring their sensibilities into the discussion.

What gets a bit out of line is saying a superbly engineered product should never cost this much. And putting little value on non-engineering characteristics. I personally defend against this as some people are fortunate enough to have the wherewithal to afford the best there is. No reason to shame them. I can afford some of this but that is courtesy of sitting during Christmas holiday in a noisy computer room in 1980s, helping the company save a $250,000 contract, debugging a crash bug! I paid my dues so I can indulge now in my later years.

 

[Sonic-Wall]

I‘m an owner of regular Hifiman Ananda and I do not have any quality problems with it.
After tweaking with a PEQ I think the Ananda are amazing sounding headphones which are very comfortable too.

 

[Ahmonge]

My Ananda earpads lasted two years of everyday use. They have lasted less than those of my Denon AH7200 but more than those of my Aeon 2 Noire. At least there were spares available and they are very easy to replace.

 

[SeasButter]

HIFIMAN=HI-THD？

 

[IXOYE]

I bought these as a trial from Amazon, after some EQ they sounded quite good, but the comfort was really bad so I sent them back, Sundara is a better headphone in my opinion, both in terms of sound and comfort, Sundara are actually the best headphones I've heard from HiFiMan.

 

[jsm]

I'm lost, I bought myself the stealth V3 (16 ohm/93 dB) for Christmas for 350€ and more 60 bucks for 4.4mm cable and a case, the choice took me some times, mostly here and on Rtings, as I don't find any measurement of this specific version, I supposed the stealth version was more or less an equivalent of the XS with a better headset. As the XS was well reviewed on Rtings I was pretty sure it was a good choice. Now I'm hesitating to send it back , certainly loosing more money for the return, , this is so bad to see these measurments for this budget . The Hifiman offer is so confusing

 

[Ahmonge]

I'm lost, I bought myself the stealth V3 (16 ohm/93 dB) for Christmas for 350€ and more 60 bucks for 4.4mm cable and a case, the choice took me some times, mostly here and on Rtings, as I don't find any measurement of this specific version, I supposed the stealth version was more or less an equivalent of the XS with a better headset. As the XS was well reviewed on Rtings I was pretty sure it was a good choice. Now I'm hesitating to send it back , certainly loosing more money for the return, , this is so bad to see these measurments for this budget . The Hifiman offer is so confusing

How does it sound? This is the most important thing

 

[jsm]

How does it sound? This is the most important thing

the bass are a little bit too weak for my taste, I already boost 0-100 khz with EQ , the mediums are good and the high not as clear as I expected, but this is something maybe useful for long listening sessions, it's my first acquisition of this type of headphone, previous best one was a Sennheiser HD25-II, so judging yet is not easy to me, I need more sessions to be completely positioned on it. There was no woaw effect but I appreciate the comfort, the capability of playing well on low volume, but the scene is still on my hears and not in front of me (don't know if its possible with an headphone). I'm using a tempotec sonata BHD pro on my phone.

 

[solderdude]

the scene is still on my hears and not in front of me (don't know if its possible with an headphone)

That will not improve with another headphone. Only with digital trickery you can get this done.

 

[Ahmonge]

the bass are a little bit too weak for my taste, I already boost 0-100 khz with EQ , the mediums are good and the high not as clear as I expected, but this is something maybe useful for long listening sessions, it's my first acquisition of this type of headphone, previous best one was a Sennheiser HD25-II, so judging yet is not easy to me, I need more sessions to be completely positioned on it. There was no woaw effect but I appreciate the comfort, the capability of playing well on low volume, but the scene is still on my hears and not in front of me (don't know if its possible with an headphone). I'm using a tempotec sonata BHD pro on my phone.

My acclimatisation to the Ananda (2020 version) took about two months, mainly because my previous headphones (Denon AH-D7200) had a very different tonality. As for where the sound image is formed listening with headphones, here is some interesting information:

How do you hear headphone 'soundstage'

This poll is born out of a 'soundstage / imaging' discussion. I am just curious how people hear headphone 'soundstage'. Note this is with 'normal' recordings so NO binaural recordings and without any processing/plug-ins like crossfeed, stereo enhancers and 3D emulators. Just a plain...

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