Hifiman Ananda Review (headphone)

[Chocomel]

Unfortunately Audio Precision software doesn't have that capability.

Yeah was worried that was the reason. Thanks for responding

 

[Chocomel]

I compiled more excess group delay plots more of various headphones. For those not familiar with them basically flat line at 0 is minimum phase, you can see some variation at the lowest Frequencies due to noise and some wiggling in the top octave sometimes. Anyway headphones are generally minimum phase, except some outliers which some show deviation from this in limited frequency ranges (for example monoprice m1060)

https://imgur.com/a/FGvIldH

 

[Anmol]

This sentence we have heard so often. And I disagree. But I admit it is difficult to explain. It is not about telling you (not you personally, of course) where to spend on or not. But under certain circumstances you got to admit, it was then a mistake, which you normally won't do. You are free to do mistakes, of course.

Amir told me via his review that my beyer t1 was a headless panther. I still like it. May be bias, may be faulty ears. Either way objective is happiness- and I am happy. Mistakes/shit happens and it's ok as long as you are happy with it.

 

[Veri]

Positioning matters a lot for Ananda. Positioning a little back solves most high frequency peaks.

I was thinking either that, or there is severe variance in treble with these Anandas.

 

[hege]

Here is a track with such deep bass: Terje Isungset - Fading Sun
There is deep bass here that most speakers can't reproduce.

To be fair it hits mostly in the 33hz region with minor droops under 30hz.

Spoiler: Terje Isungset - Fading Sun

There's much better examples in the Bass thread.

But yeah if we are talking about "most" 5-6.5" soap boxes..

 

[MayaTlab]

In-ear Measurements like for example rtings does would be a great way to confirm it.

Rtings' measurements of the Ananda suggest that there could quite a bit of variability across listeners below 100hz:
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/graph#670/4012
The lower traces are somewhat consistent with this review.
For information for others Rtings measures the bass response on five real humans with in ear mics and merge it with their measurements on their HATS above a certain frequency :
https://www.rtings.com/headphones/tests/sound-quality/frequency-response-consistency

 

[Fernando]

Correct.

It all started when Amir was trying to explain the differences between his PEQ and Oratory's PEQ profile, for AKG K371, back in January 29.
So I simply imported Oratory's PEQ profile and made a gif to compare both.
People liked the idea, and here we are...

It would also be great to compare the measurements!

 

[sweetchaos]

It would also be great to compare the measurements!

Here's my thoughts on how to do this:
1. The measurement fixtures would have to match from source to source.
Amir used GRAS 45CA-10 since the beginning.
Oratory1990, as far I know, also uses GRAS 45CA-10, so that's good.
But he used different fixtures in the past, so it wouldn't be an apples to apples comparison.
For the Hifiman Ananda, he used "GRAS 43AC/43AG" fixture. (source)

2. For best results, you'll need the raw frequency vs dbSPL for both sources.
Amir attaches his measurements with each review, so that's perfect.
Oratory1990 doesnt include his raw measurements. (example)
So you would have to find this data elsewhere...Jaakko includes this data in his CSV file. (source)
If you can't find the data, you would have to use the 'WebPlotDigitizer' to extract the frequency and dbSPL data, and save it to excel.

Then import both into REW and then simply show both on the same screenshot (or compare each individually and make it a gif).
Is this worth doing? You tell me.
Perhaps another member has tried this already?

 

[B4ICU]

It is disappointing to have another model of Hifiman , this time for $1K and to test bad.
For the test, as it goes for the bottom line, it has a very small variety of pseudo interval criteria:
Recommend, recommend with EQ and not recommend...

 

[Codfz1]

As you know, this headset is only sold for about $400 in China, so I highly recommend it！

 

[Rayman30]

Before my purchase, I ran a poll asking if I should get an LCD-2F or Ananda. Well, the Ananda won the polling. So.. should I sell these and try the LCD-2F then?

I am going to go broke trying to find a good set lol

 

[Merkurio]

Before my purchase, I ran a poll asking if I should get an LCD-2F or Ananda. Well, the Ananda won the polling. So.. should I sell these and try the LCD-2F then?

I am going to go broke trying to find a good set lol

As I stated in that post, the LCD2F would have been a more technical capable headphone if you're ok with EQ (just look at the LCD-X review, which has the same driver arrangement minus the impedance).

 

[faheem]

Before my purchase, I ran a poll asking if I should get an LCD-2F or Ananda. Well, the Ananda won the polling. So.. should I sell these and try the LCD-2F then?

I am going to go broke trying to find a good set lol

Why? Did you enjoy your set before the review? If yes, then the review doesn't make any difference to your enjoyment factor.

 

[Rayman30]

As I stated in that post, the LCD2F would have been a more technical capable headphone if you're ok with EQ (just look at the LCD-X review, which has the same driver arrangement minus the impedance).

I suppose I thought more technically capable didn't mean the Ananda was a dud in measurements, welp R.I.P. my wallet! of course I know there was no way to know ahead of time how the review would pan out, I suppose it makes me question my choice.

 

[Nango]

As I stated in that post, the LCD2F would have been a more technical capable headphone if you're ok with EQ (just look at the LCD-X review, which has the same driver arrangement minus the impedance).

What is this? Is this audible or do we hear those identically? Can I measure these capabilities? Or is it again just Head-Fi speach "for believers only"?

 

[LoyK]

I am pretty sure this has the same measurement error/fit problem that the Abyss Diana V2 measurements had:

• Too much bass shelf
  • Ananda has no bass shelf
• Sub bass drop off that is not there in reality
  • Ananda plays very low frequencies but because there is not bass shelf those are hard to hear
  • I tested some of the test tracks from Amir and my head hurts with sub bass that my Ananda produces here
  • If I add the TrueBass of iFi Zen Dac it really starts to output lots of clean bass
• Too high distortion measurements

Maybe the problem is that Ananda and Diana have no cup swivel?

 

[Robbo99999]

Here's my thoughts on how to do this:
1. The measurement fixtures would have to match from source to source.
Amir used GRAS 45CA-10 since the beginning.
Oratory1990, as far I know, also uses GRAS 45CA-10, so that's good.
But he used different fixtures in the past, so it wouldn't be an apples to apples comparison.
For the Hifiman Ananda, he used "GRAS 43AC/43AG" fixture. (source)

2. For best results, you'll need the raw frequency vs dbSPL for both sources.
Amir attaches his measurements with each review, so that's perfect.
Oratory1990 doesnt include his raw measurements. (example)
So you would have to find this data elsewhere...Jaakko includes this data in his CSV file. (source)
If you can't find the data, you would have to use the 'WebPlotDigitizer' to extract the frequency and dbSPL data, and save it to excel.

Then import both into REW and then simply show both on the same screenshot (or compare each individually and make it a gif).
Is this worth doing? You tell me.
Perhaps another member has tried this already?

I think it's more interesting comparing measurements of Oratory vs Amir rather than the EQ Curves, because it's the measurements that determine the basis of any EQ, and also reflects how the headphone would sound when at stock without EQ. Yes, you're right, that's how a person could compare the measurements (I've used VirtuixCAD in the past to extract text file data points from a graph - the SPL Trace option of VirtuixCAD).

 

[manishex]

Is distortion measured by an amp on high gain or low gain and does that even make a difference?

 

[Robbo99999]

As I stated in that post, the LCD2F would have been a more technical capable headphone if you're ok with EQ (just look at the LCD-X review, which has the same driver arrangement minus the impedance).

No way, LCD-X is a disaster! https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...-x-over-ear-open-back-headphone-review.16777/

It's got an unfixable by EQ massive and sharp dip in the treble, in fact the whole of the treble is just one rocky ride.

 

[holicst]

Don't worry, there is a 9$ headphone that is an "extremely accurate and audiophile headphone!": https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/9-headphone-review-sony-mdr-zx110.19484/

I bought it, tried all the EQ settings from ASR and it still sucks. No need for double blind testing...

I'm getting skeptical about headphone measurements. Ananda is considered one of the most tonally accurate headphone regardless of price.