Hifiman Ananda Nano Headphone Review

[PenguinMusic]

Hi,

Despite the review that says that this headphone measures poorly as distorsion go I decided to give it a try.
329€ "refurbished" from Hifiman directly. With a 10% discount a top of that and 30 days money back warranty.
After all what was at risk ? To pay to return them ? OK, if so, I've lost 30€. So be it.

First of all I'd like to make a comment.
Amirm writes :
The suspension headband is not adjustable but was comfortable enough for me. But again, causes some difficulty in measuring as it would not let the cups go lower.
I do not know what exactly he means by that, but I would like to emphasize that the headphone is adjustable and you can get the earcuffs to fit your ears whatever how far they're from the top of your skull

That being said, and after the review I expected a really horrible headphone.
With a lot of cracking everywhere... because of distorsion.

I've tried to push the volume to a level that goes FAR beyond what I am listening to (and I think I lsten to music half loud). I have heard nothing "suspicious"...
So I assume you have to have a trained ear to hear that distorsion.

What did I hear instead ?
A headphone that sounds pretty damn good to me right out the box !
I'll have to listen to it for some more time but the first impressions are above expectation...
Which seems to confirm the measured FR results from Amirm and the ones found on Oratory and several other websites.

Maybe someone should tell me what I have to try to listen to to hear that distorsion that raises so many mockery on this headphone...
Please tell me so I can confirm it isz audible to my 55 years old ears :-(
On some recordings where with other headphones I heard a "Brrrzzz" as if soud was "saturated". Is this "distorsion" ?

Regards.

 

[Blorg]

@PenguinMusic it's questionable whether this distortion is really audible to humans at all. Even Amir wasn't able to hear it:

Is the distortion audible? I don't have the reliably way to determine that subjectively.

Klippel has a listening test where you can try to figure out at what point you can hear distortion applied across the whole frequency range. It's different with this as it's concentrated in high frequencies. Note you do of course have to do this test on something with lower distortion than you are testing.

Listening Test

www.klippel.de

All the scientific research we have indicates that frequency response is much more important to sound quality than marginal issues with distortion. I suspect that may also have been other issues with the measured distortion Amir got on this headphone as other measurements don't get the distortion he gets on Hifiman egg headphones. Or maybe it's just the volume involved. Is distortion at a level you are never going to listen at relevant? Arguably not. I get the logic with looking at it in regions you might boost with EQ but you won't be boosting upper mids on this or any other Hifiman egg headphone, so presumably the 94dB (already over a safe listening level) is the relevant line, and while it's still not great there it's a lot better.

Everyone else who measures these, they don't get this distortion finding. It's only Amir. This is the OG Ananda, but Amir found huge distortion "problems" with that one as well.

As usual with planar-magnetic headphones, the measured total harmonic distortion (THD) of the Anandas is almost non-existent even at very loud levels. Note that I’ve increased the resolution of this chart by reducing the range from 50% THD to 20%, which makes the Anandas’ distortion look higher relative to previous charts I’ve published.

https://www.soundstagenetwork.com/i...ifiman-ananda-headphones&catid=263&Itemid=203

HiFiMan Ananda Review

The HiFiMan Ananda are great critical listening headphones and a good redesign of the HiFiMan Edition X. They sound practically the same as the Edition X but wit...

www.rtings.com

The distortion levels are very low. Below 0.5% in the lows is really excellent.
The 2nd harmonic distortion is most likely lower than the 0.2% shown in the plots. This is due to the limits of the measurement rig which are being reached.

Ananda

back to HIFIMAN back to measurements home published: June-21-2018, updated: Jun-5-2019 NO SMOOTHING is applied to the shown plots. Most measurement sites have some smoothing applied which ‘irons fl…

diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com

I only had the Nano on loan but for sure for the two weeks or so I had it, I did not notice any distortion. What I did notice was how bang on the frequency response was, for me they were literally the most accurate and natural sounding headphones I have ever heard in terms of frequency response. That's also backed up by measurements, such as from Oratory1990, who measured it at Harman score of 94 before EQ. I think that's about the third-best Harman score, out of hundreds of open-back headphones measured. So... not surprising you'd listen to it and think it sounds great, all the research and objective measurements back this up.

Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[AryaStealth]

There are many people who pay thousands of dollars for tube amplifiers to use them with state of the art high resolution/speed planar headphones because tubes distort certain frequencies in a very pleasing way for some people (and probably reduce some treble peaks), so not all measured distortion is always bad, human ear should be the judge.
Ananda Nano still can sound very sibilant due to a 5db peak around 6-8khz and 5-10db peaks after 10khz. The classic 2khz Hifiman dip is also there which creates a coloration/"hi-fi" sound that can make a sale but probably won't be much appreciated long term.

 

[Volumelumene]

Hi all, my first post here. Hopefully I did not miss anything critical while I read through all the posts.

Just wanted to report my findings. I have Ananda Nanos connected to Mojo 2 connected to to PC. PC is Ubuntu 24 LTS, with Easy Effects.

These headphones will definitely have distortion, if the source/preamp volume is too high/hot. I have found it's better to let the amp to do the work. And this case I mean Mojo 2.

I tried to collect some info how I have found these to sound the best to my liking. Hopefully it helps some others as well.

• EQ settings: Oratory1990
• Use Nano and Mojo 2 with TOSLINK (optical interface). There's a white noise bug with Mojo 2, and someone suggested using USB-optical plug with optical cable to Mojo 2. I have absolutely no scientific evidence, but I swear it sounds better than the USB-C connection.
• Ubuntu 24 LTS sound settings. Settings -> Sound-Output Device: Easy Effects Sink
  • Easy Effects -> PipeWire-General -> Use Default Output: Off, USB SPDIF Adapter Analog Stereo.

To summarize: Connect PC to Mojo 2 with optical, Oratory parametric EQ settings on PC, set Output from PC quiet enough that headphone amp does the grunt work.

Hopefully this helps, and please correct me if you find something wrong, or ask. Best listening experiences to all.

 

[staticV3]

Hopefully this helps, and please correct me if you find something wrong

If you find that setting the PC volume too high causes distortion, then you either:

Did not apply an appropriate software preamp for your correction EQ, thereby causing digital clipping, or:

Fell for cognitive bias.

In a sound playback chain, there is no rhyme or reason for why someone should turn down the PC and turn up the Amp to compensate.

There, all this would accomplish is increase the noise floor (hiss).

 

[Volumelumene]

Thanks for the reply! I have absolutely zero scientific proof for this, just something I noticed. As for preamp, first line is `Preamp: -4.7 dB`. Easy Effects (PipeWire) has also Output volume, which I moved down -3 db. Also in my setup, I have found that using Mojo 2 optical input sounds better with my Nanos, a little warmer. I'm not saying everyone should change their setup, just wanted to write about my findings and make my first post to forum. And of course I appreciate any advice.

 

[pier25]

So I got the Ananda Nano. Very impressed with the sound via a Motu M4 -> Topping L50.

My only complaint is the clamp is pretty strong and the pressure around the ear becomes annoying after a while.

Is anyone using some alternative pads that improve comfort and don't alter the sound too much?