I guess the build dosent feel as premium but only in comparison to a really premium products like a focal clear or lcd2. Lol. But I Def think it feels fancy af. Just lighter.
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Gotta say I like my Sundara just fine. Have I heard better? Sure, but for the price
(now down to $299 âŚI paid the $350) it still serves me well. I especially like the
more forward vocals it provides. The dt880/600 does other things well and Iâm taking a breather now that I have the BF2 added in. (But that, of course whispers at me, âget me a better headphone.â) LOL
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I think itâs more of a specialist headphone than gets discussed. I find it fairly âanalyticâ in spirit with a very forward mid presentation. For its class, I think it has good instrument separation, overall resolution, tuning, even timbre. Itâs extremely open-sounding, but I feel that people dramatically oversell its soundstage and imaging - both of which I think are average at best and are bettered by most of its other, cheaper âfamily membersâ much less other options. I think they are pretty âimpressiveâ first impression cans - but they can be a bit overbearing at times. Clampy too - my other demerit with them is on the comfort perspective. Thereâs no lateral swivel to those cups and the clamp is high - stretch them over blocks.
I think they are one of the better overall headphones in their price category, but theyâre not without fault and some of the ways I hear them get talked about drives me crazy. I could see them as being a touch sparkly for some folks - I think their treble resolution in that price category is pretty damn good.
In regurgitating communities, you hear about build issues constantly - I think Sundara is pretty tanky. Theyâre the one unique build in the HFM catalog, and they look and feel very solid. I bought B-Stock direct and never had trouble.
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Never been happier than purposely destroying these pads. These guys started breaking apart even though my 4XXâs are my least used pair of headphones I own and I bought them new. Swapped them out with brainwavz microsuede pads cause brainwavz accidentally sent me 2. 1 went in my Nighthawks the other on these 4xxâs and damn did they improve comfort and subbass. Should have been using these pads forever ago. I never fully like my 4xxâs for daily use cause the itchy ass pads were the main reason. I forget how much pads can do for a headphone
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@rice I still have a pair that havenât been used much since I got the Sundara and others. Will look into the Brainwavz, thanks. Any other sonic
changes, improvements you noticed? Mids clarity?
timbre performance sounded about the same to me.mids maybe got a little worse. I think the original pads I think had better more natural texture with drums and guitar. The treble didnât change too much the soundstage got flatter less speaker like . Likely due to losing the angle from the original pads. In terms of clarity. Itâs about the same but I also want to say maybe a little bit more revealing
Iâm very out of practice these days though when discerning differences having to basically kill the original pads to use the rings kinda takes away my ability to do a proper comparison sorry. But I will say the definite big difference is bass performance definitely bringing out that subbass and even a little mid bass more to get more slam and impact when needed. Certainly gave me a reason to use these more. Microsuede pads are just nice to have and are also on sale from the brainwave site so worth a try.
Thanks for that input. Iâm more of a mids/timbre guy so maybe not for me.
All I saw in the microsuede is oval. Will have to look again tho.
It is it fits over the headphone a little awkwardly had to work and stretch the pads a bit to get them to work. Only way I ever really fixed the timbre on these are hooking it up to my liquid platinum not gonna lie
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Arya Stealth and Ananda Nano. After owning them both for a long while, Iâve accrued many thoughts and comparisons of them in various places; Iâd like to wrap up my thoughts here and give an informative piece on their traits. These two are difficult to compare partially because discerning which is actually better is honestly kind of hard, as both have their respective strengths, trade on certain aspects of sound and ultimately are more different than expected. I also wanted to compare them since, I hope this qualifies me to write about the Arya here, both are getting pretty cheap. $300-ish for the Ananda Nano and $600-ish for the Arya Stealth. Thatâs a heck of a lot of sound quality for the price, and might even be unbeatable at the moment as all-around sound in headphone form for value.
The Nano did some newer things in regard to previous egg-shaped Hifimans in the range, like being stronger and snappier on the attack, upped intensity in general, more coherency with a better center image, added stage depth and a lot of speed. It could be more textured in the midrange and treble, and itâs lacking micro articulation, but the quickness and stability it has during big bass hits and busy tracks is absolutely stellar. Additionally, it doesnât take much to drive well. You can put it on a cheap dongle and it will still sound punchy, clear and controlled. Thereâs an interesting characteristic here where it tends to gloss over amplification, causing more uniformity between systems. Iâve found that can give you insight into how certain units sound, like the DAC in an AIO without the amp getting much in the way. Really, itâs great for those who want vibrancy and definition on the macro side, especially for low-fi and/or portable gear.
The Arya is more of an all-rounder. The overall FR is well-balanced, spatially good with a large stage and just enough bass ability to satisfy on a good chain. It is too generalist, though. It could be more tactile and defined in the bass. It doesnât stage especially deep. It doesnât drive easily. You need a decent amp to tease grip/control out of this headphone. Dongles rarely cut it, and even the most powerful dongles like the Cayin RU7 and Fiio KA17, capable as they are for the range, are not pushing transients and excursion that much. However, on a good system the holography and layering are quite special, and the Arya especially is a good taste of the high-end.
The Nano almost sounds reminiscent of IEMs: colder with less liquidity and decay with more of an upper mid/lower treble shelf and itâs balanced more towards sub rather than mid-bass. Itâs generically bright but well-controlled, holding itself before reaching the point of sibilance. That factor can depend with the Arya, which is more sensitive to the chain. Iâve never really had an unpleasant, brittle chain, but if pushed in that direction it can get hollow and dry in the upper mids/lower treble. To mitigate this, amps matter, but so do DACs to a large extent and if they donât have a full or at least somewhat balanced tonality, it feels like somethingâs missing. If they do, though, you can get good benefits from pairing and the Arya scales surprisingly high. The Nano doesnât reward you as much. it sounds more uniform on different chains and its general capabilities are much more what-you-see-is-what-you-get, which does hold it back especially spatially and in timbre. The Arya has more malleability in tonality, sounding warmer and sweeter in general, but itâs easier to push even farther in that direction through matching. Although⌠the bass is really exceptional on the Nano. The definition, speed, weighting⌠all shocked me in early listens. Itâs what I was missing on the Arya from the beginning with mid-fi chains, whose bass I felt was boomier, slower and not very precise. Again, that cleans up largely with better gear, but the Nano has good bass clarity by default and very good sub-bass to go with it, to the extent that perhaps THE highlight of this headphone is great sub-bass reach and timbre. South of 1K and without EQ, perhaps the closest thing to a sub in headphone form available. Another distinction between them: their representation of timing can be very different. In decay, The Arya fades out decays for longer, but more quietly and with less clarity. The Nano does a decay with more intensity and vibrancy, but the decay entirely disappear more quickly. That alone describes a large part of the distinction in sonic character between these two, I feel, where the Arya is the less tensioned driver with less magnetic force exerted on it, and the Nano more tensioned with more force, freeing the Arya for more subtle gradations in sound in general but causing it to sound looser while the Nano is granted more tightness, punch and slam but at the expense of steamrolling over the smaller variations in sound. So, ultimately, which is more resolving? Still a hard question, though Iâd probably give it to the Arya for representing low-level info better, slightly sharper imaging/separation and with a wider and taller stage which is a little more holographic. But the Nano is well ahead in macro and timing, and does well with high intensity and speed.
The HE6se V2 is also worth discussing here, but also less recommendable. Uneven in regions like the upper mids and not only hard to drive, but very hard to accomodate with source gear in general. I have to start thinking carefully about how the signal feeding it is shaped, because otherwise itâll sound limp, disconnected, 2D, hollow, etc⌠When it eventually gets cornered by very good source gear, it scales bigly. Resolution is well beyond the rest here, especially micro. The previous two were more or less showing shades of whatâs possible up there, but the HE6 is pretty much there: Timings of transients and the attack of notes, acoustic echoes, bass texturing and cleanliness, minute timbral differences and even representing scale, despite having less stage most egg-shapes, are all aspects where it leaps ahead of the previous two. At one point, I listened to the Arya casually and found it having somewhat brittle, grating treble for with a forward, sibilant recording. Granted, you canât always blame the headphone for that. But after switching over to the HE6se V2, it was free of sibilance or harshness for that recording and actually revealed significantly more detail and refinement. It was a bit of a penny-drop moment and for me, showed the sheer resolution gap between the two. Another aspect is depth. The Arya is ok with depth to my mind, but the HE6se V2 presents considerably deeper with much more palpability to elements layered in front, especially for vocals, which can hover impressively with amazing holography. The Nano is doing that a little too, with a good center image and depth, but it doesnât delineate between layers image near as sharply as the HE6se V2. Iâm reaching the limit of my chain with this headphone, being the Cayin iHA-8 with the Gustard DR70/SMSL RAWPro DAC1 right now, but I imagine that on the right chain the staging would be a perfect sphere or even deeper than wide.
One more. Edition XS. I never had an XS to actually try on my chain partially because I didnât feel like I was missing out on much, but at the current pricing of about $200 (I actually got it for like $170 besides shipping/duties on Aliexpress), I had to see what was up. And I was surprised. Itâs at a low-ish technical level, but very complete overall sonically in: extension, staging, cohesive-ness, punch/slam and texturing, while having a slightly warm and laid-back tonality once driven well. I used it happy for months straight without issue despite having an HE1000se and others mentioned here. Where itâs been left behind is sheer resolving power, micro and the slowness of the driver, especially compared to newer Hifiman offerings going for under 1K. The Nano to this is like going to a budget dynamic. Transients and the leading edge are pretty dull on this headphone, although on the flip side, itâs more malleable and will follow your system pretty well, especially if you want something more relaxed. The XS and then the HE6 are the most relaxed of the bunch here and can follow suit with chains going in that direction.
Wow, that piece was stuck as a draft for a while. In fact, long enough that I felt like adding two more headphones. I thought it was worth it to give the low-down on some of these sets for those havenât tried these Hifimans much or newcomers who might like a bit of comparison-ing. These four cover quite a bit of variation in sound and I think most anyone could give them a try depending on their preferences and system. As for me, Iâve decided to move on to the Arya Organic in hopes of something that combines more of what all of these headphones do well in one.
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Great read, very much enjoyed that!