Two weeks ago I replaced my old Sundaras with the Ananda Stealth. They felt more comfortable and the imaging, soundstage and bass are improved noticeably, so I decided to keep them. Yesterday I listened for the first time to a IEM (EW200), which I bought for 25$ in the 11.11.
To be honest, there is not much difference in terms of detail, imaging and bass quality. Of course, the Ananda a feel fuller, airier and with more natural timber that is very noticeable when watching movies or listening to vocals, but the rest feel kinda comparable. Now I feel like I wasted 400$ with the Ananda. Did this happen to any of you when discovering IEM?
Also, now I wonder if I buy something like the Simgot EA1000 in the 200$ range if I will be blown out or if the improvement would be comparable to jumping from the Sundara to the Ananda.
I would also like to hear from you how you feel comparing IEM with open back headphones. Cheers!
You must log in or register to comment.
EW200 have some impressive sound at 170Hz ish range, which makes drum snare sounds so fun to listen to.
There is improvement going from EW200 to EA1000, though I didn’t spend enough time listening to it last week. It does sounds more fun at least.I’m in the same spot too, unable to find any justification to wear open back headphone. Largely because of my i4, which have cheating form factor.
But will have sundara coming tomorrow since got nice deal in amazon for $170, I could provide more feedback later.Thanks for the reply. I love the Sundara, and for that price it’s a bargain. Even if the Ananda are superior I would not recommend them considering the money difference with the Sundara. It’s like improving a 10% for twice the money. My only complaint about Sundara is the quality of the cups. After 2 years they were destroyed. I suppose it is the same with the Anandas.
Hmm after comparing both of them, I kinda get what you mean now.
The bass texture in EW200 is pretty damn similar to sundara.
Especially after EQ-ing the simgot.Well not because sundara is bad, but damn EW200 is impressive for the price.
Though to be fair I had to EQ all of them since I have personal issues with most FR.
This is how i EQ’d my EW200Preamp: -6 dB
Filter 1: ON PK Fc 800 Hz Gain 1.9 dB Q 2.000
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 1350 Hz Gain -1.3 dB Q 2.000
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 1800 Hz Gain 2.5 dB Q 5.000
Filter 4: ON HS Fc 2600 Hz Gain -4.0 dB Q 1.000
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 2500 Hz Gain -3.0 dB Q 2.000
Filter 6: ON PK Fc 10000 Hz Gain 4.0 dB Q 3.000
Filter 7: ON PK Fc 8000 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 4.000
Filter 8: ON PK Fc 14000 Hz Gain 3.0 dB Q 6.000
Filter 9: ON PK Fc 13000 Hz Gain -2.0 dB Q 6.000Gonna give it more time though, this is just short impression.
But then I already know that there’s no place for sundara considering I have i4, just at $170 I can always just resell it later at same / higher price. So It’s risk free.Thanks for the EQ settings, I’ll take a look. Probably I am also going to get the EA1000. I will be sharing my impressions.
Sundaras for 170$ is a steal. I compared them to other cans like HD660S and AKG k712 pro and for me they sounded the best.
Try playing with how the Anandas are positioned and angled on your head. The cups are big with the pads being angled, so it might take some experimentation to find a good spot. Egg-shaped Hifiman planars seem to be quite sensitive to that, and even the $2,000 ones frankly sound on the level of $100 bleh-fi (comparing the HE1000 V2 with the SRH840, to be specific) if you don’t get it right.
maybe say what you use to power ananda because planar magnetic headphones need juice
Of course, the Ananda a feel fuller, airier and with more natural timber
There is no of course. It may sound fuller and airier, more natural to you or it may not.
There is nothing that says it has to and there is nothing that says a headphone of any price has to have anything more than an IEM of any price.
Personally I think the best $20 IEM I have ever heard sounds much better than the best headphones I’ve ever heard including several over $1000. It’s not even close and it’s not about the money.
I have the Sundaras and they’re trash compared to a decently EQ’d IEM especially when it comes to treble extension.
No way !! Though Iems come close at much lower price point
Yeah there’s a lot of great IEMs that measure well out of the box that are like 20 bucks or below.
You may need to see an ENT.
But seriously, what’s your DAC/amp? Are you running them from a computer or something?
Fiio K11 :/
Yeah, I’d get something more powerful than that. A lot of Redditors think all amplification reproduces music the same. Those folks are very wrong.
Take your Ananda to a good audio store if you can, plug it into one of their DAC/Amp stacks and see how your headphones are really supposed to sound, then decide how much you want to spend to hear something like that again.
I know sound is subjective, but you are objectively extremely wrong about headphones vs IEMs. Maybe you just like closed headphones and didn’t realise it, get some closed-backs and try those.
Could you be more precise? What am I wrong exactly? I am just giving my subjective impressions, as everybody does.
You just like IEMs more than headphones, it seems. Might be an unpopular opinion over here but it is what it is. If you think the Anandas were a waste of money then by all means return them or resell them.
I think I will keep them as I got them for 380€ and I have a 3 year guarantee. Now I think it is the time to explore more IEMs and test if the incremental price improves substantially the sound compared with headphones. For me for example the difference between the Sundara and the Ananda is noticeable, but maybe it is a 15% improvement for twice the price. I suppose this is common as the price increases at high-end products…