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!
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.