Hello I was looking at Hifiman store and found a intriguing offer. I dont plan on buying them but was wondering. The ananda stealth magnets are made by Hifiman so their QC is already known. My question is how would they be in quality and longevity department. If anyone is wondering, they are on sale for 400 dollars from 1k.
I’m honestly lost with all these variations… stealth, non stealth, nano, xs, … can you put the, in order of “value” or performance?
It goes basically
- OG Ananda - square magnets, old thicker diaphragm
- Ananda Stealth - stealth magnets, still same diaphragm
- Ananda Nano - stealth magnets, new thinner diaphragm (same as used on the Arya up)
There were some minor revisions within these like moving the mesh from the pads to the cups, or small tweaks to the impedance/sensitivity that Hifiman say didn’t affect the sound. And these things probably didn’t as they are all very close in sound anyway.
Bringing the sub-bass up to be more linear (which was the case for both the Stealth and Nano) is unquestionably an improvement but some feel that the Stealth is excessively bright, and that the OG Ananda is better tuned in the treble.
Edition XS is a different headphone, but the newer Ananda has been closer to that in that it has more bass and is also brighter. It’s probably pretty similar to new Anandas but with a worse headband (and possibly, worse build quality).
https://sai.squig.link/?share=Ananda_V1,Ananda_Stealth,Edition_XS
This is how Hifiman operate, they make incremental improvements to their headphones, trickling down the tech from the higher-end ones, while also reducing the price. So, you can pay $309, $339, $349 or $399 today for a headphone (or even an improved version) that was considered by many to be “a bargain” at $999 five years ago. And it was, it was considered one of the benchmarks at $999 back then.
They were never $1k, the original Ananda was years ago but the Ananda Stealth launched at $699 in mid-2022 which was the then selling price of the OG Ananda (although the OG was available for ~$350-400 in Asia).
$399 is still a fantastic price for the Stealth revision, particularly if you are getting it direct from Hifiman with full warranty.