what headphones do you own thread - i own dt150's :)

As you say, the HD800S aren't so strong on bass but take a 4.5db sub-bass shelf very well and with the strong bass of the V222 the low end is greatly improved and thanks to the speed of the driver the bass sounds really punchy. Planars are known for their extended bass, the frequency response has no real drop off but they lack in impact or "slam" which is more associated with mid-bass, so my dynamic driver Denon D7200 will have stronger bass slam but won't go quite as low into the sub-bass region. Planars with the best bass tend to come from Audeze and Final plus the ridiculous Abyss which uses an air gap like a speaker uses a port, HiFiMAN headphones have a somewhat softer tuning due to their extremely thin driver membrane. There seems to be a reduction in air moving ability as the membrane thickness goes below a certain point and HiFiMAN are pushing that envelope - their earlier planars such as the original HE5 and HE6 had very strong bass but their membranes were thicker.
The main reason I don't have an Ananda, Arya or HE1000 is the extreme thinness of the mylar membrane, HiFiMAN suffer a lot more driver failures than the competition and I have to wonder if they have just made their drivers too fragile. Another aspect of this is the HE6se which has a well known issue with "stuck drivers", where the membrane actually touches the magnets and gets stuck - it shouldn't be possible unless the membrane is stretching, say under extreme bass excursion and this wouldn't happen with a thicker membrane.
 
Does that apply to the Ananda Nano too? The Nano uses the combination of updated tech from the others, so Nano membrane and the stealth magnets - I know they've only been out less than a year but as of yet not read of any Nano failures or technical issues. The only issue being the headband comfort depending on head size.

Speaking of which....

Headband modding complete! This is how it should have been from factory, but ah well, a bit of a dab hand is all that's needed to fix stuff like this :D

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Quick review:


Now on a mission to get some cool straps, retro inspired, movies etc just to add some flare :cool:
 
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There have been quite a few reports on Reddit of failed drivers for both the XS and the Ananda, not so much for the Nano though, hopefully they have addressed the issue.
Looks like you've dodged a bullet with the strap mod too, the pleather strap that comes as standard would have started breaking down after two or three years, I only have to look sideways at my HE400i and there is black dandruff everywhere. The pads on my HE400i only lasted a year before they literally fell apart and the Nano pads look to be the same construction, easily solved with after market pads though - I swapped mine to a pair of Dekoni sheepskin pads and they have been fine ever since, plus they sound better as there is stronger bass.
I'm actually plotting my next headphone raid between the HiFiMAN Arya Organic and Audeze LCDX, although there is a very tempting offer on at the moment for the Arya Stealth for £599, very tempting indeed :D
 
Ananda Nano now in its final form. Velour memory foam earpads arrived today and have to say the quality for £20 is superb. The stock pads are the same as what the Arya etc come with and these £20 ones have a higher quality feel on the faux leather sides plus the velour is nice feeling too. The plastic frame is the same as stock and unlike the stock pads, these come with a fabric layer that sits in the middle which is the same thickness as the layer that is on the Sundara earpads, so you end up with 2 layers between the driver and your ears since there is a built in layer on the driver itself on each earcup.

I removed this layer on the new earpads so they are now identical as the stock pads just with memory foam and the velour contact surface which is what I wanted.

Even the perforated inner faux leather is higher quality feeling.

Overall size and thickness is the same as stock so no differences there.

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Stock vs Velour:
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All in all these have needed about £70 in mods to get them exactly how I want them.
 
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This is gonna sound weird but with these pads the sound is even closer to the mids/highs of the HD650 - The brightness has been given a bit of control now too. Fleetwood Mac's Dream (2004 remaster) playing back to back swapping the pads back to the stock pads reveals how much brightness is levelled out, the HD650 isn't a bright headphone but does have detail still, the Nano still remains brighter but the brightness peaks no longer pierce at high volume on songs like this. The soundstage and imagine and bass remain stock Ananda Nano which is perfect.

Amazing what a simple set of pads can do to the sound although I should have known this anyway having been through various Dekoni pads on the HD650 before going back to the stock Sennheiser pads as they are the best on that headphone.

Love these headphones :D

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mrk said:
This is gonna sound weird but with these pads the sound is even closer to the mids/highs of the HD650 - The brightness has been given a bit of control now too. Fleetwood Mac's Dream (2004 remaster) playing back to back swapping the pads back to the stock pads reveals how much brightness is levelled out, the HD650 isn't a bright headphone but does have detail still, the Nano still remains brighter but the brightness peaks no longer pierce at high volume on songs like this. The soundstage and imagine and bass remain stock Ananda Nano which is perfect.

Amazing what a simple set of pads can do to the sound although I should have known this anyway having been through various Dekoni pads on the HD650 before going back to the stock Sennheiser pads as they are the best on that headphone.

Love these headphones :D

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Click to expand...
pads are a huge factor in tuning all headphones, it's why the answer with Grados is always use the stock pads, anything else messes up the sound.
 
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mrk said:
This is gonna sound weird but with these pads the sound is even closer to the mids/highs of the HD650 - The brightness has been given a bit of control now too. Fleetwood Mac's Dream (2004 remaster) playing back to back swapping the pads back to the stock pads reveals how much brightness is levelled out, the HD650 isn't a bright headphone but does have detail still, the Nano still remains brighter but the brightness peaks no longer pierce at high volume on songs like this. The soundstage and imagine and bass remain stock Ananda Nano which is perfect.

Amazing what a simple set of pads can do to the sound although I should have known this anyway having been through various Dekoni pads on the HD650 before going back to the stock Sennheiser pads as they are the best on that headphone.

Love these headphones :D

Wr7SeSm.jpeg
Click to expand...
Doesn't sound weird, pads will always change the sound especially if they're not specifically tuned for the headphone. ZMF have some nice real leather pads for it, and there's also mesh but no suede or velour unfortunately.

shop.zmfheadphones.com

ZMF Hifiman+ Subs

My first "flagship" headphone was a Hifiman HE-500, and I still have it to this day! Hifiman headphone have a special place in our hearts, so we're extremely excited to make them "ours" by adding ZMF pads with our specialized foam type and layering to get the most out of our favorite models...
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I did look at ZMF pads recently but they don't have anything with good options I noticed. The mesh top face version is the same micrifibre mesh that's on the stock pads, and having just checked, seems other brands use the same mesh too as the Edifier STAX S3 have the exact same material too.

Leather faced pads are a no no for me, don't like the feel of leather against my head and in the summer it can get icky. Plus it's dead skin so will fatigue over time and harder to keep clean whereas velour can just wipe or wash. Memory foam too will just bounce back so the need to replace the pads is less of an issue long term :cool:

Can't go wrong at under £20 for these Voarmaks pads though.
 
Found a great youtube video compilation of some great for headphones tracks, not the usual stuff you hear too.


E* correct vid this time :D
 
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My HoloAudio Cyan II NOS R2R DAC arrived today and initial thoughts are WOW! :eek:
It's already blown me away, better soundstage, imaging, timbre, instruments have a weight that just wasn't apparent with the 9038 pro powered SMSL SU9 DAC (which was already very good) it replaced. All my listening so far has been at default frequencies, I haven't even touched up-sampling yet so things are only going to get even better. The synergy between the Cyan II, the V222 and the HD800S is insane and I expect the Grado RS-1x to be just as well matched.

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Excuse the fingerprints on the V222, the thing's a fingerprint magnet and I'd just been moving it around to fit on top of the DAC.
I measured and the space to the side of the V222 is exactly the right width for a Schiit Vali 3 - hmmmm :D
 
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The dust though man, the dust?!

I cannot express just how enjoyable and articulate the Ananda Nano is now with these memory foam velour Voarmaks pads. The headband mod also aids long session comfort to no end which is a nice bonus. The fact that they are under £18 makes you wonder wtf headphone makers are doing by not masimising the potential of their higher end headphones by putting quality pads on them for the best sound and comfort of each headphone rather than parts binning pads from other models across the range.

Zeos was right when he joked about "The Toping sound" being a thing people go on about a lot, like the "NAD sound" that I've been on about for the past <2 decades. Seems Sennheiser and HiFiMAN headphones suit this sound signature perfectly, well the latter now with the correct earpads that is. The Sundara didn't have the same effect due to being overly bright by comparison, though the same pads don't exist for the Sundara... I also tried Peace EQing both and didn't like the results much at all on either the Fiio K7 or MX3s amps, yet the pads alone tune up the Nano exactly how I would have wanted them now so that is that sorted.

Am running the headphones out on high gain now too which is perfect.

Edit*
I also found an option in Spotify settings for song volume normalisation which is actually really good as not all masters are produced with the same volume and some songs in fact peak and clip. Just like YouTube's recent feature called Stable Volume, it does compression/normalisation rather excellently. Nice to have all songs at the same consistent volume level with zero negative impact to anything else.
 
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mrk said:
Edit*
I also found an option in Spotify settings for song volume normalisation which is actually really good as not all masters are produced with the same volume and some songs in fact peak and clip. Just like YouTube's recent feature called Stable Volume, it does compression/normalisation rather excellently. Nice to have all songs at the same consistent volume level with zero negative impact to anything else.
Click to expand...

Personally found it better off overall - though I see they've updated it with new settings since I last tried it.
 
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