Performance

HiFiMAN definitely got ambitious with their first high-end planar magnetic Bluetooth headphone. The ANANDA-BT sports one of the higher-end chipsets around and allows you to run a variety of Hi-fi codecs, such as Apt-X, Apt-X HD, and LDAC HWA. This is great because it enables you to make the most of the chipset's performance on whichever platform you are playing from. Besides the Bluetooth connectivity, you also have a USB-C port, which allows you to use it as a normal wired headset. It runs driverless, so you just plug it in and are good to go.

On the headphone side, the ANANDA-BT looks like a child of the Edition X V2 and the Sundara. It has the headband of the Sundara with some very Edition X looking ear cups. One thing they did improve going from the Sundara headband is that the ear cups now have a swivel, which should help with comfort for those who might feel the Sundara was digging in at odd places. Even though the ANANDA-BT is packing a battery, you do not feel a substantial difference in comfort coming from the Edition X V2, which is due to the comfortable headband and well-padded ear pads.

The ANANDA-BT is still a totally open design, which means everyone can listen in on what you are listening to. In that respect, the ANANDA-BT is not really intended for use on the go as there is no noise attenuation. As an around the house Bluetooth headphone, they do make sense—the fact that you can still hear what is going on around you is not always a bad thing. Being able to leave your source in one place while doing some work without having a cable dangling around you is a great convenience. Generally, I find myself using headphones even more when they are wireless as I can wear them without having to worry about either catching stuff with the cable or the cable getting damaged.

Tuning-wise, the ANANDA-BT is very close to the Edition X V2, which again is pretty close to the HE-1000 V2. The treble is well behaved, like on the Edition X V2 and the HE-1000 V2. Compared to the HE-1000, it is more rolled off and comes very close to the Edition X V2 at first listen. There are minor differences in the 9–12 kHz range, but the differences are so small they are undetectable under normal listening conditions. Overall, the tuning is super pleasant; no noteworthy oddities, no funky tuning decisions, and great extension in both ends.

Diving into the sub-bass region, you find that the ANANDA-BT is very close to its cabled cousin, the Edition X V2. Although slightly rolled off, the bass is kept under total control all the way down to 20 Hz. Compared to the Edition X V2, the only shortcoming is a slightly less clean sound on large transients in the bass region, but it is a minor thing. The effect is noticeable when comparing directly to a pair of Edition X V2 run off our reference O2+ODAC. The comparison is somewhat unfair, however, as the combination is more expensive and cabled, but it is the best benchmark right now because in terms of performance very few wireless headphones make sense as a comparison to the ANANDA-BT. The quality of the bass is ahead of all the non-planar headphones I have around, and these manage to pull it off wirelessly.

Moving up into the midrange, we find that all of the virtues from previous HiFiMAN headphones featuring planar drivers are intact. The lower midrange is free from discoloration, and the upper midrange smoothly blends into the treble. Unlike the Sundara, the lower treble of the upper midrange is free from the boost at around 5 kHz, which makes them less fatiguing to listen to for extended periods of time. On the treble side of things, you get a close to flat response all the way up to and beyond what is audible. In terms of imaging, they come close to the Edition X V2. One thing that might have a slight effect on the imaging is the slightly higher noise floor. It is almost unnoticeable in the ANANDA-BT, but in certain passages, you can just make it out. Noise level is still subjectively lower than on many headphone amplifiers, which is something to consider.

It is clear that HiFiMAN markets the ANANDA-BT as a headphone, but it can also double up as a headset. We tested the microphone and it does a pretty decent job. The location of the microphone is not perfect as it sits pretty low and pretty far back, but the output is surprisingly clean, and the "dead-cat" foam does its job. At very high volumes, there is a little bleed into the microphone, but it is far from audible when using the ANANDA-BT under normal circumstances.