HiFiMAN managed the transition to Bluetooth with grace for their ANANDA-BT design. The Bluetooth version sounds great, has great battery life, and is super comfortable to use even for extended periods of time. The lack of a cable hassle more than makes up for the slight increase in weight. These headphones are the most comfortable bar the TWS 600 in the HiFiMAN line-up and incredibly convenient. Usually, the lack of a cable means that the sound quality is compromised in a variety of ways, but HiFiMAN manages to move the ANANDA-BT so close to their cabled cousins that we feel that cables might be on the way out for good even on high-end headphones. Under normal circumstances, I would not immediately pick up the deficits from going wireless, and not having the dangling cable is just amazing.

As a portable headphone, they make most sense in a home or hotel scenario. The lack of passive and active noise attenuation makes them ill-suited for real on-the-go usage, for which there are many better alternatives. Ditching the cable even for high-end headphones seems totally feasible now, as HiFiMAN has proven with the ANANDA-BT.

Going back to a cabled solution after experiencing the ANANDA-BT is tough. Usually, I would go for the optimum in sound quality, but the deficit in comfort and usability here far outweighs the minor difference in sound quality.