Good review my man! Have been listening to my Arya's for a week or two and my impressions are very similar to yours. The build quality of Arya's for $1600 is depressing. But if you can resist the urge to man handle and abuse your cans, I think they are just enough to last. Plus I prefer the treble in the Arya's compared to the Anandas. The focal elex...... Great value. Mid-evil head torture device? Yes. Sound is great for the price but the soundstage is way worse IMO for gaming. Only thing to come close to HD800s is the Arya followed by the dt1990s. I really think that upper end audiophile headphones for gaming is underrepresented on RU-vid. Perhaps a good idea for a video ;)
I have ananda and had arya. While arya is great, after burn in of 300hrs, the stage and imaging is great, that holographic sound that arya produce is great, but once the honeymoon stage is over, i just go back to my ananda. Theres some graininess in the treble region on arya that i just cant accept. While the bass is better in arya, ananda is not too far off, so i decided to sold my arya because ananda can do what arya can with arya improving the stage and bass for like 5%. I really want to love my arya, but anandas trebele is just perfect for me, the mids are forward and easy to listen, the details will be infront of you on anandas, you can appreciate the imaging more becuase its closer, and is fairly easy to drive the anandas, while on arya you can get the same details is just like a feet wider and you need to amp it to really hear those details, but when you do, theyre really good. All in all, perfect treble and mids and easy to no amp needed on ananda is what won it for me, i mostly listen to classical, jazz and rock. I use sony wm1a, fiio m15, topping d90 and a90. Theyre all good for both. :)
How long did you let your Ananda to burn in? I just got them and they sound different than the cans I tested at a hifi shop (driven off of a 2000$ amp). I'm currently running them off of a Sound Blaster G6 and the vocals just sound thin and the treble is picky sometimes. What amp/dac would you recommend for them that is a tad bit warmer and would bring the vocals forward a bit?
Could somebody compare the lcdx vs clear. I have the ananda and just got the lcdx for bass and Im trying to like it but when I eq the ananda has the same bass. The lcd x has so many good reviews.... I can send them back and get the clears, what holds me back is that People say the clear dont have a wide soundstage at all.
Yeah I would agree to that. Not that the Clear sounds narrow, but they're not "wide" like the LCD line. I really want to get my hands on an LCD-X though.
@@chuckolatte600 hmm thats my dilema, I dont know if to change them for the clears. The lcd x didnt wow me compared to the ananda and its a lot of money.
Or so people claim. My failure with them was from the cable. Once I replaced that everything was perfect. The Elex's biggest problem is the cable has a MASSIVE tendency to break at the splitting point which is what causes one side of the headphones to stop working. I stuck a Blue Dragon on the Elex and have never looked back. I still want to try some Planars out sometime soon though.
@@chuckolatte600 Just out of curiosity with EQ can you pull out a similar bass response from the Anadas to sound similar the Aryas bass? I enjoy listening to EDM music
@@danielwu7238 that's tough. what makes the Aryas so interesting and unique is that they're able to reproduce that response naturally. So you can emulate it but it won't be the same
_this is much money for this build?!_ Yea that's kinda why i went with ananda vs arya. I dont think youre getting double the sound and build quality at double the price. Gonna have to go focal for my 4 digit purchase in the future. Speak with your money guys, stuff gets better when you do that. When you keep buying crap (like apple iphones) they tend to get worse with less features while the price just climbs.
@@chuckolatte600 check this out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-k9saINwFrlY.html I suggest you test soundstage and imaging on games (preferably AAA title games)...
Good reviews, i tend to agree with your assessment and opinions on headphones, more so than many other reviewers. I think if you reviewed at a desk it would look better.
@@chuckolatte600 fair enough. Ive seen your reviews on the sundara, elex, 600s etc. I own the hd600s and elex, do you think the sundaras sound different enough to justify owning it as well? Ive become a headphone enthusiast, i basically use 1 headphone for a couple weeks then i like to change it up and switch to a different one.
@@humanmale1085 yes, actually. I think the sundaras should round up your HP trio quite nicely. It's got that cold and sparkly type of neutrality that supplements the Elex's warm and cozy neutrality.
@@chuckolatte600 awesome thanks, i ordered the sundaras a couple days, glad to hear they'll fit in nicely. I also strongly considered the aryas, im sure they sound great but at $2100 aud, i couldn't do it.
I have no issues with comfort as it pertains to the Elex. As comfort & fit are individually personal, you should be careful about transferring your experience to the general. Different strokes.
@@chuckolatte600 from what i have heard from many reviewers they all say it isnt siblant so I plan to try them out on amazon but thanks for the review and reply!!
