ANANDA NANO

I have Senn Momentum 4’s which are great wireless, but I just got the Hifiman Ananda Nano’s and they are fantastic. They are open back, so better for listening in a quieter setting. My headphone testing tune is the Opening jam —> China—> Mind left body jam —> Rider on Dick’s Picks 12 (Providence Civic Center 6/26/74 and Boston Garden 6/28/74 . It’s my absolute favorite China Riders partially because it is so crystal clear. The soundstage on the Ananda nano’s is outstanding— you can hear the position of the band on stage, and the clarity is amazing. It’s alot of headphone for 319 right now on Amazon. They are a few years old, but they were 800 or so when they were initially released. They are my end game over the ears (at least for now). I specifically looked for headphones that had the most soundstage because I listen to so much Dead. My listening set up is: ALAC or FLAC from iPhone/iPad/MacBook Pro— Qudelix 5k DAC— Douk audio preamp— Douk audio headphone amp — Ananada’s.

I don't know about the blackshark but I can tell you my experience switching from cloud alpha to 560s. At first the 560s seem to have a lot less bass because of the neutral tuning and open instead of closed back build. The bass punchiness is missing. The sound profile is bright, similar to cloud alpha so I enjoyed the sound from the beginning. It was just perfect, no eq needed  The detail retrieval of the 560s, imaging and soundstage were much better. After using them for about 2 weeks they seem to have more bass. The brain tunes in to the new sound. But I still loved the alphas so after a year of 560s I bought a new pair of alphas (I gave the old one away). But... they did not sound as I remembered :)) Bass was muddy, details were missing, treble was further away. You don't notice so much the upgrade as you notice the downgrade after using the 560s for a while. The 560s are excellent headphones. They have superior soundstage, great detail, great imaging, you hear everything from footsteps to whispers. They are audiophile headphones. People refer to them as mid range probably because they have mid range build quality. But for sound I think they can be considered high end. They can trade blows with the hd600 which are high end. 560s has a wider soundstage and an extended bass response.  Music sounds very good. Voices like Enya, or ballades from Roxette sound divine. I really tried to find a difference between 560s and 600 but apart from soundstage they sounded identically. Same voice, same tonality, same dynamics etc. The velour earpads and open back don't cause much heating. The earpads are bigger than usual, they are lighter than most headphones and are really comfortable. They run just fine on a good motherboard audio or a good usb dongle. No separate dac/amp needed. Beside them getting louder you won't notice a quality or sound difference. I also tested hd599, hd600, meze 99, meze 105aer, beyerdynamics dt770, ananda nano and some I can't remember. In the end the 560s for me is the best pair. With a little bit of desire to also get the 105aer. The reason I gave up my alphas was that the earpad's fake leather broke down and I could not find original replacements. Any other earpad alters the sound dramatically because of different sizes. But the 560s share the same earpad with many other sennheiser models so replacements should be easier to find. Also velour should be more durable than pleather. So yes, at 120 eur they are a best buy. I don't think you could get anything better. 

Whoops, missed the whole open back part lol. It is considered semi-closed so it is more open than a true closed back. Large soundstage and punchy bass is sort of the magical combo people look for but it's usually one or the other. The hifiman Ananda nano fits this criteria but you have to EQ it. DCA expanse and the Utopia also fit what you are looking for but they're both very expensive. Edit: ZMF Atrium open is also a great option but also expensive.

Agreed, nanos with EQ bump hard for a planar.

This is a very interesting list. I wonder if some of this has to do with the purpose in which they listen? The susvara is constantly rated high, but I would put that close to the bottom of my list. It just sounded way too dry. The best hifiman I've heard was the nano and arya unveiled.

Personally I’d go with 2 headphones at this budget. For music I run a Modhouse tungsten and for gaming the new asus kithara. In my experience a more expensive headphone does not equal better gaming performance and deminishing returns hits hard beyond ~500-600€. So I’d invest a good portion of the budget in some nice headphones for music paired with a nice dac / amp combo and some solid headphones for gaming. Coming to mind would be the above mentioned kithara, ananda nano or Arya stealth’s. I didn’t try hd 490 but they should be solid too. For music it highly depends on what you want. Warm or bright or even dark headphones? You could go with LCD X for darker headphones with good bass quality, or he1ks for something brighter. Also the tungsten’s are some of the best headphones out there if you can power them.

The aryas used to be a >1k pair of headphones, then being sub 600 on the used marked and bstock is really good value. Also they are planars so they can be EQd really well, they have nice deep sub bass rumble, good soundstage and imaging and they are comfy. For this price the Arya stealths are someone the best headphones out there tbh. If you want to safe some money you can also try the new asus kithara (if you don’t mind the gaming look) as those are really close to the Aryas (they only lack the stage and some of the sub bass rumble which could be due to the Kitharas better seal tho)

Not really. I had both Arya and kithara (still have those tho) and they are pretty close. They have the same scoop between 1-2 k (which the ananda hasn’t, tho the kithara does not have that too with velour pads) and the overall treble is more tame on the kithara than on both ananda and Arya which is definetly audible. But all 3 are kinda the same more or less tbh but I like the kithara most for its comfort improvement, better overall package (better cable, multiple connectors, 2 pad options, better build quality)

I mean you could easily build the omega for about 150$ if you own a 3d printer. (If not and you’re located in Europe I could print the parts for you and send them to you). Basically omega are 6x0 with soundstage. They share the same qualities but fix the issues this series has. But I can totally understand the curiosity to try the OGs