ANANDA-Stealth Magnets Version

HiFiMan Ananda Stealth. It’s about 30% the cost of a Meze 109 Pro and frankly sounds a bit better to me. The build isn’t all that, but the sound was better than I expected. Also( the Dunu DaVinci. It’s probably my favorite IEM right now, full stop. I didn’t expect to love the sound as much. Close second: Thieaudio Hype 4 and Kiwi Ears Astral.

FiiO FT1 Pro. XS and Ananda Stealth are not suitable for metal imo because of too much treble unless you're going to EQ. JT7 is also a good choice but I'm not a fan of the build quality. If you really have to choose a Hifiman then get Ananda since the headband on the Edition XS is honestly awful.

Open back headphones are a great place to look of your trying to increase the soundstzge closer to that feel from three speakers. One of the best soundstages in headphones is the Sennheiser HD800S, but those are super expensive. For something more affordable I'd reccomend the Hifiman Ananda Nano or Stealth, you can take that open back sound even further with the "Unvieled" version which apparently increases the soundsage even more as well as ups the performance accross the range, for a more midrange option there's the Hifiman Arya Organic, as well as the Stealth, and Unveiled versions. There's tons of other options in the opening back scene but those are the ones I would personally reccomend having used them.

Its the tuning, theyre made to appeal to a wide variety of people, the sound is "fun", audiophile headphones can feel a bit clinical at times, but its all in what you listen to and what sort of source youre running it through. I have some nice earbuds too, but I love my Sennheiser HD800s and Hifiman Ananda. Those are pretty pricey sets, but I can also highly reccomend the Blue Mix-Fi headphones, they're very "fun" sounding like the Airpods but have a huge amount of detail and excellent bass response, they have a built-in amp and use plannar magnetic drivers, best set under $300 I've heard.

I started with planars on the HE4xx, eventually moved to the HE5xx and now I have the Ananda Stealth. I'll never go back to dynamics, planars really are just the superior headphone in my opinion. I plan on keeping the Ananda as long as I can, but if I came into some money I'd probably get the LCD 2 Classic and keep them alongside the Anandas. I use them for everything - work (online meetings), audiobooks, tv, movies, gaming, music.

I second the opinion of the edtion xs (get a carpara head strap if you can massively boosts comfort) or get an ananda stealth slightly more expensive but has a better headband. They also are less warm and slightly brighter, and handle a bass shelf quite well I managed to get my pair up to +10db with no audible distortion. Just know that they will give you really good bass extension and quality just don't expect a large amount, but that can be fixed with eq.