For me it was the Ananda Nano or the Ananda. I found the HE600 a bit compressed, and I didn't think the XV had as much punch in the bass. The Sundara wasn't as clear/airy, and the Audirvina LE was compressed and missing some upper register. I can't speak for the Organic, haven't heard it.
Personally though, I think you need to check for yourself. These things can be very subjective, to your taste in music, preference for particular sounds in that music, and the way your ear hears and brain interprets sound.
Hard to explain. My notes say "sounds like its a little muffled, or maybe the sound is further away". This note would be in comparison to the other Hifiman headphones, particularly the Anandas. The I wrote "not my preference". I'm not sure my memory would be accurate if I said anything about the resolution or separation, but it would be accurate (imo) to say they have a narrower soundstage.
I'm definitely not saying they are bad by any means, they're still fantastic for the price. And these things only matter if you're comparing anyway. Once you settle on a purchase, the comparison won't matter until you decide to buy again, eh.
https://preview.redd.it/6s7euij4cz4g1.jpeg?width=4284&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a833ceb2c7f576aaeb0d1e7888823a9eb54d7eb2
I recently auditioned these 2 headphones during my trip to China last week, I was using the fiio k17 to drive them.
Tbh, the only major difference I can tell right away was the sound stage. One of the song i was listening to where there was 2 singer, one on the left and one on the right.
When one start singing, you can hear it on the left side with moondrop Laputa and pretty much nothing on the right until the second singer start singing. But on the Para 2/Fiio ft7/Hifiman He600 you can hear it on both sides, ofc the right side being more subtle.
The rest of the difference in sound quality was so minute that it didn’t feel like spending 2 times the price of Para 2 was worth it. Plus the comfort of the para 2 is much better than the Laputa😓.
Also, you could argue that k17 was not good enough to drive the Laputa since the sensitivity is on par with the susvara, so I wouldn’t recommend anyone without a powerful amp enough to drive the susvara to blindly buy the Laputa.
Pad swap an HE600. Slap a bass shelf on. $13 pads, $10 pad ring adapters from Hifiman. HE600 is ~$420 from a dealer, slides in under $450 total. I don't know if it's that the pads are holding them back, but I'm shocked that nobody is talking about how good the HE600 bass is. In a side by side comparison with my Susvara Unveiled, the difference is surprisingly small. Pad swaps are mandatory for any Hifiman to have good bass imo but there's only a couple pads that are actually right for them.
There arent many openbacks that are true basshead sets. Best youll get is a properly EQd LCD-X or HE6. Dunu Arashi might be a contender with some EQ as well, although Im not sure if it takes a bass shelf like the other 2.
enokRoot
