I had the opportunity to evaluate the HiFiMAN Ananda and Arya last year, but there are two reasons why I'm revisiting the HiFiMAN lineup in 2020. The first is that some of them have seen price drops along the way, namely the Sundara is now priced consistently at $350 and the Ananda's current sale price of $700 puts it in a much more aggressive price bracket than its previous pricing did at around $1000. At the moment it's unclear if this is just a sale price or if it's going to stay discounted for a long time. I've had the opportunity to review numerous other headphones in the meantime as well, so it's important to consider where the Ananda fits now - especially at the lower price tag - for anyone looking to potentially make a purchase. To me, there's now an important question for prospective audiophiles looking to get into a HiFiMAN planar magnetic headphone: Is the Ananda worth the price increase over the entry to mid-level Sundara?
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://headphones.com/blogs/reviews/hifiman-ananda-review-planar-magnetic-headphones-refined