Introduction

ANANDA-BT is the first ever wireless planar magnetic headphone to come out of HiFiMAN. HiFiMAN has a long track record when it comes to planar magnetic headphones, but fairly little when it comes to wireless technology. Beyond the ANANDA-BT, HiFiMAN also released their first ever true wireless stereo (TWS) in-ears in the TWS 600, so it is a safe bet that we will see more and more wireless technology in HiFiMAN products going forward.

HiFiMAN has played it relatively safe with the ANANDA-BT and stuck with a proven all-in-one chip from Quallcomm in the CSR8675. The CSR8675 enables all of the newest codecs Bluetooth has to offer and has the HiFiMAN ANANDA-BT stream close to lossless over Bluetooth. Given the ANANDA-BT is a full-size headphone, size and implementation should also be straightforward.

Where it gets interesting is that HiFiMAN has paired this wireless technology with what is their latest and greatest in headphone driver design. The ANANDA-BT and the normal version both run their new NEO NsD diaphragm based driver, which gives a welcome boost in efficiency for a planar driver, resulting in an impressive 103 dB/mW. This and a sizeable battery combine to give the ANANDA-BT 10 hours of battery life when running at normal listening levels. Charge times are a bit slow at 2.7 hours, but you can listen to the headphones via USB while doing so.

On the supported codecs list you find all of the usual Hi-fi suspects: HWA, LDAC, AptX, and AptX-HD. So it seems HiFiMAN has done their very best to ensure compatibility and performance going forward.