I decided to just buy the Focal Bathys and sell most of the others. I am keeping a couple of special ones for my kids, but it’s getting a little bit old staring at the collection trying to decide which one I want to listen to like I’m picking out a shirt to wear for the day. The Bathys is on sale for Black Friday so I took a chance on it and I think it’s really great! No more fussing around with cords unless I want to go DAC mode, and it sounds incredible in either mode. It’s very comfortable and portable with nice punchy clean bass, and very clear mids and treble.

The Hifiman HE-R9 is the deepest, bassist headphones I’ve ever tried. It’s pretty punchy! I’m about to sell the pair I have, but I really did enjoy the bass on those!

I’d keep my Ananda.

Those are top of the line, and if you like them, it’s worth it. It’s possible to get a better deal, maybe, but this is still a fair price.

I bought them, and while I don’t think they are spectacular, they are very good. They don’t deserve the negative press they got. I say this for the price of $150. For $400, I’d be a little bit disappointed. But I also have the Ananda, which I paid that much for, and they don’t perform as well as that headphone, mostly because they are a closed back. On their own, and if you have nothing else to compare them to, they are solid in every sense of the word for $150. They’d be a great gift for someone who wants to try a planar but needs closed back.

I would hesitate to recommend them for on the go, running off your phone or even a Bluetooth dongle. They will get enough volume, but they won’t have the same impact as any powered amp would. I would say that running balanced or with a 6db gain makes them sound the best. This is just the nature of planars. They run best with power, but they’ll still sound fine without the extra juice it you want to use them like that. Fine isn’t really good enough for me, though.

I think they are visually quite beautiful. I didn’t think much of them from the pictures, but they are quite attractive in my hands and I am drawn to that lovely wood. They really stand out on my desk!

I have other closed backs, including the R9 which I bought recently because Hifiman dropped the price down to $109. I haven’t done a close comparison, but I think the R9 has much wider soundstage than the closed Sundara and definitely more bass. They are tons lighter and have a softer clamp force as well. I like the looks of the Sundara way more, but ultimately I can’t see these things on my own head and I’m not wearing either one of them in public so it’s not an issue. I think the R9 is a more fun headphone, but less sophisticated. If I were a billionaire, I’d rather display the Sundara closed on my desk. There a certain elegance to them you have to see in person to understand. “Sundara” means “beautiful, lovely” in Sanskrit. The closed Sundara really deserves the name. They really do sound and look beautiful,but it’s unfair to directly compare them to the open back version. I think this is really where Hifiman failed the closed version. They should have gone with a different name because it’s inevitable that the reviewers were going to do a direct comparison, and it’s pretty apparent that they are aren’t the same thing.

I don’t think they are bad. I took the plunge for $150. All in all, I think they are a solid headphone. They are actually much more attractive in person than in pictures. They have that nice planar texture to the sound. They just don’t really stand out in any particular way, otherwise. For the price of $149 they are pretty good. I definitely think they’ll got a bad rap from reviewers. It’s not fair that this headphone was called Sundara. It should have had a different name. I wish I knew Sanskrit so I could come up with a better name for these.

👍✅⭐

Another predictable Hifiman Hate Fest 🙄

Hifiman Ananda was nearly perfect, but it needs a bass boost from the Ifi Zen DAC to make it perfect for me. But, in full agreement with the OP, the Meze 109 Pro is the first completely perfect headphone that I owned. It’s extremely comfortable, it’s gorgeous, and the sound is as smooth as can be. I don’t think the treble is too harsh. TBH, I’m not sure why anyone thinks that. The 109 Pro is just warm and lovely. There’s a tightness to the sound that is difficult to describe. It’s not like a planar with the crisp, fast transients, but it’s close to that. There’s something very satisfying about the quality of the sound. Especially with acoustic music and blues! The 109 Pro is a masterpiece!

They are really pretty fantastic, I think. They were the first IEM I tried that blew me away. I have the Blessing 3 now, but I almost liked the Aria tuning better. They had a bit more mid bass, while the Blessing 3 has more sub bass, but superior detail in the treble. Aria had a nice warm and sweet sound and I quite enjoyed it.