Scaling up Unveiled Mountain in four stages, what shed with greater altitude was heaviness. We might call it self texture because in its consecutive reduction, it became successively greater transparency and smoothness. Here heaviness is synonymous with thickness. I call it 'self texture' because once extricated, it showed itself to never have been in the music to begin with. It was simply added and could be avoided by spending more for a quicker costlier model. Another thickness effect of Ananda and to an already lesser extent with Arya was subjectively higher damping. It shortened tonal ring-outs to render reverberant sounds blunter. With HE1000 and Susvara, the same fades lingered longer. Their diaphragms tracked minute signal deeper into the nano realm. The associated smoothness gains had intuitive parallels with pixel count. The more pixels we work with across any square inch, the smoother curves render to remove subtle stair-step reminders. Something similar happened sonically. Past HE1000, my ascent's incline admittedly levelled out abruptly. What separates Susvara rather shrinks despite HifiMan's disproportionate—some may say, arbitrary—price jump. For the more casual consumer, the sweet spot is Arya Unveiled. The more sophisticated crowd will eye HE1000 Unveiled and call it their summit.

Susvara Unveiled reserves for extremists whose properly luxo ancillaries maximize its extras. A FangSound Dionysus for €3'500 ex VAT applies; an aune N7 for €399 not so much. Whilst the aune absolutely has enough raw power and gain, its resolution isn't yet keen enough to properly separate Susvara from HE1000. Another word to describe the key differentiator we hear as we work our way up these four models is increasing presence. It manifests as a sense of tunes getting ever closer whilst tell-tale signs of distance fade in the distance. This becomes quite literal as we turn around to move from a higher model down to a lower model. The music seems to occur a bit farther away. Fine ambient data in the higher registers dries out, dynamics soften. So does edge definition. With that established, we need comparators from outside their catalogue to establish what our HifiMänner compete against. In my office the €649 aune SR7000 and €749 FiiO FT7 could nicely fill that initial role. No matter the model, the cable was always a 3m Forza AudioWorks Noir Hybrid leash terminated XLR4 and dual 3.5mm; one song the title track of Lynni Trekreem's album Haugtussa, another "How low can you go" from Antonio Ramos Maca's Hotel Groove.

aune SR7000 | FiiO FT7 x Ananda Unveiled. First, sealed dynamic vs open-backed planar. For wear comfort and smaller size, the aune had it over the HifiMan. Likewise for the lower third of the bandwidth. That exhibited more weight and definition. In this contrast session, the dynamic did its category proud by being the more dynamic and chunky customer. The thin-film type represented its breed by sounding a bit thinner/leaner and with it, just slightly more prominent in the upper third of the bandwidth which some might perceive as a small boost of transparency. Against FiiO's currently best planar, its more robust and luxurious build took material honours over Ananda. Acoustically, the FT7 too easily outshone it in the lower registers then eclipsed both HifiMan and aune on sheer scale both on headspace and dynamic cresting. The FT7's grasp on gossamer stuff—reflective halos, ambient recovery—too outshone HifiMan's which with Ananda's lesser responsiveness rendered such elements drier, less teased out hence not as informative. In this particular context where Ananda's ask was lowest, so was my competitive ranking of it.

Ananda wearing its veils for the photo op.

FiiO FT7 x Arya Unveiled. Skin oils. Arya's black gloss looked grease-stained a few days in. This isn't the place to go scorched Earth on my disdain for piano-gloss black. 'nuff said. My earlier comments on FiiO's seemingly more robust build remain in place for all my HifiMenschen so won't repeat. Sonically meanwhile, things now balanced competitively. I still heard traces of Ananda's upward emphasis but far more subdued. With Arya, the FT7's lower treble freshness with its leather pads was absent so this band felt smoother if less shiny. Just so, Arya's clearly sharper overall textures reminded me of how PCM portrays transients over the FT7's DSD256 reminiscence. This played out in stark contrast on Maca's e-bass track. Arya's tuning was more incisive and clipped on attacks, the FT7's mellower. In broad strokes with current vocabulary, many might call this difference more accurate vs more organic. As long as the intended meaning conveys, we needn't break down 'more accurate'. With Arya Unveiled costing exactly twice what FiiO demand, the FT7 obviously punches far harder on value and in my mind will age looking more premium. Sonically meanwhile, these aren't two peas in a pod but two pods off the same branch: equally as tasty but different. Arya's more Nordic or brisk tuning wakes up less resolved darker ancillaries whilst the FT7's more Club Med vibe has drier sharper electronics behave more sunny.

HE1000 wearing its silvery veil.

FiiO FT7 x HE1000 Unveiled. We've now come to two peas in one pod; cast your vote for true parity just not of the persnickety portemonnaie sort. On the mighty Dionysus amp, both cans agreed on their textures and tonal balances. My ascent up Mount Unveiled had entered the same zone of smoothness and bass power which my FiiO inhabits, there above the performance treeline where the oxygen of money generally starts to require deep breathing but the views are amazing. In hifi lingo we call this proper high resolution, ideally balanced tone and an admirable lack of energy storage which communicates quick stop'n'go for excellent enunciation. Here is what I don't know. My OG Susvara hasn't gracefully aged to the naked eye. Its stainless steel parts proved anything but stainless. The pads completely crumbled to need Dekoni replacements. Even the headband attachments with the frame are fraying. I'm not saying this to diss an old kiss. After all, I've kept this smooch around as a butch amplifier challenge. I simply can't predict whether over the long haul, the HE1000's seemingly equivalent build will do better. Newer invisible nano coatings might well render surfaces more impervious to discolouration, smudges and scratches. After all, HifiMan's signature build is so popular that many newcomers to the sector have blatantly copied it. From my present Unveiled assortment, HE1000 does indeed strike me as the model in which the comfort/speed aka organic/resolution scales balance most ideally whilst looking great, wearing fab and performing at a very high level. What lives beyond in the permafrost and fiscal nose-bleed zone—OG Susvara, Susvara Unveiled, Magna & Immanis—mandates equivalent high-voltage ancillaries to fully matter. That warrants a separate review around more ambitious electronics by way of Cen.Grand's DSDAC 1.0 Deluxe with matching SilverFox amplifier. It's where the audience appropriate for Ananda/Arya/HE1000 merely rolls their eyes and shrugs their shoulders in defeat. To maintain sanity, we'll thus wave off Susvara Unveiled for said next assignment then also sack Dionysus to return to my customary €349 2wpc Audalytic HP70. That sat at ~70/99 on its attenuator for the lot to get loud. The cable was FiiO's 4.4mm to dual 3.5mm which I thought nicer than what HifiMan include even with Susvara Unveiled.