I went and compared a bunch of my gear to make my own technicality test playlist.
Anyway, you should temper your expectations for $30 IEMs and be very skeptical of audiophile hype trains. No manufacturer is going to leave money on the table by charging that little for an IEM they know sounds high-end given how absurdly deep people’s pockets go in audio land, although you should be warned that many of them do overestimate their products’ quality and overcharge.
Try playing with how the Anandas are positioned and angled on your head. The cups are big with the pads being angled, so it might take some experimentation to find a good spot. Egg-shaped Hifiman planars seem to be quite sensitive to that, and even the $2,000 ones frankly sound on the level of $100 bleh-fi (comparing the HE1000 V2 with the SRH840, to be specific) if you don’t get it right.
“i do not know what any of the terminology i am using actually means but will choose to offer my enlightened commentary on it anyway”
t. the most intelligent headphones subreddit poster
“tonal effects are a meaningless audiofool myth. so is timbre and things sounding enjoyable”
t. biggest brained arr headphones user
If you want an example, think of a recording of someone playing a low piano note. On something with thicker note weight, you might hear a full-bodied “DUN!”, with emphasis being placed on the initial part of the note that makes it sound like the key is being struck more heavily. On thinner-sounding gear, you might hear a plain “DUN!” without the emphasis, making it sound like it’s being hit more weakly. Measurement-wise, it would generally be associated with the upper/lower midrange balance being skewed towards the lower mids. V-shaped/Harman IE stuff will tend to sound thinner.
If you don’t build your self-identity around your consumer purchasing choices, some light roasting centered around your consumer purchasing choices won’t be a problem. If anything, DMS is being far too mild towards Sennheiser basslets and others of such subhuman ilk. Speaking as an HD800S owner, unironically liking the HD800S is the being 4’11" with a Peyronie’s micropenis of musical enjoyment tastes
No fully agreed-upon definition for either of these as far as headphones go, especially not for the latter. Saying all you have to do is accurately simulate human HRTF and PRTF is easy, actually doing it is not. Trying to jam an approximation of loudspeaker acoustics into a pair of ear cups also leads to design compromises needing to be made. Manufacturers like Hifiman, Sennheiser, and DCA do try to tune to their own target curves that they believe sound neutral, and many headphones do feature angled drivers and such to attempt to replicate speaker/ear interaction.