HiFiMAN Arya Full-size Over Ear Planar Magnetic Audiophile Adjustable Headphone

Product Information

Build is quite good overall, even though the plastic feels a bit cheap (possibly because it’s shiny?). Assembly is quite well made and the major pain points of other HiFiMAN headphones, like the gimbals or the headband breaking, shouldn’t be an issue here given these critical components, the most exposed to strain, are made of metal.

However, the Arya Stealth is the first revision of the original Arya out since 2019 and ties into the Stealth technology revamp in most of their headphones currently on the market. Any critiques I share below are at a truly minor scale and intended to help you decide if the Arya will appeal to you. Enough has been said and published about the Acoustically Invisible Stealth technology already, but basically the Stealth Magnets feature a special shape which allows sound waves to pass through without generating interference. Hifiman’s advanced magnet design is acoustically transparent, dramatically reducing wave diffraction turbulence that degrades the integrity of the sound waves. The reduced distortion yields pure sonic output that is accurate and full range. HiFiMAN’s top-of-the-line headphones are all quite similar in terms of design, once we exclude the Susvara: they’re all drop-shaped and quite large, so that they can house larger diaphragms. The Arya make no exception to this and feature large earcups with a suspended headband design.For noggins too small to qualify for the BHC, the Arya may be too large. For those with S or XS brain cages, these will likely not be a good match for you. The object in the picture is larger than it appears. These headphones are designed for discerning music lovers. If you are someone who cares about audio quality "deeply," you'll want a pair of headphones like these. The midrange has always been nice with the Arya. They’re always very roomy and accurate, with natural propagation and extension. A good reference for most genres. With the Organic, texture comes more into play, with instruments being given greater accentuation. You can feel a strike of each note hit a lot harder, with the same amount of articulation the other versions of the Arya have provided in the past. It seems like an even thinner veil has been uncovered, which gives the Organic an even crisper edge to its sound. Everything has plenty of room to express its tone, making for some colorful performances. Vocals are pushed forward and almost appear directly in front of you. They have exceptional clarity and cut through busy arrangments particularly well. Highs The tech behind Arya is Planar Magnetic, having a very thin driver membrane, and an asymmetric design. The connectors on the headphones are 3.5mm and they come with a longer 6.3 to 2X3.5mm cable. This makes upgrading the default cables really easy, and the original cables are also interchangeable with Sundara cables and cables from HE6SE. This may come as a surprise, but it means that cables made by Meze for their Meze 99 series also work for Arya, making them one of the cable upgrade options if you were looking for them. If you start playing an well recorded high quality acoustic live concert, everything turns into an weird and unauthentic sounding mess.

The V3s are more like monitors- they will reveal mistakes in sound engineering, they will reveal more detail, and are just fantastic when you want to hear everything in great detail. Next, if you go from 300 Hz up to 1000 kHz, this is known as the Lower Midrange, and this is a crucial region for I would like to write something more about the name because for example, SE in the previous Arya edition stands for Stealth Edition due to stealth magnets used in the drivers. Unfortunately Organic doesn’t mean that the magnets are made of organic material, it also doesn’t stand for the membrane material, because it’s the same as the one used in HE1000se. To be honest we can only guess what it stands for. My shot is, it’s because of the wooden veneer on the earcups. Or actually the altered tuning...who knows. listening on monitors or headphones. But if you’re listening on a laptop or a phone, there’s no way you will hearThis album sounds like absolute heaven on the Arya; seriously a transcendent experience. It sounds like you’re in the center of the stage and there are musicians all around you. This is probably what I would listen to if I had an hour with the HE1 or a Susvara. It sounds good on the 800S too, of course, but it loses the realistic (binaural, even?) quality in being blown out to fill the 800’s space. Arya was driven easily by the AMP8EX module from my DX220. This makes my protable rig complete. Worthy buy as I am not going to upgrade to Susvara/HE1000SE/HE1000V2 any time sooner. It is the best compromise at the moment. Next stop would be the ribbon station :D

It takes a few hours for Arya to break-in. In the beginning It needed 110 on the volume dial, after a 9-10hrs it was playing at the same level with 92~95 on volume wheel. [DX220 with AMP8EX module] Don’t get me wrong – I still love the 800’s giant bubble of sound. Sometimes. But I think the Arya is more honest and more accurate, and definitively better at bass. At times when listening to live recordings I’ve found the Arya’s presentation to be so dead-on accurate that I swear it sounded like the musicians were in the room with me. The 800S, to me, always sounds like you are listening to speakers in a room. Really good speakers in a well-treated room, but still it presents to my ears like near-field speakers. The 800’s sound is more lush, more euphonic even, but less real.As much of an achievement the original Arya may have been, the Arya Stealth Magnet Version takes its performance to a higher level: easier to drive, better imaging, solid build quality, and a more accurate soundstage.” – Dr. Fang Bian, President and CEO, HIFIMAN Electronics While I have not heard HIFIMAN’s TOTL (Top of the Line) planar magnetic driver headphones such as the Susvara (yet), it’s hard to imagine how much “better” they are, rather than different or ever so slightly enhanced. The HiFiMan Arya has been seriously enjoyable to listen to and with its tonally accurate, easy-going tuning, outstanding comfort, and superb technical performance, the Arya has really proven itself to be a sensational headphone. I'm listening via iTunes Lossless -> iPad Pro 2019 -> RME ADI-2 DAC FS -> XLR -> Topping A90 -> Hart Audio Cables -> Arya(s). I have EQ'd according to Oratory1990s Harmon 2018 index for the OG Arya just to give it competitive bass at times, but have also listened to both with no EQ. Next, we’ll head to Asheville, North Carolina, USA, to visit with multi-instrumentalist sisters Leah Song and Chloe Smith, founders of the band Rising Appalachia, an American Appalachian folk music group. Their song, Mississippi, is a fascinating blend of styles and incredibly well mixed. The treble elements help to create more distant imagery in the music. Unique design, well-engineered and built, high-quality materials. One of the best aspects? No squeaks or creaks whatsoever. Where to Buy

Ik heb ook de HE1000SE en de Susvara beluisterd en deze gaan weer een stap verder maar ook onbereikbaarder voor mij. Below 50Hz, the Arya Stealth curve is relatively linear with no further dB extension so despite being a more physical and robust tuning compared to older models it is not an overwhelming bass response per se.For classical/orchestral, I think I favor the HD800S for its sheer size, but then again the realism and specificity of the Arya can sometimes make it sound like you’re actually in the concert hall. Again, this can go either way, depends on the day. With a build quality to match their elegant design, Arya is made to last a lifetime, and with 3.5mm connectors, you can easily replace their cables. Furthermore, their pads swivel a bit and can be adjusted, but they stay in place, and the earpads and ear cups are huge, making Arya a really comfortable headphone that you’ll never want to take off your head, and with the fact they’re open and don’t isolate one bit, you’ll actually be able to hear when your loved ones are calling you, meaning you won’t need to keep taking your headphones off when someone has something to tell you. This being said, the fact that Arya is so open means that you’ll probably need a listening room to fully enjoy them. And the final part of the sound description is the soundstage, the Arya OG was called the planar version of the Sennheiser HD800 due to its soundstage. With Arya SE HiFiMAN dropped this legacy, the soundstage became smaller and less spacious. And now came out Arya Organic with a bit more airy soundstage, but it’s still placed somewhere in between the first revision of Arya and the one with Stealth Magnets. What’s worth mentioning is the positioning of the sound sources, which is extraordinary. Some time ago I used the Audeze LCD-X as my primary gaming headphone and it did the job great, but with the Arya Organic, the positioning of sound sources is on a completely different level. While playing Hunt: Showdown I can easily say from which direction my opponent is approaching. And when someone kills me I usually perfectly know from where the shot was taken, so the only issue that stops me from being a better player is my aim, but unfortunately I can’t blame the audio gear. Or can I? Naah, I need to rely on Paweł to carry me every single time...tough life. On paper, the Arya ought to be easy to drive. In my experience in the wild, they are definitely not. Maybe I have a very strange taste but to this date, I thought the every single of them were really bad.