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

Product Information

It’s still a very spacious sound, with floaty imaging and great separation. There is a lot of air showcased in between each individual element, which helps bring out the layers into a more dimensional headspace. The wrap-around goes beyond stereo limits, but the imaging is just brought into a tighter space than in past iterations. However, the width still establishes a great scope, helped by the height of the imaging. Everything about it is still distinctly within HiFiMAN’s usual presentation, just with a few tweaks that bring in subtle changes. Low End The Arya Stealth drivers also make use of Hifiman’s Advanced Asymmetrical Magnetic Circuit (double sided asymmetrical magnet circuit) to obtain the perfect balance between high driver efficiency and high sound quality. You can expect them to present a refined listening experience. The audio quality exhibited by these headphones is a beautiful mix of musicality, technical brilliance and high precision.

Requires a powerful amplifier or source (many phones and portables are inadequate) to perform at their best Others will resent that some portion of what they are paying is for those things. Others may conclude that what is saved means that more is invested into R&D and material costs, or perhaps, company profits. Your priorities, your values, your choice. In the box

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. It also has a tighter level of control on the bass, improved layering, and more headroom. The Arya Stealth also has a faster driver and one that sounds more resolving. It is on another level and rightly so. The Arya are similar in style to the Ananda when it comes to the drop-shaped earcups, but they’re quite different in the rest of the build. The headband is the same as that on headphones like the first-generation HE-560, while the gimbals are similar to those while being longer to accommodate the larger earcups. In terms of materials, the Arya are made of plastic and metal: the gimbals and headband are metal, while the earcups are plastic with a semi-glossy finish. The Arya is a bit brighter than the HD800S, though it’s also less peaky. Both take well to tubes, which surprised me (Valhalla 2 has very low impedance, so I guess it works better with planars than most OTL tube amps?). The tube effect is more apparent on the Arya. The Arya Stealth has a relatively similar unboxing experience to the Deva and the Sundara. For original Arya owners, it is practically the same box but the internal organization is just slightly changed for the cable storage.

snare. Lots of the low-end vocals as well, because male vocals are going to have the fundamental below 200Hz in 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. Treble will most likely be hotly contested among listeners and critics (pun intended). The Arya’s treble has exceptionally crisp detail, sparkle, and extension. Like the bass, the treble frequencies have distinction and dynamics.

On paper, the Arya ought to be easy to drive. In my experience in the wild, they are definitely not. A child of the Edition X, the HiFiMAN Arya has been considered by many one of the finest headphones made by the brand since its launch. This high-end headphone is often taken as the reference because of its almost neutral signature and is in many ways the baseline against which most other HiFiMAN headphones are judged. Keeping this in mind, it’s hard to approach the Arya nowadays as a reviewer and say something that hasn’t been said yet, or give you an original perspective – but we’ll try anyway! Understanding this is usually an amp metric... This is simple- but the 2021 seems to be far more precise during long mid-upper passages. I really like their sound, they sound much closer to me, and notes in the music feel like they end much more abuptly (probably adding to the soundstage effect). The 2020 is no slouch, but not the same- it is clearly a planar with that fast response, but it sounds smoother. Treble is quite extended and this gives it a distinct sense of air and openness – it sounds light, almost delicate, and it counterbalances the otherwise massive bass presence well. Although it is a bit prominent in the lower region, it’s never fatiguing, or harsh, or excessive, though it does contribute to the hissing and sibilance of the mids. It offer a lot of small details that pop out clearly and are effortlessly heard. Just like in the other two sections, speed is very good here as well. Treble is not so much sparkly as it is shimmering: it is quietly giving you a good balance of energy and liveliness on one side and of politeness on the other. HiFiMAN Arya Comparisons