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

Product Information

The mid range is neutrally flat, clearly expressed and finely articulated, harmonized with the rest of the frequencies, it is not forward sounding nor recessed, just ideally balanced. Its a Arya that is moving toward the Harman Target using Stealth Tech, yet retaining the Hifiman somewhat analytical sound. If you have been thinking till now that the Sennheiser HD800S was the imaging champion then you should definitely listen to the Arya and you might change your mind. What’s inside then….well, once again, nothing extraordinary. Apart from the headphones, you’re getting a cable, some paperology, and that’s basically it. I really like this approach, as Hifiman tends to keep the prices of their products to a very reasonable level, and not adding any flashy accessories surely helps that. In the previous version, the shape of the magnets was rectangular, with sharp edges. Meanwhile, the new Stealth Magnets have curved surfaces or convexed.

Bass on the Arya is about quality over quantity, but that isn’t to say they’re light on the low-end. The Arya Stealths have good sub-bass extension; the drivers push enough air that the lowest lows — the bass you can feel — comes through nice and strong. I found this to be especially true in electronic music and hip-hop. Introduction​For everybody that is into high-end headphone audio, the Hifiman Arya needs no introduction. It’s been one of their best-selling products for years now, offering one of the best values in its price range. When the HE-1000SE appeared on the shelves, sporting both the stealth magnets and a higher sensitivity, bringing HE-1000 level performance for portables while actually surpassing them in technical performance notably, it came with a few yet worthy tradeoffs. Unseen, unheard​When sound waves pass through the magnet structure via the diaphragm, they are prone to interferences and diffraction with conventional designs as air is moved through them. The Stealth structure ensures this to happen to a minimum for more precision, clarity and imaging precision. In the same vein a stealth bomber’s shape and form which is not a random or artistic choice at all, and ensures deflecting or bouncing off radar waves and becoming unnoticed, HIFIMAN’s stealth system ensures magnets not being in the way of the sound as good as possible.

Real leather would be a more premium material for a flagship headphone and while the overall build quality is very good, still there is something to be missed when compared to similarly priced, more luxurious headphones like the Focal Clear Mg. Apart from adding the Stealth Magnets, the drivers also seem to be different than in the previous versions of Arya. They now have that green tilt that is present in the HE1000se, it looks…identical. I don’t think that these are the same drivers, but I don’t have proof that they’re not.

Maybe I have a very strange taste but to this date, I thought the every single of them were really bad. Texture is delicate, almost ethereal, the Arya is more lean than visceral, the presentation is mostly about precisely defined, detailed and finely sculptured images rather than the full bodied and muscular reconstruction of the music.Unlike some headphones that try to boost spatiality, the Arya doesn't put you far away from your favorite singer or instrument, as well, it an headphones that is transparent to source and amplifier used, so you can achieve the perfect musicality that please you while keeping its open and vast headroom presentation.

Treble​The Arya in its first edition had a few minor quirks here, notably in the 6khz and 8khz region, making it prone to sibilance with certain songs and sometimes being a bit too aggressive with genres like metal. The V2 fixed both quirks but kept the clarity and airiness. In that regard, the best pairing would have been with SMSL SU9 DAC+ SMSL SH9 amplifier if....it has a bass and overall dynamic boost. I am excited to be able to offer the HiFiMan Arya Stealth Edition headphones as part of the expansive yet select portfolio at Audio Concierge. Having sold HiFiMan products pretty much since their inception I was never completely satisfied with their overall sound and they never grabbed me when they were competing with the likes of the Audeze LCD range and HD800 etc from Sennheiser.The Stealth goes further here, giving the aggression a nice little boost with its more intense energy delivery and added cleanliness. Trails and reverbs are easier to hear fading out in the distance now. HiFiMan's proprietary Stealth Magnets were designed to solve a problem typical of headphones with magnets: sound waves passing through the magnets generate interference. Unlike sound waves generated by conventional magnets, Stealth Magnets feature a special shape that 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. In fact, I don't think I have find the perfect DAC-AMP to pair with those, yet can confirm 1W and up is minimal amping needed for fully blossom dynamic and headroom openess… For gaming, they’re excellent. Would I recommend anyone buy them just for that? Certainly not, but if you’re spending this kind of money on an earphone, it’s reasonable to expect you might want to use them for more than one type of listening. The LCD-GX has an advantage in spaciousness, so is the better choice if you plan to play games more than anything else, but the Arya Stealth is more well rounded for all kinds of listening. HiFiMan designed the Arya's high-quality metal headband with extra strength and a special high-grade plastic for lightweight comfort and rugged durability. A sturdy 3.5 mm user-replaceable connector design allows easy cable-swapping, giving both maximum durability and enhanced customizability.

The treble is the star of the show with the Arya. It's effortless in detailing, open and airy in snap and decay, it have this appealing brilliance and sparkle to it too. The highs are out of your head, adding airyness to spatiality and extra dimension in sharpened sound layering. taekwondo, horror movies, trivia, word games, TED Talks, and spinning vinyl with her old-school audiophile Whether you are going to like the neutral tuning and the ethereal character is something purely subjective and personal but irrelevant to the actual sound quality of the Arya which is nearly perfect.Inside those earcups are HIFIMAN’s massive planar magnetic drivers engineered by the new stealth magnet system. The company isn’t big on disclosing specs, but since the cups are see-through, we can get an idea of how big a driver we’re working with: