I have the Monoprice AAA 788 DAC / Amp combo and it sounds amazing with the Arya. Anything that had Sibilance was ear piercing on the Ananda. The Ssss sound was like someone sticking a toothpick into my ear drum.

I'm very sensitive to sibilance. I found the HE400's to have ear piercing Sibilance, and the Anandas were also really bad. It was bad to the point a bunch of songs I had issues listening to, and a lot of videos with vocals really bothered me. I returned the Anandas because of this for the Aryas...

I ended up making my own for really cheap, but outside of a higher volume output (double) from a proper balanced amp, I didn't notice a quality difference when volume matching. So unless you have something like a 789 where its nice to have the extra wattage, it's really not needed.

Try the Hifiman Arya. Clear 'upgrade' to anything I've ever owned. The Anandas are almost as good as well if you don't mind a spike in treble (the sibilance on S sounds was super annoying to me, but the Aryas don't have that), and they seem to have a bit more bass.

I couldn't find one anywhere, so I made one and printed it. Fits a Canare cable perfectly. If you're interested, I published it on Thingiverse: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3816105

I had a Schitt Modi/Magni Uber 2 and purchased the 788 from Amazon with the intent of returning it just to see if there was a difference. After A/B testing songs for a few hours the 788 was proved to be clearer in every scenario, which was a surprise to me. I also noticed that I could listen to...

High gain. I normally have it at 12:00 for more casual listening, but put it to 2:00-3:00 for more critical listening for short periods.

I currently have the Schiit Modi/Magni Uber 2 stack. In order to get really nice audio from the system I need to turn the volume to about 2:00-3:00 on the dial. They sound absolutely great and I don't hear the noise floor until I turn the nob another 20% more. Am I under powering these, and...

It's definitely not the material. Edit: To add, I'm going to guess that the Ananda has more flex in the diaphragm, and it moves a lot more for low frequency sound. I recall you could feel the vibrations more when holding the driver while doing a frequency test at similar volumes.

Alright Arya owners, try this. Go to this site. http://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/ Set the frequency to 15 hz. Crank the volume. Now slowly pull off your headphones.

I didn't until you said that, but damn you're right. Dubstep sounds significantly better that way. It's like the bass is reverberating off the sides of the cups before it hits your ears. I don't suppose Hifiman sells thicker ear pads?

So my Aryas finally arrived. I don't have the Anandas anymore to do a proper comparison, but from memory I can say these have less base punch for sure. I think the low end sound is probably a bit cleaner sounding. I'm not sure if that's an over all good or bad thing, but I suppose that makes it...

I will say that capacitors to degrade over time, and impedance increases to wiring when heat is applied. If you want to call that burn-in, then sure. If any change occurred, that' would cause degradation, not 'improvement'. That said this sounds like one of those perception discussions versus...

That honestly wouldn't make any sense. If the diaphragms stretch a bit with use, then that is a reasonable technical explanation for the requirement. Solder joints or wiring will not change with constant electric current going through them unless you're talking about high current levels that...

That almost sounds like someone returned it, and they repackaged it as new.