Vibro Labs Aria: Technically complement but with a divisive signature.
I was allowed to spend 1 week listening to the Aria in exchange for this review.
The Vibro Labs Aria is a quad BA driver IEM and comes in both universal and custom forms. It is currently listed at $499 direct from Vibro Labs. This review is focused on the universal model that I had a chance to spend some time with as part of a tour.
Background: I’ve been part of the headphone hobbyist community for 3 years now. I’ve amassed a sizeable collection of headphones, notable among them being my LCD-2 (2016 rev), HD6XX, Vmoda M-80, JVC HA-SZ2000 and Oppo PM-3 among others. In terms of IEMs, I own a Sony XBA-H1 and have owned a HiFiMan RE-600. I tend to have a preference for dark signatures, and am very fond of good price/performance ratios (My ongoing love affair with KZ IEMs only serves to reinforce this point).
Presentation/build quality: The Aria I sampled came with a wooden like exterior face, and featured a clear-ish plastic like enclosure around the sides and forming the nozzle. The wood looks nice in pictures, and my home does have really cruddy lighting, but the wooden looking part didn’t seem as vibrant and with as much contrast with the wood grain as I was anticipating. The housings themselves seem sturdy enough, and like they will hold up well so long as one takes a modicum of care when handling them.
They feature a detachable 2 pin cable, and the one provided with the tour model was extremely nice. It featured a plasticized, braided exterior with a 90 degree connector and handled like a linen rope. The wire forms stiff but still rather flexible ear hooks.
Comfort wise the housing didn’t feel heavy at all thanks to the ear hooks, but the bore of the nozzle felt way too wide for my ears when inserted, even with the smallest cushions I had avaliable (comply foam tips size small). This led to some frustration as I couldn’t listen to the Aria for more than an hour at a time before I had to give it a rest due to discomfort. The housing seemed shaped well for my ears, and the shape as well as the tips did a decent job helping isolate me from outside sounds.
Sound Impressions: Listening was done with a variety of sources and amplification. I used either premium Spotify or FLAC files direct from my phone (Moto X 2nd Gen) or from Spotify or Foobar2000 from my computer. When listening to files on my computer, I used a Schiit Modi 2 DAC and switched between a Magni 2 solid state amp, and a Little Dot I+ Hybrid tube amplifier.
Bass: This point was an overall letdown for me. Listening to “Silent Shout” by The Knife didn’t start promising. A short while into the track, a deep, heart beat like percussion steps into the mix, and I was a little stunned. It didn’t feel like it was washing over me like with previous headphones I heard this song with. To put it succinctly, it sounded like someone knocking on a dense door. There was way too much punch and it left me feeling unsatisfied. This would become a trend throughout my experience.
Listening to Irish folk music, percussion instruments such as a bodhran delivered a tight beat, but lost their vibrance. Trance tracks featured some good sub-bass out of the Aria, but with so little midbass that the beats sounded hollow. Hearing the drop on Coldplay’s “Paradise” sounded like a clicking mechanical monster rather than a heady buzz. In all, I felt the subbass was adequate in a vacuum, but the mid-bass sounded sucked out, and this combined with the sub-bass and extended highs made most beats, whether acoustic or electronic, sound absolutely empty Switching from solid state to tube amplification helped marginally, but not really enough for me to feel that the bass was all that good.
Mids: The middle frequencies sounded very neutral to cold. There was some good, natural detail in this region, but this seemed to come at the cost of any pleasing warmth. Dave Gllmour’s voice on Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here “(2011 remaster) sounded rather strained, but in a way that suggested more realism that sounding merely off. Female vocals featured in such bands as Maidens IV sound really good, with a nice hint of sweetness, but still rather dry as opposed to lush.
Details (separate from detail, an aspect of the Aria I explore in the Highs section) in this range seemed rather well done, with things such as breaths and fret slides being audible, but not distractingly so. Listening to “The Promise/Blinded by Light” off the album “A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy” had me doing a double take as I heard one of the artists taking a very deep breath right before transitioning to the Blinded by Light part of the medley. All in all, I found the mids to be a mixed bag. It didn’t have the hedonistic pleasure of drinking in warm mids, but it did illustrate that the intoxication of thickness does cloud one’s senses to things they wouldn’t be able to hear without a considerably more sober sound signature. The mids got considerably warmer through tubes, but I mostly felt it brought it to a base level, and didn’t sound like the headphones I enjoy running through tubes.
Highs: Oh boy. The highs aren’t not there, which I think we can all agree is a good thing. But I think the universal agreement on this aspect ends there. I listed my repertoire and I mentioned my preference for dark sound sigs. I like my treble rolled off. Not too steep, but still, I feel a steady decline is best. Well, let me tell you that that is not the case with the Aria.
Treble detail is very present, with crunchiness added to guitars, grain added to violins and percussion that feels like Bruce Lee decided to one-inch-punch through your eardrum. Oddly enough, there seems to be a dip in the treble at some point in the mid-upper area, as cymbals sound a bit splashy, but otherwise fine and grainy instruments such as violins never got to the point where I cringed in pain, but I was preparing to cower as I heard them build up to higher pitched crescendos. I wouldn’t even say the Aria’s have sparkle, because to me, sparkle implies a rather delicate emphasis, and the highs here are too heavy handed.
In all, I would wager this is the make or break aspect, and totally based on your subjective view. The Arias are bright, and though a good thing for trebleheads, it was decidedly less good in my book.
Soundstage/Imaging/Transients: Soundstage on the Aria was pretty good. On the wide side, but rather close, I felt like this was an area where a check+ is earned. Imaging was pretty decent, with about 4 main points per side where the instruments seemed to come from. Listening to “Bubbles” by Yosi Horikawa was marvelous as always and Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive” album sounded particularly immersive. Speed was also very good, as the drivers sounded nice and fast, striking with good attack and nimble decay. Though that is to be expected from BA configurations.
Value: This is a tough one. 500 bones is a lot to ask, even still in today’s world of $5000+ flagships. Honestly, the Aria gets a lot of the technical aspects right, but dat sound sig do’.I would only really recommend this as a niche product, as its anemic nature may be both its Achilles heel as well as its greatest draw. If this were $100, I’d give it a hearty recommendation as the Aria’s frequency emphasis would be livable for all the things it does right sound-wise on top of a unique looking housing and replaceable cables. But if you’re going to spend half a grand on the Aria, you better have done your research and know full well what you’re getting into.
In conclusion: The Aria is capable on a technical level, but in my opinion, the tuning is a major deal breaker. Very much on the bright side with a rather sucked-out midbass and combined with the $500 price point, I can only recommend this if you are a treble-head who absolutely values detail and tight rhythm above all. In total, it is too niche for my tastes, and with my subjective preferences factored in, I can only rate it 3 stars out of 5. It does many things well, but the anemic sound signature and sterile nature are just too much for me to see past.
I would like to thank Luke Pighetti of Vibro Labs for the opportunity to review their product and expand my pool of experience.
I was allowed to spend 1 week listening to the Aria in exchange for this review.
The Vibro Labs Aria is a quad BA driver IEM and comes in both universal and custom forms. It is currently listed at $499 direct from Vibro Labs. This review is focused on the universal model that I had a chance to spend some time with as part of a tour.
Background: I’ve been part of the headphone hobbyist community for 3 years now. I’ve amassed a sizeable collection of headphones, notable among them being my LCD-2 (2016 rev), HD6XX, Vmoda M-80, JVC HA-SZ2000 and Oppo PM-3 among others. In terms of IEMs, I own a Sony XBA-H1 and have owned a HiFiMan RE-600. I tend to have a preference for dark signatures, and am very fond of good price/performance ratios (My ongoing love affair with KZ IEMs only serves to reinforce this point).
Presentation/build quality: The Aria I sampled came with a wooden like exterior face, and featured a clear-ish plastic like enclosure around the sides and forming the nozzle. The wood looks nice in pictures, and my home does have really cruddy lighting, but the wooden looking part didn’t seem as vibrant and with as much contrast with the wood grain as I was anticipating. The housings themselves seem sturdy enough, and like they will hold up well so long as one takes a modicum of care when handling them.
They feature a detachable 2 pin cable, and the one provided with the tour model was extremely nice. It featured a plasticized, braided exterior with a 90 degree connector and handled like a linen rope. The wire forms stiff but still rather flexible ear hooks.
Comfort wise the housing didn’t feel heavy at all thanks to the ear hooks, but the bore of the nozzle felt way too wide for my ears when inserted, even with the smallest cushions I had avaliable (comply foam tips size small). This led to some frustration as I couldn’t listen to the Aria for more than an hour at a time before I had to give it a rest due to discomfort. The housing seemed shaped well for my ears, and the shape as well as the tips did a decent job helping isolate me from outside sounds.
Sound Impressions: Listening was done with a variety of sources and amplification. I used either premium Spotify or FLAC files direct from my phone (Moto X 2nd Gen) or from Spotify or Foobar2000 from my computer. When listening to files on my computer, I used a Schiit Modi 2 DAC and switched between a Magni 2 solid state amp, and a Little Dot I+ Hybrid tube amplifier.
Bass: This point was an overall letdown for me. Listening to “Silent Shout” by The Knife didn’t start promising. A short while into the track, a deep, heart beat like percussion steps into the mix, and I was a little stunned. It didn’t feel like it was washing over me like with previous headphones I heard this song with. To put it succinctly, it sounded like someone knocking on a dense door. There was way too much punch and it left me feeling unsatisfied. This would become a trend throughout my experience.
Listening to Irish folk music, percussion instruments such as a bodhran delivered a tight beat, but lost their vibrance. Trance tracks featured some good sub-bass out of the Aria, but with so little midbass that the beats sounded hollow. Hearing the drop on Coldplay’s “Paradise” sounded like a clicking mechanical monster rather than a heady buzz. In all, I felt the subbass was adequate in a vacuum, but the mid-bass sounded sucked out, and this combined with the sub-bass and extended highs made most beats, whether acoustic or electronic, sound absolutely empty Switching from solid state to tube amplification helped marginally, but not really enough for me to feel that the bass was all that good.
Mids: The middle frequencies sounded very neutral to cold. There was some good, natural detail in this region, but this seemed to come at the cost of any pleasing warmth. Dave Gllmour’s voice on Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here “(2011 remaster) sounded rather strained, but in a way that suggested more realism that sounding merely off. Female vocals featured in such bands as Maidens IV sound really good, with a nice hint of sweetness, but still rather dry as opposed to lush.
Details (separate from detail, an aspect of the Aria I explore in the Highs section) in this range seemed rather well done, with things such as breaths and fret slides being audible, but not distractingly so. Listening to “The Promise/Blinded by Light” off the album “A New World: Intimate Music from Final Fantasy” had me doing a double take as I heard one of the artists taking a very deep breath right before transitioning to the Blinded by Light part of the medley. All in all, I found the mids to be a mixed bag. It didn’t have the hedonistic pleasure of drinking in warm mids, but it did illustrate that the intoxication of thickness does cloud one’s senses to things they wouldn’t be able to hear without a considerably more sober sound signature. The mids got considerably warmer through tubes, but I mostly felt it brought it to a base level, and didn’t sound like the headphones I enjoy running through tubes.
Highs: Oh boy. The highs aren’t not there, which I think we can all agree is a good thing. But I think the universal agreement on this aspect ends there. I listed my repertoire and I mentioned my preference for dark sound sigs. I like my treble rolled off. Not too steep, but still, I feel a steady decline is best. Well, let me tell you that that is not the case with the Aria.
Treble detail is very present, with crunchiness added to guitars, grain added to violins and percussion that feels like Bruce Lee decided to one-inch-punch through your eardrum. Oddly enough, there seems to be a dip in the treble at some point in the mid-upper area, as cymbals sound a bit splashy, but otherwise fine and grainy instruments such as violins never got to the point where I cringed in pain, but I was preparing to cower as I heard them build up to higher pitched crescendos. I wouldn’t even say the Aria’s have sparkle, because to me, sparkle implies a rather delicate emphasis, and the highs here are too heavy handed.
In all, I would wager this is the make or break aspect, and totally based on your subjective view. The Arias are bright, and though a good thing for trebleheads, it was decidedly less good in my book.
Soundstage/Imaging/Transients: Soundstage on the Aria was pretty good. On the wide side, but rather close, I felt like this was an area where a check+ is earned. Imaging was pretty decent, with about 4 main points per side where the instruments seemed to come from. Listening to “Bubbles” by Yosi Horikawa was marvelous as always and Peter Frampton’s “Frampton Comes Alive” album sounded particularly immersive. Speed was also very good, as the drivers sounded nice and fast, striking with good attack and nimble decay. Though that is to be expected from BA configurations.
Value: This is a tough one. 500 bones is a lot to ask, even still in today’s world of $5000+ flagships. Honestly, the Aria gets a lot of the technical aspects right, but dat sound sig do’.I would only really recommend this as a niche product, as its anemic nature may be both its Achilles heel as well as its greatest draw. If this were $100, I’d give it a hearty recommendation as the Aria’s frequency emphasis would be livable for all the things it does right sound-wise on top of a unique looking housing and replaceable cables. But if you’re going to spend half a grand on the Aria, you better have done your research and know full well what you’re getting into.
In conclusion: The Aria is capable on a technical level, but in my opinion, the tuning is a major deal breaker. Very much on the bright side with a rather sucked-out midbass and combined with the $500 price point, I can only recommend this if you are a treble-head who absolutely values detail and tight rhythm above all. In total, it is too niche for my tastes, and with my subjective preferences factored in, I can only rate it 3 stars out of 5. It does many things well, but the anemic sound signature and sterile nature are just too much for me to see past.
I would like to thank Luke Pighetti of Vibro Labs for the opportunity to review their product and expand my pool of experience.
I think a lot of people are in the same boat when it comes to bass fun cans. Your review sold me and I just paid Vapman for his extra pair of these cans with upgraded pads. Can you take a screenshot of your EQ you use most often for these cans and PM with it? Almost bought the Crossfade Vmoda M-100, but I had more than one person tell me if I want bass kings these are the way to go. I really wanted to grab those Fostex THxxx massdrop ones as well... and the others are very high priced... so yeah same boat, I am not even going to listen to these when they get in the mail, just burn in for 3 days straight.