[sionghchan]

Hello all,

Just wanted to start this thread to show my true apreciation to the Corda Aria. Thanks to Janos here on Head-fi, I managed to get a Corda Aria at the Jubileum price 2 months after that price has ended. In anycase, this is my first "mid-fi amp" so, take what I'm saying with a grain of salt as I haven't heard anything better.

Prior to the Corda Aria, I was using the PA2V2. The first time I powered on the Aria, popped in my Rachmaninov Piano Concerto suite (Hyperion - Stephen Hough and Dallas Symphony) SACD and plugged in my DT880, my eyes popped out, my jaws dropped and I was floored. The details! The soundstage. The focus and instrument seperation! I heard things that I have never heard before! I hear Stephen Hough shifting in his seat. I hear the audience for the first time. I hear Andrew Litton's batton flicking. MY GOD! I'm in HEAVEN! The details were what impressed me most. Oh those delicious details...made me put in all my CDs and SACDs and it is like listening to them for the first time again, there were SO MANY things I've never heard! Man, I hear Glenn Gould humming away in his Bach recordings.

For the first time in my life, I know what high-end audio is all about. Just wanted to say THANK YOU Jan for the Aria, THANK YOU Head-fi for introducing me to this hobby and THANK YOU all of you who recommended the Aria.

I'm so addicted that I woke up at 2am on a Saturday morning to begin my listening session (while wife and baby are sleeping) and now's 5am and I'm still at my listening station.

All I can say is WOW! Anyone else out there have had the same experience with the Aria?

 

[fewtch]

Where's the Corda Aria wish thread, as in "I wish I could afford one, but it's definitely out of reach" ...

Not that my Pimeta is any slouch, but it seems the Aria is really something special paired with DT880s.

 

[vpivinylspinner]

I have begun to appreciate mine more and more through the burn in. I am currently burning it in with my couple of week old DT-880s and my new HD-650s. The detail you speak of is certainly there. I listened to a live broadcast two nights ago from the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in NYC. I could actually hear the wood floor creak as the bass player swayed the instrument on its perch with the music. Very realistic but a bit too much for this performance. A quick question. How far do you generally keep the volume turned up with your DT-880s? I have the volume at about 2 o'clock for those and about 4 o'clock with the Senns.

 

[sionghchan]

Quote:

Originally Posted by vpivinylspinner A quick question. How far do you generally keep the volume turned up with your DT-880s? I have the volume at about 2 o'clock for those and about 4 o'clock with the Senns.

Volume, that is a very difficult question to answer. If your CD/SACD player just has RCA outs with no volume control, (like my Sony), I rarely go beyond 12 o'clock. In fact, this also depends on the recording. I found the SACD recording of the Rachmaninov Concertos recording by Stephen Hough to be very soft. So, for this, I have it at 12 o'clock. For other recordings, like the Bebo & Cigala's Lagrimas Negras recording, it is loud and I can hardly go past the 10 o'clock mark. Diana Krall's recordings are loud as well...seldome past the 9 to 10 o'clock mark.

 

[fjf]

Yep, Jan's amps are really something: detailled, musical. You hear people cough, the valves of the wind instruments snapping when closing...All surrounded by a wonderful music, of course. Is like being with the orchestra. Nice!.

 

[vpivinylspinner]

Yes you are correct. I am using tape outputs from a couple of different preamps and I have found all sources seem to need a but of volume to sound very dynamic. I suppose it must be an impedence mismatch that is requiring extra juice. The sound of the amp is really pretty good and I am still trying to decide if I prefer the cross feed function or if it must be on a case-by-case basis.

 

[trbl]

I'm very pleased with the combination of my special higher gain version of the Corda Aria and the AKG K701. They work superbly together. Nothing seems to be either lost or added, hidden or accentuated. The result is well-balanced and highly enjoyable sound reproduction. Kudos to both Jan and AKG for producing such masterpieces at reasonable prices.

 

[m_memmory]

I found that I like the crossfeed on all the time - there's only a few songs that really sound any different with it on or off (most of my music just plays the same through both earphones) but I think it just sounds wonderful with it on.

As for the Aria overall.... well I adore it. I come back from working nights at 6am and start listening and I'll still be listening about 3-4 hours later when I should really be asleep. I play my music from my PC via the USB port on the Aria and then through my DT880 and I think it's bliss. I'm easily able to pick out any and all my different CD collection (well FLAC collection now) and listen to all those songs that I don't hear much.

Thanks to all this I'm just in audio bliss. The only problem is actually trying to do anything which involves taking the headphones off!

 

[arielext]

The synergy between beyer headphones and the aria is a proven fact. I totally adore the aria / dt990 setup, listening to high quality recordings (like the 'sleepy buildings' cd from 'the gathering') the combo is just so real, so musical that I just feel the same as when I went to the concert itself! Ok, so the sound quality of the aria/dt990 is better than the real thing, you won't hear me complain

Team Beyer/Meier

 

[apostate]

I'm very pleased with my Aria with all of my headphones. Very natural and musical sounding to my ears and a very large improvement from my TAH. Some of the live recordings of bands I have seen in person seem very accurate to the live experience.

The DAC in the Aria has been a pleasant surprise as well as it is a substantial improvement over the line-out in my Mac.

The next step for me is to re-add my Proceed DAC to the chain now that I've pretty much committed to my computer as a transport. The combination of Aria and the Proceed DAC was magical the few times I listened to it with a CD transport. Maybe even enough to postpone upgraditis for a very long time.

Ant

 

[sionghchan]

Hmm..I'm surprised that we do not have a lot of love for this tiny little wonder of an amp (so few responses to this thread). A GREAT value too. Maybe that is why Jan still has some left from his batch of 500 amps.

Was wondering if it is indeed true that the Aria is truly limited to 500 pieces only. If that is the case, that would be a total shame..

 

[rhymesgalore]

I also love my Aria very much! First i was stunned about the building quality, and then shocked by the sonical performance, because this was my first headphone amp. My Senns were brought to real life by it. And the DAC comes in very handy as well, even though computer isn't my main source. It's an excellent value for the money, and what has to be point out as well: Dealing with Jan Meier is an absolute pleasure! I ordered the Aria on a monday, and had it by wednesday! (I'm from germany). I would buy it again, without hesitation.......

 

[Ervinos]

It has been quite an experience listening to the aria & beyer dt880's & 990's. The detail & soundstage is amazing - almost to an overwhelming degree with the 880's. The separation between instruments is quite something - you can switch attention from one to another without straining to pick them out, if you know what I mean. The 990's are giving my music a bit more punch & I am listening more to these with the aria than the 880's at the moment. Female voices are particularly beautiful with a beyer / aria combo, imo.

Money well spent I think. Great product & service from Jan, so hats off to him,

Ian

 

[angler31337]

In my experience, it's kind of hard to appreciate the Aria itself -- I always end up getting so engrossed in the music that I forget to pay attention to the amp. The Aria is the only amp that has yet to have that effect on me. The detail is there, but I find it present in almost the same level as actually going to a concert, etc. So even when actively trying to listen to the amp, I keep finding myself wandering off. I love the sound the Aria provides; so I suppose that means I love the aria by implication.

-Angler

 

[raylpc]

I'm also enjoying my Aria + DT880. (I first got introduced to the DT880, thanks to sionghchan

)

I'm still a newbie, so I don't know how I can put my words together. Anyways, I really enjoy the details, smoothness and sweetness of this combo. Thumbs up for Jan and Beyer.