HIFIMAN Arya - Arya Stealth - Arya Organic :: Impressions Thread
Jul 7, 2021 at 6:02 PM Post #4,141 of 11,822
Frequency response might be objective (it has its own headphone measuring problems) but I find it uninformative for the most part in a sense of defining or predicting my enjoyment with the headphones. As we all agree, I think, this is a highly subjective hobby, and calling reviewers or each other liars or worse is not helpful.
Yeah, I agree. Not sure why Audio Science Review exists in this hobby if all they are after is 0 distortion and flat frequency response. I cringe so hard when I see Amir's "I cannot recommend you to buy this product because for 20% of the price, the Massdrop THX 789 measures much better"
 
Jul 7, 2021 at 6:03 PM Post #4,142 of 11,822
@In1unison

wow thanks, and sorry for my little tiny vocabulary world, must be a pain to read haha

@dsrk

hmm, maybe zmf headphones could be something worth trying? Not sure if there are stores in America to try it out, or demo days of the sort anywhere? I only heard the verite open and that sounded like an absolute endgame to me and threw the arya out of the water with authority for me, which i find "almost" superior up to 2000€ from what i have heard until now. Was really surprised. (like the LCD-2 very much though).

The verite was fascinating and while maintaining all the details, which i personally never found fatiguing, it was slamming pretty hard and handled every genre well (i listen to rock, hard rock, metal, classic, songwriter/vocals, electronic, chinese/japanese pop, folk, blues/funk, country, jazz, tried them all.

Iam new to this forum, so not sure, but maybe you could go to a forum member come together, take your amp and music with you and try a bunch of stuff out, before you purchase something?
FWIW, IMHO Verite is sort of like the all-grown-up endgame version of HD800S / Arya with none of the downsides of either. I had both when I got Verite and I never expected it to supplant them both as my favorite headphone, but that is exactly what it did.

Also, have you ever heard anyone say "I don't like the Verite"? Yeah, me neither.
 
Jul 7, 2021 at 6:03 PM Post #4,143 of 11,822
FWIW, IMHO Verite is sort of like the all-grown-up endgame version of HD800S / Arya with none of the downsides of either. I had both when I got Verite and I never expected it to supplant them both as my favorite headphone, but that is exactly what it did.

Also, have you ever heard anyone say "I don't like the Verite"? Yeah, me neither.
Crinacle is the only person I know who doesn't like the vérité
 
Jul 7, 2021 at 6:14 PM Post #4,144 of 11,822
Crinacle is the only person I know who doesn't like the vérité

Well, I didn't like it trying to run the Verite off of a Black Label either. It's almost like amps make some kind of difference to the overall sound...
 
Jul 7, 2021 at 6:19 PM Post #4,145 of 11,822
Yeah, I agree. Not sure why Audio Science Review exists in this hobby if all they are after is 0 distortion and flat frequency response. I cringe so hard when I see Amir's "I cannot recommend you to buy this product because for 20% of the price, the Massdrop THX 789 measures much better"
It is somewhat laughable
 
Jul 7, 2021 at 6:22 PM Post #4,146 of 11,822
I think how they're amped makes an impact on how they sound. My Gustard, after it's warmed up, makes Arya sing without the extra sharp Ssss or Tttt unless they're on the recording. When I had brighter chip amps they had no warmth. Of course we all have different ears and sensitivity to trebles.
Yes, that is also true. Like with two channel audio, equipment matching is important and makes a difference
 
Jul 8, 2021 at 1:44 AM Post #4,147 of 11,822
Isn't it sibilance, if i find for example S tones unbearable, no matter how good the recording is until a max.
No, because sibilance, strictly speaking, is a form of distortion in the treble and high mids due to lack of resolution. It is not just about excess of these frequencies. If this area is full of undistorted detail, it shouldn't be called sibilance. Especially if it's not slamming with excessive dynamics like LCD-XC. Arya doesn't have much slam, therefore it can't be aggressive by nature. It presents the sound as distant and spacious. And if you try boosting your volume trying to achieve some dynamic impact and slam that these headphones are not supposed to deliver, then you simply went in the wrong direction and this headphone is just not what you need. If you consider Arya as sibilant, then any Beyerdynamic headphone would just blow your head off and bleed your ears with extreme sibilance right away.

Andrew 'Resolve' from The HEADPHONE Show explained the term 'sibilance' somewhere I don't remember... He doesn't even suggest EQing the Arya, if you watch his review. Although he measured and analysed the frequency response graph and talked about those bumps in the treble.

Similarly, Joshua Valour when talking about the 'S' region of these headphones explains in detail what sibilance is and why it doesn't have anything to do with Arya (11:28):


The dac/amp chain also plays a vital role here. Synergy is extremely important due to multiple factors I've already explained earlier: impedance matching, current, voltage, damping factor, circuit design, principal method of amplification, different approach to transducing the sound in dynamic and planar headphones etc.

However, I totally agree that hearing differences, head and ear pinnae shape etc. can massively change your perception of a headphone. So yeah, this whole hobby is very subjective.
 
Jul 8, 2021 at 1:58 AM Post #4,148 of 11,822
No, because sibilance, strictly speaking, is a form of distortion in the treble and high mids due to lack of resolution. It is not just about excess of these frequencies. If this area is full of undistorted detail, it shouldn't be called sibilance. Especially if it's not slamming with excessive dynamics like LCD-XC. Arya doesn't have much slam, therefore it can't be aggressive by nature. It presents the sound as distant and spacious. And if you try boosting your volume trying to achieve some dynamic impact and slam that these headphones are not supposed to deliver, then you simply went in the wrong direction and this headphone is just not what you need. If you consider Arya as sibilant, then any Beyerdynamic headphone would just blow your head off and bleed your ears with extreme sibilance right away.

Andrew 'Resolve' from The HEADPHONE Show explained the term 'sibilance' somewhere I don't remember... He doesn't even suggest EQing the Arya, if you watch his review. Although he measured and analysed the frequency response graph and talked about those bumps in the treble.

Similarly, Joshua Valour when talking about the 'S' region of these headphones explains in detail what sibilance is and why it doesn't have anything to do with Arya (11:28):


The dac/amp chain also plays a vital role here. Synergy is extremely important due to multiple factors I've already explained earlier: impedance matching, current, voltage, damping factor, circuit design, principal method of amplification, different approach to transducing the sound in dynamic and planar headphones etc.

However, I totally agree that hearing differences, head and ear pinnae shape etc. can massively change your perception of a headphone. So yeah, this whole hobby is very subjective.

"If you consider Arya as sibilant, then any Beyerdynamic headphone would just blow your head off....." Haha, funny.
 
Jul 8, 2021 at 4:40 AM Post #4,149 of 11,822
and calling reviewers or each other liars or worse is not helpful.

That's why it's not a bad idea to read/watch several reviews, find a pattern and average them out if possible.
 
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Jul 8, 2021 at 7:15 AM Post #4,150 of 11,822
No, because sibilance, strictly speaking, is a form of distortion in the treble and high mids due to lack of resolution. It is not just about excess of these frequencies. If this area is full of undistorted detail, it shouldn't be called sibilance. Especially if it's not slamming with excessive dynamics like LCD-XC. Arya doesn't have much slam, therefore it can't be aggressive by nature. It presents the sound as distant and spacious. And if you try boosting your volume trying to achieve some dynamic impact and slam that these headphones are not supposed to deliver, then you simply went in the wrong direction and this headphone is just not what you need. If you consider Arya as sibilant, then any Beyerdynamic headphone would just blow your head off and bleed your ears with extreme sibilance right away.

Andrew 'Resolve' from The HEADPHONE Show explained the term 'sibilance' somewhere I don't remember... He doesn't even suggest EQing the Arya, if you watch his review. Although he measured and analysed the frequency response graph and talked about those bumps in the treble.

Similarly, Joshua Valour when talking about the 'S' region of these headphones explains in detail what sibilance is and why it doesn't have anything to do with Arya (11:28):


The dac/amp chain also plays a vital role here. Synergy is extremely important due to multiple factors I've already explained earlier: impedance matching, current, voltage, damping factor, circuit design, principal method of amplification, different approach to transducing the sound in dynamic and planar headphones etc.

However, I totally agree that hearing differences, head and ear pinnae shape etc. can massively change your perception of a headphone. So yeah, this whole hobby is very subjective.

We should be using words as intended

Definition of sibilant

: having, containing or producing the sound of or a sound resembling that of the s or the sh in sash

Anyways, I don't find Arya to be unpleasantly sibilant in the above sense. If one hears harshness or emphasis in the s/ sh region usually the problem is in the source or DAC as you rightly pointed out.
 
Jul 8, 2021 at 8:25 AM Post #4,151 of 11,822

Definition of sibilant

: having, containing or producing the sound of or a sound resembling that of the s or the sh in sash

Absolutely correct definition for a sound. The key word here is producing, not reproducing. A headphone can reproduce a sibilant sound, if it's present (containing) in the recording, but it doesn't make a headphone itself sibilant, even if it emphasizes certain areas where this s-sound appears. Unless it adds some additional s-sound, i.e. noise and distortion not present in the original recording, thus producing sibilance and lowering resolution.

Don't get me wrong mate, I'm not trying to confront, because the definition of this term is absolutely correct. I just simply contextualized it. And so did our audio reviewers.
 
Jul 8, 2021 at 8:40 AM Post #4,152 of 11,822
Absolutely correct definition for a sound. The key word here is producing, not reproducing. A headphone can reproduce a sibilant sound, if it's present (containing) in the recording, but it doesn't make a headphone itself sibilant, even if it emphasizes certain areas where this s-sound appears. Unless it adds some additional s-sound, i.e. noise and distortion not present in the original recording, thus producing sibilance and lowering resolution.

Don't get me wrong mate, I'm not trying to confront, because the definition of this term is absolutely correct. I just simply contextualized it. And so did our audio reviewers.
We are just discussing, and trying to make some sense of our hobby, so I don't see this as confrontation. Anyway, I think we are in agreement regarding the Arya and sibilance, no matter the question of definition or semantics.
 
Jul 8, 2021 at 4:10 PM Post #4,153 of 11,822
Just to refresh this tough discussion :) my desktop DAC+AMP setup is complete now...
20210707_122429.jpg
 
Jul 9, 2021 at 12:30 AM Post #4,154 of 11,822
Just to refresh this tough discussion :) my desktop DAC+AMP setup is complete now...20210707_122429.jpg
How's the sound quality with Arya? I have the h20 with an SMSL dac.
 
Jul 9, 2021 at 9:09 AM Post #4,155 of 11,822
How's the sound quality with Arya? I have the h20 with an SMSL dac.
SQ is fine :) don't want to do early verdicts, but it is not night and day difference from Qudelix5k. :)

One question, when you put your DAC to max volume (0db attenuation) what will be your normal listening level volume position on H20? Thank you.
 

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