@bidn: Thanks for another great reply; I'll respond to it with the care it deserves when I get the time/energy.
Take a look at Cayin iHA-6 amp, very powerful (both voltage and current) and versatile, also a very fair price.
Oh, believe me, I have been! Thanks for the recommendation.
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Ok, so I know I said I wouldn't do this (post any impressions about the Arya until I really grasped its overall sound signature by getting used to it over time), but I can't contain myself.
I only got 5-6 hours of sleep last night: I was like a kid waiting for a birthday! The FedEx guy showed up at around noon so luckily I didn't have to wait too long for my present.
I've only been listening a few hours, and I won't go much into the sound quality, but I wanted to quickly describe why I already think this is such a power hungry headphone.
When the Arya came I was resting and debating taking a nap (my significant other could've gotten the door for the signature required if I didn't wake up). So I simply unboxed it meaning to just put it away until I got some rest, but then my excitement overcame my desire for rest, so for the heck of it I decided to quickly try it out on my bedroom setup. I plugged it right into the headphone out on my Node 2i which is very unpowered (it only gets my Sundara's to mid-high volume with the volume at 100%). The Arya's only got to low-mid level volume through that out, and, more importantly, sounded so small, anemic, with such a constrained sound stage and lack of dynamics. Just as expected.
Ok, so I plugged them into my Schiit Asgard 2 which is also in my bedroom setup (having being regulated to a distant 2nd place after my Gilmore Lite Mk2 took over in my main office-study setup). I tried them first on the low gain: wow, had to turn the Schiit up to the 1-2:00 volume position to get a mid-hi volume. Ok, switch to the high gain setting. Well that had the power to drive them well (the Asgard is 1.0W RMS per channel at 32 ohms) with a mid-hi volume right around the halfway (11-12:00) volume position. However, I still think they aren't quite as well driven as they could be via the Asgard. For instance, my Sundara's sound more full and dynamic (even not being the better headphone by far as I already know) on the Asgard, and at the 12:00 position on high gain they are uncomfortably loud...which is why when using them on the Schiit I use the low gain setting.
So by this time I'm fully up and have to eschew sleep to go into my office-study and try out the Ayra's on my main headphone system via computer--->old Cambridge DacMagic--->Gilmore Lite Mk2. This amp seems about as powerful (probably a bit more) as the Asgard and is much better sounding. There is no gain switch and I'm moving the volume between 10-12:00 depending on recording (some are less loud than others of course) to listen at a mid-hi volume (a little louder than normal for "testing" purposes). However, compared to the Sundara's, that's about 3-4 marks on the dial higher than I listen to them to reach the same mid-hi volume.
More importantly I still feel, unless this is how the Arya's just sound, that the sound isn't as full or powerful as it should be, it's a bit lean, even if the volume is high enough to be uncomfortable. Maybe I'm just used to the more congested/rounded/less accurate sound of the Sundara's that are more mid-range centric.
Just first impressions, and I'm very tired so my perception is certainly compromised lol.
An important note: I'm very picky about DR on recordings and look for the highest DR I can get for a recording (I often utilize this great site
http://dr.loudness-war.info/ for these purposes), so the perceived loudness (or lack thereof) of an amp is not a matter of the music being mastered overly loud; that can deceive some to think a less powerful amp "gets plenty loud" at a moderate mark on the volume knob if most of what they listen to only has a DR of 3-9 for instance like unfortunately so much pop music since the early 90's has had. (My test tracks have nothing less than a DR of 11 and up to 17).
As for the sound quality overall, despite some slight criticisms I already have that I won't yet mention in order to make sure they are not simply a matter of my being tired/unused to the sound signature (but if they persist then I'll be very interested in what a good EQ, such as the one the RME ADI-2 DAC FS, could do), I'll just say the realism (especially in the sound stage/imaging/separation and special mention to vocal timbre which is simply outstanding) is almost speaker-like, as in life-like, better than I've ever heard from a headphone (the prior best being my old T1's that I recently loaned to an out of state friend indefinitely so I can't compare). Also, this is not a laid back or gentle can; a sense of urgency in the music (especially in vocals) easily comes through when required, they keep up well to some of the fastest music I have (like speed/thrash metal), and aggressive music sounds appropriately so (yet speed and aggressiveness is never overdone) with good guitar bite for instance. Moreover, some tracks (mostly test tracks of mine for SQ and personal favorite reasons) have been simply revelatory.
The best thing I can say right now is that my girlfriend walked in when I was listening, saw that I was visibly emotional, and asked what was wrong expecting me to be, like I am so many days in these terrible times, upset about the recent pandemic death count or some other dismal news. I simply could only stammer that nothing was wrong, that these headphones sound
so good that it's just beautiful and I'm very happy.
