Just wanted to give my impressions with the Arya, I have had them for around 5 days now and have listened to them roughly around 15 hours to 20 hours. I am only giving my impressions as of right now because due to work I have yet to really sit down and go through the works of albums, genres, and just overall music to test and review these on. I am also currently waiting for a balanced cable(which I believe for 1600 dollars they should of included a balanced cable in the package as well since they did so with the HE-560 for god sakes. lol, but that is a nitpick that I dealt with on my own) to arrive that I ordered from ebay. I have used this headphone as of this moment with a few genres, watching my blueray quality anime, and finally gaming. For those looking into this headphone or wanting short opinions then I will say this: If you want something from hifiman that falls in the Hi-Fi/end game scale of headphone and also sounds like it then yes the Hifiman Arya is worth it. If you want a lesser bright Hifiman headphone with a very balanced, easily listenable as well as enjoyable signature, the yes the Arya is worth it. If you want something that sounds good with many and if not all (that I have listened to) genres of music, moves and anime, and finally games( with both good bass extension and adequate punch as well as treble extension with resolution) then the Arya is worth it. This is just for those that are on the fence and want some one's opinion if the Arya is a good endgame and all rounder headphone.
Up until last week I had been testing, reviewing, and enjoying the Ananda but due to my own jaw width and lack of swivel of the Ananda I decided to upgrade to the Arya and pay the difference. Which was relatively harmless, and for those that have or have tried the Ananda and felt that the upper midrange/lower treble was a little too much at times then I urge you to please find and try the Arya. It keeps many things that I thought was great about the Anada, such as: midrange from stringed instruments to vocals it sounds beautiful, great instrumental spacing and definition, resolution that is a step up from the other models of headphone I have heard in the 500-800 dollar range. Also, the Arya improves on things like more balanced treble without losing detail or resolution it is able to smooth the sound in the upper midrange to treble to where those that are sibilant sensitive will have much less of a problem with the Arya than they did with the Ananda. The low end is great, decent weight where it is not too thin or light in the note presentation and overall tonality seems very natural to the mids and highs that feel lovely and detailed without being to bright to my ears.
Overall the comfort is going to vary form shape of ear to size of head, but I feel that the Arya was instantly more comfortable to me. The yokes are metal so less likely there will be the build issues of the HE-560 models, the pressure underneath and behind my ear is less than it was with the Anada for me which was the hardest thing for me to deal with when using the Ananda. It is lightweight as far as planar headphones go and the strap doesn't feel overly hot or cause any pressure spots. I will be writing out more findings the longer I have it, with a final review as well, and when the new cable comes in and can try it with more power.