[LaMosca]

How have people found the durability of the Arya?

I have a set of HE-400i's for which I've found durability to be poor. Ear pads disintegrated (glue?), cable failed and now the headband is falling apart. This has me hesitant to spend Arya money if the durability is low so any feedback would be greatly appreciated

 

[BenSherman]

I'm still not sure you want the V2 over the V3. If you're worried about the size of the soundstage on the V3, don't be.

Thanks - I think you could be right, and the V3 might actually be closer to what I'm after (and yes - I'm concerned about losing the infamous soundstage, as others seem to be, but no doubt that concern is unfounded).

However, I keep thinking I should completely change track on my headphone choice, and opt for something much warmer/lusher - like the Meze Empyrean.

And all this bearing in mind that I haven't actually heard any of these - and completely relying on advice from this forum, and reviews on YouTube!!

 

[Reputator]

Thanks - I think you could be right, and the V3 might actually be closer to what I'm after (and yes - I'm concerned about losing the infamous soundstage, as others seem to be, but no doubt that concern is unfounded).

However, I keep thinking I should completely change track on my headphone choice, and opt for something much warmer/lusher - like the Meze Empyrean.

And all this bearing in mind that I haven't actually heard any of these - and completely relying on advice from this forum, and reviews on YouTube!!

For clarification, you're saying you've never owned a piece of audiophile gear before?

 

[BenSherman]

For clarification, you're saying you've never owned a piece of audiophile gear before?

I have some Sonos speakers - which are fine for casual listening or background music when friends visit etc. About 25 years ago - I bought an incredible sound system for my car, with custom-housed sub-woofers that created the purest bass I've ever experienced - 'Smack my Bitch Up' by The Prodigy would quite literally shake my rib cage!

But I wouldn't consider either of these as audiophile gear.

I plan to take a bank loan, buy a setup that blows me away, and that I can happily keep forever - and (hopefully) not lust after newer and better gear in the future!!

 

[Reputator]

I have some Sonos speakers - which are fine for casual listening or background music when friends visit etc. About 25 years ago - I bought an incredible sound system for my car, with custom-housed sub-woofers that created the purest bass I've ever experienced - 'Smack my Bitch Up' by The Prodigy would quite literally shake my rib cage!

But I wouldn't consider either of these as audiophile gear.

I plan to take a bank loan, buy a setup that blows me away, and that I can happily keep forever - and (hopefully) not lust after newer and better gear in the future!!

I see. Reason I ask is because audio preferences develop over time. The warm/lush sound signature you're going for is usually a fairly safe bet, and is generally crowd-pleasing, but you can't know for sure if it suits you best until you hear it. My advice would be to make sure the places you buy from have a good return policy, JUST in case you don't love that sound signature.

 

[haasaaroni]

That's a really interesting description of the Arya.

I'm completely new to the audiophile world, and I'm planning to get a good setup from the off.

Having done ridiculous amounts of research online (I have no local stores to test this stuff) - I think I've settled on ordering the following:

Denafrips Ares II > Burson Soloist X3 > Hifiman Arya V2 (plus some Van Damme balanced cables).

I plan to use my Android phone to stream Hi-Res files on Qobuz.

I'm quite concerned that the Arya is not going to be the best headphone for me. I'm drawn to it because I LOVE the idea of a huge, immersive soundstage, with three-dimensional depth and layers. I want to feel like I'm at a gig, or a concert, or a jazz club, or I have a singer songwriter performing for me in my living room! However, I don't listen to orchestral or classical. I like acoustic, folk, indie, a bit of jazz (and, conversely, drum and bass).

Do you think the Arya will be a good match?

I'm looking for a natural, organic, live sound. Erring on the side of warm/rich (but still clean). Big deep soundstage. Really engaging, musical and evoking. I'm less focused on analytical/reference level detail retrieval, or visceral punch/slam (would be nice but certainly not important). I hope to avoid a shrill, metallic or flat signature (and also avoid the boomy, claustrophobic, closed, in-your-head experience I get from my wife's ANC Beats headphones!!).

I suppose I want to feel like I'm at a live performance, rather than analysing a recording in a studio.

Sorry the the long post. I'd greatly appreciate your expert opinions!

I love your description of what you want out of headphones!! And I think you might be setting the bar a tad too high Unless you want to go out and buy a Susvara right away!

I think the Arya (v3) still errs toward to the side of lean and bright, and definitely has improved impact pver the previous version, but comes nowhere close to a Focal Clear, HE-6, or Zmf Auteur.

And I think this is by design too. Headphones with big soundstage tend to have a thinner, leaner, and sharper sound with less impact. Headphones with a strong sense of impact, think Focal Clear, give up that stage in favor of a punchier sound. I’m not by any means a headphone manufacturer or expert in acoustics, but these are things I’ve just noticed. You really can’t have it all.

What you might be looking for is something more in-between. With decent stage that’s not crazy wide or deep, but that has some of that richness I think you’re wanting. If we’re all honest, maybe that’s what we all want! But you’ll just have to try them for yourself to see. And if the Arya is too thin and distant for you, maybe something like an Empyrean or ZMF Auteur would fit the bill better.

I also wouldn’t expect one headphone to give you all those things. That’s why it can be nice to have multiple ones for different genres/moods. Or just invest in a two-channel system

 

[ezduzit2500]

That's a really interesting description of the Arya.

I'm completely new to the audiophile world, and I'm planning to get a good setup from the off.

Having done ridiculous amounts of research online (I have no local stores to test this stuff) - I think I've settled on ordering the following:

Denafrips Ares II > Burson Soloist X3 > Hifiman Arya V2 (plus some Van Damme balanced cables).

I plan to use my Android phone to stream Hi-Res files on Qobuz.

I'm quite concerned that the Arya is not going to be the best headphone for me. I'm drawn to it because I LOVE the idea of a huge, immersive soundstage, with three-dimensional depth and layers. I want to feel like I'm at a gig, or a concert, or a jazz club, or I have a singer songwriter performing for me in my living room! However, I don't listen to orchestral or classical. I like acoustic, folk, indie, a bit of jazz (and, conversely, drum and bass).

Do you think the Arya will be a good match?

I'm looking for a natural, organic, live sound. Erring on the side of warm/rich (but still clean). Big deep soundstage. Really engaging, musical and evoking. I'm less focused on analytical/reference level detail retrieval, or visceral punch/slam (would be nice but certainly not important). I hope to avoid a shrill, metallic or flat signature (and also avoid the boomy, claustrophobic, closed, in-your-head experience I get from my wife's ANC Beats headphones!!).

I suppose I want to feel like I'm at a live performance, rather than analysing a recording in a studio.

Sorry the the long post. I'd greatly appreciate your expert opinions!

I think you'll be good with the Aryas. It's a pretty good all-arounder. It really has all the bases covered - from bass to mids to treble. How "lush" they sound many times depends on what kind and what quality of amp is before them. I'd stay away from ruthlessly and annoyingly bright and sterile "chip" amps though - discrete class A or AB amps are best, IMO.

 

[ezduzit2500]

I have some Sonos speakers - which are fine for casual listening or background music when friends visit etc. About 25 years ago - I bought an incredible sound system for my car, with custom-housed sub-woofers that created the purest bass I've ever experienced - 'Smack my Bitch Up' by The Prodigy would quite literally shake my rib cage!

But I wouldn't consider either of these as audiophile gear.

I plan to take a bank loan, buy a setup that blows me away, and that I can happily keep forever - and (hopefully) not lust after newer and better gear in the future!!

The Aryas are great at their price point and they are my daily drivers. With that being said, you will never truly know for sure until you try. Keep your receipts.

 

[chrisnyc75]

That's a really interesting description of the Arya.

I'm completely new to the audiophile world, and I'm planning to get a good setup from the off.

Having done ridiculous amounts of research online (I have no local stores to test this stuff) - I think I've settled on ordering the following:

Denafrips Ares II > Burson Soloist X3 > Hifiman Arya V2 (plus some Van Damme balanced cables).

I plan to use my Android phone to stream Hi-Res files on Qobuz.

Excellent choice. If Denafrips>Burson>Arya still doesn't float your boat, then Arya just isn't the headphone for you. And there's nothing wrong with that if that's the case. We audiophiles often speak of our "audio journey" - researching, learning, trial and error, and eventually figuring out what we like and how to make it happen. The journey may or may not lead you where you thought you were going. It's all part of the journey. You are off to an excellent start.

 

[ezduzit2500]

How have people found the durability of the Arya?

I have a set of HE-400i's for which I've found durability to be poor. Ear pads disintegrated (glue?), cable failed and now the headband is falling apart. This has me hesitant to spend Arya money if the durability is low so any feedback would be greatly appreciated

I've not had a problem build-wise of either my Anandas nor either version of the Aryas I've owned (v2 & v3). They are light-weight but purpose-built to be straightforward listening tools.

 

[Thetaburn]

I think you'll be good with the Aryas. It's a pretty good all-arounder. It really has all the bases covered - from bass to mids to treble. How "lush" they sound many times depends on what kind and what quality of amp is before them. I'd stay away from ruthlessly and annoyingly bright and sterile "chip" amps though - discrete class A or AB amps are best, IMO.

Arya is pretty versatile. It can take EQ very well, at least the v3.

 

[Smoothstereo]

Just wanted to share my experience with my newly acquired Arya V2. Still breaking them in with less than 5 hours of total play time. Coming from a Sundara, Denon D5200, AQ Nighthawk, Philips X2HR and Focal Elegia , I was expecting to be blown away with the Aryas. But I got to say at this point I am not. Perhaps laws of diminishing return is kicking in.

My gear consists of Schiit stack of Jot2 and BF2 and also have a Black Ice Audio FOZ SS-X tube buffer in between the two Schiits. I'm using an Android phone for my source with ripped wav files at 44.1khz.

At this point, I can say the Arya is at most 5% better in technicalities vs my other headphones. Will see how they change or grow on me.

 

[Audionoob5000]

Good post and there have been some good feedback suggestions too. I agree with all of them while adding my .02 cents:

1.) Brain burn in... They are new and are different from your previous cans. Once you're used to one sound signature (Senns), switching to a different one (Aryas) can be off-putting and will take time to get used to the new set. The solution can be to listen to the Aryas exclusively for a week or two with many different genres, then switch back to your Senns. That should allow you to get used to the HFM sound and differences should become more easily discerned. This can be loosely called "brain burn in".

2) Physical play in or burn in... The Aryas will take a while to stretch their legs, loosen up, and bloom. When given time I noticed that their bass got deeper and more detailed, their vocals and mids got more nuanced and "layered", and their treble smoothed out nicely. Their sound-staging also increased in all directions - width, depth, and height. HFM suggests 150 hours of play in but I play pink noise (and music) over nights for about 50-75 hours to speed along the process. This can effectively be called physical "burn in".

3) Quality of music files or recording quality... Often times a HP with higher resolution or one that's truer to the source material can make low to medium bitrate and not so well recorded music sound, well - not so good. A song that was decent or even great on your less resolving cans may sound horrible on more resolving cans. It's the nature of high resolution/definition, from speakers/HPs to TVs - it shows everything in great detail but also shows all the "flaws" of the program material. OTOH, great recordings and high quality files are that much better on the high resolution cans/speakers/TVs than the lower resolving ones - the lower resolving ones simply can't reproduce all the available detail from the source material.

4) Your chain... The Aryas are high end HPs and they have a way of revealing what's put before them - the good and the bad of it. Your chain is - not to criticize - pretty close to entry level. What I'm saying is that your components may be fine for the mid-level Senns, but the Arya simply will be much better with a better quality chain. Someone mentioned "scaling", or the ability to sound better with better source equipment. Where the Senns may not show much of a difference between amps and DACs the Arya certainly will. When I first got my set I had a Topping D30 DAC and an Emotiva A-100 as an amp and someone said that I'd get better SQ with a better chain. At first I was like "yeah right" - they sounded great to me. Then I got a basic entry level amp (Schiit Magni 3+), and while the Emo had much greater power, the Magni actually sounded better - having more detail, a quieter background, and a wider more natural presentation. I tried some of the opamp based amps (Monolith thx 887, Topping A90, Schiit Magnius), but neither sounded as good as my discrete class AB amps (Magni 3+, A-100), so I sent them back except I kept the Magnius for backup. I wound up going balanced with an SMSL Su-9 DAC and used Gustard H20 amp. I can honestly say that the class A goodness of the H20 combined with the neutral but not harsh SMSL makes for a very good quality listen. What I'm trying to say is that once you decide on whether you want to keep them or not, maximizing the Aryas SQ may take an investment in better source components. You don't want to hamstring you HP investment by feeding them with entry level source components. Don't be averse to used gear, great deals can be found, IMO. Keep us posted. Peace.

Thank you and also everybody else for the input!

Regarding brain burn in, I suspected that I would have to get used to the Arya and train my hearing, so did not expect to immediately get the full benefit of the better headphone, but I was still surprised not to be able to discern any difference. I feel a bit better now though after reading that differences should begin to become apparent relatively quickly. I will follow the advice to listen to the Arya exclusively for a few days, with only FLAC source material.

As for amps, I agree that I don't want the headphone to be held back by that, but I also don't really want to spend any more money right now. I did briefly look into used gear, but did not find really find anything that seemed like a good deal to me, but I will take another look.

Another possibility I am considering is getting the Sennheiser HD660S like I originally intended, which should work well with my DAC+AMP and still be a big improvement over the HD558, and maybe have another go at truly high-end gear in a couple of years when my listening ability is improved and my wallet a bit thicker. The general consensus of people who have heard both the Arya and the HD660S seems to be that they are similar in sound signature, with the Arya being better in every way, but not by that much. And the HD660S are only a quarter of the price...

 

[ezduzit2500]

Arya is pretty versatile. It can take EQ very well, at least the v3.

They all take EQ very well. Planars don't have some of the limitations that dynamic drivers do as far as distortion.

 

[tommykrebs]

I just bought a D90se and A50s and compared to the Hiby R6 pro alone it's not night and day, but it sounds more revealing, less sharp (sibilant), with a cleaner bass (more rumbling) and better separation of the instruments. Even the Mest sound much more musical (a bit thicker and warmer). The Arya's (stealth) and a balanced cable have enough headroom connected with the Hiby but some music sounded bright and shouty. With Topping DAC/AMP it is warmer without sounding muffled. I like it.