[haasaaroni]

For anyone with a HE6SE v2 and a stealth Arya, if you could only keep one, which would it be and why? Having these for a week or so, they're great cans, but I'm starting to lean towards keeping the HE6se instead (I don't think I can justify keeping around two great open-back planars).

The only thing that made me give up on the HE6SE V2 against the Arya was the comfort. I tried a suspension strap with no success and didn’t want to hunt for parts for an Audeze headband. If I were in your boat, with the ZMF headband and suspension strap, I would have a very hard time choosing.

I did notice over time that there was something weird to in the upper midrange of the HE6SE though. It gave strings and horns a kind of honky timbre, and I actually preferred the Arya for classical music which is mostly what I mostly use it for now. Voices were much more natural on the HE6SE though. And I found the whole experience more engaging.

Beautiful setup. I see you have both the Aeolus and Arya. Would you say Arya is a good compliment to Aeolus? (V2 or V3)

Yeah totally! The Aeolus is almost the polar opposite in sound, and probably a better all-rounder than the Arya (V2 or V3). Just because it’s so forgiving that literally everything sounds good on it. If I find myself wanting a more engaging musical experience, I go to the Aeolus, but when I want honesty and soundstage, while still being musical, I go Arya. Actually, the two are so far apart in FR that I ended up getting an Auteur to meet in the middle. Between those three I feel like I really have my bases (and mids and treble…lol) covered.

 

[haasaaroni]

Speaking of the Aeolus…how is my Almond Brother doing with his Almond Auteur @DeweyCH?

 

[DeweyCH]

Speaking of the Aeolus…how is my Almond Brother doing with his Almond Auteur @DeweyCH?

Jamming while working. The Bifrost opened it up a ton, listening to Giorgio by Moroder from Daft Punk's Random Access Memories.

 

[ezduzit2500]

For anyone with a HE6SE v2 and a stealth Arya, if you could only keep one, which would it be and why? Having these for a week or so, they're great cans, but I'm starting to lean towards keeping the HE6se instead (I don't think I can justify keeping around two great open-back planars).

Ayyy, you can do eeet!

 

[haasaaroni]

Jamming while working. The Bifrost opened it up a ton, listening to Giorgio by Moroder from Daft Punk's Random Access Memories.

Great to hear. The Bifrost is a really nice DAC. And it’s amazing how sensitive the Auteur is to those small changes in your system. Keep jamming!

 

[K.J.]

I'm building funds for a Bifrost 2 asap. The internal DAC module of my Jotunheim is definitely the weak point of my chain.

I just bought the Marblewood Atticus during the ZMF November Rarities sale to cover my endgame close back needs, now I just need the Bifrost 2 to complete my setup,

I'm praying my marblewood looks as pretty as the promotional picture's wood. Look at this beauty:

 

[DeweyCH]

Ayyy, you can do eeet!

Wish I could, but I’ve got two ZMF stabilized sets on the way at some point. Gotta pare down somewhere. I listed the Aryas a little while ago.

Sad but sacrifices must sometimes be made.

 

[MardukSonofEa]

New amp time! Coming from a Modius/Magnius stack, I've just spent about 10 hours so far this week with a Soloist 3XP driving the Arya V3. Wow, what a great pairing! I'm too lazy to set up a proper ABX, but some diffs were immediately noticeable after a brief warmup:

- The attack of notes is faster and more precise. The notes from sharp instruments like electric guitar and harpsichord synth sound like they're etched with a laser. Stratovarius's Black Diamond sounds incredibly assertive and alive. Despite the more aggressive attack, the precision keeps things smooth and non-fatiguing. It's really engaging.

- Soundstage is a little wider and deeper. When I first heard 747 on the Magnius driving both the V2 and V3 Arya, I did think the V3 sounded much more intimate, like Joshua Valour said. Now with the Soloist driving the V3 (don't have the V2 anymore), it sounds closer to how I heard the V2's soundstage, but with the V3's greater dynamics and detail to boot. I'm not sure what it is - maybe improved treble decay? It's great, whatever it is. I really enjoy the sense of space and instrument placement on tracks like I Miss Those Days by Bleachers.

- Layering is maybe 30% better. It's just easier to hear the rhythm, lead, and bass guitars as wholly distinct from each other, but only if I want to. The end product is still highly coherent.

- I don't hear a big difference in slam. I think there's maybe 10% more of it but it's not very dramatic.

- Bass control sounds tighter, for example the double bass crescendo in Apocalyptica's version of Nothing Else Matters.

- Interestingly, this combo gets a little sibilant with brightly recorded metal tracks at 85db. M. Shadows of A7X sure hisses a lot. I had heard that the Soloist with the stock V6 Vivid op amps added a little warmth, so this surprised me. I might try EQing 6k down a couple db a little.

Overall, really loving it. It's an endgame amp for Arya for sure, and probably the next level or two up. I can't help but start thinking of DACs now, but will try to control myself for a bit.

And as a bonus, when I get hungry from listening to music for so long, I can fry an egg on top of the Soloist.

 

[ezduzit2500]

New amp time! Coming from a Modius/Magnius stack, I've just spent about 10 hours so far this week with a Soloist 3XP driving the Arya V3. Wow, what a great pairing! I'm too lazy to set up a proper ABX, but some diffs were immediately noticeable after a brief warmup:

- The attack of notes is faster and more precise. The notes from sharp instruments like electric guitar and harpsichord synth sound like they're etched with a laser. Stratovarius's Black Diamond sounds incredibly assertive and alive. Despite the more aggressive attack, the precision keeps things smooth and non-fatiguing. It's really engaging.

- Soundstage is a little wider and deeper. When I first heard 747 on the Magnius driving both the V2 and V3 Arya, I did think the V3 sounded much more intimate, like Joshua Valour said. Now with the Soloist driving the V3 (don't have the V2 anymore), it sounds closer to how I heard the V2's soundstage, but with the V3's greater dynamics and detail to boot. I'm not sure what it is - maybe improved treble decay? It's great, whatever it is. I really enjoy the sense of space and instrument placement on tracks like I Miss Those Days by Bleachers.

- Layering is maybe 30% better. It's just easier to hear the rhythm, lead, and bass guitars as wholly distinct from each other, but only if I want to. The end product is still highly coherent.

- I don't hear a big difference in slam. I think there's maybe 10% more of it but it's not very dramatic.

- Bass control sounds tighter, for example the double bass crescendo in Apocalyptica's version of Nothing Else Matters.

- Interestingly, this combo gets a little sibilant with brightly recorded metal tracks at 85db. M. Shadows of A7X sure hisses a lot. I had heard that the Soloist with the stock V6 Vivid op amps added a little warmth, so this surprised me. I might try EQing 6k down a couple db a little.

Overall, really loving it. It's an endgame amp for Arya for sure, and probably the next level or two up. I can't help but start thinking of DACs now, but will try to control myself for a bit.

And as a bonus, when I get hungry from listening to music for so long, I can fry an egg on top of the Soloist.

About Josh V., I like his vids/reviews but he uses the A90 with his Aryas and it is known to have a flat soundstage, to not reproduce spatial cues well, and to not be the most natural sounding amp. BTW, it's the V6 Classics that add the warmth. The Vivids add clarity, I'm evaluating a set of them now. That may be why there's some sense of sibilance - along with the Aryas not being quite burned in (nor the opamps). Also note, the Vivids take about a good 20-30 days to burn in/mellow out too - Burson told me 30 days but I played pink noise overnights for 2-3 weeks to speed along the process. That's a super looking unit you got there. Happy listening.

 

[Pappi Daa Hobo]

New amp time! Coming from a Modius/Magnius stack, I've just spent about 10 hours so far this week with a Soloist 3XP driving the Arya V3. Wow, what a great pairing! I'm too lazy to set up a proper ABX, but some diffs were immediately noticeable after a brief warmup:

- The attack of notes is faster and more precise. The notes from sharp instruments like electric guitar and harpsichord synth sound like they're etched with a laser. Stratovarius's Black Diamond sounds incredibly assertive and alive. Despite the more aggressive attack, the precision keeps things smooth and non-fatiguing. It's really engaging.

- Soundstage is a little wider and deeper. When I first heard 747 on the Magnius driving both the V2 and V3 Arya, I did think the V3 sounded much more intimate, like Joshua Valour said. Now with the Soloist driving the V3 (don't have the V2 anymore), it sounds closer to how I heard the V2's soundstage, but with the V3's greater dynamics and detail to boot. I'm not sure what it is - maybe improved treble decay? It's great, whatever it is. I really enjoy the sense of space and instrument placement on tracks like I Miss Those Days by Bleachers.

- Layering is maybe 30% better. It's just easier to hear the rhythm, lead, and bass guitars as wholly distinct from each other, but only if I want to. The end product is still highly coherent.

- I don't hear a big difference in slam. I think there's maybe 10% more of it but it's not very dramatic.

- Bass control sounds tighter, for example the double bass crescendo in Apocalyptica's version of Nothing Else Matters.

- Interestingly, this combo gets a little sibilant with brightly recorded metal tracks at 85db. M. Shadows of A7X sure hisses a lot. I had heard that the Soloist with the stock V6 Vivid op amps added a little warmth, so this surprised me. I might try EQing 6k down a couple db a little.

Overall, really loving it. It's an endgame amp for Arya for sure, and probably the next level or two up. I can't help but start thinking of DACs now, but will try to control myself for a bit.

And as a bonus, when I get hungry from listening to music for so long, I can fry an egg on top of the Soloist.

I have the Soloist as well, If you want to get rid of the sharp "S" hissing sound, get the supercharger 3A mod. It took a lot of glare from that amp that I didn't even know was there away and made the overall sound cleaner.

Nice review by the way! I went from the THX-789 to the soloist and it was night and day.

 

[Reputator]

Speaking of V6 Vivids, I placed an order on a set of them for my Corda Classic amp. I agonized for some weeks about whether I should get a new amp, and which amp I would get, but being that I can't swing >$1k for a Soloist 3XP and cheaper amps aren't as good, I remembered my Classic has swappable opamps and getting Burson's discrete opamps would be a good compromise. Stock it comes with 4x AD797 single-channel integrated opamps and there's plenty of space inside, so it should be a good upgrade and I'm excited to try this!

 

[MardukSonofEa]

About Josh V., I like his vids/reviews but he uses the A90 with his Aryas and it is known to have a flat soundstage, to not reproduce spatial cues well, and to not be the most natural sounding amp. BTW, it's the V6 Classics that add the warmth. The Vivids add clarity, I'm evaluating a set of them now. That may be why there's some sense of sibilance - along with the Aryas not being quite burned in (nor the opamps). Also note, the Vivids take about a good 20-30 days to burn in/mellow out too - Burson told me 30 days but I played pink noise overnights for 2-3 weeks to speed along the process. That's a super looking unit you got there. Happy listening.

Thanks for the tip! I will try some burn in and see if that helps. And same feeling re: Josh. Good videos, nice way of explaining things, but I don't think he's tried quite as much gear as some of the folks I see in these parts who've spent more time in the hobby. For that matter, none of the biggest reviewers (e.g. Resolve, Crin, Precog) seem to believe in or care much about DACs and amps, but they also haven't rigorously reviewed whether these things matter, so I didn't know what to believe and just went for it. Glad I did. The Magnius was no slouch for sure and I had no complaints about how they drove the Arya at all. It sure sounded detailed and refined to me, and I got plenty of soundstage and imaging. I just I didn't realize how much better these cans could still get until I heard them on the Soloist.

I have the Soloist as well, If you want to get rid of the sharp "S" hissing sound, get the supercharger 3A mod. It took a lot of glare from that amp that I didn't even know was there away and made the overall sound cleaner.

Nice review by the way! I went from the THX-789 to the soloist and it was night and day.

Thanks! I did get the supercharger too because the overall impression I got was that a lot of people felt like it made a difference, and I wanted to be set with amps for a few years. Mission accomplished . If the sibilance - which again is not too bad and only shows up on metal which for some reason is mastered ridiculously brightly - doesn't get better after some burn in, I'll just try op amp rolling, maybe with the Classics or the Sparkos that I've seen other people talk about. Love the versatility of this design.

 

[Pappi Daa Hobo]

Thanks! I did get the supercharger too because the overall impression I got was that a lot of people felt like it made a difference, and I wanted to be set with amps for a few years. Mission accomplished . If the sibilance - which again is not too bad and only shows up on metal which for some reason is mastered ridiculously brightly - doesn't get better after some burn in, I'll just try op amp rolling, maybe with the Classics or the Sparkos that I've seen other people talk about. Love the versatility of this design.

I just ordered the Sparkos 33602 Discrete op amps, I'm going to play around with them to see if I like them as well! I will let you know what I find

 

[ezduzit2500]

Speaking of V6 Vivids, I placed an order on a set of them for my Corda Classic amp. I agonized for some weeks about whether I should get a new amp, and which amp I would get, but being that I can't swing >$1k for a Soloist 3XP and cheaper amps aren't as good, I remembered my Classic has swappable opamps and getting Burson's discrete opamps would be a good compromise. Stock it comes with 4x AD797 single-channel integrated opamps and there's plenty of space inside, so it should be a good upgrade and I'm excited to try this!

Switching opamps - it's the poor or frugal person's way of upgrading to different amps. On hand I have what were the stock opamps in my Gustard H20 - lme49720's - but I also have the old JRC ne5532's that I took out of a tubed pre. I had previously bought Ti's opa2134pa's and Muses 8920d's to replace the '5532's in the pre. Then I bought the Sparkos for the H20, and now I'm trying out the Burson Vivids. Switching op amps is like being able to listen to a somewhat different amp altogether - they each impact the sound in subtle - or not so subtle ways - and are so much fun seeing how they sound with my gears. Just make sure that all the opamps are compatible replacements for each other so that we don't fry or somehow damage internal parts. I've also found that each of the opamps have a time period where they sound either kind of "rough" or "foggy/unresolved" until they stabilize or smooth out to their nominal sound performance - the discretes taking far longer than the IC based ones. Both the Sparkos and Burson took over 100 hours (or a month or so), they were both either lean and tipped up in the treble (Sparkos), or too upfront/bright (Vivids) when I first installed them. They're both much smoother and natural now yet still very revealing. Happy listening.

 

[ezduzit2500]

I just ordered the Sparkos 33602 Discrete op amps, I'm going to play around with them to see if I like them as well! I will let you know what I find

Make sure you give them time to play in. IMO, they change over about a some time, depending on use.