[ezduzit2500]

Ok, you all know me well enough to know I gush over how new gear makes the Arya sound, but the synergy with the 8 ohm tap from my new Ampsandsound Forge is just crazy. It adds just the right amount of warmth to vocals without becoming soft, adds a really good kick in the bass without being bloated, but mostly just blows out the sense of space and 3-D-ness the Arya already does well.

Some may say it’s ridiculous to spend more than twice the current cost of the Arya to get this kind of sound…and you’d be right! It’s definitely not necessary to go this far to enjoy what the Arya has to offer. But I’m an obsessive guy, and I think I’ve come to a stopping place in my amp quest. More out of financial necessity than anything else!

So for those of you curious and able, the Forge and Arya Stealth are a match made in heaven.

I had similar bass and staging revelations of the Arya finally being unfettered when I drove the v2's and Stealths with my resistor-bypassed Emotiva A-100 w/ ~12W at 32 ohms - that amount of power made the Arya have both excellent dynamics and slam as opposed to being repeortedly "wimpy".

Now that I've spent about thirty hours with the Arya Stealth, I'd like to give an interim summary.

As already mentioned, I've owned almost all TOTL headphones in the last few years. Without a doubt, there are a lot of very very good headphones on the market.
Instead of listing countless models and describing their strengths and weaknesses, I'll focus on the most important thing at this moment:

the Arya Stealth.

To anticipate one thing:
the Arya Stealth is the best all-rounder I've had in my hands!

The start was bumpy.
I started this encounter with an A/B comparison to the HE6SE V2.
The HE6SE emerged as the winner.
Therefore I had almost given up on the Arya. However, this one didn't let me go.
Fortunately.
I quickly realized that my EQ setting
(I always work according to Oratory's settings, as a starting point), was not yet optimal.
And what is at least as important,
at least my brain needed a certain time,
in order to be able to grasp at all correctly, what is going on with the Stealth.
If you take both points into account,
the tide turns in favor of the Arya.

The Musical Adventure Arya Stealth.

A few days ago I listened to one of my favorite albums:
Move D - Building Bridges



That day I started to understand the Arya Stealth. The experience was terrific.
The Stealth is something very special.
Its entire presentation of the music is unique.
You have the impression of standing in front of damn huge speakers.
The presentation is not "only" 3D, it is huge!
Really huge!
Not in the sense of a big soundstage.
It is different. It is more. It's bigger.
Especially the bass is overwhelming,
in a positive sense.

Another special feature of this headphone is its unique ability to play between almost infinite resolution, and complete unobtrusiveness.
It sounds like the contradiction par excellence. Yes. But the Arya Stealth delivers just that! Unlike other headphones, e.g. LCD-5,
you never have the impression of being overwhelmed / "flooded" with details.

Especially these two points, make the Aray Stealth for me.

Considering now the first-class wearing comfort, and the street price of about 1300 €, you can not make a better purchase!

The best is yet to come, IMO. At ~30 hours they are just now beginning to open up and will continue opening up until over 100+ hours. You may even find that you really don't need to EQ them at all - as most people don't feel the need to EQ them.

 

[haasaaroni]

I had similar bass and staging revelations of the Arya finally being unfettered when I drove the v2's and Stealths with my resistor-bypassed Emotiva A-100 w/ ~12W at 32 ohms - that amount of power made the Arya have both excellent dynamics and slam as opposed to being repeortedly "wimpy".

I've heard this combo as well, with my jumper-installed A-100 and Arya V2! I totally agree. Very analogue-y warmth, and TONS of dynamic slam and space. That lead me to the Flux Labs FA-10, which traded some of that warmth and space for detail, ultimately to the THR-1, which sounds like a supped-up version of the A-100...without any of the noise floor.

 

[BowWazoo]

The best is yet to come, IMO. At ~30 hours they are just now beginning to open up and will continue opening up until over 100+ hours. You may even find that you really don't need to EQ them at all - as most people don't feel the need to EQ them.

My Arya has enjoyed over 150 hours of burn-in
The 30 hours were based on pure listening time.

The use of EQ is mandatory for me.
Personalizing the frequency response
(as I said, based on Harman, and Oratory's measurements), was my most important development step, towards the best possible listening experience.
This approach, I can not rank high enough.

No matter which headphone you take as an example from my signature, all of them, after I personalized the frequency response,
gave me much more pleasure than out of the box.
Whereby the basic character of a headphone is always preserved.

 

[BowWazoo]

That lead me to the Flux Labs FA-10, which traded some of that warmth and space for detail, ultimately to the THR-1, which sounds like a supped-up version of the A-100...without any of the noise floor.

I sold my FA-10 last week.
A great device.
But too fat for me for the Stealth...

 

[BowWazoo]

Yesterday I built a new cable.
Via Blue EPC Silver.
If anyone is interested:
I still have a few meters left

 

[Contrails]

Yesterday I built a new cable.
Via Blue EPC Silver.
If anyone is interested:
I still have a few meters left

Nice. How much for a 2m length?

 

[zerogun]

Great news.
Oratorys settings for the Stealth are online

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4i1a1sahenngrrg/Hifiman Arya Stealth.pdf?dl=0

It is nice to see that with the Stealth, this downhill and uphill in the midrange is no longer present.

is there a place where I can learn how to EQ my setup using these settings? I use Roon, but I feel like I'm just moving things up and down and don't know what I'm doing lol

 

[BowWazoo]

Nice. How much for a 2m length?

110€

 

[BowWazoo]

is there a place where I can learn how to EQ my setup using these settings? I use Roon, but I feel like I'm just moving things up and down and don't know what I'm doing lol

Resolve made a video.
But simply trust your ears.

Here are mine.
The bass has so much more

Adjust band 3 for bass,
and band 8 for midrange accuracy / shoutiness)

 

[ezduzit2500]

I've heard this combo as well, with my jumper-installed A-100 and Arya V2! I totally agree. Very analogue-y warmth, and TONS of dynamic slam and space. That lead me to the Flux Labs FA-10, which traded some of that warmth and space for detail, ultimately to the THR-1, which sounds like a supped-up version of the A-100...without any of the noise floor.

Yeah, I tried to explain to another member about giving them all the power that one could muster over what's "calculated" or "required" but it fell on deaf ears because: online calculator says X mW is "sufficient". Their loss - while I'm still smiling....

 

[haasaaroni]

while I'm still smiling....

And that's all that's needed!

 

[Sonic Defender]

The idea of needing more power than what the headphone is using to get to the SPL you desire is not true, and I use a speaker tap from my 180watt NAD M3 to power my headphones. If the power is unused as stored potential energy in the amp that is it, it is unused and stored. It is not influencing the headphone's performance magically simply from being available. That is audiophile myth. Explain the physics by which unused power potential stored in an amp influences the sound. Chances are you can't, but if you know something about that it would be a good time to share.

The maximum power you need is what you use with enough headroom for the dynamic peaks that come with the music. Certainly the amp must be able to swing enough with the peaks and remain unclipped, but that is it. I have been using a speaker tap setup for many years now, including with the HiFi Man Edition X V2 among others (HE560 and HE400i, Sundara just to name the HiFi Man I've used it with) so I have no axe to grind against speaker amps, I encourage them with headphones.

 

[haasaaroni]

Explain the physics by which unused power potential stored in an amp influences the sound. Chances are you can't, but if you know something about that it would be a good time to share.

Sound good, loud good, power good. There. I think I did it.

All jokes aside, I know nothing but my own experience. The power swing for dynamic peaks makes a lot of sense though. Thanks for the explanation!

 

[Sonic Defender]

That was funny, I like it! But as you say, all jokes aside, there is such a thing as underpowered without a doubt, I am not at all suggesting otherwise. The only point I am making is that unused power is simply that, unused and as such, it does not influence the sound produced by a headphone or a speaker.

When the gain is set (volume knob turned up or down) in conjunction with the signal the amplifier is being asked to send outward, the signal flow will meet the characteristics of the load, the impedance. The load characteristics in turn result in the amplifier being demanded upon to produce the requested SPL. So you have two dynamic aspects, the signal which the amplifier is receiving, that changes (assuming it is dynamic content such as music) and then the output device or load, those are generally variable to differing extents, so the amplifier must respond to the two dynamic demands.

As we know a load such as a headphone or speaker will have variable impedance across the frequency range, which is the dynamic aspect of the load, some designs more-so variable, some less, but there is always some variability. Regardless, once you set the gain the only power required is exactly what is needed to keep up with the dynamic requests the amplifier is responding to. If there is unused power left over, because the amplifier doesn't need to utilize it, it will have no influence, and why would it? If it isn't needed, how could it shape the sound you hear? The sound you hear is 100% the product of the power used to generate it, not a combination of used and unused power. What you hear is the consumed power, not the potential power. The dynamic peaks of the music are accounted for with the used power. So enough clean power, is enough clean power. No more is needed.

At least this is my understanding, crude as it is.

 

[BowWazoo]

Power NOT used, can NOT be heard.
It's as simple as that.

But especially if you listen very loud, you suddenly need a lot of it.
I recently allowed myself the fun of measuring the required power.
FA-10 HE6SE.

To listen to Miles Davis - doop-bob at the desired volume, i need at least 4v rms per channel.
That's 300mW! With the HE6SE V2!

When I listen to EDM, I really step on the gas, and have to turn up the volume control to 100% (gain mid).
Then I need 2.5W per channel.

At my personal maximum volume, I get there on 16V RMS.
So I need 5W per channel.
All measurements I made with music were done with EQ (Harman target) and preamp set to -8dB.