[davehutch]

It really just comes down to your budget. My opinion is that the amount of money that must change hands to get "relatively minor" improvements (and perhaps even some things that are worse!) is not actually worth the cost at the high end, objectively.

However, if "money is not an object" ie, the difference between 1000, 2000 and 3000 doesn't matter to you "at this time" then I always suggest getting the highest end one you can get. because otherwise you'll always be thinking about it. And it's better, that's why they want more money for it.

Whether its actually worth that 1000 or 2000 more is probably "No". But if you don't care about that 1000 or it's not going to matter, then you should go for the better one. My 2 cents. Bragging rights alone are worth easily 500. right ? lol

I only got the Aryas becasue they were less than 2 grand. I have spent 3 grand on headphones a few times and I am not super keen to do it again (although probably will at some point). So to me, 1300 for their performance is a steal. That might not be the situation you're in.

Thank you, I agree with your thoughts almost entirely. In my case, as I don't really know any other headphone users in my social circle I can discount bragging rights.
I did listen to the Aryas, among half a dozen much more expensive headphones and they are currently top of my list.
As far as HFM goes, I only heard them against the HE1000 (non stealth) as they had the 2.5mm connectors so it will be interesting to hear them against the Stealth and SE versions.
The extra money wouldn't matter at this point if there was no other way to achieve the same result (or as near as makes no difference) so I'm really looking forward to Friday to hear all of them.
Thanks for your reply, but I do still wonder what makes them different to each other ?

 

[tradyblix]

Small things, like the tuning, the magnet structure / quality and the quality and thickness of the diaphragm used. Also things that don't affect performance like the quality of the finishing is part of it.

They are not exactly the same though so do not think that you are buying the same thing. it's similar to things like Grado's where I have suspicion that the 325 driver is the same driver that is used in the rs1 but the rs1 definitely sounds better than the 325, and that might just come down to the fact that it has a mahogany cup.

Is that worth $400 difference ? I don't know. that's sort of hard to say. and that's why I'm suggesting that here it's hard to say whether a $1,000 is worth the difference between an he1000 SE and an Arya, for example. But I guarantee that it will sound different. it's also similar to the elite and the empyrean. they are obviously extremely similar headphone designs and the only difference is that one has a new, thinner diaphragm thickness (that's all; the traces aren't even a different design) and the pad thickness was halved and materials changed. That is also $1,000 difference but you can also put the elite pads on empys And get half the Improvement so .... lol.

When it comes to audio it's going to be highly subjective I mean if you spend $1,000 more on a headphone you're going to have a big incentive to think it's better and worthwhile because you have spent that money but on the other hand if you want the best of the best that they have to offer and you really like hifiman headphones then buy the best of what they have to offer. I mean it depends on whether you want to spend the money or not. I mean you can clearly see it is a similarly designed headphone that is not radically different.

 

[kRed]

Small things, like the tuning, the magnet structure / quality and the quality and thickness of the diaphragm used. Also things that don't affect performance like the quality of the finishing is part of it.

They are not exactly the same though so do not think that you are buying the same thing. it's similar to things like Grado's where I have suspicion that the 325 driver is the same driver that is used in the rs1 but the rs1 definitely sounds better than the 325, and that might just come down to the fact that it has a mahogany cup.

Is that worth $400 difference ? I don't know. that's sort of hard to say. and that's why I'm suggesting that here it's hard to say whether a $1,000 is worth the difference between an he1000 SE and an Arya, for example. But I guarantee that it will sound different. it's also similar to the elite and the empyrean. they are obviously extremely similar headphone designs and the only difference is that one has a new, thinner diaphragm thickness and the pad thickness was halved and materials changed. That is also $1,000 difference but you can also put the elite pads on empys And get half the Improvement so .... lol.

Well, sometimes I wonder if going over the Sundara makes sense at all, considering how good it is for 300 dollars.

In the end, to me at least, the point is how much an headphone can make me forget I'm wearing an headphone. The Sundara totally did it when it was the best I had at the time, and for its price I think it's still incredible.

Is the Arya SE worth 4-5 time the Sundara price? From a value standpoint: hell no. From a subjective standpoint? Hell yes. Almost every time I put them on I go "WOW!".

I bet this applies on the Arya vs HE1000 too, as it's so personal on a sound and money availability that it's impossibile to really answer this question for another listener.

Heck, there was a time where the thoughts of spending 300 dollars on an HP was just simply impossibile. Now I'm going for the 1800 Euros Auteur classic as my next goal.

 

[tradyblix]

I'm pretty good on the headphones at the moment honestly. the thing that I'm really lusting after is a chord Dave but I'll never be able to afford that damn thing LOL.

I had a lot of headphones at one time but I noticed that you just end up favoring one or two pairs over all the others so I have reduced it to just the two that I really like that are different from each other.

I'd like a "third" high end option, but I'd prefer having a really nice DAC/amp or Tube amp( Auris HA-2SF ) instead I think. I love how my setup sounds currently it's good enough. Throwing a few thousand dollars more on headphones, especially ones with tradeoffs or that are too new to prove themselves yet probably isn't going to move the needle enough for me. I need to focus more on paying debt down not that interest rates are going up anyhow.

 

[davehutch]

Small things, like the tuning, the magnet structure / quality and the quality and thickness of the diaphragm used. Also things that don't affect performance like the quality of the finishing is part of it.

They are not exactly the same though so do not think that you are buying the same thing. it's similar to things like Grado's where I have suspicion that the 325 driver is the same driver that is used in the rs1 but the rs1 definitely sounds better than the 325, and that might just come down to the fact that it has a mahogany cup.

Is that worth $400 difference ? I don't know. that's sort of hard to say. and that's why I'm suggesting that here it's hard to say whether a $1,000 is worth the difference between an he1000 SE and an Arya, for example. But I guarantee that it will sound different. it's also similar to the elite and the empyrean. they are obviously extremely similar headphone designs and the only difference is that one has a new, thinner diaphragm thickness (that's all; the traces aren't even a different design) and the pad thickness was halved and materials changed. That is also $1,000 difference but you can also put the elite pads on empys And get half the Improvement so .... lol.

When it comes to audio it's going to be highly subjective I mean if you spend $1,000 more on a headphone you're going to have a big incentive to think it's better and worthwhile because you have spent that money but on the other hand if you want the best of the best that they have to offer and you really like hifiman headphones then buy the best of what they have to offer. I mean it depends on whether you want to spend the money or not. I mean you can clearly see it is a similarly designed headphone that is not radically different.

Thanks for this. I thought the magnets were identical to each other? Both 'Stealth' shape and neodymium. I can understand the difference a little bit more with the Meze as the trace on the diaphragm is actually a bi-directional structure so development and maybe production costs would account for the price.
Overall I completely agree with you but I'm still fascinated to find out if the diaphragm material, trace is different on the 1000 Stealth and the 1000SE. I might write to HiFiMan to find out.

 

[magiccabbage]

Hey. Anyone here heard the Arya with a wa5? How does it fair with tube amps in general? I have a Ragnarok 2 and Wa5 with yggy dac.

Just wondering what people think would be a better pairing

 

[tradyblix]

I used an Arya with project ember, but I almost never use it because it's just not as good as my solid state gear. (to be fair, it's a cheap, 300 dollar kit tube amp and it's not even a proper tube amp it's a hybrid amp with a single tube)

But I was pretty happy with it, the Ember was giving me about 1.2 W @ 32 ohms with it (it has variable resistance jumper) and it was plenty loud and sounded good. And tubey. I think Hifimans are good matches for Tubes because they balance out the analytical nature of them.

I think you will be fine with that gear.

 

[davehutch]

Hi again all. I've just come back from the dealer and unfortunately they don't have a demo version of the HE1000 V2 (Stealth).
I did hear the Arya Stealth and this was my favourite over the HE1000SE. I preferred the slightly more forward presentation.

I now need some help if you can...in a nutshell what would the main differences between the Arya Stealth and the HE1000 V2 (Stealth)?
Is the HEKV2 Stealth nearer the HEKSE in tuning and presentation or is it nearer the Arya Stealth?
Would you agree with this review by Passion for Sound?
From Crinacle's graphs it looks like tuning is almost identical but of course, graphs don't tell the whole story. It's an extra £500 so unless it's a 'better' Arya I won't bother and I'll stick with the Arya.
Thanks in advance

 

[exhale]

High gain for more bass & punch.

High gain does just that - more power at a given volume level. That extra "bass and punch" comes from the extra power. It's sort of a single ended vs balanced output thing where basically, more power comes out. Adjusting the LOW gain to the same volume will yield the exact same results.

 

[PlanarBunny]

High gain does just that - more power at a given volume level. That extra "bass and punch" comes from the extra power. It's sort of a single ended vs balanced output thing where basically, more power comes out. Adjusting the LOW gain to the same volume will yield the exact same results.

Recently I've been using the 660S2 for the past couple weeks and I really love it. Went from the Piety to my D10b+A30 Pro setup and it has great synergy with that stack! Which brings me to swapping over to the Arya v2 (with dekoni hybrid pads). Usually I use my Modi+Asgard 3 stack but I didn't feel like swapping over setups and just grabbed my Arya and stuck it in the A30 Pro. Honestly sounds awesome. Between medium and high gain I think I prefer high gain on both setups. I was a little afraid that the A30 Pro wouldn't go too well with my Arya but sure enough it does. Between my Schiit and Topping setups I'm at a bit of a fork in the road for which one I like more! Which tbh is a good thing it's nice to have a couple setups that are good enough to not complain about anything. Good to have a backup stack in general too. But yeah Asgard and Arya on high gain and A30 Pro and Arya on high gain are fantastic. There's something about the A30 Pro that I love it's just got this real "powerful" sound to it. Same for Asgard but currently I'm just really gushing over and enjoying the A30 Pro. Real nice and clean sound but like I said has this "powerful" sound to it, it's a bit tricky to describe for me but, if you know, you know, I suppose haha.

 

[davehutch]

Hi again all. I've just come back from the dealer and unfortunately they don't have a demo version of the HE1000 V2 (Stealth).
I did hear the Arya Stealth and this was my favourite over the HE1000SE. I preferred the slightly more forward presentation.

I now need some help if you can...in a nutshell what would the main differences between the Arya Stealth and the HE1000 V2 (Stealth)?
Is the HEKV2 Stealth nearer the HEKSE in tuning and presentation or is it nearer the Arya Stealth?
Would you agree with this review by Passion for Sound?
From Crinacle's graphs it looks like tuning is almost identical but of course, graphs don't tell the whole story. It's an extra £500 so unless it's a 'better' Arya I won't bother and I'll stick with the Arya.
Thanks in advance

Luckily, someone has done a really nice review on the HE1000 thread:
Post #12,286 of 12,299
Once the dealer sorts it out I'll see if I come to the same conclusion.

 

[tradyblix]

Luckily, someone has done a really nice review on the HE1000 thread:
Post #12,286 of 12,299
Once the dealer sorts it out I'll see if I come to the same conclusion.

Bloody Hell. "More fatiguing" isn't really want you want to hear.

 

[luishi5000]

Does the Arya Stealth come with the Ultra Pad or the Serenity Pad? The HiFiMan website says: "SerenityPads Next Advancement to the UltraPad"

https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/serenitypads.html

 

[TeamHiFiMAN]

Does the Arya Stealth come with the Ultra Pad or the Serenity Pad? The HiFiMan website says: "SerenityPads Next Advancement to the UltraPad"

https://store.hifiman.com/index.php/serenitypads.html

For Arya Stealth, it should be the Serenity Pad.

 

[user404]

Anybody running the Arya SE with a Bifrost 2 -> Gustard H16 ? I'm currently going Modi 3+ to the H16, and so far it's fantastic but now I'm itching to see if jumping to the Bifrost 2 would be worth the cost. Thanks!