Happy to say my Arya arrived here in Belgium last friday! I refrained from posting any precipitous opinions, although that wasn't easy. After experiencing how good these are, it proves hard not to shout it from the rooftops. Anyway, after five days with the Arya, here are my earliest findings. This is the first time I've done a headphone review like this (because it's the first time I've owned a headphone worth reviewing...), so bear with me.
My setup before it gets to the Arya is as follows:
Rega P3 (2016 model) with Tangospinner updates (pulley, belt & subplatter), Nagoaka MP-200 cartridge, Rega Neo PSU and a Lounge Audio LCR MK3 Phono preamp. I had a Schiit Valhalla 2, but seeing as how that doesn't really cope well with Planar Magnetics, I sold the Valhalla 2 and got myself a Schiit Jotunheim (without any modules). I'm still in the market for a DAC, and open to suggestions. Thus, all impressions below are from vinyl.
Also worth noting, before this I had a DT770, a DT990, a Senn HD6XX and a pair of FiiO's FH5.
First of all, physically, I have to say I'm a tad let down. This does not feel or look like a 1600$ headphone. Besides the fact that it's huge (more on that later), there's not much that screams "premium product". The materials seem cheap, the all-black looks a tad boring to me, the ear pads don't look very luxurious, the way the strap adjusts feels clicky and cruddy, and the overall construction and durability does not instill that much confidence... The enclosed cable could also have been a bit more premium. I immediatly ordered an XLR cable from Periaptcable. It has not arrived yet, so all testing is done with the stock cable.
Luckily, all of these issues dissapear the second you put the headphone where it belongs: on your head. The Arya feels light, amazingly comfortable, cozy and huge. This thing is so big, it almost covers parts of my jaw. It feels a little odd at times, but with some adjusting of the strap and moving these cans around, they will cuddle your hear happily and snugly for the entire listenting sessions - which can be long... very long. The Arya is addictingly good. The first night I didn't take it off until well past 5am the next morning, which is not just a testament to how beautiful these cans sound, but also how very comfortable they are.
On to the sound then, the most important part of this review! I mostly listen to music that has a somewhat darker signature. I like experimental, drone, ambient, avant-garde, soundscape music, but I also dig into slower forms of metal, mainly stoner/doom, but some post-metal and black metal too. There's a lot of hip-hop in my collection, as well as krautrock, progressive stuff, soundtrack work, no-wave and post-punk.
First record I put on was Om's
God Is Good (produced by Albini), which not-so-coincidentally is my favorite album of all time. The results had me in awe, and I dare even say a little bit emotional. During
Cremation Ghat I, I was blown away. This is a song with a very deep bass guitar, as well as a ton of percussive elements, from drums to claps and snaps of all kinds. The first thing that immediatly stood out, was how the rhytmic expression of all these different elements was so well defined, not just in detail and resolution but also from a spatial point of view. The Arya presents all these different little snaps, claps, snares and toms from individual sources in such a clear and seperate way, with all of it being so well rounded and seperated. The level of detail is truly impressive, as I can really hear the hands and fingers behind these claps and snaps connecting. I have listened to this song thousands of times, but this iteration is nothing short of revelatory. Al Cisneros' Rickenbacker 4003 bass guitar through his custom Green amps sound - I feel - exactly the way he intended it. Om being a band that put this Rickenbacker forward as their primary instrument, the bass is very important, and therefore gets all the mastering and production attention it deserves. The bass guitar sounds well rounded, extended, deep and present, but not fatiguingly so. Again there is a level of resolution that I have not experienced before with any headphones. The low-end is spacious without it sounding reverby, or too far away. The bass packs a punch and extends so smoothly, which it should do in a song like this. The mids sound very musical, clear, and effortlessly fluid. I do agree with some that the high-end is a tad bright. I would say these headphones are a tad V-shaped indeed.
Most of the other albums I listened to made me agree with my earliest observations. I played Mike Oldfield's
Tubular Bells, Porcupine Tree's
Arriving Somewhere But Not Here, Sunn O)))'s
Monoliths and Dimensions, Ashbringer's
Vacant and - probably the best live band in the last three decades - Swans' amazing effort
To Be Kind.
All of these made the Arya shine with an amazing sense of musicality, tonality, resolution and clarity.
To Be Kind is such an amazing record (as is the entire Swans 2012-2016 triptych), but experiencing it through the Arya is amazing. The opener,
Screen Shot, is this slowly creeping, mentronomic piece of gradual sonic annihilation that toward the end just explodes with noise and manic instrumentation and rhythm that cracks like a whip. The Arya presents this in a fashion of which I've never heard anything like it before. This song has so much going on over the entire spectrum, but everything is clear and well-seperated without detracting from the aural descent into madness that comes from the amalgam of all these instruments. The same observations as above hold true: amazing bass, perfect mids and a tad bright on the highs.
The Arya is hard as hell to drive. It required my Jotunheim on high gain and I turn up the volume to almost 70% of the way. As I mentioned, I don't have a DAC in my setup, so I listened to vinyl only, but at one point I tried driving these with either my FiiO E7K or an old Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 I had laying around... Needless to say, they did not nearly suffice. Sound was okay (it still is an amazing headphone after all) but without any of the real perks that make these cans so amazing, and with some distortion to boot.
When you do drive this thing adequately, it really shines in higher volumes.
I unfortunately can not compare to other headphones in the same price range or in the same class, for this is my first. The fact that the Arya is a giant upgrade over my previous DT990 and HD6XX surprises no one (it is also about 8x as expensive) yet I am even surprised at how much of an upgrade it is. You don't realize it that much at first, but after spending about 20-25 hours with the Arya over the last five days, I went back to my DT990 and HD6XX for a comparison. Without taking anything away from these two great headphones that I've really loved over the last couple years, but the Arya reduces them to a muddy and narrow low-resolution mess. Going back really highlights the Arya's strenghts, and makes you wonder how you ever spent years listening to these cans.
All in all I am extremely happy with my purchase, and I feel like I will get a ton of joy from these headphones. I can't wait to get a decent DAC in my setup so I can enjoy my digital files too.
Spending 1600USD on a pair of headphones? Five stars!
Thanks for reading!
