[bidn]

Hello bidn, thank you for your reply.
Yes, i totally agree that the arya is great for when you want to have a laid back listening experience.

The soundstage together with the comfort provided by the lightness and all encompassing earcups, really makes me feel like im melting or blending right into the sound. I feel enveloped from all sides and just want to lay back and forget the world around me.

If im listening to music while doing something else on my pc, the arya is so laid back and unintrusive i sometimes forget that music is even playing.
It very nicely places itself in the background and doesnt scream for attention but just sits there pleasantly and lets me decide how much of my attention i want to dedicate to listening, and at any time i can switch in and out of listening intently or just let it sit in the background.

However when i do want to have a critical listening experience and really want to rock out to the music(like metal), it doesnt provide enough presence, energy and dynamics like you mention.

an example of a song that I felt was lacking was this song:



Here the vocal really struggled on the arya with providing enough dynamics and just ended up sounded recessed, especially on the refrain.
But could be my amp once again.

Hi ruXx,

I agree here also with your impressions on the very positive features of the Arya.

Re. Battle Beast,
I have this album, love it too!
(these days re. metal I listen mainly to melodeath, power or heavy-power, black atmospheric, melodic death-doom and funeral doom).
You have excellent ear to hear that the Arya doesn't deliver the metal vocals properly on this track.
If you check the frequency response curve in resolve-s video you will see a recession between 1,5 kHz and 2,5 kHz.
(actually I find that the Focal Utopia have the highest fidelity on this kind of metal, but these are very expensive headphones...)

If you want metal to rock, then for me the Arya is not the most suitable Hifiman headphone,
the HE6se does this better (but will be too complicate and expensive to drive),
and even the cheap Sundara rocks much more for me (I own all of these). The Sundara means you would loose a lot of the excellent things like resolution and cleanliness which the Arya provides, but would get back some of the dynamics that defines high fidelity for metal.
Or you could go for a Focal Elex which is much less expensive than the Arya (and has better resolution than the Sundara), and use the money saved to on the difference to buy a RME ADI-2 DAC-amp.

I hope you find a satisfying solution,
all the best,
bidn

 

[ruXx]

Hi ruXx,

I agree here also with your impressions on the very positive features of the Arya.

Re. Battle Beast,
I have this album, love it too!
(these days re. metal I listen mainly to melodeath, power or heavy-power, black atmospheric, melodic death-doom and funeral doom).
You have excellent ear to hear that the Arya doesn't deliver the metal vocals properly on this track.
If you check the frequency response curve in resolve-s video you will see a recession between 1,5 kHz and 2,5 kHz.
(actually I find that the Focal Utopia have the highest fidelity on this kind of metal, but these are very expensive headphones...)

If you want metal to rock, then for me the Arya is not the most suitable Hifiman headphone,
the HE6se does this better (but will be too complicate and expensive to drive),
and even the cheap Sundara rocks much more for me (I own all of these). The Sundara means you would loose a lot of the excellent things like resolution and cleanliness which the Arya provides, but would get back some of the dynamics that defines high fidelity for metal.
Or you could go for a Focal Elex which is much less expensive than the Arya (and has better resolution than the Sundara), and use the money saved to on the difference to buy a RME ADI-2 DAC-amp.

I hope you find a satisfying solution,
all the best,
bidn

Thanks a lot for your recommendations.
The fact that you feel the same way about the arya as i do, makes your recommendation carry a lot of value to me, and i feel like i can trust your advice.
Ill take a look into the headphones you mentioned.

i really enjoy the bass and easygoingness of the arya. Also the detail and resolution is great as well as the soundstage.
If it just had less sibilance and a little more forward vocal range it would be perfect.

i will play around a little bit with the EQ and see if i can tune it to my liking.

just a question from my side: what is it that causes sibilance, and is it ever a desired feature of a sound signature because it improves the quality of non vocal music?
Or is it simply a bieffect of the driver/technology?
I dont know how much the engineers directly control the sound signature, but i have to assume that hifiman audited the qualities of the arya and decided that they wanted it to sound like this.
Not withstanding that i dont have the optimal gear for it of course.

 

[misteral201103]

Question - are any of you using the Arya with portable gear? Like straight out of a DAP or from a portable amp?

I'm going back and forth between the Arya and the Ananda, will obviously audition. Seems like the main decider for me, ultimately, will be whether I can do the Arya justice from either my M11 balanced out or Xduoo XD 05. The Arya soundstage seems to be what I'm after, but if the Ananda suits my mobile gear better, it may make more sense. I have desktop amps but I don't want to be tied to indoor use only. (I know it may seem ridiculous to use either of these outside, but I use my 400i's when I walk the dog at night and it's a treat!)

 

[Ithilstone]

Question - are any of you using the Arya with portable gear? Like straight out of a DAP or from a portable amp?

I'm going back and forth between the Arya and the Ananda, will obviously audition. Seems like the main decider for me, ultimately, will be whether I can do the Arya justice from either my M11 balanced out or Xduoo XD 05. The Arya soundstage seems to be what I'm after, but if the Ananda suits my mobile gear better, it may make more sense. I have desktop amps but I don't want to be tied to indoor use only. (I know it may seem ridiculous to use either of these outside, but I use my 400i's when I walk the dog at night and it's a treat!)

If portable is so important then i would not consider Arya, it needs a lot of juice.

And M11 is LDAC capable so maybe Ananda BT?

 

[kid vic]

Here I will not be able to help you
I simply have no idea if any combo like that would be any good.

For basic head amp - easiest way to drive planars on budget is to use speaker amp - planars are current driven and present no load to amp so you need a amp that can deliver sufficient level of current - old fashion A/B speaker amp with decent side transformer will do - just power them directly from speaker taps.

There are better dedicated headphone amps but unfortunately nowhere near your budget.

And in general yes I know bargains can be found but finding an amp that will let them shine at 1/4 of Aryas price will be hard.

+1 for speaker taps.

Some old school integrated amps have a microphone input but I have absolutely no idea whether or not that would be useful for their streaming needs.
For $400 or less you can certainly get a good Pioneer, Sansui or Yamaha vintage amp. As far as for modern amps maybe a used Burson, Lake People or Garage 1217 amp?

 

[misteral201103]

If portable is so important then i would not consider Arya, it needs a lot of juice.

And M11 is LDAC capable so maybe Ananda BT?

Thanks!

 

[doboo57]

My DX220 drives my Arya reasonably well but it needs a lot of juice (volume around 120/150 on high gain single ended). It sounds a lot more dynamic and open going balanced though.

I also got the ifi Pro iDSD on my desktop and it drives the Arya quite well, with plenty of juice (on high gain, single ended). Mostly using solid state and Tube+ options.

 

[misteral201103]

My DX220 drives my Arya reasonably well but it needs a lot of juice (volume around 120/150 on high gain single ended). It sounds a lot more dynamic and open going balanced though.

I also got the ifi Pro iDSD on my desktop and it drives the Arya quite well, with plenty of juice (on high gain, single ended). Mostly using solid state and Tube+ options.

Thanks, good to know. Think I will audition the Arya anyway, just to be certain.

 

[VictorRad]

Arya needs about 1200 mWatt of power to sound best. It is relatively easy check if your player meets it.

 

[Ithilstone]

Not sure about other portable gear like DX220 or ifi Pro iDSD so will not comment but I tried Arya with Dacamp L1 balanced HGain (miniXLR to XLR) and R2R2000 4.4mm balanced (HGain)
and with both Arya sounded OKish only - Those scale a lot with good amp - Ananda on the other hand sounded happy with L1 and R2R2k and there was less difference when compared with a full size amp
- from my limited experience with portable i would say Arya is harder to drive really good on the go.

 

[Rayzilla]

Question - are any of you using the Arya with portable gear? Like straight out of a DAP or from a portable amp?

I'm going back and forth between the Arya and the Ananda, will obviously audition. Seems like the main decider for me, ultimately, will be whether I can do the Arya justice from either my M11 balanced out or Xduoo XD 05. The Arya soundstage seems to be what I'm after, but if the Ananda suits my mobile gear better, it may make more sense. I have desktop amps but I don't want to be tied to indoor use only. (I know it may seem ridiculous to use either of these outside, but I use my 400i's when I walk the dog at night and it's a treat!)

For portable/on the go, I would recommend the Denon D9200. I think it is highly under-rated. It's closed too but it rivals many open back to my ears.

 

[ruXx]

Do headphone outs of full size speaker amps have the same output as its regular outputs?
It seems really hard to find any specs on the headphone outs in particular.

There seems to be a lot good looking speaker amps in the $3-400 range from pioneer, onkyo, yamaha, denon, marantz, nad.. etc.
They all have more than enough watt, but i cant find any details about their headphone out power.

 

[misteral201103]

Arya needs about 1200 mWatt of power to sound best. It is relatively easy check if your player meets it.

VERY useful info - thank you!!

 

[misteral201103]

Not sure about other portable gear like DX220 or ifi Pro iDSD so will not comment but I tried Arya with Dacamp L1 balanced HGain (miniXLR to XLR) and R2R2000 4.4mm balanced (HGain)
and with both Arya sounded OKish only - Those scale a lot with good amp - Ananda on the other hand sounded happy with L1 and R2R2k and there was less difference when compared with a full size amp
- from my limited experience with portable i would say Arya is harder to drive really good on the go.

Valuable insight - thanks very much!

 

[misteral201103]

For portable/on the go, I would recommend the Denon D9200. I think it is highly under-rated. It's closed too but it rivals many open back to my ears.

Thank you, I'll look into them - although I am basically upgrading my HE400i so open planar is my focus. That said, I have been eyeing some Fostex cans, so the Denon can easily be a natural addition.
Appreciate the suggestion, thanks!