Glad to help!
I had a discussion with Mark at HiFiMan. He all but admitted that the Arya uses the same planar drivers as the HE1000-V2. He worded his statement carefully, but it was clear what he was trying to convey. A little research on my part has found that the drivers for the HE1000, the HE1000-V2, the HE1000-SE, and the Arya are all the same size. I suspect they all use the exact same driver, only tuned slightly differently for each model. Mark went on to say that, unless I'm going to upgrade all the way up to the $3,500 HE1000-SE, I'd be wasting my money. That's quite an endorsement of the Arya.
Like I said earlier, I originally bought the Ananda and returned them for the Arya. The Ananda appears to use the same drivers as the Edition X, and are smaller than the ones in the Arya - this explains the Arya's better bass. I found the Anandas to have a harsh upper peak that made classic rock recordings sound harsh. If you can get past the $1,600 price tag, I think the Aryas are as good as you'll find this side of $3,500 or so. You can get 10% off on them at Audio46, but their return policy is downright draconian. I bought a pair of Beyers from them, and had to fight to return them - return two items, and they'll basically cut you off. Jim at HiFi Heaven is great to work with. Buy from him, and he'll work with you if you don't like what you get.
I vote "yes" - in my opinion, the difference in price between the Ananda and Arya is worth it. You're basically getting their $2,700 HE1000-V2, minus the fancy wood and stainless trim for $1,600. The Arya is an end game headphone. The Ananda is not. I'm just a regular working person. It took me a year to save up for the Aryas, with a couple of trade-ups along the way, and I do not regret the purchase.
