[goaud27]

I am looking for an upgrade to my HM601 R2R DAP. After reading some hundreds of pages of forums and reviews, these three seem to be the most regarded DAPs in 1500$ region.
The R2R2000 Red seems to loose to other 2 in almost every possible way, despite the sound (no EQ, no hardware buttons, smaller battery...), but it is the only multibit...
I am also looking towards getting the power-hungry HM Arya (as something fast as BA, and with great imaging and bass extension and quality), so the first two being twice more powerful seem to be a better option.
But how do they ultimately compare in terms of sound quality?

 

[goaud27]

In the end, I went with R2R2000 Red and Arya. In high gain mode with 4.4mm balanced cable I enjoy the sound a lot. Probably with a desktop source it would sound even better, especially sub-bass, since the difference between low and high gain is quite noticeable, and not just in the volume level.

 

[Mindstorms]

did you test 1A?

 

[goaud27]

did you test 1A?

I actually excluded it from the list due to lower power output comparing to 500 mW of R2R2k and N6II. And as far as I learned from reviews the HM Arya would be happy to devour even 2W of power. So in the end it was a tough choice between 2 remaining options: I went for R2R2K due to its smaller size, lower price, and R2R magic, since I still really love the NOS R2R sound of my old HM601 slim (may be not as technically advanced, but very musical and analog).

 

[Mindstorms]

ok nice choice!

 

[Bramovitz]

Didn't realize Arya was so power hungry

 

[Vitaly2017]

So how did r2rk red compared vs n6ii amp t01?

Did you tried streaming by any chance?

 

[goaud27]

So how did r2rk red compared vs n6ii amp t01?

Did you tried streaming by any chance?

I was choosing blindly, based on specs, reviews and user impressions. None of them is available for auditioning where I currently live.
I don't use streaming. My whole music library is on one 256 GB memory card.
In case you meant Bluetooth streaming, I use it time to time to play lossy online music (if there is no way to get lossless version) from an iphone through r2r2k red.

 

[nanu]

I actually excluded it from the list due to lower power output comparing to 500 mW of R2R2k and N6II. And as far as I learned from reviews the HM Arya would be happy to devour even 2W of power. So in the end it was a tough choice between 2 remaining options: I went for R2R2K due to its smaller size, lower price, and R2R magic, since I still really love the NOS R2R sound of my old HM601 slim (may be not as technically advanced, but very musical and analog).

I am surprised the Arya is doing well with the 500mW output of the r2r2k Red. Admittedly I have myself not tried the combination.
I had a week long audition of the Arya out of a Cayin iHA6 over singe ended output, the OI on it was 10Ohms and it sounded terrible, vocals were thin and low end body was missing, I knew it was not power (2.2W /32Ohm) so it must have been something else.

But it absolutely shined over the balanced out on the same Amp (7 W /32Ohm). So do try the Arya over a good desktop Amp with low output impedance and I am betting you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

 

[goaud27]

I am surprised the Arya is doing well with the 500mW output of the r2r2k Red. Admittedly I have myself not tried the combination.
I had a week long audition of the Arya out of a Cayin iHA6 over singe ended output, the OI on it was 10Ohms and it sounded terrible, vocals were thin and low end body was missing, I knew it was not power (2.2W /32Ohm) so it must have been something else.

But it absolutely shined over the balanced out on the same Amp (7 W /32Ohm). So do try the Arya over a good desktop Amp with low output impedance and I am betting you will be pleasantly surprised with the results.

One thing that blows my mind is that Arya needs 10 mW of power to provide 100dB SPL (considering 35 Ohm impedance, and 90 dB/mW sensitivity). Also the planars are famous for having almost flat impedance spectrum. Putting more power would just make your ears bleed. I can indeed make Arya sound loud even in Low Gain mode, increasing the volume knob. Going to High Gain and lowering volume I get the same loudness (same 10 mW), but the sound is subjectively better! This sounds nonphysical to me, but yet I hear the difference. Now how the extra non-used 6990 mW make the sound better?

 

[nanu]

In my experience the Arya can be very choosy of what its plugged into. I would assume other characteristics of the Amp affect the sound to a larger extent than just the mW, for example the high current mode on the iHA6 sounded best with the Arya.