276°
Posted 20 hours ago

HiFiMAN Arya Full-size Over Ear Planar Magnetic Audiophile Adjustable Headphone

£9.9£99Clearance
ZTS2023's avatar
Shared by
ZTS2023
Joined in 2023
82
63

About this deal

As much of an achievement the original Arya may have been, the Arya Stealth Magnet Version takes its performance to a higher level: easier to drive, better imaging, solid build quality, and a more accurate soundstage.” – Dr. Fang Bian, President and CEO, HIFIMAN Electronics When sound waves pass through the magnet structure via the diaphragm, they are prone to interferences and diffraction with conventional designs as air is moved through them. The Stealth structure ensures this to happen to a minimum for more precision, clarity and imaging precision. In the same vein a stealth bomber’s shape and form which is not a random or artistic choice at all, and ensures deflecting or bouncing off radar waves and becoming unnoticed, HIFIMAN’s stealth system ensures magnets not being in the way of the sound as good as possible. If you’re looking for pure spaciousness, this may not be the headphone for you. Everything has room to breathe. Everything sounds natural. But there isn’t a sense of being in a grand sense of space. These are headphones that present your music like a loft session versus a concert hall. Vocals are also outstanding. Female vocals tend to cut forward like Rihanna in Love the Way You Lie , but there’s a sweetness and realistic timbre. Male vocals are lush and enjoyable, like Ed Sheeran, 50 Cent, and Eminem in Remember the Name . Claudio Sanchez in Pearl of the Stars and Wake Up was particularly evocative when heard through the Arya Stealths.

HiFiMan designed the Arya's high-quality metal headband with extra strength and a special high-grade plastic for lightweight comfort and rugged durability. A sturdy 3.5 mm user-replaceable connector design allows easy cable-swapping, giving both maximum durability and enhanced customizability.The build of the Arya is superficially similar to that of the Ananda – large oval cups, a suspension headband strap, and thin metal yokes on the side. With the exception of the rim of the cups, the Arya has a fully metal build. Interestingly, each cup can rotate 360 degrees infinitely. Coupled the wide vertical adjustments available, the Arya very comfortably fits on my head. The clamp force is firm but not overly tight. The suspension strap of a headband feels very soft and has a thin foam padding It also has a tighter level of control on the bass, improved layering, and more headroom. The Arya Stealth also has a faster driver and one that sounds more resolving. It is on another level and rightly so. The HIFIMAN Arya have an unusual design in the headphone world, but it works to their benefit in comfort over long listening sessions. The over-sized earcups are made to wrap around the ear and distribute the clamp force across a larger area. The design is very effective and leads to a feeling of spaciousness that works well with soundstage. The HE-1000SE for me still is the better headphone, sounding more natural and refined. The HE-1000SE has the width, depth and 3-dimensionality where the Arya focuses most on width. The top end of the HE-1000SE for me is also more precise and extended. Basically that goes from the lows all the way up to the highs. The Arya Stealth is fuller and softer sounding with bigger bass but the HE-1000SE is more vibrant and all around you. It’s more speaker like where the Arya Stealth, to me, is more headphone like. I prefer the vocal presentation of the HE-1000SE as well. All-in-all the HE-1000 is the better one of both to my ears. That doesn’t mean you will like it more than the Arya Stealth, but it to me is the better one, getting more things right. Unlike the sound waves created by a conventional magnet, the special shape of the new acoustically-invisible Stealth Magnets enables sound waves to pass through the magnets without generating interference. HiFiMan's advanced magnet design is acoustically transparent, dramatically reducing wave diffraction turbulence that degrades the integrity of the sound waves. The reduced distortion yields pure sonic output that is accurate and full-range.

It can drive my R70x to extremely loud volumes without reaching max volume and without noticable distortion on high gain. Excluding very dynamic Romantic music (which is quiet by design) it drives every genre to loud levels (it reaches 110dB peak SPL even for bass which is more than enough headroom). If it drives the R70x it can drive these. The Arya Stealth drivers also make use of Hifiman’s Advanced Asymmetrical Magnetic Circuit (double sided asymmetrical magnet circuit) to obtain the perfect balance between high driver efficiency and high sound quality. For those of you who’d like to know more about Hifiman and their founder, there’s always this interview we did with him: https://headfonia.com/q-n-a-saturday-hifiman/

Introduction​

On paper, the Arya ought to be easy to drive. In my experience in the wild, they are definitely not. There is a fair amount of treble energy around 6-8k but not excessively so with the upper treble around 8-10k just tapering down ever so slightly. If you felt the Ananda was too relaxed sounding the Arya ups the energy, improves the dynamic range, and makes everything just that little bit more exciting to listen to. In short, it engages you rather than simply presenting the music passively. Requires a powerful amplifier or source (many phones and portables are inadequate) to perform at their best The Arya Stealth drivers have excellent PRaT, and they sound like they are always perfectly in control, no matter how difficult passages your throw at it. It’s a balanced sound with overall a good amount of body and presence from lows to highs. The presentation is energetic and very dynamical. The Arya Stealth is extremely easy and addictive to listen to because of the way it blends technical excellence with musical strength. It’s soft on the ears, yet the detail retrieval is very good and the delivery smoother. You can’t go wrong with that. The Arya Stealth is one those headphones that wants to make you listen to more songs all the time. You easily get lost in the music with this one.

It is simply impossible that you have not heard of Hifiman. They are China-based personal audio company led by Dr. Fang Bian and they have been around for easily 10 to 15 years.

Comparisons​

HIFIMAN’s confidence making Arya’s non-stealth edition now a special request only has its good reasons. Let’s find out:

Asda Great Deal

Free UK shipping. 15 day free returns.
Community Updates
*So you can easily identify outgoing links on our site, we've marked them with an "*" symbol. Links on our site are monetised, but this never affects which deals get posted. Find more info in our FAQs and About Us page.
New Comment