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Hifiman Arya Review (headphone)

Rate this headphone:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 12 4.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 54 18.2%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther)

    Votes: 135 45.5%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 96 32.3%

  • Total voters
    297

Ezees

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At this point I think we should stop feeding the troll, multiple people have explained how "overpowered" amps will not improve/change any area of headphone listening experience. I think the dude's just bored.
LOL, the arrogance. Name calling doesn't make for better character. Power does indeed make a difference - regardless of whether you or others have tried to explain it away or not. I stand by my own experiences with the v2s. Stay with your own experiences instead of trying to disparage mine.
 

staticV3

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Plenty of people have done proper level-matched, blind comparisons between amps of different power levels and found no difference.

Of course the more powerful amp can go louder.
The question is whether, when all else is equal, having more headroom will change the sound quality in any way.
And so far the answer is a resounding no, at least from those who understand placebo and how to control it.
 
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solderdude

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I stand by the my experiences with the V2. I also had the Stealth/V3 side by side with the v2 and it doesn't require nearly as much power nor as much effort in amplifier matching compared to the v2. Altogether a substantially more dynamic HP in the bass in comparison.

Well yes, the V3 (tested by Amir) is 4dB more sensitive than the (2020) V2 and so the required voltage levels for the V2 are 1.6x higher.
So new numbers based on the -4dB sensitivity of your V2.

With a sensitivity of 103dB/V and 35 ohm impedance you will need 7V (1.4W) to reach 120dB SPL.
A similar sensitivity of the HD600/650/6XX.
Still well within the range of a 2W amp and the 12W amp thus also won't ever be driven past the 1.4W.
 
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BDWoody

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Doubting w/o trying is simply a pre-judgement belief. I have nothing to prove to you - also, the Earth is a wobbly orb.

No, it's just common sense when the claims being made have no foundation in reality.

You are done with this thread.
Not at all necessary to be measureable to be audible or discernable....

:facepalm:
 

Phoney

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Nov 1, 2021
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I've been running the v2 from my Qudelix 5k with a 2.5mm cable lately. Even in bluetooth mode, I'm struggling to determine if there's a difference in sound from my Topping A30/D30 Pro stack. The difference must be pretty subtle, if any. I'm also using -3.3db EQ pregain, volume at 50% in normal power mode. I'm sure that if there even is a difference, it would be due to the fact that the Qudelix dac portion doesn't measure completely transparent to my understanding? And not because of lack of power.. The bass still sounds great from Qudelix, I'm struggling to tell a difference in the bass region.
 

Bernard23

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Doubting w/o trying is simply a pre-judgement belief. I have nothing to prove to you - also, the Earth is a wobbly orb.
I am as confident as you are that were I to conduct the same test as you have, that I would not be able to reliably distinguish between the two settings. I know this already in advance because (for both cases) that's how cognitive bias works.
 

192kbps

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FVF22LeUAAAqPJf
 

Jimbob54

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The Ananda in comparison can suffer from imperfect seal.
I would love to know why this is. Is one more tolerant of a poor seal or is one better at sealing in more heads?

If the latter, what's the physical /mechanical reason?

(I've never listened to either but have the xs and want to know what the physical differences in the various egg shaped Hifiman are)
 

batcake

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I would love to know why this is. Is one more tolerant of a poor seal or is one better at sealing in more heads?

If the latter, what's the physical /mechanical reason?

(I've never listened to either but have the xs and want to know what the physical differences in the various egg shaped Hifiman are)

I think because the Ananda lacks swivels.
 

Phoney

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Likely explains it. The xs has a bit of swivel.
Well, the Arya measures pretty much the same, even when seal is purposely broken. I've tried drastically breaking the seal myself on the Arya and the bass was still pretty strong, the sound didn't seem to change much. It seems like (judging by measurements aswell) they seem to act differently in the case of a broken seal, and not just in terms of how consistent the sealing is going to be.

https://diyaudioheaven.wordpress.com/headphones/measurements/hifiman/ananda/

https://headphonetestlab.co.uk/test-results-manufacturers-e-h-hifiman-arya

It's probably not a huge difference on the Ananda in terms of audibility, but it clearly rolls of a lot more in the bottom end on these graphs.
 
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rlanger

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Plenty of people have done proper level-matched, blind comparisons between amps of different power levels and found no difference.

Of course the more powerful amp can go louder.
The question is whether, when all else is equal, having more headroom will change the sound quality in any way.
And so far the answer is a resounding no, at least from those who understand placebo and how to control it.
You can't control placebo.
 

rlanger

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That's what's a blind test does though.
Then why does the placebo still occur in a blind test? If it could be controlled, we would expect there to be no effect at all.

In addition, studies have shown that even when people are told they are being given a placebo, there is still a measurable (statistically significant) impact that one would expect if they were not given a placebo. Crazy.

So yes, we do our best to control for the placebo effect through blind testing, but we can't "control" it, per se.

Now, of course, I'm referring to medical studies. I'm not really sure how any of that would translate to blind audio testing. I was just being a semantic dick.

Maybe someone else can shed some light on it.
 

Phoney

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Oratory updated his eq for the Arya. Does anyone know which version he used this time? V1 again?

 
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Jun 23, 2022
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Just tried the Arya SM on a creative X G6. They work fine, they sound great. There is a little bit of clipping on some songs. Even EQ is doable. Normally I have the G6 on High Gain 30-40% volume.

As for the whole discussion about Aryas sounding different, let me give you an example. On the G6 I was using soundblaster connect (the software that comes with it) to EQ my dt 1770 pro (without EQ they are absolutely terrible, too bloated bass). At some point, I uninstalled the software, since the settings are saved on the device. Basically you click the SBX button, and the EQ preset is loaded. Or so I thought. And I thought it for a year. I clicked the button on and off and I could OBVIOUSLY hear the difference the EQ makes. Turns out, there was no difference, I had saved the default profile on the sbx and the button did nothing, even though I could clearly tell the difference.

TLDR : Your brain and your ears make for a very poor measuring tool
 
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