This is a review and detailed measurements of the Hifiman Arya (2021 edition) planar magnetic open back headphone. It was kindly sent to me by a member and costs US $1,299.
This is a very large headphone:
It is also on the heavy side:
Yet it provided very good comfort. It actually feels "light" on my head given that suspension headband.
It comes with a stiff and short headphone cord that kept its coiled shape which I found annoying. But it uses standard 3.5mm plugs for each cup so you can replace it.
Note: The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. Headphone measurements by definition are approximate and variable so don't be surprised if other measurements even if performed with the same fixtures as mine, differ in end results. Protocols vary such as headband pressure and averaging (which I don't do). As you will see, I confirm the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers mostly in bass and above a few kilohertz so keep that in mind as you read these tests. If you think you have an exact idea of a headphone performance, you are likely wrong!
Fitment on the fixture was very good/easy due to large cups.
Hifiman Arya Home Measurements
Let's start with our usual frequency response:
We have good compliance here from 80 Hz up to 1 kHz and still close to 3 kHz. From then on, the envelop exceeds our preference curve fair bit so could sound bright. Bass response is better than many that droop but it is still deficient compared to out preference curve (dashed blue).
I noticed that kink in the response around 80 Hz. So I manually stepped the frequency and it completely corresponded with vibrations/resonances of each cup which travelled up to the headband. It persists for good rage up to a few hundred hertz.
In relative terms, the response is above average:
I was hoping for less bass distortion given the massive drivers but still good:
One thing I didn't like was the peaking around 4.2 kHz which also sucks out the frequency response. So something untoward is happening there. We will see more evidence of this when we look at our impedance curve:
You can barely see some variations there. If I zoom in, we can see the issues quite clearly:
Sensitivity is a bit less than average:
Group delay is messy and also shows some of the resonances:
Hifiman Arya Listening Tests and Equalization
I always start with my female vocals and it did not take more than a few seconds for the higher frequency boost/resonances to bother me. It extracts every bit of zinginess (yes, technical term) out of the female voices making it hard for me to listen. Mind you, it is not an overly elevated response like we get out of some headphones and can come across as "more detail" but it is wrong. Outside of this, the sound is actually decent and good. But this is not our standard. We want excellence so I went after correcting the response with EQ in my Roon player:
Transformation was incredible. Some of the easiest EQ jobs with great improvement. Once in place, the tonality was excellent as was the spatial capabilities. You almost felt like the band was miniaturized and your head was placed inside it! Kind of neat the way everything separated to the sides and back of my head (I never get forward projection). Remind me of when I reviewed the Sennheiser HD800s.
FYI my RME ADI-2 DAC V2 had no trouble driving it to ear deafening levels.
Conclusions
The Arya is a comfortable headphone and out of box has good tonality but the highs got to me. So need a bit of EQ to bring out its excellence in enjoyable sound that requires such large drivers often to deliver. And deliver it does.
I can't recommend the Hifiman Arya out of the box. With EQ however, it becomes a very good performer and one that I can easily recommend.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
This is a very large headphone:
It is also on the heavy side:
Yet it provided very good comfort. It actually feels "light" on my head given that suspension headband.
It comes with a stiff and short headphone cord that kept its coiled shape which I found annoying. But it uses standard 3.5mm plugs for each cup so you can replace it.
Note: The measurements you are about to see are made using a standardized Gras 45C. Headphone measurements by definition are approximate and variable so don't be surprised if other measurements even if performed with the same fixtures as mine, differ in end results. Protocols vary such as headband pressure and averaging (which I don't do). As you will see, I confirm the approximate accuracy of the measurements using Equalization and listening tests. Ultimately headphone measurements are less exact than speakers mostly in bass and above a few kilohertz so keep that in mind as you read these tests. If you think you have an exact idea of a headphone performance, you are likely wrong!
Fitment on the fixture was very good/easy due to large cups.
Hifiman Arya Home Measurements
Let's start with our usual frequency response:
We have good compliance here from 80 Hz up to 1 kHz and still close to 3 kHz. From then on, the envelop exceeds our preference curve fair bit so could sound bright. Bass response is better than many that droop but it is still deficient compared to out preference curve (dashed blue).
I noticed that kink in the response around 80 Hz. So I manually stepped the frequency and it completely corresponded with vibrations/resonances of each cup which travelled up to the headband. It persists for good rage up to a few hundred hertz.
In relative terms, the response is above average:
I was hoping for less bass distortion given the massive drivers but still good:
One thing I didn't like was the peaking around 4.2 kHz which also sucks out the frequency response. So something untoward is happening there. We will see more evidence of this when we look at our impedance curve:
You can barely see some variations there. If I zoom in, we can see the issues quite clearly:
Sensitivity is a bit less than average:
Group delay is messy and also shows some of the resonances:
Hifiman Arya Listening Tests and Equalization
I always start with my female vocals and it did not take more than a few seconds for the higher frequency boost/resonances to bother me. It extracts every bit of zinginess (yes, technical term) out of the female voices making it hard for me to listen. Mind you, it is not an overly elevated response like we get out of some headphones and can come across as "more detail" but it is wrong. Outside of this, the sound is actually decent and good. But this is not our standard. We want excellence so I went after correcting the response with EQ in my Roon player:
Transformation was incredible. Some of the easiest EQ jobs with great improvement. Once in place, the tonality was excellent as was the spatial capabilities. You almost felt like the band was miniaturized and your head was placed inside it! Kind of neat the way everything separated to the sides and back of my head (I never get forward projection). Remind me of when I reviewed the Sennheiser HD800s.
FYI my RME ADI-2 DAC V2 had no trouble driving it to ear deafening levels.
Conclusions
The Arya is a comfortable headphone and out of box has good tonality but the highs got to me. So need a bit of EQ to bring out its excellence in enjoyable sound that requires such large drivers often to deliver. And deliver it does.
I can't recommend the Hifiman Arya out of the box. With EQ however, it becomes a very good performer and one that I can easily recommend.
----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
