Splashed out on a Hifiman Arya and not impressed

[Tidaliser]

Having looked at many reviews I thought the Hifiman Arya would be what I'm looking for, the sound is detailed and there's good bass. I know it's a resolving headphone, it is. When cranking the volume up - I like it loud, it's not sounding that good, there's what seems to be distortion and / or a mash of instruments type of reproduction.

Anyhow where I'm going with this is I'm thinking the problem might be the amp, I was using a Topping L30 and updated to L30Mk2, there seems to be some improvement but I'm still left being unsure about the Arya.

I'm using Amazon HD into a Mojo2 DAC and then Topping L30II, it's not a problem with the Mojo2, I'm getting the same result with other DACs

I've read planars need plenty of current on tap, anyone else experienced this ? i.e. bought a planar and needed a powerful amp. Also are Topping power ratings a bit of scam ? L30II is down as 2.7Wx2@32Ω. is that peak or RMS and I've heard their ratings are from feeding the amp silly line input voltages. I'm thinking a Schiit Magni Heretic might do better, they state 32 ohms: 2.4W RMS per channel, I want try something other than topping... Appreciate any help, this is brain ache.

 

[bkdc]

How loud are you playing? The L30 should be plenty of juice to power your Arya to reasonable levels.

 

[Tidaliser]

The L30 powered the Aryas, the L30ii definitely improves on the bass massively compared to the L30. My volume level is not reasonable, I like it loud, I like the bass to slam hard, not only that I need headroom, I don't want to keep tweaking the volume down or up between tracks. I'm not sure if the problem is volume level, perhaps the L30ii isn't supplying enough current aka a bad amp to headphone pairing. I need to do more listening but so far I feel something is still not sounding correct or satisfying enough to justify spending silly money on headphones, either the Aryas have weak / low powered drivers that distort or the amp isn't doing the job.

 

[staticV3]

Also are Topping power ratings a bit of scam ?

They're not.

L30II is down as 2.7Wx2@32Ω

Amir measured 3.4W@32Ω
Wolf measured 2.9W@32Ω

the ratings are not a scam.

is that peak or RMS

It's RMS.

I've heard their ratings are from feeding the amp silly line input voltages.

The L30 had pretty low gain and so required 3.08V at the input to reach full output.
The L30 II has higher gain and so can reach full output at 1.96V input.
Your Mojo2 can output 4.6V, so enough for either one.

I've read planars need plenty of current on tap

Both Aryas need little current on tap, as far as planars go:

Getting an even more overkill Amp won't improve sound quality.

 

[FrantzM]

Hi

EQ your headphones to the Harman curve. I personally like it, so do many here..
2.4 watts should allow the Aryas to reach objectionable levels to your hearing integrity...

Peace.

 

[Rayman30]

The issue could be that you don't like the Hifiman house sound, I would try Oratory's EQ settings for them. Could you explain in more detail what is off putting? otherwise I would take a good look at the Audeze LCD-X (2021) they have an entirely different presentation to the music.

 

[Dunring]

I've had those and the Arya had forward upper mids which was annoying for female vocals. I used many amps when I had them and the balanced/XLR was best for being able to eq them with a preamp reduction.
Id recommend the Topping d10b and Sabaj A20h amp with balanced cables. They sounded great in those with lots of headroom and without melting down a credit card.

 

[Tidaliser]

Yes upper female vocals are garbage on the Arya, my M50x does a better job and that's saying something, I've dropped the mids down 1 notch on my Mojo, I don't like having to Eq headphones, especially expensive ones. I'll continue to persevere I have enjoyed some tracks earlier, then another track will sound like compressed squashed screaching horridness, I know poor recordings won't do well with the Arya. I'm still not convinced these are good headphones, I was hoping these would be the endgame, not for me at least, I'll probably have to return them. I also have the monolith M1570 which puts the Arya to shame so far, especially as that cost less the one third of the price of the Aryas.

 

[Tidaliser]

ok I've got this solved, now I'm hearing expensive headphones, they are shockingly good, it's all there now, loads of sub, mid bass, sound stage, vocals, depth, speed, insane detail and loud everything sounds truly next level and not the odd track - all of them !! I added a bit of cheeky sub+mid bass to the mojo2 DSP but nothing else. The solution, a schiit Jotunheim, so glad I kept the faith, Currawong described exactly what I was hearing in his Jotunheim review. No idea whether it's the 6W on tap or if Jotunheim is just a better amp compared to the L30II, obviously it's 4 to 5 times the price. Yes the L30II could power the Aryas to loud levels but at loud levels the clarity was lost, maybe the L30 is lacking capacitence to handle the fast transients or the output stage is just not up to the job, it is truly a night and day difference though. Lesson learnt for me, avoid the good measurement chifi gear.

 

[Jimbob54]

No idea whether it's the 6W on tap or if Jotunheim is just a better amp compared to the L30II,

I do not think those are the only possible options for what you experienced.

 

[IXOYE]

Is it the older version of Arya you have? I know they are harder to drive, but the new SE version doesn't need lot of power.

 

[Tidaliser]

Brand new stealth magnet version, it's even got swivel ear cups which I wasn't expecting. As mentioned the L30II could drive it, it just sounded horrendous as the volume increased.

 

[solderdude]

Acc. to Amir's measurements an seeing you want to turn up the volume impressively loud you will need at least 4.4V = 0.5W
When you want impressively loud AND Harman type of bass you will need 8V = 2W.
This is only 'painful' to some people but just impressive to others.
120dB peaks is not the same as 120dB average which would be painful.
6W in 30 ohm = 13V can give you 124dB peaks in the low bass so just 4.5dB louder than 2W.
Note: while the measured Arya was 30ohm it still might have been a non-stealth version. The numbers above are based on Amirs results.

ok I've got this solved, now I'm hearing expensive headphones, they are shockingly good, it's all there now, loads of sub, mid bass, sound stage, vocals, depth, speed, insane detail and loud everything sounds truly next level and not the odd track - all of them !!

You could change the title to:

Splashed out on a Hifiman Arya and am impressed​

 

[bodhi]

Subtitle being: changing cheap SOTA amp to five times more expensive one completely transformed the sound for unknown reasons.

 

[staticV3]

(under sighted, uncontrolled conditions)

 

[Aerith Gainsborough]

120dB peaks is not the same as 120dB average which would be painful.

120dB peaks would still be 100dB on average on dynamic music or 110dB+ if you listen to modern, highly compressed music.

That won't sound "impressive" for very long. RIP hearing.

 

[solderdude]

Nobody listens to painful levels for long periods.... as it is painful.

Have logged the output voltage (storage scope) while determining how much power is needed to reach certain levels (using HD650) and noticed that when playing uncomfortable loud (the kind you can take for the duration of part of a song with DR13) and measured voltages indicating peaks of 119dB.

This was absolutely not painful nor even near painful but impressively loud.
'Normal' listening levels appeared to be around 75dB average with about 85dB peaks. All day listening (headphones) is around 70dB average.

I only quote the numbers that are required to reach those levels... not advocating to listen that loud.

My best guess is the OP listens to music extremely loud (the type of guys you can hear the music from earbuds from meters away ?) and is ruining his ears in the name of 'enjoying it while one can' not thinking about how one's hearing will be at a later date. You cannot fix your hearing alas.
So ... OP.. when maxing out an L30-II to clipping point (sound turning nasty) you are certainly headed towards irreparable damage to your hearing which you are likely to regret at a later date.

 

[Soria Moria]

Subtitle being: changing cheap SOTA amp to five times more expensive one completely transformed the sound for unknown reasons.

I’ve owned the Arya and I would simply say it’s a bad headphone without any EQ. Flat measuring bass sounds bad and thin. It also has a big scoop from 1 kHz to 3 kHz followed by big treble mountains.

 

[asrUser]

ok I've got this solved, now I'm hearing expensive headphones, they are shockingly good, it's all there now, loads of sub, mid bass, sound stage, vocals, depth, speed, insane detail and loud everything sounds truly next level and not the odd track - all of them !! I added a bit of cheeky sub+mid bass to the mojo2 DSP but nothing else. The solution, a schiit Jotunheim, so glad I kept the faith, Currawong described exactly what I was hearing in his Jotunheim review. No idea whether it's the 6W on tap or if Jotunheim is just a better amp compared to the L30II, obviously it's 4 to 5 times the price. Yes the L30II could power the Aryas to loud levels but at loud levels the clarity was lost, maybe the L30 is lacking capacitence to handle the fast transients or the output stage is just not up to the job, it is truly a night and day difference though. Lesson learnt for me, avoid the good measurement chifi gear.

A good decision to ditch the Topping and get a Jotunheim. Ignore those comments telling "you don't need that much power!".

 

[nerdiejack]

I had a similar revalation. Driving the Arya through the A/D90 stack. Sounded nice and all. Then upgraded the D90 to a Chord qutest. Not a big jump in soundstage but definitely in detail retrieval and somehow to my ears it's way more fun to listen. Then after some months my local dealer told my he thinks my weak link is the A90. So I did an extensive a/b testing session. I ended up getting a Bruson Audio Soloist 3xGT. Of course it's way more expensive than the A90. BUT the A90 it's one of the best measured Amps on this site so is the D90 when it comes to dacs. My advise to all of you go to your local dealer. Take all of your gear you can carry with you and do a good listening session. For myself I will never order chifi stuff again. The ones I heard sound clean but boring to me. My current stack is ofc expensive. But even less expensive Burson Amps where much more fun to listen than the A90.
So don't just buy on mesaruments alone. Go listen yourself and even better tell your dealer not to tell you the price of the gear to also eliminate price bias. For myself I will do it this way from now on. For me it's about the fun and emotion when it comes to music not some numbers. I forgot that for a while!