HiFiMan Arya Organic Review

I know some of you have been waiting a long time for a review of these and loaner. Yup, Chacha and I bad for holding on to them for so long. Yes, these are going on loaner ASAP.



HiFiMan Arya Organic
Frequency Response


Notes:

1. Not what I would say great channel matching. Considering the pads appear to be very uniform.
2. Even smoothed 1/9, response is a big jaggy and uneven. Can people hear this? Probably. It's hard to describe.

More measurements in a bit. D2 and D3 distortion surfaces around 8:42 in the video. Maybe explains the shrillness with certain high vocals.

Probably not fair that we compared to more expensive headphones, but take the comparisons for what they are.

FWIW, @rhythmdevils HE560 mod was way better: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/two-mod-jobs-he560-and-jar600.11251/

Another impression: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.org/index.php?threads/hifiman-arya-organic-impressions.14398/

 

Distortion surfaces below.

Largely second harmonic distortion (D2) for most of the audible band. Some rise in D2 as the volume increases in the lower and sub bass. However D3 and D4 in the bass stay low which probably explains the very good bass quality.

The distortion rise in the upper mids around 3.5kHz is troubling because 1) it's highish; 2) we see it in the third and fourth harmonics.

 

Arya Organic CSDs

Looks like one channel is worse than the other. One has a defined "ortho wall" (circled below) around 3.5kHz. It's debatable whether this can be heard or not because it's so spotlit on a particular frequency. There is also some ripple (lines below) that corresponds with the uneven frequency response in the lower mids. This is a sign that the diaphragm is not sufficiently damped. This behavior (lack of damping / uneven frequency response) can annoy some people more than others. Ortho gods such as @rhythmdevils, @dBel84, and @gurubhai can hear this easily.

 

Subjectively will summarize the Arya Organic in a nutshell:

1. Build is lacking somewhat for a $1k headphone. The fake wood on the cups looks and feels bad. The suspension headband is comfy enough and the weight is manageable, but the thin bent metal headband screams cheap. Seriously ETA even with their DIYish approach feels way better built.
2. Tonal balance is bright, so comparing with HD800, didn't throw me for a loop. Caldera is the most even among the three and actually took me some time to acclimate because otherwise the Caldera sounded boring.
3. 16-ohms (will confirm) is dumb. I sure plenty of users are going to power them from the chip amp powered AIOs.
4. Sound Pros:
   1. Clean, clear. Very good in this respect.
   2. Good extended articulate bass. One of it's best aspects.
   3. Crisp transients.
   4. Airy, extended in the top octave.
5. Sound Cons:
   1. Closed in headstage, zero depth and inside head, big hole in the middle, not very wide, no layering. This last bit seems to limit fine detail. Whether this bugs you will depend. I think if you just want to chill, it's not an issue. Linsday pointed this out to me, and even though I usually don't give a crap about headstage, I couldn't unhear it.
   2. On some tracks, higher vocal registers sound shrill.
   3. Slightly cool / cold tonality in the mids.
6. Too many YouTube shills, there are exceptions. I'm disappointed in the Arya Organic. Should have been named the Arya Razor.

 

Oh, I forgot about that one.

 

On timbre, it's actually good. Not so plasticky (like old Arya) and not too steely/splashy (HE1k), somewhere in between. With respect to technicalities. Maybe the Organic is referring to the improved timbre? Or the midbass bump (that didn't exist in the prior Aryas).

I wish HFM would just have one variant for one model. It's getting rather confusing with Arya, Arya Stealth, Ayra Nano, Arya Organic, Arya Unveiled. It's like the product manager is taking a bunch of darts and throwing them at a dart board to see what hits.

FWIW, I'd rather get a Drop HE5XX for $229. The HE5XX's issues, expected at that price, I could live with them.

 

Arya
Arya Stealth
Arya Organic
Arya Unveiled

All starting around $1200 to be lowered to $600 a few months after the next variation is released. Newer variants are different, not better*. Oh great.**

*And in some ways worse, see OG Arya here: https://www.superbestaudiofriends.o...arya-measurements-and-impressions.7483/page-2
**And this is me being polite because I want to say f**k this shit, oh wait.
***I dunno why people vociferously defend this stuff or gets their feeling butthurt anytime there is any sort of criticism.