HIFIMAN - Arya Stealth Magnet Version

Listener is my spirit animal. Resolve and GoldenSound rate the Arya Stealth very highly, which is the opposite of my taste. Listeners take on it is practically identical to mine.

If you are treble sensitive it makes sense. The Arya Stealth is basically unlistenable for me without EQ.

Such a tierlist doesnt really make sense with EQ though, you can tune almost every headphone to be very close to taste. The Arya Stealth is actually an exception for me. I dont know what it is, but I just hate the treble on that headphone, its something about the tone of it. Even with EQ it doesnt sound good to me, just less painful. I get that other people like it though, it just doesn’t work for me at all.

Thats so funny because its the other way around for me. I sold my Arya Stealth to buy a 660S2.

The Arya Stealth is a very different headphone though. Just look at listener, he loves the Edition XV but hates the Arya Stealth (like me). The Arya is not an upgrade from the XV, its a different headphone entirely. Do you want a bright egg-shaped Hifiman? Arya Stealth. Do you want a warm smooth egg-shaped Hifiman? Edition XV.

>However, with a good peq it is easy to make the Aryas smooth as well, if that is the preference.  No, thats my point. The Arya Stealth has wild treble peaks. Its not easy to PEQ at all. The Edition XV behaves much more linearly on a variety of heads, same as the other newer Hifimans like the Arya Unveiled. Ive owned a Arya Stealth, I have never had any other headphone that were as frustrating to EQ as the Aryas. >Arya is definitely a step up in technical performance "Technical" performance is kind of an audiophile myth IMO. The Arya Stealth is significantly brighter, which may be perceived as being more detailed, apart from that its not more advanced than the Edition XV. I might even argue that the more predictable treble performance of the Edition XV is a "technical" strength because that is very hard to impossible to replicate with EQ.

I got and returned the 109 Pro after few weeks. They are super comfortable, nice sounding and that is it. They are nice they didn't do much for me no complaints it just OK. I found my self going back more and more to my older Arya Stealth and 6xx. Obviously everyone is different but I think under $1000 there is much better at least objectively better headphones and you can listen to them first. Focal Clear, Arya Stealth, LCD-2C (used) I would even throw in 660S2. All these to me sounded better than 109 Pro.

Build quality is great. People hyped up the bass a lot and I found it disappointing. Overall the clarity/detail retrieval wasn't great either coming from the Arya stealth. I liked the 109 pro a lot more.

So that's about $400 USD. Does he already have an amplifier? Most good headphones will need one but not all. Sennheiser has the HD560S. I thought the HD490 Pro, which is considered to be superior to the HD560S, would be in that price range because it is about $350 USD here, but for whatever reason it is $800 AUD on Amazon Australia. The Aune AR5000 is very easy to drive and doesn't need an amplifier to sound decent. It looks like it sells at $499 AUD, which compromises the value proposition a bit compared to prices here in the US. It is $299 USD, and I bought it on sale for $210 USD recently. I have a couple of HiFiMan headphones that are fantastic for gaming, but they are outside of that price range. I found the HiFiMan Arya Stealth on a huge sale, just over half off: [https://eliseaudio.com/en-us/products/hifiman-arya-stealth-magnet-version](https://eliseaudio.com/en-us/products/hifiman-arya-stealth-magnet-version) I think he'd be VERY pleased with this assuming he already has a headphone amplifier to run it. To go from an Astro to an Arya Stealth would be like a 2000 Honda Civic to a new Ferrari. This is a high end audiophile headphone good at just about everything that received very strong reviews and is considered elite for gaming. BTW, I don't know anything about Elise Audio and can't vouch for them. I've never bought anything from them. I just did a search and saw that sale.

I’ve had the HD-XX for a while and love them along with my other headphones. I went to a shop expecting to buy the HD-800S due to comfort and sound but I didn’t like them at all. Too bright. I ended up buying the Hifiman Arya Stealth for half the price and love them. Since then they have gotten even cheaper and more popular. They are really fantastic sounding headphones.

Tried these, but the L and R that's stitched inside the cups destroyed all comfort for me, so I returned them. Also I couldn't wear them comfortably with glasses. Otherwise I agree that they are pretty comfortable. Got Arya Stealth now and can wear them all day without any discomfort even with glasses.

Love my Arya Stealth comfortwise (and also soundwise). First Headphone in my posession (DT770/880/1990) or that I've tried (HD490, Focal Clear, Amiron Home) that I can wear comfortably with glasses all day long.

Arya Stealths are amazing. Got them a few months ago (new for 550€ on an Amazon sale) after one of the drivers of my DT 1990 gave up after just 4 years. Otherwise they were really nice sound wise and decent comfort wise. Hope I'll have better luck with the Aryas, but so far I am really pleased with their sound and comfort. Especially comfort wise the Aryas were a gamechanger when wearing them with glasses.

Haven't heard the Edition XV yet but own an Arya Stealth and purchased, tested and returned the HD490 (before owning the Aryas): The reason I returned the HD490 was actually comfort for me. I know that many people praise it for exactly that but the elevated L and R stitching inside the cups ruined that for me (irritated my ears) completely. Also during longer listening sessions the temples of my glasses pressed too much into my head which hurgave me headaches. I had this glasses issues with most headphones before and usually solved it by putting the temples vertically over the earcups. This works fine for round earcups (did this on my Beyerdynamic DT880 and DT1990 for years) but it felt awkward with the oval shape of the HD490 earcups. The Edition XV seems really similar in design to the Arya Stealth and I can wear those all day without issues. I guess it is because of the "quadratic" design with a suspension strap. So if you wear glasses and ran into similar isses than me in the past, I'd definitely go for the Hifimans.

My favorites in terms of "bank for your buck" are definitely the Arya Stealth. If you spend a bit more, you get the LC2C which are also absolute beasts. Focal Utopia stunned me by how good it sounds for dynamic headphones and it made me reconsider how I view dynamics. As for immersion, I'd pick Susvara any time of the day, they were the best sounding ones and the most resolving ones I've ever tried (if I had the budget ofc). Other than that, the ADX5000 are brilliant and if you can't afford them, the ADX3000 is a cheaper model but still sounds amazing.

I’ve got my stealths paired with a Merlin/Gremlin stack with the upgraded select tubes and they are truly wonderful.

I daily drive my 490 Pros even though I have headphones I much prefer sound-wise like the Arya Stealth, purely because of their comfort. The velour/producer pads are the absolute best feeling pads I have ever encountered on a headphone, including aftermarket pads

Arya Stealth - a great Allrounder