The Arya aren't mid centric at all even if the presentation of mid range instrument is vast, clean, crisp and highly transparent. It's not sounding compressed, nor too distant due to good upper mids presence boost, and we even have a hint of lower mid range warmth and extra note weight. As Hifiman says – and you can see it from the specs – the Arya Stealth is fairly easy to drive. No matter the source used, it will sound good. Hook it up to a more powerful DAP or desktop am however, and you will be even more impressed with the technical level boost.

Here, the law of lower sound benefit return does hit the wallet, but not in an abusive way due to the true end game technical performance and beautiful gently U shape tonal balance without too recessed mids the Arya offer. The Arya Stealth’s tuning shows a perfect mix of bass presence, mid naturalness and top end excitement. All-in-all it’s a very good and easy to like tuning. Call me impressed! Detail, technical and extension wise, the Arya Stealth is still playing below the HE-1K series and of course the Susvara, but it makes up for it with its musicality, energy, layering, addictive bass presentation, mid timbre and treble liveliness. It all just works perfectly together and that’s how you build award winning headphones. The Arya Stealth isn’t the cheapest, but you get so much in return that’s ridiculous. Sound-wise this is a hard to beat headphone in the segment. Highly addictive. Here is the comparison of the Ananda and Arya Stealth. Graph wise, they’re practically identical like most HiFiman products. But having them side by side, I definitely prefer the Arya. It could very well be a question of the fit – I find the Arya to be more comfortable than the Ananda as it hugs my head a little better.

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Your not sit at same table of your favorite singer with the Arya, but in a grand hall with a spot light on it's presence, which is fully extract in spatial cue.

The headband of the HiFiMAN Arya Stealth Magnets continues the same design of the original Arya, which is based on the HE1000’s suspension-strap headband system. It does mean that your pulled away of dynamic physicality of mid range, but as said, female vocal presence and higher pitch instrument are more fowards, it's just a little imprevisible when this proximity will occur. So no, i would not suggest the Arya for vocal lover only, in that regard even the Grado GS1000 are more appropriate, but not the Sennheiser HD820 which have some similarity but even more distant female vocal. Here i would say the Arya is marginaly superior in term of technical performance but notably more fun, immersive, dynamic, lively and open sounding. The HD820 was a cold shower for me at the time, so they might be more neutral in term of tonality. Oh, and craftmanship wise, Sennheiser is superior even if mostly made of plastic, they are way lighter and more comfortable than the Arya. Like the Ananda, the fit is rather loose, but I found the Arya to be an improvement overall. I’m able to lean over without them slipping off immediately, but these are definitely headphones to wear when sitting down and really sinking into your music (or game, as we’ll get to later).I like both the Arya and LCD-X. They have their own strengths and weaknesses. But I’ve been using the Arya more since it is more comfortable to wear. Sometimes I switch between the two depending on the music I listen to or the mood. Arya vs LCD-GX I can see this as high fidelity presentation that permit a greater appreciation of instrument resolution, texture details and accurate spatial positioning. PS: I want to thanks Hifiman for sending this review sample out of the blue. I was expecting getting the Edition XS but will not complaint getting the Arya since XS might be very similar to Ananda ive review before... It's a very exotic sounding mid range, gently bright and very highly resolved. Each instrument singularity is sharply define. I was expecting to be underwhelmed by female vocal, but it isn't the case and avoid sounding thin due to this lower mid range presence that add harmonic fullness to those vocal, which are more upfront and widely open in presence than male vocal which are a bit warmer and leaner.

I have not tested a single hifiman product that could reproduce an authentic sound of an double bass for example. How can so many headphones from one company fail at an simple instrument?The lower midrange of the HiFiMAN Arya Stealth Magnet Version has a moderate level of depth and intensity that is sufficient to show a good sense of warmth and fullness, which is a must have while listen to male romantic male vocals such like Barry White and Isaac Hayes. Other male voices such like Elton John, Sting and David Bowie do sound pretty natural, emotional and with an impressive sense of clarity and resolution.

However, to hear the true potential of the Arya Stealth Magnets headphone I do recommend the use of a Desktop Amplifier or DAC/AMP. For example, the xDuoo MT-604 Hybrid Amplifier shows a quite good synergy with the Arya Stealth Magnets headphone. While the pads feel comfortable and the foam padding is sufficient, again, I am a bit disappointed with the choice of materials. Even a lifestyle headphone that costs a fraction of the Arya uses real leather or sheepskin cover. Fortunately, the pads are replaceable. There are better aftermarket ear pads that use real leather or better materials, like earpads from Dekoni. But that would entail additional cost. When the HE-1000SE appeared on the shelves, sporting both the stealth magnets and a higher sensitivity, bringing HE-1000 level performance for portables while actually surpassing them in technical performance notably, it came with a few yet worthy tradeoffs. What I would expect from such a premium headphone would be a protective hard case and an additional cable 3.5mm TRS or even 4.4mm Pentaconn (TRRRS) balanced plug to use with a portable device.

Cons:

The transitions from the upper midrange towards the treble region did show some sibilance and sharpness when I had listen to instruments such like cymbals and electro guitars in songs like Metallica’s “Sad but True”, Megadeth’s “Sweating Bullets” and Muse’s “Hysteria”. However, this negative situation disappeared for the most part after some intensive burn-in of about 100 hours.