HiFiMAN - Arya Organic

Its been about two weeks now of listening to the Arya Oragnic headphones. The soundstage is huge, and I like the full yet detailed nature of these headphones. I connected them to my Topping A50/D50 stack using the stock cable as well as a balanced cable via the 4.4 mm connector. The balanced cable (from Mezze Audio) had a lot more oomph to the sound, but there was sibilance at the higher frequencies. This wasn't the case with the stock cable, but they sounded a tad dull. I then listened to the Arya on my Hifiman EF00. The headphones sounded fuller, and the sibilance was gone. Even though the headphones are easier to drive (compared to my HD6xx from Sennheiser, I think they do benefit from the R2R DAC and the increased power of the EF400. This time the difference between the two cables was less noticeable and the stock cable wth 6.35 mm termination also sounded very good. Looks like these will be my end game headphones.

I had the Hifiman Sundara and I loved those headphones and would always find reasons to just listen to them. I thought what could be better than them. I heard a lot about Arya Organics so this Black Friday I picked them up and I wanted to say that they have made the pleasure of listening to music next level. I mean its like the perfect headphones . The bass which was some what missing in Sundara have been fulfilling and also these sound much wide and you can clearly listen to all the music instruments clearly. They are a bliss to listen to I love them.

Hello reader, a couple of caveats before you read this further:

1. The cans are only a few days old, haven't used them much to form a long-term opinion
2. I am far away from an "audiophile", soundstage/warmth/technical are just fancy words to me

With that out of the way, yeah: WOW. These headphone are absolute WOW. I am coming from a DT 770 Pro and DT 1990 Pro, primarily, so the feedback that I share is relative to the experience with the DTs.

What I love about the Arya Organic:
1. Comfort: The DT 1990 Pro is very uncomforable for my ears, it digs and digs and I was never able to wear them comfortably and for a length of time that I would have liked. The Organic is very very comfy. The headband on top is perfect, the adjustments are in steps of around half a cm -- I would have preferred more granularity to the adjustment, but the current steps are enough as is. They click on nicely and stay put (so far).
Each of the L and R pad is nice and spacious, plenty of space for my ears, the cups also swivel, which is always welcome. Overall, an A+ for comfort.

2. Sound quality: Here's where I'd like you to refer to more learned reviewers to find if they are good for you. What I would say is that they sound fantastic to me. Absolutely fantastic. I have noticed details in songs that I have never heard before (typically these are very minor details, like backing music/vocal layers, or maybe a reverb effect that was erstwhile lost. The bass is good (it's accurate, not overblown). The mids/treble, all yummy.

What I didn't like: the cable length is very short. Thankfully, I can pull my AMP/DAC closer to me, but this might be a concern for others. I have a balanced cable coming in, which should be longer, so do keep that in mind.

I was fortunate enough to get my hand on unit as soon as it went live. It is an improvement over Arya stealth magnet in every department. the sound stage is wider, bass and sub bass is improved quite a bit. sound is quite detail. it's on brighter side (as with all highfiman). I would recommend to avoid pairing it with ESS chip (unfortunately that would rule out many DAC). I am using it with ifi Gryphon and ADI-2 fs. It's a perfect match. Over all it's a 5 star product for me, But if Arya stealth is available for 99K I would recommend that over this. It's a good improvement over that but not worth 40K good. If difference is around 20K I would recommend Organic any day.

Background:
Upgraded to these from a Senn HD598. The HD598 has been my daily driver for the past 11+ years and still going strong.
While the HD598 sounds great, the lack of bass always left something to be desired.
Had always wondered how much of a difference a costly headphone would actually make. Thus started my hunt for a new headphone.

Had a single target, the HD800S, for which I had heard rave reviews all over the internet.
However, after spending nearly a month doing research and listening to some sound demos I found on the internet, I decided to go with the Arya Organic.
Why? - For some reason, the HD598 could pick up differences from the HD800S and Arya (Not Organic) sound demos. But it itself did not sound nowhere as good when I would play the exact same song directly.
While the HD800S sound demo sounded magical for orchestra, the Arya sound demo sounded great for all kinds of music and quite frankly tugged at the heart.
It had what my HD598 was missing. The HD800S sounded even less musical than the HD598.
I thought if the Arya was already that good, then Organic had to be good or even better since there are rave reviews about it all over the internet.

Sound:
I had the HD598 (and now have the Arya Organic) paired with the Aune Stack (Aune X1S 10th Anniversary Edition and X7S 2018).

Quite frankly, I could not go back to the HD598 just after listening to two songs. The Arya Organic has more bass and more heft to the sound which the HD598 lacks.
These are not bass heavy but just enough to make music fun.

With the Arya Organic I start tapping my feet to the music involuntarily and with nearly every song. This is not something I can say of the HD598; some.. sure, but not all.
However, voices and orchestra music still do sound good on the HD598. Not by a lot but just enough to sound good.

Build/Comfort:
The Organic's are quite a bit heavier than the HD598s. Compared to them, the HD598s disappear on my head when worn.
However, the Organic's headband provides superb weight distribution. I have worn it for hours in the past few days and it didn't feel unbearable at any point of time.

Build is a good mix of metal and plastic. It feels very good to hold, but still feels fragile.
Compared with the Organic, the HD598s feels like the old Nokia 3310s. I think I can bounce it against a wall, play catch with it and it would still work after that.
I love the material on the ear cups for the Organic. I thought it didn't get any better than what I had on the HD598.

One never hears about a Sennheiser headphone going kaput. Hifiman does unfortunately (as per many discussions on the internet).
This make me uncomfortable, but I do love the sound. I can only hope that these will last for a long time.

Soundstage/Imaging:
Wider and deeper than the HD598. For the HD598s, sound only exists in x-axis and it sounds congested.
Clarity in superb. Very revealing. Can pick up a millimeter of separation in the recordings.
For example - I found that most of the music/recording I was listening to had a very slight right bias. This annoyed me and had me thinking there were some issue with the left channel.
Looking up various imaging and channel tests from Youtube including mono tests didn't get me a satisfactory conclusion, till I landed on a thorough test by Abyss headphones.
There's a moment in the test when the person keeps the triangle in the dead center and strikes it. And lo behold, no right bias. The Organic reproduced the direction perfectly.

These are fantastic for gaming. Any genre.
These make you hear the games like the designer truly meant it to be and transforms the entire experience.
Truly makes me appreciate the lengths the sound engineers go when they design sound in the games.

On the note of FPS and sound imaging - I have this game which I have played for 100+ hours earlier. There's a point in this game when a NPC speaks to you, but you are unable to locate him since he is nearly hidden. I had not been able to locate him in any of my previous playthroughs. With the Organic, I was able I could locate him and that too before he ended his first sentence. These are that good.

Overall, I am thoroughly enjoying my time with the Arya Organic.

Edit-1: BEWARE.

Downgrading to one star.
Within 5 months, it has developed the following issues. I doubt I will have a headphone left before it even completes one year.
- Lower sound from the left channel.
- Headband rusting from within.
- Earpad leather peeling off.

Hifiman promptly disregarded the rust and leather peeling as "wear and tear". Upon sending more evidence they asked to contact the dealer (HeadphoneZone in this case)
For the sound, they suggested swapping the L&R cables helped alleviate the issue to a certain extent, but now I am stuck with left channel sound coming from the right and vice-versa.
This purchase is turning into the regret of the lifetime given how the conversation is going.