This is the one for me. The Arya has the vocal sweetness and intimacy of the hd600 while having planar bass and dynamics. The music feels big, open and airy while never being harsh or overbearing. I highly recommend the Hifiman Arya stealth for anyone looking into flagship level sound at a reasonably affordable price.

I was looking for sound signature which Arya possess from long time. After taking sound test of many different headphones, I finally settled with Arya. It goes really well with Fiio M11 Plus 4.4 mm balance connection (660 mw @ 32 Ohm) even 70 steps out of 120 at High Gain settings is enough. About its sound signature, it reminds me of my full size 3-speakers (mid, sub, tweeter) setup I used to have with my analog cassette player. Just perfect balance of all the frequencies.

Best headphone I owned. Needs time for burn in . Better than LCD- X. Outstanding imaging & separation.

The Headphone that does it ALL

Arya was driven easily by the AMP8EX module from my DX220. This makes my protable rig complete. Worthy buy as I am not going to upgrade to Susvara/HE1000SE/HE1000V2 any time sooner. It is the best compromise at the moment. Next stop would be the ribbon station :D
Xduoo xd05 can drive it through the roof.

I come from Sunadaras and also have a Stax L700 with 353x. I can say that Arya's sound has weight that the L700s lack. It is comparable to L700 in clarity but L700 is a shade more detailed and nuanced sounding. Arya's sound has clarity, texture plus heft to it.
Comparison to Sundaras - If Sunadara's are 1080p then Arya is 4K. I approximate them to be 38% better than Sundaras.

It takes a few hours for Arya to break-in. In the beginning It needed 110 on the volume dial, after a 9-10hrs it was playing at the same level with 92~95 on volume wheel. [DX220 with AMP8EX module]
Cheers!

Let me start this review by the fact that the Arya is the best headphone I've listened. My previous headphones were the Sennheiser HD650 and Audioquest Nighthawk. The trouble I had with the Arya's are that their Sound Quality is so much better than my previous HPs, that I found it very hard to compare. It was a revelation to behold, to put in a few words. The headphones are built fairly well, my model is a V2 revision, and minor changes are made by Hifiman to improve the overall quality. To keep the review about the sound simple, The Low end, Mids and treble appear to come from 3 different headphones. There is a tangible space between instruments which are perfectly placed in a relatively airy, but very deep Sound Scape. Comfort is very good, almost at par with the Nighthawks. I use a Chord Hugo 2 and it drives it brilliantly. For buyers on the fence, Let me tell you that these use the same drivers as the Hifiman HE1000 V2, with a slightly different magnet structure (V1), and a different paint job is the only differentiator. It's a Flagship alright, But a stealth flagship waiting to mesmerise buyers with its sound. To finish my review, the law of diminishing returns hits heavily once you cross about $800, yes, there are improvements here and there, but they wouldn't blow your mind. Here is a headphone, which would easily sell for $2k, if Hifiman priced it so. It's an out and out top-class headphone. The HEK V2 was priced at $3500 which was expensive and beyond the reach of many. But these are amazingly well priced for what it offers, the performance of the HE1000 at less than half the price, more than makes the Rs.1 Lakh pill easy to swallow. Absolute recommendation.
Cheers

The best, I have not heard the other Hifiman cans, don't need to, the Aryas are the best, they are a bit hard to drive, but they are very forgiving headphones, anything sounds good on them, I have a BD T1.2, they are picky about the source and DACS and Amps, they need the best to sound awesome, but the Aryas sound awesome with anything, very very highly recommended.

This was my previous review.
------------------------------------------------------------
Good while they last.

This review is a dichotomy of sorts.

One half is that the headphones themselves sound good, are comfortable and are priced reasonably for the insane audiophile world.

The other half of the experience is Hifiman's QC and the fact that each purchase is like playing Russian roulette. I bought these headphones in January 2021. In April 2022, the left driver is dead. I had put them away in a working condition and the next time I plug them in, nothing. Its not like the driver blew or something.

I reached out to Hifiman for out of warranty repair, and they replied saying that the ARIA V2 (non stealth) is discontinued, so no service is possible. They will provide a replacement stealth model for 80K and the old headphones.

Yeah, no. I don't think I'm keen on playing the Hifiman lottery again.
_____________________________________________________________

I'm now updating this on 28th April, 2022.

Despite not wanting to gamble on HIFIMAN, I couldn't let it be. These headphones are really good, as long as they don't crap out, and I decided to take up HIFIMAN on their offer for a new set of ARYAs for 77,999 and my broken pair.

To their credit, they were helpful, courteous and speedy, cross shipping the headphones.

These are good headphones and probably the best at this price. Fingers crossed they last a lot longer this time.

Also register your ARYAs with HIFIMAN for an additional 3 months warranty. It might make a difference. It would have covered my set.