HiFiMAN has been one of the foundational companies during the Head-Fi revolution and there are tens of thousands of music listeners all over the globe that use their headphones daily. The Chinese manufacturer offers a rather wide range of headphones, wireless earbuds and headphone amplifiers that cover almost every possible price point. The HiFiMAN Arya Organic were released just over a year ago to much fanfare and critical praise.
The brand is also well-known for slashing the prices of their headphones, and with the release of the Arya Unveiled, the Organic has undergone similar treatment.
Originally released at a price of $1,299, the Arya Organic now costs below the mental kilobuck barrier at $979 on the official HiFiMAN store. At this new tempting price, does this iteration of Arya impress or leave us expecting more?
Specifications & Technology
The HiFiMAN Arya Organic uses particularly large planar magnetic drivers, and features trickle-down technology from the company’s flagship headphones like the Susvara and HE1000 line.
It sports a so-called Nanometre Thickness Diaphragm; the membrane is incredibly thin, supposedly allowing for unrestricted movement of the driver for faithful sound reproduction.
Furthermore, it’s use of “Stealth Magnets” impart little to no change to the sound produced by the membrane itself. They have managed this by shaping the magnets which control the movement of the diaphragm in a way that avoids interference with the outgoing acoustic waves.
This combination of technologies has resulted in a very low impedance of just 16 Ohms, although the sensitivity is also low at 94dB/mW. What this all means for sound quality and drivability will be discussed further along in the review.
Design & Comfort
As we have come to expect from HiFiMAN, the packaging is as bare-bones as you can get. Inside the packaging you will find a small manual, the cable and the Arya Organic headphones. The foam inserts double as a basic headphone stand, though I don’t think it looks particularly pleasing to the eye.
Looking at the headphones themselves, the only difference between the Organic and previous Arya revisions is the inclusion of a wooden veneer around the outside of the cups. It looks cool. Discounting that however, I think the Arya feels a lot more premium than people give them credit for. I actually thought the cups were metal at first but they are in fact plastic (the backing is metal though), and there’s no sharp edges or roughly made parts to be seen.
To be fair, it doesn’t use any exotic materials in its construction, but the benefit of this is that the Organic is extremely light for a planar magnetic. At just 440 grams, I was able to wear them for long periods of time without any hotspots appearing on my head. The headband distributes weight very well, which only adds to the overall comfort during longer listening sessions.
The cable is fine, though I do wish they provided a balanced 4.4mm or 4-pin XLR cable rather than a quarter-inch considering most sources nowadays only provide maximum power out of their balanced connections.
The sheer vertical size of the earcups could cause issues for those with smaller heads, as it could result in an air gap where your lower jaw connects to the rest of your skull. However, unlike dynamic driver headphones, most planar magnetics have a very low resonant frequency. This means you actually get a subbass boost when the Organic isn’t fully sealed to the side of your head, which isn’t detrimental to the overall frequency response. Nonetheless, a bad fit could cause irritation around the lower jaw area, so I recommend trying out the fit before purchasing if possible.
Listening Notes
I did the majority of my listening of the Arya Organic hooked up to my SMSL DO400 DAC/Amp, connected to my laptop via both USB and Bluetooth with the LDAC codec while listening to hi-res FLAC files and Spotify.
Admittedly my experience testing headphones around and beyond the $1,000 price category is limited, but I did have HiFiMAN’s HE6se V2 on hand to compare the Arya Organic against. I thought it would be a worthwhile match-up, considering the HE6se V2’s similar launch price and notoriously great sound quality.
Having listened to the Arya Stealth in the past I was also able to call upon my impressions of that headphone too in this review.
Bass
The mid bass is a touch elevated above neutral, and whilst the sub bass is linear it isn’t quite as loud as the mid bass. This differs from the Arya Stealth which has an almost perfectly flat response from the mid bass down to the deepest sub bass frequencies.
This results in a punchy sound, one of the best I’ve heard in a planar in fact, but not the best defined sub bass texture as a trade-off. For example, the HE6se V2 beats it in this specific category.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good, exemplary in fact, Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard’s Why so Serious? has its prominent sub bass reproduced perfectly with zero rolloff. But it’s not a standout feature of the Arya Organic, which instead focuses on the dynamism and punchiness of its bass notes.
Treble
It took a few hours for my mind to adjust to the mid and upper treble of the Organic.
It is certainly elevated, and could cause ear fatigue for the particularly treble-sensitive. It isn’t peaky, just louder than what many would consider neutral, especially above 10kHz. Something to be wary of, this is definitely a bright headphone.
The flipside to this is that there is a wonderful sense of air and texture imparted to the treble, which remains smooth despite the emphasis.
Midrange
In effect the Organic has a VERY slightly V-shaped tuning compared to a DF-tilted neutral. Some may even call it U-shaped.
But this doesn’t mean the midrange gets left behind, far from it. Unlike previous iterations of Arya, the Organic manages to reproduce a natural timbre with just the right amount of air and openness of notes that is satisfying to listen to.
As usual with HiFiMAN, you have the typical upper mids recess between 1 and 2kHz, which isn’t so audible but helps with soundstage width, a standout feature of this headphone. Around 3kHz the frequency response elevates again, but straddles the line in avoiding shoutiness.
Imaging and Soundstage
You not only get width and depth with the imaging and soundstage, you also get height. I imagine this is in large part to the vertical height of the planar drivers.
As you can imagine, adding a whole extra dimension to the stage makes music that much more enjoyable. This is of course an exaggeration; many headphones can relay imaging in the vertical plane but not to the scale of the Arya Organic. Even the Stealth didn’t feel as wide or grand in its imaging reproduction as the Organic did for me.
This, along with the immense detail capability of the drivers means you feel like you’re hearing the music completely accurately with no information lost whatsoever. 10/10 in this category.
Drivability
Very low impedance with a low-ish sensitivity can be a bit misleading, as though you can get plenty of volume even through the headphone jack on your phone or laptop, you won’t be unlocking the full potential of the Arya Organic.
Even using my iFi GO Link Max dongle and FiiO E10K-TC portable DAC/amps, the soundstage shrank considerably and the upper treble became peaky and even more emphasised than it already is. I recommend at least 400mW, as using the iFi GO bar Kensei (477mW at 32 Ohms) improved sonics noticeably.
The Bottom Line
The HiFiMAN Arya Organic improves upon previous Arya iterations with enhanced dynamism and top-of-the-range soundstaging capabilities. With its latest price drop below $1,000 dollars, the Organic receives a wholehearted recommendation from us, as long as you’re not especially treble-sensitive.
Pros:
- Impeccable imaging and soundstage
- Punchy sound with strong macrodynamics
- Comfortable and well built
Cons:
- No balanced cable included
- Upper treble can introduce fatigue for some
Rating: 9/10
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