The Arya are a pretty big jump from the Ananda. The Arya are like if you fused the Focal Elex’s Dynamic Range and the Ananda’s sound stage. The Ananda presents music a few feet from you and it’s like a wall. Not much happens in the music in the space from the end of the Ananda’s sound stage to your ears. It’s very flat and certain parts of the music can overlap. The Arya is very dymanic, so sounds can appear close to you and farther than the Ananda. Because of the Dymanics, you get better imagining and instrument separation as well. The Ananda gives you taste of the Arya, but something like 60%-ish percent of the Arya.
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Wow. You make it sound worth it. I’ve heard about a certain brightness with Arya. I bought an inexpensive tube preamp to smooth out Ananda’s very slight peak in the treble. In your opinion, how much brighter is Arya vs Ananda?
The general consensus is that the Arya is better. How much better is subjective… twice the cost better? Maybe. Maybe not. Resolve Reviews had a good comparison… he claims the Ananda is the better price-to-performance headphone, and still prefers the Arya overall. https://youtu.be/Ak9WHse1OQs
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I’ve read that review several times. My head tells me to wait because I have not long been with Ananda, to wait for at least a year. However, I’ve got a slight Audiophile bug and that drives me to attain “the best sound attainable” forget about the budget, but it’s unwise for me to do that. Decisions, decisions…
Yes, the Ananda at it’s current price is a better value. The Arya though is worth the extra money. I do think that it is worth at least double the Ananda. There are things that the Arya can do that the Ananda simply can’t. This is not to say that the Ananda are bad, they aren’t. Even outside of sound, I found the Arya to be more comfortable too. If you can afford the Arya, or could in a few months, I would say wait and get the Arya, unless you need the Ananda’s ability to be run off of a phone.
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I’ve got an Emotiva a-100 paired with a tube hybrid preamp just itching to be plugged in with Arya, so I’m set for power. If Arya is as definite of an improvement over Ananda as you describe, it may be worth it the wait, at least until I can afford it easily and without financial distress. Do you think it could be (one of) your endgame cans (for a while)? Is it that good? If it is let me enjoy it by fantasy/proxy, haha.
P.S. I’m really enjoying my early stages of burn in Ananda set. It’s soundstage is at the point where it’s really widening and opening up. It’s becoming more holographic and gaining depth. It’s taking time though, about ~40-50 hrs brown and pink noise so far, active listening also.
I don’t plan to get any other Hifiman model above the Arya. I might look into a ZMF soon, but that wouldn’t replace the Arya. I had the Ananda for almost a year, so they were burned in for sure and even just out of the box, the Arya were noticeably better.
But on the topic of value; The Sundara appear to be the best value in the Hifiman line for a new headphone. You can get the Edition XX from Hifiman’s store for $400, which would also probably be a better value than the Ananda.
I hear you about being satisfied with Arya. I used to own Sundara, that was my previous set and it is a super good value, Ananda jr. That was my gateway, I split the difference between Sundara and Arya by getting Ananda as I wanted to hear the next tier up but couldn’t quite stomach (or easily afford) the $1600 for Arya. I’ll probably stick with this set for a while, I’m pretty satisfied with my current desktop DAC/amp/pre setup and can hold off for a while. I’m looking at moving soon and want to save a little more coin. I’ll probably look at a few ‘used but in good condition’ Arya when I decide to jump up, maybe. Timing is important.
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Thanks for the feedback - I love the Ananda so I’m almost certain I would enjoy the Arya even more. I’ve heard mixed reviews on the XX though, that’s why I went to Ananda instead.
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I got mine for $1,199 as an open box from headphones.com and they were in perfect condition and were shipped in a an official box from a Hifiman warehouse.
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That’s typically around what they go for used as well, so not a bad deal for open box
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They were also back by the full Hifiman warranty too. I was pretty happy but they only had 3 units when I bought mine.
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That’s pretty nice then, also glad you are liking it, it’s a pretty sweet headphone 
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Yeah, I didn’t think there would be as a big of difference coming from the Ananda as there is. These plus the Bifrost 2 and Lyr 3 are so far a great combo.
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Personally wasn’t a fan of the ananda tbh, but really liked the arya. The bf2 and lyr 3 are a pretty solid stack
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Wow, good deal. I’ve been to that site several times but didn’t bite. How’s their customer service (without violating any forum guidelines)? How was your experience with them?
I didn’t have any issues. They shipped them the next morning by Fedex 1 day. I did get an email from them asking why I decided to buy the Arya from them.
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They’re out of stock right now. I’ll keep checking though. Thank you very much, Sir.
Ananda is a good can. A little peaky treble when fresh out of the box, and bass is lite-n-tite. Benefits from some play in/burn in time. Settles in very well.
They have been out of stock most of the year. I just put my email in for a notification when they came back in stock. I was able to get one when they just had 3 of them. You can get them for 100 more open box on Hifiman own website.
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