Thereās also the factor of how you drive them. The more headroom you have the better the dynamics on them usually get. And obviously itās hard to achieve the same amount of them as a high excursion dynamic driver.
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100% this. There is a big difference between driving them off my Hiby R6 Pro vs my RME>789 stack.
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While they sound good from my M11 and Hip Dac they sound much better from my D50s and SP200 as youād expect.
Iām about the get the Topping A90 because why not since itās basically the best amp you can get for $500 or less. Iāve also never seen an amp get as many positive reviews as the A90 did so Iām convinced. I like how my setup sounds now but I think the A90 will give me just that little extra clarity Iām looking for.
The Lyr 3 is very good with the Arya for $499.99 as well.
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DUDE. I just got my A90 (fed by a RME ADI-2) and itās AMAZING for the Arya. You wonāt be disappointed.
Hello everybody
Iām not sure if this is the right place to post this but I need everybodyās opinion.If I could get the arya for $1200 or the he1000 v2 for $1800 is it worth it to get the he1000v2? Is it that much better?What are the differences between the two?
Arya >> he1000 v2. You would literally shoot yourself in the foot buying the he1k for that price
Are you saying the Arya is a better headphone or that the Arya is a better value at the prices he mentioned?
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Imo Arya is a significantly better headphone.
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If you gimp yourself amp wise potentially the arya could pull ahead imo, but if you have a solid amp the he1kv2 is pretty easily a high preformer, and with how you can find v2s for around 1.5k used (I agree 1.8 is a bit high from what I have seen them go for), to me thatās a much better value than an arya if you have an amp that can support it
Generally imo the v2 is going to outresolve the arya, and is also going to offer more impressive dynamics, and also have more depth and more impressive spatial recreation. The arya does have a more linear tuning than the v2, but personally I donāt see that as an issue.
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Eh with how cheap great amps are nowadays I think Arya is a better choice, and I do think it is a better headphone technically than he1kv2, guess we see it a bit differently 
Personally good amps are just as expensive as they used to be lol, but there are also plenty of nice amps in the budget range. If you plan to run the he1kv2 off something like a thx or a90 (or most other midrange amplifiers for that matter) it really does limit what the he1kv2 can do and can make it seem pretty limited in performance. If you buy a v2 and expect to run it off one of the mid level amps, you may actually want to go arya as the arya is more forgiving with less than ideal pairings
See, hereās where we donāt agree again, a90 isnāt really midrange to me, not for planars at the very least. Heard it side by side with @GoldenOne ahb2 and even on susvara the difference wasnāt huge at all.
I mean admittedly the ahb2 was a pretty big disappointment to me imo, way too high in price for how well it can actually perform. In that same range there are plenty of other power amps that I think would do it much more justice. The he1k also doesnāt really need that much power either, itās not a numbers game
I know both you and goldenone have pretty solid dacs, but I would suggest you try out some other higher end headphone amps and power amps, and you might be surprised at what they can offer
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Well, you should list a few saying that 
yes itās very neutral, but thatās not a bad thing if you want your DAC to shine imo.
Starting with power amps (these should roughly be in a similar price range used) perhaps try out a parasound halo a21+ if you wanted a bit of a warmer smoother more spacious sound with good impact, still somewhat forgiving though. For a more fun but still impressive amp the first watt f8 actually plays pretty nice with the hifiman if thatās your main goal, really addicting tuning and still impressive technicalities. If you wanted something neutral but with lots of grip and control the hegel h20 is pretty impressive in that regard while still sounding somewhat organic, works very nice with planar. Finding some older high end krell (before dan left) would be pretty sweet for a neutral brighter sound more analytical sound without being overly so. A pass XA30.8 would be pretty dang neutral slightly smooth and pretty technical as well. You could go with a sanders magtech, it drives constant impedance loads extremely well and works very well with a susvara from a demo. Bryston 4b cubed or 3b cubed are also pretty solid picks for neutral amps. There are so many more I could list since there are plenty of good power amps out there
For headphone amps, if you are looking just around the 1k mark I think there are plenty of good options that could offer you a significant upgrade over an a90, a violectric v280 is pretty solid for something neutral with a bit of warmth and smoothness in the treble (pair this with a soekris dac and itās a pretty neutral combo), the headamp gsx mini (and mk2) pair extremely well with the spring and the may and I would highly suggest checking that out for a neutral slightly brighter combo (thatās a bit more focused). You could also consider something like a xiaudio broadway which has lots of body grip and a very impressive background
Neutrality is not a bad thing at all, to me the benchmark though is pretty clearly analytical and overly forward, with somewhat dry timbre, itās more studio neutral than neutral to life, which is fine if thatās what you are after, but personally while the amp is detailed, itās a bit lacking for the price in time domain aspects which is pretty off-putting to me at least, also for me it really doesnāt allow much of the dac to shine through either which is really strange as well, it tends to be fairly easy to pair dacs with since this not that sensitive to them
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I have tried quite a few power amp options. So far the only ones that I liked considerably more were the pass XA line monoblocks. Those were looovely.
Though I did prefer the AHB2 to the class AB stuff.
Part of it will come down to synergy. I definitely think that a warmer amp would do better if youāre running a more clinical dac. But if youāve got a holo/bricasti/rockna dac or even some of the less analytical chord dacs then the AHB2 really does let those shine without having to make up for flaws further up the chain.
I was not a fan of any mcintosh stuff (with the exception of the MHA150, excluding internal dac). And whilst I had opinions ranging from good to bad on the bricasti/exposure/leema/soulution/YBA and a few others, the AHB2 really did do the best for me. But Iām also not saying its the āBestā amp. Just simply that it fit my preferences best and its hard to think of a better option for the other components I have.
I would happily trade for some XA60.8 monoblocks though <3
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In regards to A90. I definitely would not say the a90 is an immensely good option for dynamic headphones. In fact skedras VCās sounded by far the best on the dynalo amp imo.
But for planars, the a90 does seem to give some of the harder to drive options a LOT more control and authority than iāve heard with even many other high wattage headphone amps.
Its not going to beat a headtrip or anything, but it sure as hell does better than the HPA4 or something.
Would like to hear the phonitor though
See, I have a dynalo mk2 which is basically a gsx mini, and to me a90 pairs with Arya and planars significantly better. Both driven from the same DAC (holo may). Sure the Dynalo handles dynamics better, with a bit of smoother and more āpleasingā sound to it.
And letās think realistically, most people buying hekv2 or Arya will not be using a power amp. V280 was too warm for me on both Arya and hekv2 and I donāt think itās an upgrade at all in that regard.