Decieded to look at the frequency response of the Arya and i was amazed at seeing this:
Look how straight that line is! and not many dips and peaks.
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So iām happy to find i got the revision of this headphone. I heard that yokes where re-enforced with metal.
Well ive been burning these headphones in. probably at the 100 hours mark and the treble sounds much better. this is in line with what Joshua Valor said. that they need a good 100-200 hours burnin before the treble comes down. This coupled with the RNHP amp makes these sound a lot better then when i first got them.
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Ive noticed something strange about these headphones. And its hard to describe. Its like theres a void inside the cup lol. Maybe its the size? It creates an anticipation. I know it sounds odd. But thats the only way i can describe it. I got to say i dont like it. Anyone know what im talking about? @M0N you used to own these headphones. did you detect this? I think it has something to do with soundstage
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Void? Like creating a space in music? Iām pretty sure you might be referring to the presentation of the Arya but Iām not sure, my guess is that you have now gotten used to the zmf which present differently so you now notice the exaggerated largeness of the Arya (the large hifiman drivers can be like this)
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It feels unnatural. Why did you sell yours?
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Mainly because I found I didnāt use it after I got my he6se back, not exactly the same type of sound but it did fill a similar role for me
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In my opinion, what you are hearing is the void from the transition from upper mids to low treble. The mid and high treble boost on the Arya make the transition from upper mids to low treble more noticeable audibly than it actually is. Makes that transition sound clunky and like in a vacuum. Only really noticeable on the right tracks though.
OTL and planar are like oil and water, so that probably would exacerbate the problem.
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That could be it, I personally didnāt find that transition an issue on the rnhp, but on otl that would be a potential issue
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Thatās what I was thinking since tubes would create a larger sense of space, that frequency downslope from 900 Hz to 2.5 KHz would definitely get further exaggerated. On SS probably isnt as noticeable.
Ant, I think I know what youāre talking about (Aryas are my daily driver). The aryaās have a wide stage. Combine that with what M0N calls seperation or layering and there is a lot of āspaceā created in the presentation that could be perceived as something missing. I get it.
For me, where the Arya succeed in making this a positive is it doesnāt have an incomplete sound-stage. Many headphones with wide stages suffer from the ātwo blobsā effect- where stage is separated to left/right and there is no perceived middle. That was one of my complaints with the Elex (still better than all others in itās price class, btw). The Arya has a more complete stage from left-middle-right, so Iām better able to perceive that space as ālayer and separationā rather than empty space. But your perception might be different and to you something is missing.
EDIT: That might just be the most audiophile-y thing Iāve ever written. 
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No ive been hearing it for a while. The Arya cant even use the darkvoice. with my hd600 and Auteur, at 8 oclock their loud. but on the Arya i ended up having to turn the volume all the way up to max and then it just distorted.
No i think the Void has to do with the driver size or maybe soundstage. you can hear it. you can hear the void in the beginning of the song or the quiet parts. then you kinda anticipate sound. but its not there. then when it comes its a bit of a relief. but sometimes its still there you notice the absence. that strange void. Maybe theres something wrong with my pair? I mean they sound great. i dont think theres anything wrong.
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Thanks Andy! i think that may be it.
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Honestly, planar magnetic headphones sound like crap 99% of the time on an OTL Tube Amp. Planars typically demand significant current from your headphone amplifier. OTL amps struggle to deliver current into low impedances (which most planars have). The Arya have 35 Ohm impedance if I remember correctly, so it isnāt a good pairing with the Darkvoice.
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That being said, planars are less sensitive to output impedance, so itās not awful but itās also not ideal. You can run planar on an otl and have it sound ok, but mainly you will get a better experience on a more fitting amp
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Yes, completely agree.
Iām gonna run my Dark Voice as a preamp to my RNHP. just need to get a RCA cable from Amazon
Tubes are terrible at providing current, transformer coupled amps donāt have the issue because they convert Voltage into Current with the transformer.
High impedance headphones donāt typically need a lot of current V=IR and all that.
Higher end OTL amps can provide enough current for planars, they do it by running multiple output tubes in parallel, this also reduces the output impedance. Itās why you see all those empty sockets on Glenn OTLās there for additional output tubes, and heating your living room.
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Yeah my higher end otl ends up working fine with most planars I throw at it, but even then I do prefer other amps
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Winner winner, chicken dinner! Thatās why the Darkvoice (single power/output tube) is such a poor fit with planars generally. @Antpage2, the planars (HE-6 and HE-500) and low impedance dynamics (Grado HF-3) that I threw on my Darkvoice a few months ago [HF Link] all sounded like crap. The HD6XX and HD800S are the only cans that I use on my Darkvoice.