It’s not just a facelift, so to speak. There’s more than looks to the new wood veneer, as that’s a visual signal of a deeper change. The Arya are known for having a rather bright presentation, and the HiFiMAN Arya Organic really do change that in a way that makes the name very aptly chosen, with a warmer, more rounded signature that is surely going to please many.
Disclaimer: I got this unit directly from HiFiMAN. The Arya Organic retail for $1,299. You can find them on the official shop website.
Packaging & Accessories
The Arya Organic come in HiFiMAN’s new packaging style: a brown cardboard box with a picture of the headphones on it, and foam inside to keep the headphones protected. The inside actually comes out and doubles as a (very, very basic) headphone stand. There is a cable with a 6.3 mm jack termination.
Design & Comfort
In terms of design, the HiFiMAN Arya Organic are almost identical to the Arya. There is only one difference: the sides of the earcups are covered with a wood veneer rather than plastic, which makes the headphones look not only better (although that’s just my own personal opinion!), but also more refined and higher-end. Now this might be a highly personal consideration, but I find that wood almost always lends “warmth” and refinement to products, especially when it’s done with style like in this case. I have seen multiple pairs of the Arya Organic and they all have different colours, which is expected when wood is involved; interestingly, one pair I saw was bright red, which highlights the fact that each pair is unique.
While some people may prefer the entire earcups to be made out of wood, the use of a veneer has its advantages, as it is more stable and less prone to cracking due to humidity levels. It also doesn’t influence the sound, which could be an advantage as well as a disadvantage, depending on how you look at things. This is one of those cases where there is no right or wrong per se.
The earcups have the same inverted drop shape as the Arya, just like the headband is the same (and it’s shared with older models such as the first-gen HE-560). Whereas the Arya had plastic earcups, the Arya Organic swaps that for metal, which makes them more solid. The earcups swivel on both the vertical and the horizontal axis, so they adapt very well to your head’s shape.
The perceived build quality is higher than on the original Arya, due to the use of both wood and metal in the assembly. The headband and the gimbals are made of metal, too, which adds to the robustness of the headphones.
I am a fan of HiFiMAN’s suspended headbands because they are the most comfortable I have found to date. I can wear them for hours and barely notice it. The same holds true for the Arya Organic, which are incredibly comfortable even on longer listening sessions. There is a good amount of lateral pressure which holds the headphones still, without ever feeling excessive. The large earcups also have abundant space for ears of any size; even if you have large ears, that shouldn’t be an issue at all.
Isolation, as expected with open-back headphones, is non-existent.
The cable is thick and relatively stiff; it is hard to de-coil, and it does tend to curl up again. It features a 6.3 mm jack on the amplifier’s end and two 3.5 mm TRS jacks on the headphones’ end; this means you can use a balanced cable if you so wish, as the TRS jacks allow for a true balanced connection.
Sound & Specs
I tested the HiFiMAN Arya Organic with a variety of devices, including an SMSL DO400 and a Questyle M12i.
HiFiMAN Arya |
| Frequency response | 8 – 65,000 Hz |
| Impedance | 16 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 94 dB |
With an impedance of just 16 Ω and a sensitivity of 94 dB, the Arya Organic are super easy to drive. In fact, they are almost in IEM territory! Given this, you can easily drive them with just about anything, including phones and computers. This also means you don’t really need a super-powerful amplifier as the headphones only need a few mW of power to get into “hearing damage” territory. The Arya Organic use the so-called “Stealth Magnets” arrangement which, according to HiFiMAN, is completely acoustically transparent and therefore eliminates resonances and refractions resulting from the placement of magnets in front of the diaphragms. Speaking of which, the diaphragms use the “Nanometer Thickness” technology, which makes them super-thin while preserving rigidity; these elements combines should provide better transient response.
The soundstage is quite intimate and instruments sound close to you, although the open back creates a larger space in which the sound expands. Imaging is good, but there seems to be a bit of misalignment between the left and right channels on my unit as I rarely get a truly central positioning of instruments and, instead, I get more of a sensation of “left plus right”; this might be an issue with my specific unit rather than a wider issue. Instrument separation is excellent and allows you to follow individual instruments even in very complex and layered tracks.
Bass is exactly the way you would expect it from a planar HiFiMAN model: very deep and linear down to 20 Hz. It is very present in the mix, but never overbearing; I find that it hits the right spot and it is just where it should be. The internal balance is great, with no part coming out on top of the others; sub-bass sounds just as present as mid-bass in the mix, which is quite significant. Transients are fast and very much physical, with percussions delivering a tactile kick – e.g. in Snarky Puppy’s Thing of Gold. This speed leads to two different things: on one hand, great layering, which makes it easy to follow different instruments in complex tracks; on the other, great detail, which makes bass lines feel even more physical and textured.
As in HiFiMAN’s tradition, midrange is slightly bright, though it is far from the heights of the original Arya. The Arya Organic owes its name exactly to the fact that it doesn’t have the massive 5 kHz peak of the original and is therefore more organic in its presentation, especially in the midrange area. By “organic” here I mean that there is no abrupt change and one are flows into the next naturally, as if it was all an organic whole. Not only there is less presence in the upper area, there is also more warmth thanks to more emphasis on the lower area, which makes the Arya Organic easier to listen to. It sounds cosy and welcoming, although it still offers a certain bite in the upper region – as an example, the trumpets in Bent Nails by Snarky Puppy. There is a very high level of detail which makes the instruments pop out, even in very layered and complex tracks. One thing I really appreciate is how fast the mids are, as this often means that they’re physical and offer a tactile sensation on top of an acoustic one.
Treble is not as intense as that of the original Arya, and is in fact almost subdued compared to the previous model. In more general terms, however, it is actually well balanced and it is always clearly audible. It is very “light” and airy, thanks to its very good extension. One thing that adds to this airy sensation and which can, at times, become a bit aggressive is a large peak around the 10 kHz mark; not only it is large in terms of magnitude, but also in terms of lateral extension, as it starts around 7 kHz, peaks at 9 kHz and then goes back to normal around 12 kHz. The result is that some instruments can become a bit fatiguing; as an example, in Snarky Puppy’s Binky around the 6:00 to 6:30 mark, there is a tambourine playing which feels like it has a spotlight pointed at it. Overall, though, I have found this to be a minor issue as the occasions in which instruments become aggressive are relatively few. Speaking of detail, the Arya Organic offers plenty, and what I really liked about it is that you can always clearly hear a lot of micro-details as well which make the cymbals especially come to life.
Final Thoughts
The HiFiMAN Arya Organic are in many ways an improvement over the previous Arya, even in the Stealth Magnets version. I find that their name very aptly describes how they sound: it is an organic whole which sounds very linear up until 7 kHz. The peak that starts there and ends at 10 kHz is the only possible issue with the Arya Organic, as everything else is executed almost flawlessly. They’re comfortable, they’re very well built and they offer great technicalities, which all are essential ingredients for great headphones. If we really wanted to nitpick, soundstage isn’t as wide as in other HiFiMAN headphones, but I’m really scraping the barrel for criticism here. And with such a visceral, physical sound, you really can’t nitpick too much.
Overall, I find the Arya Organic to be outstanding in every regard. They’re excellent headphones which retailed for $1,299 at launch (though they can be found for less nowadays), a price which is in line with what is on offer and actually makes more expensive headphones (like the HE1000SE) look a lot less interesting than they are. If you are looking for a real all-rounder with a fantastic sound and excellent technical ability, the Arya Organic are a must-try.
