[FullRangeMan]

The incredible Arya Unveiled comparative review.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmtCEAf-SUM

[Letitroll98]

The video is unwatchable with all the ads and pop ups.  I still love my ancient Hifiman HE 400i phones and was interested in seeing the review, but just had to exit.

[FullRangeMan]

Sorry for that. I use an free app to stop ads on my FF v88 and it has no ad at all, the ads and pops vary according the country you are located.

This guy are a HP fanatic and own all the best HPs, buds and amps and offer a panoramic comparative review and place the Arya Unveiled as the new best at this price range.

[Letitroll98]

Yes, I'm still a digital dyslexic and haven't added any ad blocking to my phone.  I should do it, maybe this will inspire me.

[V-Fi]

I used to love Hifiman headphones back in the day. Owned several sets in the early days, HE-6, HE5 LE, HE-4, and some others. Then came the original HE-1000 which I thought sounded brilliant. However it was all downhill from there.

HE-1000 had to be replaced 3 times due to driver failure and other issues. Thankfully Hifiman was decent with support, although it took a lot more work than it should have based on the circumstances. After that I dabbled with a few others and felt that the build quality or potential reliability was going in the wrong direction. Not to mention their crazy release schedule which totally decimates the resale value for existing owners.

Now that I see them doing this "unveiled" design scheme, it makes me that much more nervous. If ever there was a brand who should not completely expose their drivers, it is Hifiman. I bet they do sound pretty nice but there's no way I would trust that company with a design like that and expect it to give me years worth of enjoyment.

[FullRangeMan]

I used to love Hifiman headphones back in the day. Owned several sets in the early days, HE-6, HE5 LE, HE-4, and some others. Then came the original HE-1000 which I thought sounded brilliant. However it was all downhill from there.

HE-1000 had to be replaced 3 times due to driver failure and other issues. Thankfully Hifiman was decent with support, although it took a lot more work than it should have based on the circumstances. After that I dabbled with a few others and felt that the build quality or potential reliability was going in the wrong direction. Not to mention their crazy release schedule which totally decimates the resale value for existing owners.

Now that I see them doing this "unveiled" design scheme, it makes me that much more nervous. If ever there was a brand who should not completely expose their drivers, it is Hifiman. I bet they do sound pretty nice but there's no way I would trust that company with a design like that and expect it to give me years worth of enjoyment.

Thankyou for your first hand report.
Car is not a investment its lose price every year and nobody complains,
investment are gold.
There is a lot of refurbished and open box models on the HifiMan site.
A thing ridiculous at HifiMan are his silly names for the phones.

[V-Fi]

Thankyou for your first hand report.
For this there is a lot of refurbished and open box models on the HifiMan site.
A thing ridiculous at HifiMan are his silly names for the phones.

I'll admit I liked the number system they used previously. In those days I somewhat knew that the HE-6 was the top dog, the HE-4 was the more affordable options, and so on. Nowadays I am not sure how to tell how Sundara relates to Arya or Ananda etc. And that's not even counting the "organic" or "unveiled" parts. Still, I know it's tough to come up with a comprehensive lineup so I don't really fault them for that so much.

My bigger issue is the reliability has been a problem for years and hasn't really seemed to get better. I feel like if I spend $200 on a headphone, I expect it to work but am not shocked if something goes wrong. But for ten times that amount, or even more? Problems with those should be extremely rare, and that just doesn't seem to be the case.

I agree none of these things are investments. But they do no favors to customers when they drop new models every year and drastically cut the prices on the prior edition. Suddenly a headphone we paid $2499 to buy, is now selling for half of that, brand new. So our mint condition, few month old example is now worth maybe 1/3 to 1/4 of the original price we just paid. That doesn't happen with Sennheiser, Audeze, Meze Audio, or any of the other major players in this segment.

I do think Hifiman can make a good sounding headphone. And I hope they get it together so I can feel confident in owning their products some day. But it will take a while before I see proven reliability for the long term, otherwise I'm not going down that road again.

[Letitroll98]

Knock on wood my HE 400i phone have been going strong for years.  However back in my headphone period I had a bunch of popular phones, but then regained a dedicated listening room, bought some new gear and decided to offload some headphones.  I kept the Hifiman not because it was my favorite, but because the value had plummeted so far that it wasn't worth selling them.  The $500 retail had dropped to under $100 used, while Beyerdynamic and Grado sold for about what I had bought them gently used for.  While over the years I think I've got my money's worth from the Headphones, I'd never pay retail for a Hifiman product, just wait until they discount them 75%.

[FullRangeMan]

HifiMan are an audio good in constant improvment.
With cables the value loss in 2 years are greater and nobody complain, no mentioning the sound becomes bad.