HiFiMAN Arya
The search for an upgraded planar magnetic headphone from my Hifiman HE560 has taken me all over the place, and for the longest time, I hadn’t found it, at least until now. After using the Fostex T50RP and various mods to it for a while, I upgraded to the Hifiman HE560 a few years ago and fell in love with it. It had a slightly brighter than neutral sound signature, with deep bass extension, and a clean mid and treble range. It had a better than average soundstage width, and good detail and speed, at least for it’s market price at the time – somewhere under $500 (presently $200-300), which is a mighty price drop from its original $899 retail price.
Despite loving the HE560, I’ve always been in a search for the next best thing, without totally breaking the bank. I went through several Monoprice Monolith headphones, a few Audezes (LCD1, LCD2, LCD-X, etc.), and even tried out the Hifiman Sundara, and Ananda, albeit briefly. I finally decided to take a chance on the Hifiman Arya.
The Arya takes the HE1000 series stylings with a teardrop-like shape, and paints it with an all black exterior, and a swivel-based headband that is essentially the same exact design as my beloved HE560. In the latest revision in the Arya I picked up, Hifiman also added reinforcing steel to their sometimes-weak plastic yokes on the headband, amongst a few other small changes to the Arya to improve durability such as carbon fiber internal baffles and moving the pad liners to the cup itself.
ZMF Pendant – Tube Headphone Amplifier
When you think ZMF, you tend to think “headphones” – whether that’s Zach Mehrbach’s all-proprietary line of artisanal-quality, wooden-cupped, dynamic-driver masterpieces, like the recent Vérité or Auteur – or their original planar models based on a modified Fostex T50RP platform. But that’s not all that is on offer from ZMF – as in addition to their headphones, upgrade cables and a wide variety of pads (compatible with other headphone brands too), they also have their own dedicated headphone amplifier – the “Pendant”.
The Pendant is a pure-tube implementation featuring a high-power, transformer-coupled design capable of driving almost any headphone that you care to throw at it. It has been developed in collaboration with ampsandsound, a well-regarded designer and manufacturer of tube-based headphone and speaker amplifiers.
Audeze LCD-1 Review – lightweight planar headphones with heavyweight performance
I have recently been listening to the LCD-1, and I must say that it has recently thrown me for a loop–and that is a good thing.
It was not too long ago that I reviewed the HiFiMan Sundara and was sincerely impressed with the performance level it achieved; so much so that I declared my personal pick for music listening under $500. The Sundara was an all-around great performer that possessed both a delightful sonic tuning and great technical capabilities. However, now that I have tried the LCD-1, I can say that there is a real contender for my go-to pick in the sub $500 price range.