HiFiMan Arya Wi-Fi: High-Fi without the price tag
Personal audio is going through its most unhinged renaissance in decades. Wired earphones are back, tube amplifiers are back, and if you thought personal audio peaked when active noise-cancelling earbuds flooded the market, you have not been paying attention to the delightfully obsessive corners of Head-Fi.
All-in-one
While some may pontificate on separates being the ultimate expression of high-end head-fi, HiFiMan has other plans. Instead of trying to squeeze high-res audio through Bluetooth’s narrow pipe, HiFiMan crammed an entire desktop audio chain directly into the earcups of their benchmark planar headphones. While it may sound like a cheap Chi-Fi trick, the Arya Wi-Fi is a product that makes this feel less like a gimmick than it has any right to.
It carries the same NEO Supernano (NsD) planar diaphragm and Stealth Magnet construction as the wired Arya line, wrapped in a new Gen 2 self-adjusting composite headband, but each earcup hides a Hymalaya Mini R2R DAC paired with a custom Class AB balanced amplifier. HiFiMan rates frequency response at 8Hz to 55kHz, so even House and Hip/Hop fans need not shy away. Format support runs from 44.1kHz to 768kHz PCM and native DSD up to 512, with Bluetooth handled through SBC, AAC, aptX, aptX HD and LDAC whenever Wi-Fi isn’t an option.
Not-so-portable
You’ll have to bear in mind that these are open-back planar headphones, so don’t expect them to perform well on a Metro ride. Sound leaks out as much as it leaks in and they are built for untethered domestic sessions without dragging a spaghetti-junction of cables behind you. Battery life is claimed to be 23 hours in Bluetooth mode but falls to 6.5 to 7.5 hours once Wi-Fi streaming kicks in. Again, not a deal breaker if you use them the way they’re intended to.
Inspired by home hi-fi
HiFiMan wants listeners to skip the stack of desktop electronics, and the ongoing trend is skewing towards skipping the desktop altogether. Astell&Kern has put four vacuum tubes inside a DAP small enough for a jacket pocket. FiiO sells an R2R ladder converter in a player thinner than a stack of cards. FiiO, Shanling and Cayin all now build disc players with Bluetooth and USB DAC modes bolted on. Every one of these products chases listeners who have stopped accepting “wireless” as shorthand for “compromised.”
Head-Fi has not been this imaginative in years, even though it draws heavily from home hi-fi. The Arya Wi-Fi may be the cleanest argument yet that convenience and fidelity no longer have to be sold as separate purchases. While we await the launch and pricing estimate for the Arya Wi-Fi in India, currently, other versions of the Arya, like the Stealth and Organic wired versions, are already on sale, featuring similar driver technology.
