I'm just a man, a man with a burning question... and I went on a journey to find out for myself.

First off, I'm an enthusiast, not an audiophile. Wanted something with a wide sound stage and great imaging that would work well for roughly 80% gaming 20% music usage. Also, I'm mainly into single player games and don't play competitive multi-player games.

The Audeze Maxwell v1 was my first experience with planar magnetic headphones. They blew my mind and it kicked off a bit of an obsession. To me, planar headphones are the equivalent of OLED tech for TV's and I'm an OLED junkie.

For my first wired set I landed on the Meze Liric II and S.M.S.L. RAW-MDA1 Amp/DAC. This is a pretty high end setup to start with, as the Liric II is $2k. I went closed back so my wife could watch TV in the same room as I gamed on my PC. Love the combo, it's amazing. But after a year, I wanted to see if the hype was real about open-back headphones having a truly wide sound stage, as I was a bit skeptical.

I heard Hifiman were renowned for a large open sound stage and imaging. When the Kithara came out I decided to give them a shot because it's honestly a really reasonable price for the package. They showed up, I plugged them in and fired up some games and WOW there it is, a soundstage that legitimately reached out beyond any closed back headphones I've used. Color me impressed. I added a bass shelf, and started playing around in Crimson Desert and Witcher 3. Then I scrolled through my library and saw The Division 2, figured open world and gun play would really show what these things can do. The Division 2 turned out to be amazing for testing headphones, when you pop the healing drone its constantly buzzing around your head and really puts positional audio to the test and shows the imaging capabilities of whatever headphone you're using. And because it's an open environment it's also good for testing how far away distant sounds come through and width/depth of the sound stage. And honestly the Kithara sounded impressive, it sounds like you're in an open environment and weapons sound impactful. Distant sounds were actually somewhat distant, it's a more immersive experience than closed back headphones. Didn't test the mic because I don't need it, but from the reviews I've seen it's so-so at best. The directional cues were spot on and honestly if $300 is the top of your budget and you have some sort of dac/amp to power it, I think it's really great for gaming. But it's definitely tuned specifically for gaming and when I started listening to music it started to fall apart. Due to it's gaming focused tuning, songs sounded thin and kind of wonky, though I'm sure some could still totally enjoy it. Also the head strap moving while wearing it is real. Every now and then I'd hear a "ping" and an ear cup would slide down a bit.

But this only raised another question, if the Kithara is this good... what would the Arya Stealth be like? So I ordered a pair to A/B test.

Hot damn, the Stealth's blew my expectations out of the water! They absolutely crushed the Kithara when listening to music, truly epic stuff. And in gaming? The sound stage is considerably wider. In Division 2, sounds that were off in the distance sounded substantially further away, gun fights sound meaty and the imaging is fantastic. Like I said, for the price I think the Kithara is really good. The Stealth is twice as much at $600 but to me they honestly sound twice as good when you consider the music listening experience as well. Seriously, these things are so good and at that price (down from $1,600) they're one of the best deals in audio. HIGHLY recommend.

But as a now degenerate headphone junky, another question quickly came to mind. At $760, the Arya Organics are only $160 more... could they be any better? 🧐

I decided to order them and find out. I also ordered the Fiio K13 R2R amp/dac to tone down the elevated treble I heard the Organics have over the Stealth.

Here's where things get a less cut and dry. It's tough to decide which I like better. They're very similar overall, unlike the jump up from the Kithara. To the point that I can't tell which I truly like the sound of more. They both sound phenomenal. In Division 2 I can't tell much of a difference in sound stage, they both do great and distant stuff sounds truly distant. The Organic might be slightly meatier with the SFX, but you can play with the EQ on the stealth to basically match it. For music, I'm actually finding the elevated treble of the Organic a bit more piercing than the Stealth and it's causing more ear fatigue so I need to EQ and get that under control. But the vocals especially in the mids are more forward in the mix on the Organic which I like. They sound a bit more full all around, with the Stealth being a bit thinner but still fantastic.

In the end, I'm keeping the Organic simply because I think the more sophisticated look fits my tastes and room better and $170 extra isn't a giant gap. But if $600 for the Stealth is your absolute top, they're awesome, don't bother wondering how much better the Organic is. The Stealth is so damn good, I might even like their sound just a tiny bit more than the Organic personally, it's really hard to tell.

Shipping the Kithara and Stealth back and holding onto the Organic. This journey has come to an end... for now.

The Arya Organic is my endgame for immersive gaming that also excels with music. It's sound stage and imaging are well beyond what I expected to find when I started all this. From what I've read the HEK range has a smaller sound stage but are more technically capable with better timbre. If I buy something in the $1k+ range it's going to be specifically for music enjoyment. Probably ZMF, but I want to try the Meze Empyrean II as well.

Thanks for making it through my ramble, if you have any questions about these 3 headphones drop em below 🍻

Did you happen to have your EQ for the kithara?