Hifiman HE1000 & Arya Unveiled

With their Unveiled series, Hifiman are taking the concept of open‑backed headphones to its logical conclusion!

Hifiman’s Unveiled models are fully open, with nothing between the magnet structure and the outside world.If you believe some corners of the Internet, Chinese manufacturing is all about imitation rather than innovation. Look for yourself, though, and you’ll find Chinese companies bringing new ideas to market in every sector. In the world of headphones, Hifiman lead the pack, with founder Dr Fang Bian pushing forward the development of transducer technology at a sometimes dizzying speed.

My own first encounter with the brand came three years ago, when I looked at their Arya, Sundara and HE‑R10D models in SOS April 2022. Together, these represented a relatively small sample from the very wide Hifiman catalogue, but were enough to demonstrate the diversity of designs that can be found therein.

One of the things that has historically relegated planar magnetic headphones to the ‘alternative’ category is the difficulty of matching the HF extension of moving‑coil designs. Hifiman’s designs showed that this is not an inherent limitation of the technology; and, with the Sundara in particular, they also demonstrated that planar headphones can compete head‑to‑head on price with moving‑coil models of similar quality.

Lifting The Veil

The pace of development at Hifiman is such that numerous models have been added to the range since 2022, and it has to be said that the full line‑up is both impressive and slightly confusing. At first glance, it appears that Hifiman products all occupy one of three pricing or quality tiers labelled Reference, Premium and Hi‑Fi. However, although the HE1000se, HE1000 Stealth and Arya Organic models are found in the Reference category, the two review models actually form part of the Premium line, despite being slightly more expensive than those counterparts. Both are open‑backed, planar magnetic headphones that implement another of Dr Fang Bian’s design innovations.

In the HE1000 Unveiled and the Arya Unveiled, existing Hifiman technologies such as the Nanometre Thickness Diaphragm and Stealth Magnets Design are paired with a new construction that seeks to eliminate possible sources of reflection and refraction within the earcup. In essence, the Unveiled concept refers to the complete removal of the outer grille, along with the Window Shade Louvres featured on earlier models, leaving nothing between the magnet structure and the outside world.

On the basis of previous experience, I was half expecting the two models to have nothing else in common at all, but if you discount cosmetic factors, they are really quite similar. They have identical or near‑identical egg‑shaped earcups, with mini‑jack sockets at the base of each to accommodate the supplied Y cable. The yokes and headband also appear to be more or less the same on both models, apart from the fabric used to make the head strap. In both cases, the earcups are free to rotate up and down, forward and back. And both feature deep, soft earpads that are tapered such that the rear side of the headphones sits slightly further from the head than the front.

Unboxing Match

Part of the price differential between the two models is accounted for by the packaging. The Arya Unveileds ship in a cardboard box, while the HE1000 Unveileds arrive in an imposing leatherette‑covered crate. Neither is particularly suitable for protecting your investment in day‑to‑day use, though, especially if you need to travel with your reference headphones. HE1000 purchasers also get multiple cables, including a ‘balanced’ one terminating in a four‑pin XLR, and a hardback printed manual.

Both models come with a surprising abundance of drawstring cloth bags, in an attractive brown suede‑type finish, and a pair of plates that attach magnetically to the outside of the earcups. These emphatically don’t turn the HE1000 or Arya Unveiled into usable closed‑back cans. Rather, the idea is that you fit them when you aren’t using the headphones, in order to prevent magnetic particles being ingested through the open back of the earcup and potentially fouling the diaphragm. Since none of the cloth bags is large enough to accommodate the entire headphones, I’d assume that at least some of them are then designed to be placed over the earcups once this is done, for a further layer of protection. I seemed to have enough left over not only to house all the cables, but to make handy dust covers for some lucky microphones too.

Ears Out

Both the Arya Unveiled and the HE1000 Unveiled (seen here) come with screens that attach magnetically to the outside of the earcups to protect them when not in use.According to the specifications, the HE1000s are marginally the heavier of the two models under review, at 450g to the Arya’s 413g, and boast a sensitivity of 95dB to the Arya’s 94. Impedance is quoted as 28Ω and 27Ω respectively. In practice, as you’d expect from their physical similarity, the experience of wearing both models is pretty much the same, and although they are heavier than most headphones, I found them perfectly comfortable. Both also produced subjectively similar levels from the same source volume settings, and were easy to drive from audio interface headphone sockets.

Timbrally, there’s also a far greater degree of sonic uniformity between these two models than there is between any of the other pairs of Hifiman headphones I’ve heard. Neither the Arya Unveiled nor the HE1000 Unveiled sounds like a typical pair of planar magnetic headphones, if such a thing exists. They not only have a much more extended high‑frequency response than you might expect, but also a voicing that shows this to full effect. Both are comfortably on the bright side of neutral, and I’d say the HE1000s are marginally more so than the Aryas, but perhaps with a slightly smoother midrange into the bargain.

The flip side of the extended high‑frequency response on the original Arya was a treble that was noticeably uneven in places, with the most obvious manifestation being a prominent peak somewhere in the 4kHz area. I’m pleased to report that the unveiling process seems to have evened things out considerably, and although both models are a touch prone to exaggerating issues such as sibilance, the characteristic peakiness is gone. There would be scope to linearise these headphones using software EQ, but unlike with the original Arya, I don’t think you would need to do so in order to use them for mixing, as their brightess is relatively benign and easy to ‘learn’. And although they don’t have the thrilling bass that you get on something like the Audeze LCD‑X, such low end as there is is both even and pretty deep, which is the most important thing in an analytical tool such as a pair of open‑backed headphones. Other planar qualities such as low distortion and the ability to present transient information in a natural, punchy fashion are fully present and correct.

I’m sure I won’t be the only person to find these very useful reference tools in the studio.

The need to cover up the rear of the earcups when not in use might sound a nuisance, but in practice I think this is mainly a backside‑covering exercise on Hifiman’s part. I was fairly lax about applying the magnetic shields while the HE1000 and Arya Unveiled resided in my control room, and if either of them sucked in any unwanted particles, I didn’t notice the consequences. What I did notice was several mix issues that had gone unremarked on darker or less detailed monitoring setups — and I’m sure I won’t be the only person to find these very useful reference tools in the studio.