Is the HiFiMAN Arya worth the upgrade from the STAX SR-Lambda Pro?

Verdict

Meaningful upgrade

The HiFiMAN Arya scores 6.0 points above the STAX SR-Lambda Pro. That's a real improvement, though not the kind you'd notice on every track. The gains are concentrated in sound (8.5 to 9.5) and value (7.0 to 8.0). Worth checking: weight goes 340 g to 430 g and drivers per side goes 2 to 1. One caution: this steps down a line tier (SR-Lambda Pro to Arya), and base models usually trade away tier features - check the codec and ANC rows above before trusting the score gap alone. That costs $419 more, or about $70 per point of score - steep unless the specific gains above are ones you care about. Worth doing if you're replacing anyway; harder to justify as a pure upgrade if what you have still works.