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Hifiman Edition XS

My pair just arrived and this is kind of hilarious. Since 2009 I've been using some JMoney Beyer pads. First on my 880s, then in 2020 on my 1990s after getting them.
Whatever magic was done when those pads were designed has not been replicated through the other notable third-party pads. None of the Dekoni, Brainwavez, ZMF etc have been able to replicate their sound signature, which tames the shrill, sibilant treble they have with stock pads, and also bring out the bass without actually sounding boomy or bloated and it also doesn't negatively impact dialogue (I mainly use them for movies through various devices).

I've been using those same pads since 2009 and they are pretty deteriorated, and I've not been able to find a suitable replacement. Nothing, and I mean nothing comes close to the way they sound. I even contacted Vesper Audio recently to see if they can try to reverse engineer mine and make me a new pair. After recently dumping $300 on a bunch of ZMF pads, I ended up grabbing the XS for $269...

They come closer to sounding like 1990s + JMoney than anything I've heard yet. Almost, but not quite identical. To the point in which I would be perfectly happy with just using these. They also have the upside of having planar bass, and they seem even more open sounding overall.

Downside? These headphones are uncomfortable as hell. I've never worn a pair of headphones that actually gave me a headache after only ten minutes, but these do it. The top of my head is not perfectly round, and the top/back has very slight point, and these rest directly on top of that. I've seen the various complaints about how uncomfortable these could be, but I had no idea until now. Definitely going to be looking at the various aftermarket headbands for these.

It also seems like I've found my preferred sound signature, so from now on I can just use their frequency response as my baseline, since there wasn't really a way for me to graph the 1990s + JMoney.
I use the strap from CustomCans on my pair. Went from being extremely uncomfortable to not even feeling like there's anything resting on top of my head. The way you mount it is pretty annoying, though. There are 3d printed replacements as well, might want to look into those. Some people put the Arya or Ananda headbands on the XS and it works pretty well, apparently.
 
I use the strap from CustomCans on my pair. Went from being extremely uncomfortable to not even feeling like there's anything resting on top of my head. The way you mount it is pretty annoying, though. There are 3d printed replacements as well, might want to look into those. Some people put the Arya or Ananda headbands on the XS and it works pretty well, apparently.

I just went ahead and got one of the cheap cooling gel zipper bands from Geekira. If it's not comfortable enough, I might look into a strap later so they more or less "float" on top of my head.

Also, I really don't know if it's a combination of them being planar, with such large drivers and ear cups and being seemingly the most physically open of the main three headphones I use, but these give the most "speaker-like" presentation on my Realiser A16 (which has you putting mics in your ears and recording actual speakers). They sound a lot wider to me than even the vaunted HD800, except in a complete 360 omnidirectional sphere around me, instead of sounding like a very wide oval that lacks front and back depth (HD800).

These also seem to handle dialogue way better too. It doesn't add that artificial sound the HD800 can produce, even when using an HPEQ. It's ironic that my absolutely cheapest headphones sound the best with my A8 and A16. I was planning on getting the Mod House Tungstens, but now I'm wondering if the sound stage of these Hifiman will be significantly reduced going to those, even though they aren't supposed to be a slouch in that area either. I just think the XS are spoiling me with how open they sound.
 
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I use the strap from CustomCans on my pair. Went from being extremely uncomfortable to not even feeling like there's anything resting on top of my head. The way you mount it is pretty annoying, though. There are 3d printed replacements as well, might want to look into those. Some people put the Arya or Ananda headbands on the XS and it works pretty well, apparently.

I also have the Custom Cans strap and it's been kind of a game changer. It's not perfect but getting that hard fat tire off the crown of my head let's me listen to them much longer and at times they disappear. They're also less prone to falling off my head.

I'm using the softer strap and I ended up making so many adjustments to the height of the strap attachment to the metal part on the cans, that they stopped effectively attaching and kept sliding down. My solution was removing the old CC tape from the strap (could not get it off the cans) and using my old roll of Scotch Velcro double sided tape and shaping the two Velcro sides into the Custom Cans half oval shapes and using them as the two-sided attachment in similar fashion to CC. I've got the Velcro hook side on the strap and the fuzzy side on the cans.

Works great and, so far, no sliding around. Convertible too: if I wanted to go back to stock (unlikely) I just have to gently pull if off and then it can be easily reattached. A further advantage to this method is one can buy both the softer and firmer straps ( have a firm strap that I bought for a 400SE that I had to return) and use them interchangeably.
 
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6 months into owning the Edition XS. Today I received my SMSL HO150x that I picked up new in box for $150, replacing the amp output of my Raw MDA1 2.5W at 16ohms with 6W at 16, quite the deal. Gotta say I think the Edition XS really exemplifies "Theres a difference between having enough power, and having enough power to power them well"

For the first time since owning these, im able to actually get both EQed full bodied sub-bass and the very forward presenting vocals ive aggressively EQed for boosting 700-2.5khz. I almost wish the HO150x didnt have the high-gain mode to tempt me with because while I definitely wont be using it, too much added distortion, it did give me a taste of what more could be wrought from the XS if I had that extra power but done cleanly. They...almost had slam? Can you actually coerce the XS into having something resembling mid-bass slam if you have enough current lol?

inb4 im back here in another 6-12 months saying "So I just bought a A70 Pro..."
 
Ive had my pair for almost 2 months now, I would say that I overall like them but ive learned through trial and error these cans REALLY need to have enough current being fed to them to be able to perform their best. I tested the waters first with a dongle DAC/AMP and then with the SMSL RAW-MDA-1 on low gain mode, both amp configs exhibited the well reported sibilance across various bands 3-12khz. it was only after trying high gain on the SMSL DAC/AMP did that finally go away without substantial EQ efforts.

For EDM the XS is just incredible for sub-bass after boosting, I didnt think it was possible to wring that much clear controlled bass from a pair of headphones of any kind let alone an open back. My only complaint remaining is the same one everyone else makes, the 1-2khz range leaves much to be desired. You can EQ your way into getting most of the clarity you might be pining for, but you just wont get the level of forwardness and body/presence you might expect from other options. From my experience you can push the 1.7-1.9k range up to about +4db before it starts wrestling with the bass for energy or just thins out into distorted incoherence.

String instruments, electronic music, and basically anything well produced not requiring the human voice will probably sound great on these, your favorite Metalcore bands 2nd album produced in 2005 in one of the band-mates backyard shed, not so much.

I had the Edition X v2 and that was my experience with them. Hifiman really bungled the rollout of that headphone by claiming it was "easy to drive" and pitching it as a portable option for mysterious reasons. When I got them, I found that they needed much more power than advertised on the box. Spent a long time looking for an amp that had a complimentary sound and good clean power before falling in love with the Apex Sangaku.
 
I had the Edition X v2 and that was my experience with them. Hifiman really bungled the rollout of that headphone by claiming it was "easy to drive" and pitching it as a portable option for mysterious reasons. When I got them, I found that they needed much more power than advertised on the box. Spent a long time looking for an amp that had a complimentary sound and good clean power before falling in love with the Apex Sangaku.
Yeah totally agree, I did a summary of my experiences with my current collection of sub-$300 gear and in my Edition XS write up I urged folks to go at least a little bit overkill on their amp, especially if theyre planning on doing the common 5db+ boosts to the sub-bass and the general 1.5k region. I pointed out amp shopping solely by the estimated minimum voltage level for your desired volume level is going to mislead you into underpowering these cans. Im not saying you should go out and drop $1000+ but you really need more than what your gonna find on the <$220 All-In-Ones. In hindsight, I think the Loxjie D40 Pro on sale for $340 atm over on HifiExpress is probably your best bargain AIO for giving the XS the juice it needs (even if the chassis is regrettably very 80s, though I find it charming).

Hifiman seems to be on the long term mission to bring planar openbacks to the masses by slowly price cutting more of their lineup over time to below $500, I wonder if it would be worthwhile for reviewers with sufficient access to a variety of planars, amplifiers, load measuring gear, and headphone test rigs to do some advanced data collection on the current draw vs targeted frequency response compliance with high DB boost EQs set by the end user of these low impedance low sensitivity headphones.

EQ itself has been generally omitted from the testing process because of its subjective nature of course, but I think it might be interesting to pick popular boosting parameters and investigating things such as A) Given power is not a limiting factor, can you push a particular planar driver at a targeted boosted frequency to a minimum specified volume level. And then B) How much of a reduction in available current can the headphone tolerate before it falls below minimum loudness at said frequency, and perhaps even how much can be taken away before the user-input EQ is minimally effective or essentially ignored. There are other neat things one could explore but these are just the first to come to mind.

Im sure that I am not the first person to mull over this and im guessing this likely hasnt been pursued because of how labor intensive, time consuming, and narrow of an audience that would actually be interested in consuming such highly specific content. I only throw out the thought now because the XS being cut to $270 has resulted in mountains of forum threads and Youtube videos covering it, with a notable number of users being dissatisfied and confused as to why the Edition XS doesnt sound as good as everyone says it does. The problem is then made worse when disagreements on power requirements and hypothetical amplification scalability inevitably emerge.

I lack both a sufficiently large and diverse headphone portfolio and low level understanding of driver types to be able to accurately point to a underlying cause, but I do wonder if the disagreements are primarily rooted in the entrenched market dominance of dynamic driver based headphones and thus people are basing their stances on power around the shared collective ownership experience and typical dynamic driver behaviors, or if the difference in driver types alone wouldnt be the cause and instead its a snow-balling combination of a driver type that permits aggressive EQ, unusually low impedances and sensitivities, and perhaps even the particularly large diameter of Hifiman egg-heads that result in such a split opinion. Owners of smaller sized Audeze and DCA planars might be able to comment on power characteristics in this context.
 
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