Hifiman Edition XS

[dagot23]

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.

 

[Sanctuary]

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.

 

[BobSmith]

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.

 

[Magicmastja]

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..."

 

[Vatnos]

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.

 

[Magicmastja]

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.

 

[Robbo99999]

I doubt that headphone amplifiers are a contentious or important issue with this headphone, as long as you're buying a well measuring headphone amp that has been measured on this site I'm sure any differences are imagined. Solution - just buy a well measuring headphone amp that's been measured here on ASR and forget about it.

 

[Magicmastja]

I doubt that headphone amplifiers are a contentious or important issue with this headphone, as long as you're buying a well measuring headphone amp that has been measured on this site I'm sure any differences are imagined. Solution - just buy a well measuring headphone amp that's been measured here on ASR and forget about it.

But see theres just my point, I followed this often parroted advice that gets handed out in a number of forums for basically every headphone that isnt in HE6/Susvara/Tungsten territory and with both a higher powered dongle, and then next the high gain modes of the RAW MDA-1 I had to do a large notch between 3-4k and could also never get a satisfactory boost to the 700-2.5k range until I finally upped my amp power to 6W. Afterwards, the harshness went away between 3-4k and was able to undo the notch, and I finally stopped trying to squeeze more body out of the upper mids because it was reaching the audibility I had been pining for.

Its a common enough occurrence ive seen while digging in other forums/threads with the XS and even other Hifimans going back a fair few years that I do think we should actually be giving real consideration to ample current output. Clearly cheap amps are pumping out high voltages just fine but the fact that I was able to trip the MDA-1s (an amp that was reviewed well here) over protection with a handful of bassier tracks despite being rated 2.5W at 16ohms indicates that when we add EQ into mix, it doesnt seem like we can easily assume tacking on an extra 5-10db to the headphone calculator and matching the provided voltage rating to the amp means we are all good.

As to why this is the case, id love to know. Do EQs in some way disrupt the linearity of power scaling in some way related to driver excursion? Is Hifiman fudging their sensitivity/impedance ratings in some mildly misleading way? Are modern amps just overly catered towards voltage oriented headphones so we have to overspec our amp wattage to get the minimal current we desire because current based amps are a rarity? I seriously dont think this can all be hand waved by the placebo argument

 

[Jimbob54]

But see theres just my point, I followed this often parroted advice that gets handed out in a number of forums for basically every headphone that isnt in HE6/Susvara/Tungsten territory and with both a higher powered dongle, and then next the high gain modes of the RAW MDA-1 I had to do a large notch between 3-4k and could also never get a satisfactory boost to the 700-2.5k range until I finally upped my amp power to 6W. Afterwards, the harshness went away between 3-4k and was able to undo the notch, and I finally stopped trying to squeeze more body out of the upper mids because it was reaching the audibility I had been pining for.

Its a common enough occurrence ive seen while digging in other forums/threads with the XS and even other Hifimans going back a fair few years that I do think we should actually be giving real consideration to ample current output. Clearly cheap amps are pumping out high voltages just fine but the fact that I was able to trip the MDA-1s (an amp that was reviewed well here) over protection with a handful of bassier tracks despite being rated 2.5W at 16ohms indicates that when we add EQ into mix, it doesnt seem like we can easily assume tacking on an extra 5-10db to the headphone calculator and matching the provided voltage rating to the amp means we are all good.

As to why this is the case, id love to know. Do EQs in some way disrupt the linearity of power scaling in some way related to driver excursion? Is Hifiman fudging their sensitivity/impedance ratings in some mildly misleading way? Are modern amps just overly catered towards voltage oriented headphones so we have to overspec our amp wattage to get the minimal current we desire because current based amps are a rarity? I seriously dont think this can all be hand waved by the placebo argument

Im a little confused by your EQ strategy in the first paragraph. As to the power requirements- for anyone to help meaningfully we would need to know some examples of the content used (quietly recorded or high dynamic stuff like classical recordings can be some dB down from content closer to full scale like modern pop) and more importantly how loud you like to listen both regularly and for any shorter term intense sessions.

I have the XS and dont think I have ever felt I was lacking headroom but our content and desired output levels may be very different. If you are maxing competent head amps then you must be listening pretty loudly.

 

[solderdude]

Is Hifiman fudging their sensitivity/impedance ratings in some mildly misleading way?

Nom. power rating: not specified (assumed 2W)
Max. voltage: 5.5Vrms (15Vpp)
Max. current: 400mA
Max. S.P.L. 126dB (assumed 2W)
Impedance: 14Ω (measured)
Efficiency: 91dB @ 1mW
Sensitivity: 109dB @ 1V

Do EQs in some way disrupt the linearity of power scaling in some way related to driver excursion?

to reach 120dB SPL peak you need 3.5V (1W in 13ohm)
to reach 120dB SPL peak with Harman tonality you will need 7V (4W in 13ohm)

As most amps are not spec'd in 13ohm but capable amps are spec'd in 16ohm you would need 0.8W and 3W in 16ohm amps.

 

[Magicmastja]

Im a little confused by your EQ strategy in the first paragraph. As to the power requirements- for anyone to help meaningfully we would need to know some examples of the content used (quietly recorded or high dynamic stuff like classical recordings can be some dB down from content closer to full scale like modern pop) and more importantly how loud you like to listen both regularly and for any shorter term intense sessions.

I have the XS and dont think I have ever felt I was lacking headroom but our content and desired output levels may be very different. If you are maxing competent head amps then you must be listening pretty loudly.

80% Metal and Electronic music. Some especially redlining EDM tracks would trip the MDA-1. My EQ strat is that, well in short I would say that im greedy lol I want Harman sub-bass but with HD600 or better forward vocal body and clarity, and yes I am a bit embarrassed to admit that when I wasnt able to push male vocals any further upwards in the mix on the MDA-1 I was almost certainly riding in the 80-95db ballpark to compensate pretty consistently. Im pretty sure spending a decade daily driving Yamaha HS8 monitors with a discrete subwoofer is whats pushing me towards a certain presentation. I have wondered if the Ananda Nanos would do the job better or if my chasing the dragon is going to require me to pursue the likes of the new Arya Unveiled at its lofty price-tag.

Ironically im also apparently fairly treble sensitive 3-4khz very specifically despite wanting the clarity, sharp Ts and S were killing me.

 

[Magicmastja]

Nom. power rating: not specified (assumed 2W)
Max. voltage: 5.5Vrms (15Vpp)
Max. current: 400mA
Max. S.P.L. 126dB (assumed 2W)
Impedance: 14Ω (measured)
Efficiency: 91dB @ 1mW
Sensitivity: 109dB @ 1V



to reach 120dB SPL peak you need 3.5V (1W in 13ohm)
to reach 120dB SPL peak with Harman tonality you will need 7V (4W in 13ohm)

As most amps are not spec'd in 13ohm but capable amps are spec'd in 16ohm you would need 0.8W and 3W in 16ohm amps.

The amp you specified uses Korg Nutubes so will have quite a lot of distortion that might reach audible levels in the bass (tightening the bass a tiny bit) but also might make the rest of the sound a little 'coarser'.

When you enjoy that ... power to you.

To be clear, the Korg Nutubes are present in the HO150x? If so that makes plenty of sense as to why low and medium gain are fine on clarity but massively deteriorate in high gain. I had been searching for a tear down of the thing but the HO150x went largely uncovered compared to other amp releases, sounds like maybe I need to fire up google translate to go surf Bilibili and Baidu like I had to when spelunking for Mini-LED monitor info lol.

As to the provided power figures its much appreciated. So with those figures in mind and when looking at my negative gain preamp for digital clipping sounds like my minimum power was in the realm of 3.5W at 16ohm, safer bet at 4W.

 

[solderdude]

Brainfart ... the Nutubes are not used in that model.
Was from another thread were someone mentioned an amp that uses those.

So with those figures in mind and when looking at my negative gain preamp for digital clipping sounds like my minimum power was in the realm of 3.5W at 16ohm, safer bet at 4W.

Those (momentary) power levels may have been reached with Harman EQ bass and at irresponsibly (and hopefully very short) moments.
It also depends on the DAC output level, gain of the used amp, EQ and the amount of negative preamp being used.

 

[Sanctuary]

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.

This is my experience as well. While I don't actually need, or even want to use them as a portable pair of headphones, I do have a Pioneer Dolby Headphone box (5.1) that I use for 5.1/general streaming content that isn't Atmos that could be considered a portable device considering its power output, and it can more than sufficiently power my DT1990s by itself.

I however cannot do it with any of my other headphones, such as the DT880, HD800, Alpha Dog (planar) nor the XS. All of them require also using a more powerful amp on top of it. With the XS however, they seem to require more power than any of the above to reach a sufficient volume when using that box. I also noticed that for Atmos (via A16) or any content that has a lot of rumbling bass, they need more power than what my Monolith amp can provide to keep it under control and not sound sloppy.

My M-Field is perfectly capable for that job, but the XS are currently my only pair of headphones that requires that much power to keep the bass under control.

 

[Vatnos]

I doubt that headphone amplifiers are a contentious or important issue with this headphone, as long as you're buying a well measuring headphone amp that has been measured on this site I'm sure any differences are imagined. Solution - just buy a well measuring headphone amp that's been measured here on ASR and forget about it.

No, it needs to be

-Low impedance output, so amps commonly recommended for dynamic headphones like the HD800 and HD650 will not be the best. Many mid-fi amps that people own when they're getting into the hobby will have higher than ideal impedance. Especially portable midrange amps.
-High wattage. See solderdude's post. Not speaker taps or anything but you'd be surprised how many mid-fi amps top out below 3W at 16 ohm.

I can only comment on the sound signature of the HEXv2 (which had very similar architecture and power requirements), and the Ananda (significantly easier to drive. Runs at low gain on my Sangaku while the HEXv2 needed high gain).

If the XS is anything like the HEXv2 it will sound veiled if it is not getting enough power from a clean source and amp. This headphone is often the introduction to big planar sound for many newcomers and they often will not have the source gear to make it sound like it should. I've seen this play out again and again in the older Edition X threads. Someone will get an Edition X, express confusion and uncertainty about the sound. Try to gaslight themselves that it's okay and they can live with it. Eventually they give in and get an Arya or HE1000, along with a much more capable amp to drive the hungry beast. Then they discover the Edition X actually sounds great from their new amp and that they may even prefer it to the higher tier headphone--but it's too late, they've already sold it to someone else on head-fi, who can repeat the cycle. This is how hifiman's funding pipeline works.

 

[solderdude]

-Low impedance output, so amps commonly recommended for dynamic headphones like the HD800 and HD650 will not be the best. Many mid-fi amps that people own when they're getting into the hobby will have higher than ideal impedance. Especially portable midrange amps.

Low impedance is not essential, in fact most planars will sound the same when driven from 600ohm output R as from 0ohm output R as long as the same voltage across the driver is reached. It is all about voltage division.
Only headphones that have a substantially varying impedance and the output impedance is high enough in relation to the impedance of the headphone AND that headphone is designed for usage with low output impedance the output resistance may be an issue.

In this specific case a 13ohm planar driven from a 0.5ohm output amp with 1V (open voltage) will sound exactly the same as the same when driven from a 45.4V (open voltage) output amp that has a 600ohm output R.
Condition... both amplifiers have to be able to supply at least 77mArms.

But now using the same planar on an amp that can supply 7V into 13ohm (4W) having close to 0ohm output R... the amplifier having a 600ohm output R should then be able to deliver 323Vrms and 0.54Arms and the 600ohm resistor must be able to dissipate 175W !

 

[Vatnos]

I stand corrected. I guess there are other factors that led to my subjective experiences then.

 

[solderdude]

I stand corrected. I guess there are other factors that led to my subjective experiences then.

Max achievable SPL without clipping of the amp or different listening SPL could well be an issue ... or the amps not having the same frequency response for instance.
A low output R can be achieved in a phone with max. 0.5V output but also in a power amp pumping out 40V.
When both are driven to say 0.4V peaks in music and have low distortion and similar FR they cannot be told apart.
Drive them so the 0.5V output amps should have 1V peaks (but they are clipped) and the 40V amp provides the 1V the 0.5V sound (because of compressed peaks) will not sound the same as the power amp. Yet...most of the music will have signals below 0.5V so dynamic range will be perceived as 'less dynamic' before it will sound 'distorted'.

When an amp can't reach impressive levels and the volume is turned up with the intend to achieve that compared to another amp that does not have this issue (is not clipping yet, regardless it being voltage or current clipping) it is perceived as 'better sounding'.

When using low impedance headphones (like the XS) a higher output resistance amp simply cannot reach those levels (caused by either voltage or current clipping).

Hard to say without actually looking at the waveform during the listening.

 

[Robbo99999]

Yep, so any well measuring headphone amp here on this site measured by Amir where he hasn't expressly stated that it's underpowered then it would drive Edition XS fine. I've got an HE400SE and I can drive it easily with a European apple dongle and a Harman EQ negative preamp. I know it's not the same headphone but when I compared earlier I think they were similar measured sensitivities with in fact the Edition XS being more dB/V than the HE400SE(from solderdude's diyaudioheaven website). I know the impedances are different though, so that might mean the Edition XS pulls more current, but I'm sure any well measuring amp that Amir has measured on this site where he's not expressly stated that it's underpowered will drive Edition XS fine.

 

[Magicmastja]

To try to thread the needle here a bit, I think its fair to call the Edition XS a "sneaky" headphone. Its managed to place itself right along the fence of not very hard but also not very easy to drive. What I think would be the most productive way to help someone asking "what amp do I need" for these cans is, before giving a rec, ask them "Do you want to, or think you might want to later, EQ them. If so do you enjoy pushing high (5db+) boosts to the bass or elsewhere?". The borderline nature of the XS combined with its absurd amenability to extreme and varied EQ filters makes it perhaps THE prime sub-$300 headphone for someone to go full mad scientist to experiment with the frequency spectrum to find out what they like tuning-wise, but power requirements can also start to get away from you pretty fast if your not being mindful.

If the user is fairly confident they will leave it at stock, sure something that lives between 1W-2.5W at 16ohms will probably be safe to recommend. If theyre neurotic maniacs like me who want to glue mini-subwoofers with a forward upper midrange on the side of their head, throw them whatever price-to-performance ratios the best at the time at 3W-6W. I think the EQ question will help gauge the users personality a bit to feel out if their the kind of person whose usually satisfied with "good enough" or if their a tinkerer/min-maxer.