Well going to pick a pair up to see what the hype is about.
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In one word, EXCELLENT! Great customer support.
Does someone have both Edition XS and LCD-X 2021?
I would like to know a brief comparision between the two. I know that probably the LCD-X technically outperforms the Edition XS in most areas, butā¦ how much? Tonality wise is important, but I think if I get any of those I will EQ it anyways. Thanks!
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I have the 2020 LCDX and can make a comparison when I get the XS burned in.
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Hello there, I am pretty new to being an audiophile, so Iām definitely still trying to learn a lot, but I have a question that I hope someone can answer. I have the Sennheiser HD 6xx, and I just recently bought the Hifiman Edition XS as my first ever planar magnetic headphone. I was really enjoying the sound of it, and I quite liked the punchy bass, and all the details that I was getting from the headphone. oh by the was I have a Schiit Magni Modi stack plugged into my MacBook over usb, and using apple music lossless for all my music. But anyways I really wanted my dad to try using the headphone so I let him listen to it. Heās older so he listens to headphones quite a bit louder than I do because of his hearing loss. then he starting messing around with Apple Musicās EQ setting and then cranked the bass all the way up 10 db, and it made a horrible distorting noise, and then we quickly turned it off. Now for some reason, the bass on the headphone just seem to be quite than normal, and seems more muddied and unclear? also I tried to do a sine wave sweep, and I donāt know if its my hearing or the headphone, but I donāt hear or feel anything under 45-50hz, and it sounds like my 6xx has more bass quantity than my XS, when I A-B them as well. I donāt notice any distortion with the XS, so it could be all placebo, but for some reason I feel like somethings wrong with it, but I donāt really know how to tell, or what to do to make sure and check everything is ok with it. Any advice? also I donāt have like any money to buy a measurement rig, so like is there some place I can take it to to have it measured and at least verify the measurements are correct? Sorry for the long post, Iām pretty new to this stuff, and Iām trying to learn as much as possible, but I have no prior experience with planners, and I donāt know how fragile they are either. Again any help or advice is greatly appreciated, Thanks!
Iām guessing a lack of power if he listens loud. The XS really like power if they can get it.
I think heās saying the bass died on his XS after they boosted it super high
Just send them in for warranty, donāt tell them about the +10 db bass boost tho lol.
Youāre supposed to set a negative gain equal to how much youāre boosting whatever frequency when using eq, Iām guessing appleās doesnāt have the setting thoughā¦And people sticking with the ājust add more powerā thing after you āblew them upā with a magniā¦ 
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I guess the heavy distortion was digitally / clipping. If you increased the bass by 10db but didnāt use any pre amp -10dB then you will run into clipping.
I have used / am using Ananda / XS / Arya with a 12 dB low shelf and never heard any distortion.
I tried looking for a definitive answer but canāt seem to find it so I thought Iād just ask here. Does the zen can have enough juice for these headphones to get the most out of it or would I need an upgrade?
To get the most out of it? probably not. Does it still sound amazing? yeaā¦ they get plenty loud even with EQ but no doubt more power will be ābetterā. xbass sounds really nice on them though.
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Thatās one of the things I donāt understand. What does ābetterā actually mean? Or is it all placebo?
Edition XS is somewhat reminisent of the 7Hz Timeless. Itās not quite the same, I would say the Timeless is more V-shaped, but there are similarities there. I donāt personally feel the Edition XS is in any way bass lacking, I find it to have plenty of bass and really wouldnāt want any more.
An IEM that graphed flat like the XS does, I would think would sound extremely bass light. But itās different with over-ears for whatever reason, most over-ears are rolled off in the sub-bass so that the XS is so linear means to me, perceptually it has a lot of bass. For an open-back, the XS has more bass than most.
The sort of bass I like, can tolerate or even enjoy on an IEM, if replicated on an over-ear, it would be ridiculously too muchā¦ they just arenāt the same to me, for wahtever reason. I donāt think you can compare the graphs directly.
I have the CRA as well, it is very bassy. Iād say the bass on the XS is less than that. But itās not really perceptually less than the Timeless, not with wide bore tips anyway like I use with it.
I think youād like it if you like the Timeless and Iād certainly recommend it, itās really a remarkable headphone.
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Largely placebo except for exceptionally hard to drive headphones. More power isnāt bad with planars because they can usually take quite a bit of EQ, but you shouldnāt need to buy a new amp to run 95%+ of headphones.
Then again, thereās people who swear by cables making a difference or fuses making a difference. Placebo can still be real, but only because the brain is powerful enough to trick us.
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Thanks. I got lucky and will get a loaner unit to test drive. Letās see how it goes 
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when I had my XS I tried it with A90, Zen Dac etc (generally used balanced with my heart audio cable) I didnāt notice any āimpactfulā differences maybe like 1% at most
imo zen dac is more than enough so zen can is even better
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Better means something sounding better to you
This whole statement is kinda confusing, are you saying that all upgrades are placebo?
Cables are placebo, fuses are placebo.
The amp/dac debate is very tribal and I donāt want to start an off-topic discussion.
If people want an upgrade then theyāre better off getting new headphones.
Again, placebo is incredibly strong. You see it with blind wine tastings, whiskey/scotch tastings, pharmaceuticals, pain studies, etc. Our experience is heavily influenced by what we expect to hear, see, feel.
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If thatās your experience then fair enough, but (not tried with fuses/power related stuff yet) that hasnāt been my experience and with my old HeKv2 I was immediately able to tell the difference between the 4 or so cables I tried with it.
Whilst I probably agree in this case (depending on their current source), source synergy is a very large part of the overall experience and lots of headphones will have cases where they do really well on some source gear and terribly on others.
Sure there can be some placebo involved in some aspects but when youāve been listening to something for a long time and then you change a component and instantly either see what youāve been missing or miss what you had before then that really isnāt placeboā¦
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Unless you are blind testing, you (&me, & everyone) are highly susceptible to bias, or hearing what we want to hear. Source synergy sounds like an expensive way to EQ defective transducers. Bad cables do exist but are rare.
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