🔶 Hifiman Edition XS

[Pokrog]

[Pokrog]

First impressions is very reminiscent of the og edition x with more punch in the bass. Driver seems a little stiff but I usually think of that as a good thing and the bass is way more impactful than all of the lower end Hifiman models. These are outstanding full stop. Also they aren’t all that easy to drive. Almost identical in volume on my soloists power curve to the gl2k(60ohm 99db sensitivity). Comfort worried me with the newer style headband but on oval cans it’s not nearly as problematic. Clamp force is a bit much for me but not crazy. More testing is needed, only heard 3 songs so far. Gaming test will be when I get time but I can already tell with some of my test songs that these are at the very least very good. Really well rounded. I’d love to see a frequency response chart. Pads are also really stiff but they at least seal pretty good. Maybe it’s just been a while since I’ve used fresh hifiman oval pads though.

[starence]

Thanks for the impressions. I believe underneath the padding the headband is metal, so if the clamp is too strong you should be able to bend it a bit.

[Pokrog]

I have a habit of overdoing it with the bending so I’m just gonna pull the pads off and put them over a box when I’m not using them. It’s not like brutal it’s just definitely a bit to much clamp for my noggin.

[AndyHa1010]

Can’t wait to get mine. Got the tracking yesterday

[Pokrog]

Little more to add: soundstage handling is phenomenal. Seems every bit as big as the OG Arya (though I am going from memory) without having some stuff seem exaggerated. Just massive and I think I want to say noticeably bigger than the Anandas. Significantly more controlled than I ever thought they were going to be for the price. Imaging doesn’t seem to have any downsides, in fact rear positioning is surprisingly good for a hifiman in the sub $1500 range. Tuning seems more along the lines of HEKv2 with a pretty noticeable bump in the bass and it’s very welcomed vs the traditional flat but very detailed bass hifiman usually has on the low end of their price range. I haven’t pinpointed where that bass bump is but I did have one song I listen to seem unusually punchy in a good way compared to most of the planars I have on hand. I was scared that my hopes were too high for these headphones but they’re doing exactly what I thought they would. They’re pretty incredible. They even sound really good on more reference tuned amps. Put them on my a90 and they still have plenty of character. On the burson soloist they’re just super fun. People not wanting to dive too far down the planar rabbit hole after being disappointed with lackluster bass in sub $1000 planars should give these a serious consideration. I am just dying to see the frequency response and waterfall graphs for these. Kinda seems like a hifiman for people that aren’t the biggest fan of the usual hifiman tuning. These are significantly better than Anandas. I kinda want someone with Aryas to do an A/B comparison. I think I like how these are tuned better than Aryas and the timbre is much more natural and not shouty while still having that sparkle and detail up high. The more I think about it these really seem like a baby HEKv2.

[loquitosbr]

please more mr pokrog!!

[Pokrog]

Ok I do more testing after work. Give me some test tracks to test with and I’ll tell you what I think.

[loquitosbr]

for sure! maybe if you can compare to another headphone just to give an idea, but anything helps at this point

Raavan | Dussehra Song | Amit Trivedi feat. Shilpa Rao, Anand Bhaskar (slam)

An old French tune (by Georges Brassens) | Pomplamoose ft. John Schroeder (voice and soundstage)

Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles (soundstage and imaging)

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words, Op 67, No 2 (texture check)

Howl’s Moving Castle - Merry go round of Life cover by Grissini Project (dynamics)

TES V Skyrim Soundtrack - From Past to Present i just love this song (try to search a better quality in your streaming app pls ^ this is shit)

YOSHU FUKUSHU - Maximum The Hormone (do they hold nicely some metal?)

NIGHTWISH - The Phantom Of The Opera (vocals, harmonics, separation)

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd do you cry hearing these? if not, not worth the buy

Gilberto Gil - Doralice (some bossa nova)

Elis Regina & Adoniran Barbosa - Tiro ao álvaro (classical samba)

sorry for the long list, do how many of them you want!

[Pokrog]

i’m just going to keep your formatting for simplicity (i’m lazy)

@loquitosbr

Raavan | Dussehra Song | Amit Trivedi feat. Shilpa Rao, Anand Bhaskar (slam): very decent slam. overall very nice on these. the bass thump gives a good sense of depth throughout the whole song. vocals are very well separated. i can tell there’s more punch to be had but it’s being blunted by the youtube compression. i couldn’t find a better quality version anywhere.

An old French tune (by Georges Brassens) | Pomplamoose ft. John Schroeder (voice and soundstage): soundstage and imaging is very very precise. i can hear the exact shape and size of the room. for a youtube video the quality on that is amazing, i’d like to hear it in full quality. vocals are pretty damn good. not many hifimans can pull off vocals this well, it’s pretty impressive.

Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles (soundstage and imaging): tried this one first day i had the headphones, it’s near perfect. they show the recording imperfections in a couple of spots that i’ve only really noticed on higher end planars (he1000se/v2, arya, he6se v2)

Mendelssohn: Songs Without Words, Op 67, No 2 (texture check): that song is beautiful and the layering and reverb and resonance is handled extremely well.

Howl’s Moving Castle - Merry go round of Life cover by Grissini Project (dynamics): separation sticks out in this song as being very well mastered but theres quite a bit of grain throughout that never got edited out. overall soundstage seems pretty spot on, and it seems like it was recorded in a studio and adjusted a bit to sound bigger like a theater and these headphones have a pretty easy time making that stand out but it holds together on the louder and busier parts just fine with a very natural presentation

TES V Skyrim Soundtrack - From Past to Present i just love this song (try to search a better quality in your streaming app pls ^ this is shit): amazon hd had it and the difference in quality from youtube to amazon is laughably big. good call on finding it from a streaming source lol. i’ve heard this song many times and i this is the first time i’ve listened to it on any nicer headphones. sounds all around great.

YOSHU FUKUSHU - Maximum The Hormone (do they hold nicely some metal?): has kind of a korn vibe to it. kinda grainy and grungy. snares sound very noticeably distant at around 3:50 but i think that’s intentional. i’ve actually been listening to a lot of metal on these just because they have a bit more punch than i expected and they’re pretty fun with high energy fast and hard music. the part at the end of the video where the girl rides the bike past the camera you can definitely hear exactly where she is at all times including behind you as she passes.

NIGHTWISH - The Phantom Of The Opera (vocals, harmonics, separation): both the male and female vocals are very ethereal and they give a real sense of space. good punch on the drums, fantastic separation, at about 1:43 theres a ton of micro detail in the treble and none of it seems smoothed over at all but still isn’t ear piercing (and it sounds like it could be if these headphones were any brighter).

Wish You Were Here - Pink Floyd do you cry hearing these? if not, not worth the buy| : this is one of my top 10 favorite songs of all time (dark side of the moon holds a special place in my heart and i always wished this song was on that album). the XS has no problem pulling every little detail out of the guitar pulls and releases. i like this song on these more than my he6se v2, maybe because vocals are a bit more forward. this was a good test because i know every single bit of this song perfectly by memory.

Gilberto Gil - Doralice (some bossa nova): not sure why, but i cant get that youtube video in my country but i found a version on amazon hd and i’m not sure if its the same one but it sounds like a live recording with the crowd cheering at the beginning so i’ll be referring to that one i found. sounds very natural. space is handled perfectly, including the audience clapping being very clearly behind you. the hard bass drum is very clear and doesn’t bleed into the rest at all and the separation is well maintained throughout despite being kind of a less than perfect live recording.

Elis Regina & Adoniran Barbosa - Tiro ao álvaro (classical samba) : very very intimate and natural main vocals, both crisp and smooth when they should be. they sound like they’re inside my head while having the bongos very well separated to the left and some percussion instruments to the right, guitar slightly offcenter to the right but noticeably further in front of you than vocals. separation sounds perfect. i liked this song a lot. wish i could understand it

[ShaneD]

How would you compare them to the HE6se’s?

I am guessing much easier to drive?

[Pokrog]

so the XS has a more incisive punch, way more soundstage (width, depth, and height), they take about 1/3 of the power, and are way more forgiving on sources. overall a lot more fun natural tuning. vocals seem a tad more intimate, a little fuller, and almost makes me notice that hifiman dip in the he6 more. timbre is about even, very natural. he6 has better sub bass rumble, detail (but not by much), macrodynamics (but the he6 just outstanding for that). XS has very very good imaging and with the soundstage size it makes it have a bit more noticeable separation in distant instruments than the he6. rear imaging on the XS is phenomenal and kind of reminds me of more of an audeze soundstage than a hifiman, honestly, but bigger.

hmm…just tried a couple rumbly songs and the XS does have pretty decent rumble to it as well. idk man, these things are just surprising me more and more.

[loquitosbr]

Mr. Pokrog, thank you for your view on those, just absurdly attencious and detailed, you’re the best! can i talk to you in pm for some more questions?

[Pokrog]

absolutely. throw me a dm.

[AndyHa1010]

Currently sold out on Hifigo. The only place to get rn is Aliexpress for US.

[gadgetgod]

Thanks for your impressions mate. I will try to get these. But will have to wait i recently got a sweet deal on Shure SE846.

[Pokrog]

minor update. just randomly decided to plug these into an xbox controller for shits and giggles. they aren’t quite as loud as i personally usually game with but for people that don’t play with very high volume like i do, this is almost doable. if you have a quiet environment and don’t listen loud, this is almost doable, though you get no mic…if you have dolby atmos and crank the eq up across the board i bet it’s loud enough

[PinkStripedPanties]

Nice to meet you all, I’ve had my set for abt 2 weeks now and I’m slightly tempted to return them. I CANNOT STAND THE COMFORT of these things, the clamp force is wayy too low which ends up giving me a hotspot on my head after 1-2 hours of listening, it doesn’t help that the pads are stiff as shit.
I’ve also noticed some minor build issues with my pair, the left ear cup requires more force to tilt the cups which is not the case with my 400is. Both cups also had a dent (see pic) .
I can’t comment on the sound as I do not have a good reference point of “good” sound and do not want to provide bad/inaccurate information. What I can say is that I do like the sound but I can’t stand the comfort.

[Pokrog]

Odd. The clamp force on mine are way too much for me. Pads are very stiff but overall comfort isn’t horrible for my head size but I do wish they swiveled a bit more. You have a tiny head or is mine just huge?

[PinkStripedPanties]

I would say I have an average sized head.