If you are ready to buy the headphones, my advice is to go to the Hifiman web site and start the process up to the point where you have to confirm the order in that screen, all charges and total will be displayed. If the site is asking to confirm the order is because it can be delivered to your region. If there are crazy charges you can just cancel the order. I would expect adding about US dlls 25 for shipping the 499 price of the product, anything else would be unusual. Give it a try, itâs easy!
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Hi I just recieved my Edition xs but it seems to me my sabaj d5 cant drive them properly from balance xlr output thats strange cause it has 2w of power 32 ohms
Just got my pair delivered with a Tripowin Granvia 4.4mm balanced cable and wow these are amazing, wide sound stage, very natural sounding with slamming bass. Not even getting to 12 oâclock on an ifi Zen Can at 0 DB gain and itâs plenty loud. Hitting bass boost on the ifi is a hoot on these.
Burn in pft, I couldnât wait so burning in on my head!
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So they finally showed up on my local amazon (mexico) and theyâre $600 
, Will probably still get them at some point but theyâre not looking as much of a deal as they did when they first appeared in $380âŠ
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The low $400s was the more realistic pricing, you needed stars to align properly with Ali coupons to get that working.
$500 US is the retail you should expect getting them from anywhere else, and they seem to be punching well above that price as well. If anyone wants to send me an Ananda and Arya to test them against feel free 
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That is surprising given the power output of that amp. Perhaps its more an issue of synergy/pairing rather than actual power. Perhaps they need a chance to burn in.
What is it your hearing or not hearing?
I mean Iâd take them now for $500, might have to wait till black friday or something cause I %100 donât trust buying delicate and expensive planar headphones from aliexpress, wonder how trustworthy hifimanâs own site is, I think theyâd ship from China too anywayâŠ
I ordered my Sundara from Hifimanâs site, they shipped from New YorkâŠ
Iâm not in the US
I get that, just saying they donât just ship from ChinaâŠ
If itâs any consolation, the original price was $380 before tax and vat and wound up at like $470 anyways and the hifigo price was $430+ tax so it really wasnât all that much cheaper. Just order directly from hifiman and ask them for the introductory price and see if they cave.
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But theyâre all made in the same factories in China. Shipping from New York provides smoother, faster transport than AliExpress but does nothing to ensure better quality control.
Still, you should have better and faster return/exchange processes through HiFiMan or Amazon than an AliExpress store.
For anyone interested, the XS has been officially released in Australia.
Amazon
AUD $769/USD $555
https://www.amazon.com.au/HIFIMAN-Headphones-Adjustable-Audiophiles-Studio-Black/dp/B09PH1N67T/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=1I8P0TLP4CQD&keywords=hifiman+edition+xs&qid=1641415489&sprefix=Hifiman+edition+xs+%2Caps%2C279&sr=8-1
Addicted to Audio
AUD $779/USD $562
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Canuck here- got them from electricxiaomi- great packaging and 0 duties paid landed. That being said, these are either the most overhyped cans on the planet or you NEED power. Anyone enjoying these on anything less than probably 1.5/2W has never heard good headphones. Itâs about 750mW from my G111. Itâs also geared for high voltage so it might be design as well as power, but very underwhelming with that amp. Tried the Zen SE for fun and itâs worse. That being said, I was emotionally prepared for this, which is why I have a Soloist already on the way, but the Soloist is going to have to make them at least 50% better for me to keep them. Maybe Iâm spoiled by the T1.2s I just got, but thought these and still hope theyâll be a nice compliment. As it stands right now the mids on these underpowered are worse than a DT770 80Ohm out of a LG V30. Theyâre recessed and thin and just garbage.
From where I stand right now, donât waste your time on these unless you can power the shit out of them. Iâll report back once I get the Soloist
Power could be an Achillesâ heel here for these, yes⊠I, too, mentioned these need a lot of power. A handful of us said it should be fine, but Iâm not convinced either - at least not with my pair.
These are the only headphones that make my SE ifi microDSD squeal, and thatâs an oldie that goes up to at least 4-5 watts per channel @32ohms - yup. I literally had clipping in bass/sub-bass passages⊠though those were quite high volumes, it was not really deafeningly loud volume.
I do agree, these will require some good juice.
As long as your amp powers them enough that you can see the diaphragm move, which you can see from inside the earpads through the black screen while reflecting some light (though be warned, I do not take any responsibility if you damage or burn your diaphragms in any way - AT YOUR OWN RISK), this should give you some indication that you have enough juice.
I used this SoundTraveller SpaceX Falcony Heavy Launch Binaural audio to see the dias move:
DISCLAIMER: LOUD VIDEO, WATCH YOUR VOLUME OUTPUT!
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be interested to hear what you think when you get it.
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Anyone using the Topping L30/E30 to drive these? Enough power?
This power discussion is interesting as there seem to be conflicting experiences on this and another forum on the drivability of these cans with amps that should have more than enough power?
I have two HP amps I use with these:
- Violectric V281
- Holo Audio Azure
The V281 outputs 1500mw @ 16 ohms and 2600mw @ 32 ohms. I use it on the absolute lowest gain to drive these really well and comfortable listening level is around 1:00/2:00 on the volume knob.
The Azure outputs 1600mw @ 32 ohms. It doesnât have a gain switch and instead uses a low impedance (under 100 ohms) setting and a high impedance setting. It drives the XS fine on the low impedance setting and the volume is usually between 60 and 65 (out of 100).
Could it be that the power output @ 18 ohms on some amps is a really big drop from their 32 ohm published specs? For example, the V281 above is a 42% drop from 32 ohms to 16 ohms.
Just hypothesizingâŠ
I think youâre totally right and thatâs definitely part of it. Current draw at low impedance is usually really low on most amps and something like a portable like the ifi micro iDSD signature that I saw someone using and said the bass was about even with the Ananda made me laugh. At like 20hz the Ananda is down about 15db vs the XS. Every 3db is effectively double the power, and 15db is 30x the power. Itâs no surprise people have a hard time grasping how much more power it takes to sufficiently control that much extra bass, let alone at a lower driver sensitivity and lower impedance where there tends to be very little current in most amps.
For reference, the HE6se v2 at 83ish âratedâ sensitivity, it is literally 100 times as hard to drive as something like the edition X v2 at 103db sensitivity if the impedances were the same (and they arenât, the he6 is just over twice the impedance at a measured and higher than the OG HE6(which was 50 ohm and the HE6-se v2 is objectively harder to drive than the OG HE-6, despite what people claim), 64ohm, making it a little over 200 times as hard to drive as an edition x v2). That stuff adds up quick and people really just donât pay attention to it. Planars really hog current and people refuse to believe it based on pure skepticism alone with nothing to back up their skepticism other than denial that an amp can make any real difference by having more power because they donât want to spend money to play with audio. Iâm not saying these things require a speaker amp or anything but to sit there and claim anything like youâve heard anywhere close to the amount of bass that the XS puts out anywhere near the price when youâre using a portable or a DAC with a built in headphone amp pushing a watt with no current to back it up is just flat out incorrect. No, a Zen DAC isnât going to do them justice (Zen CAN with a balanced cable, maybe), and no, a portable most likely wonât do it either. You gotta have at least a real standalone desktop amp to really get them to actually perform as intended. Thereâs plenty of cheap amps out there that would do just fine, but a Magni or Liquid Spark or something super entry level isnât really going to pull out all the capabilities they have.
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That makes sense and I guess thatâs why my Azure amp does such a good job, as it would provide more current with itâs specific low impedance headphone setting.