🔶 Hifiman Edition XS

Pokrog · October 29, 2021, 12:55am

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 · October 29, 2021, 1:35am

How would you compare them to the HE6se’s?

I am guessing much easier to drive?

Pokrog · October 29, 2021, 1:50am

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 · October 29, 2021, 1:57am

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 · October 29, 2021, 2:02am

absolutely. throw me a dm.

AndyHa1010 · October 29, 2021, 2:00pm

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

gadgetgod · October 29, 2021, 2:01pm

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 · October 30, 2021, 1:00am

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 · October 30, 2021, 1:47am

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 · October 30, 2021, 2:04am

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 · October 30, 2021, 2:10am

I would say I have an average sized head.

ragecandy · October 30, 2021, 3:58am

Has someone measured these?, I just want a big hifiman without a nasty treble peak x.x

blanche · October 30, 2021, 4:09am

This is why I joined the planar IEM club

starence · October 30, 2021, 4:19am

Nope, no measurements so far.

Caeg · October 30, 2021, 4:35am

Sold me on these. Sounds exactly what I’ve been looking for. A more bassy Hifiman with a decent design. Excited to try them now.

FullBright1 · October 31, 2021, 1:40pm

The Drop Edition XX is almost the exact same specs.
I wonder if they used the Drop XX Driver and just added the new headband.
That would certainly be easier to do then designing a new Driver …as this way there is no real R&D to drive up the cost, which may explain the low cost of the XS.

Lets see…"we’ll use the Drop XX Driver, and put on a new headband, and sell it with Stealth magnets, and call it “NEW”.

Could it be so… or is that too …clever…

starence · October 31, 2021, 2:52pm

I don’t think they’ve been hoarding XX drivers for years, so they could slightly modify them, pass it off as a new design and sell them for less. Apparently, the lower price is the result of more efficient manufacturing.

CarpentersFan · October 31, 2021, 3:03pm

Won’t be surprised. They have been Stealth magnet modifying everything recently, like the 400se, 1000se, arya etc.

CarpentersFan · October 31, 2021, 3:03pm

Is this meant to be the successor of edition X or Ananda?

FullBright1 · October 31, 2021, 3:40pm

As i said.
If we think it through…and we know that the Drop XX Driver’s Exist…and if you take 34 seconds to compare the Drop XX specs to the “new” XS specs, you’ll see that that are basically identical.

How did that happen?
Is it luck?
Hummmmmmm.
See, there is always slight variations between units.
In other words, you can take a brand new Audeze LCD-5, and compare it to another brand new Audeze LCD5, and they won’t match perfeclty, but they will have similar tolerances.
So, is it just LUCK that the XS Driver, is nearly identical to the already created XX Drop Driver?
You seem to think that its not possible that a Chinese Company would use old tech in a new box.

And just so you know.
Mine will arrived on Wed, Nov 3rd.
They are sitting in Customs, in Alaska, as i write this to you.

ok, i’m out.