Finally - first reviews coming in from our - celeb reviewersā¦
TL;DR: CheapAudioMan likes em. Says maybe his favs.
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its funny, i trust randy. he feels like heād be my uncle. glad he likes them.
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The fancy cable management ad made me chuckle.
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Yeah Randy fools around like that - until he gets some serious sponsorship I suppose.
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all his āsith audioā stuff is because heās a star wars fan and audiophile stuff is expensive because theyāre just evil. i really hope he gets a good sponsor some day, iāve always loved his videos.
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Hour ago opened recieved my Edition XS, right from the box they sound a little bit muffled with too much bass, just like for the bass heads, but soundstage is bigger than on 1990, frequency response on mid and highs flatter than 1990. After one hour of burn in not on my head, things become a little bit better. Somebody experienced burn-in on edition XS? Manual tells to burn in for 150 hours.
Anyway for 435$ very good, i hope burn in will make them better.
Straight from the box I canāt say it is love from the first sight;)) Maybe i should try Arya, or lcd-x, or my XS just needs burn-in. On some tracks they sound much better than 1990, on some not so good, mixed feelings at this moment, maybe i should get used to them.
I canāt explain this effect,but my brain and ears much more relaxed with XS than with 1990. So overall i think they are on one level, but with different presentation.
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I donāt know what youāre talking about. He already has a serious sponsor. 
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Finally got a pair of these babies, which I have lusted after since they debuted as a China-only product last year.
First impressions: The Edition XS fulfill the hype ā and then some. Iām beyond delighted with these after the first two hours of listening.
Iām happy to compare these to a few headphones outside of the HiFiMan line ā Iāve owned/own HD 560s, HD 6XX, Elegia, Meze 99 Classics, ATH-M40x, ATH-M50x ā I think itās probably best and most accurate to compare to the HiFiMan headphone that I own, the HE-400se.
I know the Sundara is the step just below the XS in the HiFiMan, but Iāve never owned or tried it. Decided to jump straight from HE-400se to XS after my recent purchase of the Elegia showed me how mid-fi can be a considerable jump over entry-fi.
The Edition XS basically take whatās good in the HE-400se and elevate it about five times. And it takes the flaws of the 400se and fixes them.
All of these impressions are without EQ. Iām not a huge EQ guy, as I like the varying sound signatures of the cans in my collection (HE-400se, Elegia, HD 6XX).
First, the Edition XS bass. Itās more controlled, punchy and present than in the HE-400se, which already has good, entry-level planar bass. Thereās no grain, spike or congestion in the treble so far, which can be a problem in some complex passages with the HE-400se. But the biggest difference in the basic sound signature between the HE-400se and the Edition XS are the mids ā theyāre far more defined and present in the Edition XS than in the HE-400se.
Other thoughts about the XS compared to the HE-400se ā¦ Clarity? Better. Imaging? MUCH better. Soundstage? Considerably wider. Comfort. The same ā both are very comfortable, but the XS has even less clamping force. Good for my fat, bald dome.
Iām not an audiophile with decades of experience and a fat checkbook. Iāve been active in this wonderful hobby and with its cool people for about five years, and my finances finally have allowed me to graduate from entry-fi to mid-fi. But the Edition XS are the highest-quality all-arounders Iāve heard. The only headphone Iāve heard thatās better is the Focal Stellia, and thatās a $3,000 can.
Thereās just nothing in the XSā sound signature that offends my ears and brain in the slightest, which is rare since Iām very treble-sensitive and suffer from raging tinnitus. And thereās a HELL of a lot in the sound signature that matches my idea of audio nirvana.
Time to compare the Edition XS to the other mid-fi can in my collection, the Elegia. Yes, the detail and some of the treble in the Elegia match or possibly exceed that in the XS. But the Elegia donāt do bass or soundstage nearly as well as the XS. The Elegia are great for strings, classical, vocals, acoustic, piano jazz, bluegrass ā music that lives in the mids. But theyāre not so great for rock, alternative rock or metal.
So far, the Edition XS have been great with every genre, just like my HE-400se, which are THE definitive entry-level can, in my opinion. But the Edition XS are just significantly better at everything than the HE-400se.
Finally, I donāt get the fuss about power requirements for the Edition XS. Iām driving them to ample volume on low gain of my JDS Atom+ stack. The dial is at about noon or 1 p.m. Iām sure more powerful amps would elicit even more fidelity, but Iām already in rapture at what Iām hearing.
The Edition XS may stop my headphone churn for a while. Theyāre THAT good. I feel like I would need to pierce the four-figure spend range to get anything much better.
Iām so damn impressed ā and happy!
Feel free to toss any questions my way.
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Love to hear how the XS can actually be the ones putting some breaks on some of oursā purchasing frenzy!
I feel exactly the same about them, too - and well, I guess headphones that do that for a person are a treasure.
They help put an end to our otherwise constant restlessness, the search for that āmissing somethingā, trying to find āThe Oneāā¦ and just kick back and enjoy the music!
It is a rare feat. And ever so often, something comes up and fills all the voids.
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Thanks for the suggestion of this headband cover! I find the EDXS comfortable but too big for me, this should solve the issue and ordered it immediately.
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Okay, so I got the Soloist todayā¦ Still blows my mind reading people dont think it needs power. For reasons, itās getting about 3ishV SE, and Iām medium gain at 85 volume and theyāre not even loud. Definitely good listening level but not loud. That being said, shit. Theseā¦ These cansā¦ Hilarious it only cost me $25CAD more than my Sundaras did. Theyāre definitely the best value headphone Iāve ever owned. Theyāre so different to the Hemps or T1s itās not really fair to compare them, but theyāre the most versatile across genres. Imaging is my #1 priority, and while they donāt image like the T1s, theyāre still excellent. XS obviously does bass better. The Hemps still have that āacousticy vinyl warmthā thatās just the tits and will always shake me to my core, but those just canāt so bass in an electronic music sort of setting. @Pokrog yeah- not on the fence anymore. Theyāre staying. Kept distracting me from studying. Now Iām super curious to hear Aryas just to compare. Full disclaimer: that Burson could make a pair of airplane earbuds sound good so take it with a grain of salt.
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nice. glad youāre liking your setup! thereās something about the soloist that just drags character and emotion out of headphones, especially hifimans. one thing youāll notice eventually is that the soloist sounds a lot better warm. also idk how much time you have with the XS but theyāll relax a bit and get a bit more stage and clarity and the bass smooths out too a lot.
I want to add, that with the soloist Iāve experienced burn in for the first time in my life. Bass had almost no impact or control out of the box, so Iāve almost returned it, but after 10 days of regular usage it became perfect
I believe that that difference of opinion about power handling of EDXS is based on the fact, that if you are picky enough and want to get absolutely best out of them then yeah, powerful high current amp is a must, itās just physics, the difference will be most obvious with deep bass control. But if you have good clean 0.5w of power into 32 ohm load, they wonāt sound bad, like dt880 600 ohms would
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I couldnāt sleep last night so I read through this thread in its entirety. Gotta say that Iām sorely tempted to try the Edition XS at some point even though I recently got a used Ananda at a great price (paid the price of a new Sundara).
@Pokrog (and others who have heard an Ananda), just how much am I missing out on? Like, the way I see it now, maybe it makes sense for me to look at an Edition XS if I didnāt already own an Ananda but based on the limited numbers of comparisons Iāve seen, maybe the improvements over Ananda may not be substantial?
Also I am quite confused the Edition XS exists alongside the Ananda, while being 100-200 dollars cheaper. If Edition XS is that good and that similar to Ananda (based on what I have seen in this thread), why havenāt Hifiman killed off the Ananda? Possible future Ananda Stealth revision which they will charge more for?
I think the Ananda was supposed to be the cheap Edition X at one point and it originally had an MSRP of $1000 which was like $600 cheaper than the Edition X. The HE400se is a new version that started at $150 and the old original HE400i used to have an MSRP of $500. The stealth drivers fix a lot of timbre and bass issues in a lot of the cases vs the one theyāre replacing and it seems like hifiman is going that route for all of their headphones. Iām betting that itās an easier manufacturing process and itās good enough to keep for a while so that keeps costs down.
Oh yeah, completely overlooked at Ananda was $1000 at launch. It seems like their headphones are somehow getting cheaperā¦? Hmm.
My daily driver before Ananda was the TYGR300R. I still love that headphone for sheer fun factor but the Ananda is surely the most technically proficient headphone I own. It (Ananda) is detailed without being too bright (on my chain at least, I run Modi 3+ to Asgard 3) and itās so spacious with amazing imaging (even beating out my TYGR, which I thought imaged well!). In these regards, the presentation eally reminds me of my KEF LS50 Meta to some extent. I never thought Iād describe a headphone as āspeaker-likeā in any way. Trying to Ananda has really made me want to see what the more expensive Hifimans are like.
I like the bass quality and extension but Ananda is severely lacking in bass punch/dynamics. EQ does help a little but not much. Thatās the main reason I find Edition XS interesting. I do like the textured and present vocals on the Ananda too, and hope the Edition XS retains that. Really hope to try the Edition XS some day and see what it has to offer. For now Iāll be content with EQ-ed Ananda.
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I made an EQ profile for the XS and called it earthquake simulator because with deep bass tracks or movies it literally shakes so hard on your head it feels like the room is shaking lol. Its hilarious. If you ever do decide to try the XS the Asgard is probably pretty good for it, I think they run a pretty hard class a bias if I remember right and itās a little warm and smooth so it would pair nicely I think.
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Definitely agree. The Asgard, as great as it is for price, seems quite unresolving in the highs. So it really does take the edge off brighter headphones that Iāve tried. Iām thinking of upgrading at some point though, maybe to Jotunheim 2. Jot 2 balanced out is more neutral, Iāve heard. Havenāt decided, not in a hurry to buy and theyāre out of stock anyway.
Wow, just noticed, that shop where i bought Edition XS on Ali(GZZB) is authorized seller. Glad to know this. But currently i find this headphones are lacking at midrange, really, they remind me my DT-990, i will burn in them, but donāt really believe in burn-in. Amplification is enough i feel this beacuse of good and controlled bass and good highs, but midrange, not so great for me. Thats imho and to my tastes.
But again, for the price of 440 or even 500-600$ their perfomance is stunning, but im looking for headphones to go furtherā¦
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