Welcome.
These are the loudest open backs Iāve ever heard lol. I left them playing and put them on my desk to go upstairs and when I was walking back downstairs I thought I left my TV on or something. These would absolutely disturb someone else near you if you were listening to music.
Hi! Welcome to HFGF!
All of these HiFiMan cans with the egg-shaped cups have essentially no isolation. Sound goes in and out with equal ease. These are not cans to use if youāre working in a cubicle or near anyone else.
Well crap. I have the XS on order now and just might have to return them. I work from home so while I donāt share a cubicle I have people in rooms that are down the hall from me, but I do have the door closed 99% of the time.
Thanks for the welcome message! Unfortunately these headphones sound like they wonāt work in my situation. Appreciate the feedback.
yeah the sound leak is terrible with these
It may be premature to have to return them - if you have the door closed most of the time it shouldnāt be too bad. But yeah I was more referring to if you had anyone in the same room as you.
Thanks! I hope I can keep them. I should have mentioned I just bought the Sundara and I am still in my return period. This will give me a chance to compare both headphones side by side. I do really like the Sundara, but Iām hoping the XS will provide the sound Iām hoping for so I donāt need to buy headphones for a long time. This hobby is expensive lol.
Hmm How does the XS compare to the HE6? I picked up a HE6 se v2 on black friday for $549 so I guess a little more, but in the same ball park price as the XSā¦
Honestly I love the HE6 se v2, its one of my favorite cans
Replying to an earlier post you had asking about HE6se vs. XS. Just my 2 cents.
Soundstage is better (we already knew that for most egg shaped HFM). Without EQ, I preferred the XS straight out of the box to the HE6se V2. They seem to be tuned for most modern music and can handle a wide range of genresā¦as opposed to the Anandas for example. Bass is surprisingly satisfyingā¦not quite the level of any HE-6 variants but itās good. Others have found the mids to be bit hollow but I have not found that to the be case. The wonkiness is less pronounced in the XS vs. HE6se V2 stock without EQ. I believe them being more sensitive than the HE6 variants helps in that matter. I feed them with a Jot 2 / BF2 and I can get to a very enjoyable volume with great dynamics / punch at less than 9 oāclock on low gain.
I actually sold my HE6se V2 after getting the XS. Albeit, I have the OG HE-6 as well so the XS just tipped my decision to do so. Having said that, I do think that the XS are different enough from the HE6 v2 to warrant keeping both.
I wonder, if the mojo 2 will sound good with edition xs? I found olr reciever pioneer headphone output sound good enough with XS, and it is not so powerful, so maybe somebody already tried mojo 2?
It was purchased! But still not āin the labā.
Thinking about buying these with SMSL SH-6/SU-6 pairing. Good combo?
Received the XS today and while I do agree with the sound leakage I donāt feel that these are that much worse than the Sundaraās. Iāll do some more testing, but so far love the sound.
Correct, it is difficult to get much leakier than Sundara. LOL
The reviewer of the YT channel cheapaudioman tested them exactly with that combo and liked them very much (no sibilance, great bass control).
I might wanna check these out. How do they compare to other planars in the price range?
Hmm, highly doubt they will get here tomorrow but no ideaā¦ UPS seems to fail at updating their tracking history so its still telling me the initial starting day of ship. High hopes for when it does arrive.
So I spent a good bit of time listening to my EXS last night. I pit it against my primary music headphone, HE-500 (w/ leather DCA pads). The XS had a little over 24 hrs burn in but seemed to settle after the first 12 hrs. These cans are both as hard to drive as each other. I was running FLAC>Hugo TT>Singxer SA-1>Cayin IHA-6. Both cans balanced, high gain on Cayin, these were both loud and punchy at 11 oāclock.
In short, the XS has a bigger stage and more low end. However, the HE-500 wins in every other regard meaning the 500 is staying and, although I really do enjoy the XS, they will be soon listed for sale. The XS has a more prominent treble but it sounds less detailed to me in comparison; this is particularly noticeable on cymbals (Iām a drummer). The other aspect that had the 500 win, IMO, was instrument separation. Not by much mind, but the shape of the stage/presentation had instruments in busier tracks more weāll defined. I thought Iād prefer the presentation of the XS but hearing these two back to back, Iām thinking to look more towards something like a HE-6 of some description. If I want different staging, Iāll just use cross-fade.
So unfortunately I think Iām experiencing the so-called planar crinkle with my XS. Itās nothing too extreme, but still audible enough to be noticeable. The right driver makes a clicking sound or a ācandy unwrappingā sound when I turn the head or tilt it at various angles, whether the headphones are plugged or unplugged, but it does it much less when music is playing.
After some testing I noticed that the left one also behaves in a similar way, but to a much lesser degree where itās hardly noticeable.
So now Iām a bit torn on what to do, considering I didnāt see anyone talking about this issue with the XS, Iām inclined to send them back for a substitution. On the other hand I donāt know if this problem is more common than it seems and maybe a bit overlooked and I would simply waste time and money for sending them back.
What are your experiences about this issue with the XS?
Have the same āissueā on my left driver. Think my Ananda that I had 3 years ago for 1 year had it too sometimes. Never saw this as a real problem, the Diaphragm is so thin that I thought it is normal it moves a tiny bit due to pressure differences when I move my head.
