First of all, the edition xs is very good. Having said that. Isnât it getting a lot of hype? I am seeing that a sales strategy is to say that it has lower bass than the sundara and more soundstage. Perhaps I agree with the latter, although in depth I would say no. But in low? Does anyone else think that the edition xs has more bass? At most I would say that it has a little more gain but I feel that the bass of the Sundara is more impressive as it is thick, dry and deep.
Iâd agree that the XS has more bass. I havenât A/Bâd them as I sold my Sundara months ago but I remember feeling the Sundara was bass-light. The XS doesnât leave that impression.
I just recently had the Sundara and A/Bâd them to the XS and while I felt the bass of the Sundara was pretty good, it was apparent to me anyway that the XS was deeper and more present. It didnât take long to go back to the XS. I would have preferred to save the $150 between the two, but in the end I felt the upgrade was worth it.
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Did you get these finally? Whatâs your impressions on these?
so far so good? I donât have the issue anymore too. 
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Yes so far so good. I had a loud squeaky sound on the leather part of the headband, but that went away after a few hours.
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The oficial store of Hifiman is good? In my country edition xs is in some shops 150⏠over priced.
XS has more bass then sundara, more importantly it hits differently more dynamic like which is a good thing imo. Maybe in a few years planars will finally catch up to dry dynamic bass.
The Hifiman official store has been good to work with. I purchased mine from them.
How is the warranty?
It is detailed on their website.
Depending on your country you have to pay VAT when you order from Hifiman and they ship from China. Could end at nearly the same price and using the âwarrantyâ (shipping back to China) will not be fun.
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I am not sure what country you are in but as a quick example, in Spain, we need to pay 21% VAT, an import fee
(around 4% depending on the product) and the fee from the courier for doing the import.
So, if we say the XS are 500, you need to add 105 in VAT, 20 in import fee and around 20 in courier fee (more or less depending on courier).
This brings it to 645 without including any shipping (the above taxes are paid on price+shipping, so if shipping is extra, taxes increase).
That is most likely the reason for the price increase in your country, as all those costs have already been covered by the importer. As said above, you also have a local store to deal with for warranty rather than shipping back to China.
I will say though that the Hifiman official store is great to work with, they ship fast and their CS is good (in my experience), so it is up to you to decide which route you prefer.
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I am tempted to try the XS, but I have a number of other hifimans - Arya v2, sundara, he6se v2⊠Not sure there is a point to adding the XS to this collection, also I prefer the Arya style headbandâŠ
Is the XS different enough from these other headphones to be worth trying out? Any point in getting an XS if I have the Arya v2? Wondering also if the XS headband can be swapped out for an Arya style headbandâŠ
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most people seem to think itâs a slightly upgraded Sundara (bit more bass + soundstage) if thatâs exactly what you are looking for sure otherwise youâre fine
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The Arya / 400i headband have plastic pins on the yoke that snap into the cup. The newer Ananda / Sundara and XS headband are working with screws (and nuts inside?). Guess will require some modifications.
After changing from HD800S to XS I was curious about if I could get some Soundstage back by trying the Arya V2.
Indeed the Arya sound more spacious but also brighter and not as relaxed as the XS.
Bass on the XS is a little increased compared to the Arya what makes them sound more warm / full.
The suspension strap is more comfortable for me because it spreads the weight better than the XS headband. Clamp force on the other side was too high for me on the Arya. Some nights stretched over a few books did loose it up though.
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Sorry if this is a weird question, but I was considering buying these as my first >150$ headphone and an upgrade to my 10 year old DT990Pro, but just had a shocking revelation:
- 10 years ago I got 250ohm DT990Pro and a pretty good, but PCI sound card to drive it. I was pretty satisfied with that combo and ran it for a lot of years
- I didnât just get the DT990Pro, but also tried the AKG 701 (less bass than DT990Pro - too anemic), ATH-M50 (they were fun, but not as clear/detailed as the DT990Pro) and I also got to try the HD650 (I did prefer the brighter sound of the DT990Pro)
- because I moved a lot during recent years and didnât have a proper source available at all times (and PCs nowadays donât have PCI anymore), I started using more and more IEMs
- recently I started getting more expensive IEMs like the 7hz timeless, but now was thinking about getting an upgrade to the DT990Pro which I havenât used for a year or so.
So just for fun, I tried to connect my DT990Pro again and holy shit: It sounds like absolute garbage even compared to the 15$ CCA CRA:
- basically no bass - I canât even understand how I thought it had great bass when comparing to the AKG 701, because the beyer just has no bass at all compared to IEMs
- the whole sound is very thin
- treble is pretty fatiguing to even something rather bright and energetic as the timeless (I know itâs a characteristic of the Beyerdynamics⊠guess I am not used to it anymore as I was before)
- if i had to say something positive: It gives better details in some parts of the frequency range compared to a bad <50$ IEM and maybe the stage is better
Now after doing this IEM vs open back headphone comparision, my question is:
Would a better headphone like the Hifiman Edition XS even fix issues like lacking bass and thin sound? Where would it fall in terms of clarity and detail compared to something like a 7hz timeless?
The Dt990 has a mid bass bump and roll off in the sub bass. The XS donât roll off in the sub bass but donât have the mid bass bump. IEMs have way more bass than open backs almost all the time and CRA are even more bassy (basshead level).
So out of the box the XS will sound very thin to you.
Question is if it would be okay for you to EQ?
Soundstage and clarity will be a big improvement over the Dt990 and you get rid off the beyerdynamic peak.
Comfort will be better. Huge earpads and less clampforce. Little bit heavier though.
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Sure, the CRA is a rather extreme example when it comes to bass. My point with the CRA specifically was rather that in total I even like the sound of that 15$ IEM overall better than the DT990Pro.
In regards to EQ: I like to avoid it if possible, but I am not opposed on principle⊠the lack of convenience keeps me from it (necessary adjustments when switching gear)
Those bass shelf levels You will find on no open backs without EQ. LCD 2C have reccesed upper mids and treble what make them quite full sounding. Even warmer tuned are the Audioquest nighthawk but some would describe them as muddy.
Then You might wanna have a look at some closed backs like the sivga Robin.
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