Just send them in for warranty, donât tell them about the +10 db bass boost tho lol.
Youâre supposed to set a negative gain equal to how much youâre boosting whatever frequency when using eq, Iâm guessing appleâs doesnât have the setting thoughâŠAnd people sticking with the âjust add more powerâ thing after you âblew them upâ with a magni⊠
I guess the heavy distortion was digitally / clipping. If you increased the bass by 10db but didnât use any pre amp -10dB then you will run into clipping.
I have used / am using Ananda / XS / Arya with a 12 dB low shelf and never heard any distortion.
I tried looking for a definitive answer but canât seem to find it so I thought Iâd just ask here. Does the zen can have enough juice for these headphones to get the most out of it or would I need an upgrade?
To get the most out of it? probably not. Does it still sound amazing? yea⊠they get plenty loud even with EQ but no doubt more power will be âbetterâ. xbass sounds really nice on them though.
Thatâs one of the things I donât understand. What does âbetterâ actually mean? Or is it all placebo?
Edition XS is somewhat reminisent of the 7Hz Timeless. Itâs not quite the same, I would say the Timeless is more V-shaped, but there are similarities there. I donât personally feel the Edition XS is in any way bass lacking, I find it to have plenty of bass and really wouldnât want any more.
An IEM that graphed flat like the XS does, I would think would sound extremely bass light. But itâs different with over-ears for whatever reason, most over-ears are rolled off in the sub-bass so that the XS is so linear means to me, perceptually it has a lot of bass. For an open-back, the XS has more bass than most.
The sort of bass I like, can tolerate or even enjoy on an IEM, if replicated on an over-ear, it would be ridiculously too much⊠they just arenât the same to me, for wahtever reason. I donât think you can compare the graphs directly.
I have the CRA as well, it is very bassy. Iâd say the bass on the XS is less than that. But itâs not really perceptually less than the Timeless, not with wide bore tips anyway like I use with it.
I think youâd like it if you like the Timeless and Iâd certainly recommend it, itâs really a remarkable headphone.
Largely placebo except for exceptionally hard to drive headphones. More power isnât bad with planars because they can usually take quite a bit of EQ, but you shouldnât need to buy a new amp to run 95%+ of headphones.
Then again, thereâs people who swear by cables making a difference or fuses making a difference. Placebo can still be real, but only because the brain is powerful enough to trick us.
Thanks. I got lucky and will get a loaner unit to test drive. Letâs see how it goes 
when I had my XS I tried it with A90, Zen Dac etc (generally used balanced with my heart audio cable) I didnât notice any âimpactfulâ differences maybe like 1% at most
imo zen dac is more than enough so zen can is even better
Better means something sounding better to you
This whole statement is kinda confusing, are you saying that all upgrades are placebo?
Cables are placebo, fuses are placebo.
The amp/dac debate is very tribal and I donât want to start an off-topic discussion.
If people want an upgrade then theyâre better off getting new headphones.
Again, placebo is incredibly strong. You see it with blind wine tastings, whiskey/scotch tastings, pharmaceuticals, pain studies, etc. Our experience is heavily influenced by what we expect to hear, see, feel.
If thatâs your experience then fair enough, but (not tried with fuses/power related stuff yet) that hasnât been my experience and with my old HeKv2 I was immediately able to tell the difference between the 4 or so cables I tried with it.
Whilst I probably agree in this case (depending on their current source), source synergy is a very large part of the overall experience and lots of headphones will have cases where they do really well on some source gear and terribly on others.
Sure there can be some placebo involved in some aspects but when youâve been listening to something for a long time and then you change a component and instantly either see what youâve been missing or miss what you had before then that really isnât placeboâŠ
Unless you are blind testing, you (&me, & everyone) are highly susceptible to bias, or hearing what we want to hear. Source synergy sounds like an expensive way to EQ defective transducers. Bad cables do exist but are rare.
I am aware that people have their own biases, I never wanted to find differences in sound with cables, you could almost say I was biased against them. I also went into using each cable blind and with each I could tell what was missing, two were lacking in bass compared to the stock cable, one had a slight bass bump to it.
Not really, synergy doesnât just mean that it is making something worse sound better, usually you base the source on what you want to promote that you like with the headphones etc that you are using. Itâs not just about the sound signature either, itâs about all factors like timbre, spatial reproduction, imaging, timing etc.
Those factors are largely dependent on frequency response which can be adjusted with EQ. The source should ideally be transparent.
If thatâs how you want your source to be then sure thatâs great for you but thatâs really not what I want out of my gear personally
Iâd be extremely surprised if I could EQ in better timbre etc into my chain, would save me a hell of a lot of money in the long run! 
Well if for example your headphoneâs frequency response has some significant dip which coincides with harmonic overtones of some musical note, and you corrected that with EQ I would expect you to perceive better timbre.
What are your impresions between Sundara and Edition xs. Be honest please.
Itâs probably wayyyy up in this thread but I had the Sundara and the Edition XS at one point. To me, the Sundara is a $350 (MSRP) headphone that sounds like a $500 headphone, while the XS is a $500 that sounds like a $1000 headphone.
Both are great values but if you can up your budget a little bit, the XS is a better buy IMO. The bass is better and the soundstage is larger, also the egg-style earcups are very comfortable.
I will echo what some other users are saying though that I heard an audible âcreakingâ in the yolks whenever I adjusted them which was super annoying, and generally I donât care for HiFiMan build quality, but soundwise they were a noticeable upgrade, although the Sundara is a fantastic headphone at the price point.
Edit: If I already had the Sundara, I most likely wouldnât upgrade to the XS, but I would buy an XS over the Sundara if I had neither.
Itâs so long since I listened to the Sundara that I really canât make comparisons, sorry.