Once I saw Skullcandy and Galaxy buds at the top of bass accuracy with DT770s right behind them I lost all faith in everything rtings does involving audio. Just hilariously and objectively wrong. Iām guessing their test bench is an apple dongle.
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rtings 10 years later still recommending the 1more triple drivers shows you how relevant they are
Iāve got a black 4.4mm 2m GranVia cable on my XS and itās rather nice, no complaints from me.
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Excellent, thatās good to hear! Thank you for the input.
Well, they are hereā¦
And yes, that is Arthur photo-bombing the proceedings! 
They arrived in new condition. Of course I wasted no time heating them up! I am starting them off on the SA-1 with the Flow cable. All I have time for in this post is very first impressions. And those areā¦ damn. I was wrong about these. I think that was exactly what I said when the first music hit my brain. These things are really good. I mean right away, straight out of the box. More to come, I need to take a dinner break. Damnā¦
Iām gonna fire up a playlist and let them work while I eat. Well huh. Exciting!
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Keep them on the SA1. I threw them on my burson and man itās definitely not as good sounding. They sound like the soundstage is artificially wide.
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I am a couple of hours in, now. I gotta say, I am very impressed by these. Iāll go ahead and address the biggest concern I had going into this. The build. And Iām not gonna lie, they could be a lot better. They have a sort of cheap-ish feel to them. But hereās the thingā¦ they arenāt nearly as bad as I thought they were gonna be. I wouldnāt want to get rough with them, but I donāt thrash my stuff anyway, so they will be just fine. They actually look better in person than in pictures, too, so bonus there.
The other thing I worried about was the fit. I donāt have an overly big head, so I was expecting a poor fit. However, I put them on, and they were fine. In fact, they were more than fine. The clamp is good enough, and my ears are very comfortable in the cups. They are very light, also, so you can wear them for extended periods. This is a huge relief.
And then, of course, how they sound is the most impressive thing. These are in fact a reasonable step up from the Sundara, but in a way that justifies keeping both in the collection. The XS is wider, deeper, warmer and faster, and I think I enjoy the low end a bit more as well. But the Sundara does things that I have come to enjoy very much that the XS doesnāt do.
Iām really happy I decided to roll the dice and go for these. The XS delivers incredible value for money. more than anything, they sound fantastic. Cymbals sound authentic. Instruments sound true. Spatially they are really good. So much better than I anticipated. What a great addition to the collection.
EDIT! I forgot to mentionā¦ The elongated cupsā¦ I wasnāt sure if I was going to like them, but they are not a problem at all. In fact they are very comfortable. I wonder if they help make the stage sound bigger? I dunno, but I am not unsure about them anymore. I like them.
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I havenāt had that problem at all, myself. I usually keep them in low gain volume bypass and they are pretty big, but in what feels like a very accurate and natural way without going too big like the HE1000se and to a lesser extent, the Aryas(v1/2). What DAC are you using?
Iām using a D90 (akm version). It really could be that Iām not used to hifimanās sound but it seem to get a lot wider on the 3xp. I should say itās not bad just not as nice sounding to my earsā¦been listening to a lot of Aeolus and Liricās lately so there is definitely some brain burn in going on as well.
Oh I also have the supercharger on the 3xp as well.
Yeah Iāve heard people say that mid dip can come across pretty differently to different people with it really stretching soundstage for some. I am a self hating hifiman lover and idk what it is about it but the mid dip has never really bothered me.
Lol self hating huh. Yeah itās probably the mid dip you mention. Since all my other cans are what Iād call a W shaped frequency response, with the treble generally less forward.
Iām not proud of liking hifimans house sound but itās my reality lol
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Nothing wrong with liking it and if I wasnāt comparing the XS to ZMF, Audeze and Meze I think Iād be perfectly happy with them. The XS is still hellva bargain for big planars and have 90% of the resolution of my more spendy cans.
ZMF happen to be Aeolus? think that might be an upgrade I do down the line, I liked the XS but build/comfort ruined it for me
It is the Aeolus and I have a Atrium LTD coming as well.
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Itās day 2 with the XS for me, and things are getting interesting. I went ahead and hooked them up to the TA-20 / SP200 comboā¦ Oh my God. This is it. This is fantastic! Iām going to do some A/B testing to confirm, but I think this is it. You give up just a smidgeon of stage depth on this setup, and you do need to throw a tune on it with EQā¦ but holy shit. This is amazing. And I have headroom for days, something I didnāt have near as much of on the SA-1. Iām really surprised. This may be my new favorite setup.
I feel an internal shootout comingā¦ The SA-1/HP-2 vs The TA-20/SP200/XS setups clash in a head-to-head death match! Sounds like funā¦
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Some cool upgrades came today for the XS:
I love the cable. It looks fantastic, wears really well and sounds incredible. This new cable has taken some of the aggressive treble out of these cans and brought the mids forward just a little, which is great for me.
The pad is the Geekria pad as suggested above and itās a truly great fit and add for this product. I feel like Iām locked in with these phones now and can just enjoy them, no more tweeking!
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Noice! Game ended my manā¦ Game ended.
PS1: Been seeing this - itās a nice band, I got something very similar for my other cans - the pleather foam strap was missing though, so I think Iāll check again, for the XS.
PS2: I do recommend those $20 sheepskin earpads I got for my pair. Fenestrated on the inside. Stick on 3M stuff, but works perfectly - that is if at all you find the earpads itchy, which I did.
Needless to say - no more headphones for me. This is it.
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Luckily for me, the ear pads are doing well. Sounds great, very comfortable and no itch. So I think I will be leaving the pads alone.
And I am with you, I have no intention to buy anymore headphones. Of course, that is what I said when I bought the HP-2s some months ago. That was it, Iām not biting on these XS headphones, I donāt need them, yada-yada-yada. And here I am. This time, I mean it thoughā¦ These should do it. No more headphones for me! 
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