Iām doing tests with the Edition Xs and Iām not convinced.
TIDAL on Flac, I try various genres and use the laptop as a source, I compare it with the sonata HD pro dac and amp(on high gain) and with the ifi hip dac (on high gain).
Few differences honestly.
I notice that it sounds somewhat thin, with definition, stage and everything average. Nothing special. You might think at first that it is a 150 euro headset.
Whatās going on?
It lacks burn in (it has two hours of use), itās the cable, I have to give it more amplificationā¦
Your amp is drastically underpowered. They take a sustained current that no dongle is capable of. If fully driven is 100, youāre going from 1 to 2. Itās just not even debatable at this point. Iāve tried them on probably 10 different entry level amps and thereās a lot you arenāt getting on everything in price up until around the Asgard 3 or SH-9. SP200 was a little lacking all around, A90 was lacking in low end control, 789 was laughably bad. Itās not an easy to drive headphone. Easy to get loud, sure, but they take a decently built power supply to keep up with the current draw.
Yeah I actually messaged them cause the tracking wasnāt moving, they said something about lack of raw material, I just disputed and got my money back, figured there was a chance for some bs since they were so cheap lol
But yeah anyway I usually buy my pads from āsmart watched storeā , they have the same ones but now Iām waiting cause thereās a sale in like 3 days
I actually think they sound fine of a sonata hd pro, did you try the cable extension trick? They sound pretty damn bassy from mine, maybe your phone isnāt powering it rightā¦
My liquid spark sounds a bit fuller but itās definitely usable from the sonata imo
I understand that, and amps with 6 watts @ 16 ohm still donāt do the headphones justice. Itās a power supply issue and Iām guessing possibly a slew rate problem. Iām speaking from experience with much more powerful desktop amps still not powering them well enough. Maybe @WaveTheory can shed some light on the subject, heās much more knowledgeable than me about this stuff.
I agree with @Pokrog your amp is the anchor here. I donāt think mobile amps under $500 or so have much of a chance with Edition XS. For desktop use, the Atom and Liquid Spark amps arenāt terrible, but the Edition XS really wakes up with Asgard 3 or SH-9 then scales up from there.
Iāve heard the K9 pro akm (and for that one Iād say no) but Iāve also heard the ess variant is quite a bit more refined and capable so maybe, havenāt heard the EF400 so Iām useless there. Theyāre pretty great headphones IMO. They are a jack of all trades and a master of none though, but given the price, they might as well be the master of the sub $500 price bracket and I canāt think of a single headphone in that bracket that does anything nearly as good, let alone all of it at once. Pretty much every headphone with more bass has trash bass detail in comparison, anything with a stage of similar size has much less separation and depth, I personally think 6XX level of mids destroys clarity and I canāt stand that personally, and if driven well, they have a nice sparkle up top without going overboard with tons of detail to be had throughout the FR, not just in the treble like something like Anandas. I think theyāre worth every penny of $500 and I personally think theyāre worth $1000+ in quality and balance compared to the competition if you already have a chain for them. Iām never getting rid of them, they do enough of what I love about my HE1000se to be my daily drivers for soundstage Iām not scared of handling (doing anything with the HE1000se scares me, Iām afraid Iāll hurt them lol).
One headphone im dieing to try out and compare it to is DROP Dan Clark Audio Aeon, ive heard great things in terms of detail and overall tuning, though im personally more interested in the closed back version
Thereās something about the DCA headphones that seems like trailing ends and to some degree leading end of tones that I think makes them sound a bit unnatural but itās not a deal breaker. I think for music the closed is better tuned but you lose that really really well done soundstage of the open. Never gave EQ a shot on the open but Iām sure it levels the field vs the closed tuning wise.
Huh. Thanks for sharing about the Aeons. I was curious about those as well. The Aeon 2 closed, actually. But Iām wearing the XS right now and Iām enjoying them very much. They continue to impress. And this strange amp pairing I have going along with some Peace EQā¦ really good! So not sure I need the Aeons.
Just make sure you buy the perforated pads (that are on the Noire by default) in case you buy the 2 Closed, that makes it a Noire in red and more natural sounding than stock tuning imo.
ali themselves are fine sometimes they get sketchy sellers though
if you can buy from a seller thatās been on there for over 2 years and has good feedback
I bought from 2 different sellers they both seemed fine - the only thing i would warn about the super cheap ones is that they come without an adaptar ring - just an adhesive , take a good look before you buy
If you are talking about the headphone itself its possible but since you are talking hunderds of dollars i wouldnāt risk it and just buy from amazon/adorama or whatever - its another 80$ but its peace of mind and a solid warrenty.
as far as pads this is the seller i got mine (with an adapter ring)
