Congratz the XS is a fine choice 
Quick question what are you powering it with? the XS is more power hungry than most gaming headphone
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E10k isnāt going to bring out the most in it but itās a solid starting point
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E10k from Fiio, hand me down. I know itās harder to drive bc of the sensitivity but the friend who gifted me the E10K was using it with their Dt990s. So I assume itāll be just fine, but I may want to upgrade to a more modern amp/dac or even just a better amp (I can still use the E10k as a dac). But for now the big purchase was product itself.
Yeee, Iām aware. The person I got the E10k from was using it to power their DT990s for the better half of four years, so I figure if it can power them then it can definitely power the Edition XS.
I donāt plan to use them outside of my pc (I have a huge library of FLAC format music that I listen to on the regular) so Iām not worried about dongles or DAPs.
I may look into buying replacement cables from Hart Audio & a pair of Dekoni Elite velour earcuffs in time but Iām hoping I wonāt need to buy either for a few months at least.
is it the usb micro or usb c version, I have a micro usb version and the amp is fine but the dac hasnāt aged super well.
havenāt experienced the USB-C version.
Itās the micro usb version. I talked to the guy that gave me it today and he agreed with me that Iād probably want to upgrade in time. Any recs for cheap amp/dacs that would power it to a better extent?
JDS atom stack of you are in the US. I believe the fiio k11 R2R would be a great choice as well.
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A lot depends on your budget and location , in general the XS tends to like clean and powerful amps (doesnt need it but it tends to perform better with stronger amps), outputing from the E10K to a dedicate AMP is a bit of a pain since it has only coax out but you can mange it (also adds a bit of clutter) or you could go for a combo unit, something like a FiiO K5 Pro or K11 should do the trick
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honestly most modern gear around $200 should be good
if you wanted to keep a super small package like the E10K Fiioās BTR15/17 or the KA17 would be great especially if youāre planning on getting a balanced cable for the XS
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NA, probably ~250 USD would be my cap. Thanks for the recs!
Thanks for the recs, Fiio has some great affordable options that Iāll probably look more into closer to when I intend to get an improvement over the E10k.
The K5 Pro & K11 look approachable to me. As does the MX3 from Apos Audio. I was planning on getting a Hart splitter cable in time but itāll probably take a backpedal to getting an improved amp/dac if I find the sound quality is wanting.
Alright, it finally arrived. Hereās my first impression! Please keep in mind this is the first major audiophile purchase Iāve made, so Iām still new to a lot of the nuances.
Overall impression is positive, was certainly wowād a lot during the first 30 mins of listening! Everything sounds richer, thereās far better detail and things donāt sound so muddy or crunchy like they did with the HS55s.
Vocals sound warm and pleasant, cymbal crashes and glitchy effects donāt sound as harsh on my ears, just sound more detailed.
The soundstage isnāt as wide as I anticipated, but it certainly does sound ātallā, but from what I hear thatās not uncommon with less powerful amp/dacs with this headphone. I imagine with more power the sound-stage will become a bit wider.
Fit is better than I thought but Iāll certainly need a headband upgrade just to have it sit properly on my skull, as of currently the headphones themselves reach almost a full half inch past my jawline, the pads rest on my chin bones.
I gave them a shot listening to videos and gaming too, just watched a short video on yt and then played around 25 mins of Stalker 2 on the highest sound settings. Very immersive for both, videoās music felt appropriately distanced away. Quieter background stuff sounds appropriately spaced away. Thereās nice clarity and detail, imaging wasnāt stellar but pretty dang good compared to the Hs55 I was wearing before.
Iām happy with my purchase although Iāll certainly need to get a third party upgrade to fix the biggest issue I have with the headphones, but I knew that I was probably going to have that issue going in just bc my head is fairly small.
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