Here is my amateur review of the Edition XX. A BIG caveat to keep in mind here is that the XX is the first headphone I have any extended experience with from the $500-$800 price tier. I took my time and did lots of listening to different kinds of music to get a real feel for it to be as honest and clear-headed as possible given that caveat.
TL;DR: The XX is a good headphone, particularly if youâre into rock/metal, hip-hop, or EDM. It has good bass quantity and quality, a reasonably good midrange, and a treble that is present and sparkly without being bright, sibilant, or harsh. Itâs also physically comfortable. The egg-shaped earcups have lots of room for even large ears. The headband fit my head well and I was able to wear them for hours at a time with no physical comfort issues. Itâs not a perfect headphone, though. Its imaging is a step up from most <$500 headphones that Iâve heard, but is not likely class leading. The upper mids also have just a touch of shout to them at times as well, though not to the extent that many <$500 cans do. If youâre looking for a big planar in this price range and like rock/metal, hip-hop, EDM, or other genres of music where bass is important and too much treble can get in the way, this headphone should be on your list for consideration, IMO, especially if you can get it used. Read on if you want more detail.
BUILD:
This headphone doesnât physically feel like it should list for $600, IMO. Itâs mostly plastic construction. Itâs quite light, but doesnât feel very robust. However, in my completely subjective opinion, I think it looks cool. I have no issues with the styling. The earpads are hybrids and are quite soft. The egg-shaped earcups are enormous and likely have comfortably enough space for just about any sized ear. The cups arenât particularly deep, though, so if your ears stick out a lot, you might feel some contact on your lobes.
SOUND:
These are the most enjoyable all-around headphones I own (see list at bottom of this post to see what I currently have) and will be my daily drivers for awhile, but I can also tell they are nowhere near the end of my journey (since we all know thatâs a joke anyway). Combined with their physical comfort, their sound is very listenable. I didnât find it fatiguing really in any way at regular, working while wearing headphones SPLs. Bass is plentiful, extended, musical, and punchy without ever becoming sloppy or overwhelming. The planar slam is definitely present. The mids â mostly â have fairly natural timbre and match my ears pretty well (I have sensitivity in the 800Hz-1.5KHz range that makes a great many headphones sound shouty to me, even if theyâre relatively neutral in the mids). This may mean that many will find their mids slightly recessed, though. The treble sounds detailed and reasonably accurate and only ventures into sibilant when a recording just is sibilant (You Oughtta Know). Describing their sound signature is a bit challenging. They are slightly bass-forward, but not V, and not dark. You could call them warm, but they donât have that general âfeelingâ of warmth that comes from something like a 6XX.
Detail retrieval is a mixed bag. There were some songs that I noticed things Iâve never noticed before. âEverything to Everyoneâ by Everclear and âOnly God Knows Whyâ by Kid Rock both have some distorted synths in them I had never noticed before. You can hear John Entwistleâs banging of his bass strings against the frets in The Whoâs âBehind Blue Eyesâ really clearly. However, these headphones donât have a clinical level of detail that are often attributed to DT1990s or even Elex. Theyâre a more laid-back, going for long-term listenability type of headphone, it appears.
There are some issues I want to discuss as well. My ears picked up just a touch of shout in the vocals on some rock tracks. That is a bit disappointing to me at this price point. However, when they went shouty, it was not near to the level or with near as much loss of overall timbre as typically happens with cheaper cans. More often than not, it was a hint-to-mild shout. This bettered even the HD6XX to my ears, where shout is rather common and timbre-breaking to my ear. The XX became a bit too aggressive on some organ and synthesizer music in that same frequency range at times. Hans Zimmerâs âMountainsâ from the Interstellar OST had them crying for mercy in the mids. The track âS.T.A.Y.â from the same album has some organ notes that hit that range too and were surprisingly aggressive. However, the amount of problem here is important. When the XX had midrange issues, they tended to handle them better than cheaper cans like the HD6XX. In other words, when things went awry, the XX salvaged them better. But, the 600 ohm DT880 almost never has such shout issues. IMO, the 880 has really underrated midrange. And I think overall the 880 has better mid-range detail and timbre than the XX. The XXâs treble is little more natural sounding where the 880 is comparatively sharp on many recordings. This appears to be because the XX is more forgiving, though. When the recording quality is top notch, the 880 seems to have a higher ceiling on its treble performance. IMO, this makes the XX a better overall headphone for rock/rap/EDM where treble is often sharply recorded. Spatial presentation between the XX and the 880 is also reasonably similar. The XX is very wide sounding and does a pretty good job with horizontal localization. It even has some present approximations of vertical localization. I wouldnât call its spatial presentation superior to the DT880âs, though. Theyâre actually quite close. However, the DT880 is superior on classical music. It was easier to close my eyes and picture where instruments were located on well recorded classical music with the DT880.
OK, Iâm comparing the XX to the 880 a bunch here, which may seem weird. They are very different headphones that are each better than the other for different use cases. Iâm making these comparisons in the mid-range, treble, and spatial presentations because the XX lists for $600 and is a relatively new design. The DT880 is currently an approximately $200 headphone with core design dating back to 1980, and the XX isnât clearly better in some critical aspects of the sound. That bugs me a bit. I donât know if the DT880 is just that good and is priced where it is because of its age, or if the XX just isnât the best example of a $500-$800 headphone. Iâm definitely interested in the communityâs opinion here. It could be both. The DT880 has reached something resembling legendary status and the XX seems to be one of the less discussed members of its price tier. It seems the DT1990, T1.2, Elex, and LCD-2C are the more talked about open backs in this price range.
Iâll add a quick note about comparison to the HE4XX. I donât this the XX is a direct upgrade to the 4XX. The XX is more bass-focused. The signatures are quite different. I havenât heard the Sundara, but its description makes it sound like a more obvious upgrade to the 4XX if you like that sound.
One more weird quirk with the XX. With some older recordings that do weird stereo stuff like put all the instruments in the left and the vocals in the right, some weird things can happen. An example is âSusie Qâ by Creedance Clearwater Revival. The instruments are in the left channel. The instrument reverb is in the right channel. John Fogertyâs voice is also in the right, but the XX made his voice sound like it was high up on the right and floating above the instrument reverb. Itâs neither good nor bad, but was different and unexcepted and not an effect Iâve heard before.
Quibbles aside, I do like the XX. I have fun listening to music through it. I donât have to worry about it hurting my ears with sharp treble. It doesnât get shouty often enough for me to worry too much about it. But, it does irk me that a much cheaper headphone can trade blows with it so effectively in some areas. Finally, Iâll mention that I got the XX used direct from HiFiMan through Amazon. The used model was already marked down to $439 and with Amazon points and selling some old gear, I picked them up for under $200 new-out-of-pocket. For just the used price, I think the XX is an absolute steal. Iâm over the moon that what I paid gets me a noticeable step up from most <$500 headphones Iâve heard and doesnât set me back too far from exploring other headphones in its price range in the not-distant future.
Thanks for reading.
[coming from: WH-1000XM3, Crossfade M-100, M1060 (modded), DT880-600, HD6XX, HE4XX, Dekoni Blue]