Yeah, a bunchâŠ
My current collection includes V-Moda M100, HE4XX, HD6XX, DT880-600, M1060 (modded), and Dekoni Blue with Shure 1540 pads (which unfortunately developed a weird channel imbalance lately and are shipped out on a warranty claim) for headphones. I also have Ikko OH-10 and Tin T3 to dip my toe in IEM waters. Oh, and I have a Sony WH-1000XM3 bluetooth ANC for plane rides and lawn mowing use, primarily.
Cool. I got the Edition xx 5ish days ago as well. Coming from HE400, HE4XX, 6XX, Tin T2, and WH-1000XM3 and recently got Shuoer Tape, Blon 03 and KZ ZS10 Pro.
For me the most obvious difference with the Edition XX is the height of the soundstage, was very weird at first.
Yeah, they sound HUGE in general. Which, given the size of those drivers is no surprise. Also, I will say that all of the complaints about the wire are spot on. Itâs 6 feet of ânopeâ.
So does it have a lot of bass? and how is the treble?
Theyâre not bass cannons, IMO. But the bass is full, extended, and punchy. Treble is present and doesnât strike me as either forward or recessed. There is an 8K treble peak, but that peak is about equal in spl to everything below about 2K. Itâs not audible very often during real listening. Not much sibilance to speak of. If the recording is sibilant, itâs sibilant, but never comes across as sharp to me. Overall I think the sound signature is pretty well balanced, honestly.
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]
Have had these for a week or so and had been using the asgard3 and erish. Nice headphone overall. Good bass impact, interesting mids, and not to bright highs. Stage is awesome and unique. Up and down presentaion on the stage is cool. Big ear cups haha. Solid build.
So i got the basX a100 and put the jumpers in yesterday and these really came alive with it. Slight distortion and grain at times but a good trade off for everything else. Better vocals and better bass is the most notable. So much power with this amp and you can feel it. Put on a bass heavy track and you can get the cups vibrating pretty good. Really cool.
XX sound good on the Asgard3 but i def reccomend hearing them on the a100, really awesome.
maybe if i get around to buying a passive speaker ill pick up the a100 to try this. Is the jumper mod simple?
Yea pretty simple, they are just tiny lol
Iâm thinking of picking one of these up if I can ever find a deal on them. Iâm think Drop has given up on these since itâs out of stock with no planned reorder date lol. I canât blame them if â467 soldâ is accurate. Maybe it would have been a winner if it got sold $500.
@WaveTheory do you still use yours? How does vocal performance on the Edition XX compare to the 4XX? More or less presence? One of my favorite things about the 4XX was itâs vocal presentationâparticularly for female vocals.
There a couple of pairs for sale on Amazon.ca. They are $899.00 in Canuck bucks. I am curious myself.
The XX vocals sound more full and natural to me than 4xx. The XX still arenât stellar vocally, though. But their signature and bass response make them my current favorite for rock/metal.
I hear the Edition X v2 is a direct upgrade to the xx and if the stars ever align where I an unload the xx and gain the hexv2 for a reasonable difference in a reasonable time, I would be seriously interested.
Well as long as itâs better Iâd be happy. What about presence or forwardness in particular?
To me the 4xx feels a little thin in the lower vocal range, giving vocals a hollowness. The XX gives vocals a more full sound, most noticeable with male vocals. I wouldnât call vocals forward, but nor are they recessed. I have to confess Iâm having difficulty operationalizing the term âpresenceâ in this context.
And is it true? Direct upgrade? And better at what?
Edit: but also the hexv2 was a 2016 model and I donât know when they discontinued it. I imagine sometime soon the HiFiMan QC issues and time will make for a bad combo 
By âpresenceâ I basically just mean forwardness. So vocals with greater presence are simply more prominent/forward.
So far Iâm finding the Edition XX are a more direct upgrade from the 4XX compared to the Sundara. The biggest improvement is the bass. Itâs MUCH better extension, control, clarity, and detail. It can also handle a pretty significant EQ boost. The mids and treble are also better. But the improvement isnât big enough to warrant the $650 price IMO. Excluding the Bass region, Iâm finding the much cheaper Sundara to be just as good technically. Though I still prefer the timbre on the ED. XX.
The tonality differs from 4XX around 1k-4k as shown in my measurements (and confirmed with my own hearing). Basically thereâs less in the 1.4k area and more in the 3k area. I personally much prefer the mid range balance on the 4XX. Iâm finding the ED.XX upper mids to be too overly forward. Because of that, I still prefer the 4XX for most music that isnât bass heavy. I can EQ the ED.XX into something better than the 4XX. But I can also do the same with most of my other headphones. So where does that leave the ED.XX? Sadly it doesnât excel in any area enough to secure a place in my collection. So right now Iâm leaning towards selling or returning them. If anyone wants to save about $120 on a pair, message me.
BLUE - EDITION XX | RED - 4XX
That is too bad.
Yeah once you own a few great high end pairs you love, buying cheaper stuff is much more likely to disappoint. But I still love some of my midrange stuff like the HD600. So the journey continuesâŠ
