Well as long as itās better Iād be happy. What about presence or forwardness in particular?
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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 wouldnāt call vocals forward, but nor are they recessed. I have to confess Iām having difficulty operationalizing the term āpresenceā in this context.
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And is it true? Direct upgrade? And better at what?
Edit: but also the hexv2 was a 2016 model and I donāt know when they discontinued it. I imagine sometime soon the HiFiMan QC issues and time will make for a bad combo 
By āpresenceā I basically just mean forwardness. So vocals with greater presence are simply more prominent/forward.
So far Iām finding the Edition XX are a more direct upgrade from the 4XX compared to the Sundara. The biggest improvement is the bass. Itās 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 isnāt big enough to warrant the $650 price IMO. Excluding the Bass region, Iām 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 thereās less in the 1.4k area and more in the 3k area. I personally much prefer the mid range balance on the 4XX. Iām finding the ED.XX upper mids to be too overly forward. Because of that, I still prefer the 4XX for most music that isnāt 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 doesnāt excel in any area enough to secure a place in my collection. So right now Iām leaning towards selling or returning them. If anyone wants to save about $120 on a pair, message me.
BLUE - EDITION XX | RED - 4XX
Measured on EARS rig
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That is too bad.
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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 continuesā¦
Nice review. I overall enjoyed my time with the Edition XX. I did realize its limitations in time, as well. I agree with you that the $630 list price is pretty steep. If you can get a pair in the $400 range though, they are a lot of fun.
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The best qualities I found on the xx where the bass and midrange, along with what the stage could do, much more verticality than i had heard up until then. Good write up, also what amps where you using on the sundara and xx?
I was mainly using the Asgard 3 for my testing. Do you have any good example tracks that would demonstrate verticality? I wasnāt getting any extra sense of verticality from the songs I tried so far.
Obviously nothing is gonna sound 100 ft above or below, but when you listen, try and hear some instruments layered just above/below and on top/bottom of each other I times.
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hmm, when I first got the edition xx, my very first impression was wtf why is everything so high vertically? I thought it sounded weird and was a little worried I wouldnāt like the headphone. Pretty soon I became used to it, and the he400 sounded short and flat in comparison. Just sharing my experience
not necessarily the best example but something that immediately came to mind as I have been enjoying this song lately. (Lotās of the intro especially is vertically placed high on my he x v2, so I would imagine the same would happen on the edition xx)
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I finally got around to trying out those tracks. āFalling off a horseā was my favorite of them. Iāll have to add that to my headphone test playlist.
Anyway it sounds as though the low frequencies are originating from a lower position and the highs on a higher position. I saw a review where the Edition XX was described as having speaker-like presentation. So now I know what he meant by that.
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I didnāt get around to responding earlier, but in my XX review I mentioned the song Susie Q by CCR. On the XX that track sounded like John Fogertyās voice was floating up high in the right channel.
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Are you still using them a lot five months later? I am very curious to compare to Sundaraās and Elexās. It will take another two weeks for mine to cross North America. 
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Naw. I sold the XX to help fund my Hex V2 acquisition. The Hex has similar signature but is a noticeable upgrade in technicalities. I did like the XX though. Great signature and got me hooked on that planar bass.
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For me, XX was far more enjoyable than the sundaras 
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I got these tonight, but am only testing them on my desktop system. Wow, are they ever huge! I have them on the shortest setting and they cover my ears and more. Looking forward to trying them in the main listening system tomorrow.
All I can say so far is that I agree about them being slower. Sounded great with Meg Myers, Bishop Briggs, Roxy Music, John Lennon and The Blue Stones. With the Deftones and Seether it ranges from great to ācongestedā, when the music gets really hard.
This is from a desktop system consisting of computer to Topping D30 to Liquid Spark to Edition XXās.
See what happens tomorrow.
PS: Great with some Larkin Poe!
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The HFM HEX v2 is much more coherent and detailed than the XX. One should be able to get a HEX v2 for $675ish. It needs a pair of nuggets, time to get ears centered in the pads, silver plated cable much better than the stock rubbish. Also needs a digital parametric EQ quite badly if you want to enjoy the technicals. The XX is like a bad mimeograph of the HEX v2.
OTOH itās far better (except in bass impact) the the 4XX, Sundara. The Ananda is much brighter than the HEX or XX.
The HE-500 is a better can than the XX IMO, esp with proper mods.