I’ve been looking into purchasing the X2HRs for a bit now and the price seems to keep on dropping on Amazon, right now they’re $177AUD ($122USD) and for the past couple weeks they’ve been $207AUD ($142USD), is there a good chance the price will drop again after Christmas or is it a good deal as it stands right now?
It’s possible they will drop again. They were being sold new for $99 on black friday - Cyber Monday. They will eventually completely sell through, though… as I believe they are being replaced by the Fidelio X3. And those will probably go for over $200.
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They actually are 99 right now and according to camelcamelcamel this is as low as they’ve ever been
but since i’m in Australia, I have to pay a goods and services tax so if I buy off the US Amazon website the GST will be applied at checkout anyway (I tried)
The fidelio X3s dont look like they’re for me anyway, a big part of why im opting for the X2HRs is because of the 3.5mm jack, and its hard to tell from the video but they look closed back?
Either way I’m gonna assume they’re probably completely different to the X2HR’s and therefore not really worth waiting for
oh nice. Yeah I’d grab them for that price. They must have just gone on sale again.
And yeah it’s hard to judge how good the x3 will be… could end up being a flop. If it’s something you are interested in, I think they are worth checking out. They are really tuned and focused on low-end and mids. They have a pretty nice sound-stage and they are comfortable. Def not the most detailed headphone, but for the price they are worth it, IMO.
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I really enjoy good bass so I think these should work well for me, especially since my SHP9500s hurt my head by pushing my glasses into my temples after long sessions where as with memory foam pads that’s not been a problem for me
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X2’s have a much greater clamp force than the shp9500s… maybe not ideal for the temple pressure issue… different pads though.
The memory foam is pretty stiff, I sometimes get a rubbing noise off my glasses with them. I really wish headphone manufacturers would just stick to a standard for attaching pads so we can swap them with whatever we like.
One thing with the X2, the driver is SUPER angled to the point where I have to move them back so my ear touches the front of the pad just to get away from the pressure going directly down my ear canal. It also touches the cloth cover on one side, so my earlobe touches it on the back which gets annoying. I really think these would be better with thicker but softer pads.
Zeos pad swapped the X1s with Dekoni pads or something similar and just pulled the lip of the pad over the entire edge of the headphone to attach them, if that makes any sense.
He discusses it at the beginning of this video…
These are the pads.
You have to poke a hole in the lip for the jack though, so you can’t return them. Not that you can return ZMF pads anyway.
Yeah true. ZMF pads are pretty nice though. And he wraps them up nicely for you in fancy red paper in the box, haha.
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I’m gonna leave this here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG2wa31Lk2Y
I’d say rather get the Sennheiser 58X or the Hifiman 4XX, the 4XX especially is 130 bucks rn on Drop
I personally did not find the X2s to be bright or harsh, but that might just be me. Maybe the tuning has changed too? Or potentially a QC issue? I bought mine before they became the ‘hr’ version.
Still Josh and Zeos liked the X2HRs plenty based on their reviews.
I’d personally always encourage people to try things for themselves if they are interested. If he finds them lacking, then for sure check out and consider other options.
I just don’t see why one would buy the X2HR with all the QC issues and the sound issues when the 58X and the 4XX exist
Because someone might just want a bass-focused headphone. Or something with really deep earpads and a wide sound-stage. Maybe they want it for the single 3.5mm connector design And the 4xx are just as notorious for QC issues as well.
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I mean the 4XX have wide soundstage and quite a bit of bass but ye I heard QC complaints about the 4XX as well.
It’s really sad that Hifiman has these issues cuz they make really great sounding headphones if only they could fix the QC issues 
Also forgot to mention OP said he lives in Aus, so maybe the 4xx isn’t readily available to him? I have no idea how massdrop works for AUS.
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They are a fairly new company, hopefully they’ll improve as their manufacturing process matures.
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IMO… QC issues are only really a problem if combined with bad customer support. If I can get a replacement within reasonable time without too much hassle, then I don’t really see it as a huge problem. Maybe something to consider if you are buying 2nd-hand though… where you might not be able to take advantage of warranty.
This is interesting to me. Admittedly I have next to no experience but I don’t find my x2’s (pre hr as well) harsh at all. I can listen for hours with those things hugging my head. Comparatively the shp9500’s are a bit fatiguing possibly because the vocals are more forward and I think the treble is more emphasized to my ears. I do love them both though. Both interesting and both different.
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Yeah, that was my experience with the X2. Definitely not detailed and you could even call them ‘bloaty’ or unrefined… but I definitely did not find them harsh or anything close to that. Like I could understand some people finding the Sendy Aiva to be a bit too bright or the Elex… etc… but I would have never put the X2 in that catagory.
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