Sorry for my bad English. This is my first post on the Forum.
Occasionally I stumbled upon the reviews and discussion here while deciding to pick some headphones up. I'm not super into the more in depth and technical of it all, so I never made an account, and over the years I acquired some headphones, mostly from reading here honestly, those being the Sennheiser HD58x, HD600, HD660s, Byer DT 700 pro, Byer 1990 pro, Akg K240 and finally the Akg K712 pro.
I just want to share my experience, and sense of performance and value with his particular one.
I mentioned all my headphones because you can see the theme of price there, all ranging on the "around or less than" 500 Euros (I'm in western Europe). It's a funny thing because I don't really mind that much the sound quality of things; while I have those different headphones, it took me many years to acquire them.
I feel that with this one, the Hifiman Edition XS, the value proposition really made a clear big jump, and I'm sure its not just this one nowadays. I will not sing endless praises to it, but I got admit this is something else when compared to any of the others I have. I understand that comes with being a planar driver, but I sent a Sundara back some months ago when I decided to dip in the planar "sound" that people say, and I'm still not sure what it really means, and that's when I acquired the Byer DT1990 pro, it sounded better to my ears, and I know it might be controversial to prefer a non planar over a planar or something.
The thing is I payed 352 Euros for the XS, plus 80 in tax, new from Thomann.de (popular store here in the EU), with an extended 3 years warranty (they have it on all their products).
I think the value propostition here just changed, since when compared to my other favorites, those being the Byer 1990 pro and Akg K712, this is something else entirely. When it comes to the Sennheisers its the same thing, and I always prefered the AKG sound above all others, in fact I prefer the AKG K240 over the HD 660s for instance, and I payed only 70 for the Akg, versus 400 in the Sennheiser, and I must say I can't make sense of the HD 660s to this day.
Now, I got this one for 352 Euros and wasn't expecting much, but I gotta say its just levels of magnitude above those headphones in all senses. To me, even in how beautiful the vocals sound, its beats the Sens, and beats the AKGs in soundstange, not to mention how articulate they sound, again, they sound so beautiful and engaging and punchy, it's like the sound of everything stays reverberating, far from me, above and bellow, far and close, it's just madness, but it sounds beautiful.
That's the word, beautiful, considering the price.
I just buy these things (until now at least) to have my moments of enjoyment, I'm retired (though can't say I'm old, had to, and had the priviledge to retire early in life) and like to sit with my pipe on the balcony or just outside and enjoy my favorite albuns or lists and this has been a shocking experience to me, it's like all the things I read about sound over the years that mostly sounded like a bit of nonsense to me, now made total sense.
I will mention the Fiio FT5, which was mentioned here before, which was what I was going to get, but it was gonna come above what I felt confortable paying (considering tax), and I understand that 352 is a promotional price for the Hifiman. I have only 3 amps, and 2 are from Fiio, that's why I was gonna get the FT5, I also have a portable player from them, and It's what I use when I sit outside, and I always felt total quality from their products.
It's a steal at promotional price of less than 400 I think, no doubt. Of course, I consider my inexperience with these things, but damn, this sounds beautiful guys, its incredible, and that it costed me less than the Sen 660s is eye opening, given that's the most expensive Sen I have, and argubly (to me at least), the worst (tryed changing pads, tryed eq, and just cannot enjoy that headphone, it's the black sheep of my tiny collection).
Thanks all, and more so to those who read, I'm not one to go full enthusiasm with these things, again, in fact, while I enjoyed some differences, I wasn't really giving it much attention, but when I put the XS on my head, all that nuance in sound, the opennes, the articulation, the punch, and overall how beautiful everything sounded, shocked me to my bone (hope this doesn't sound overly dramatic).
I will finish by saying that, while I aware I'm not in the position to fully recommend a headphone to anyone, my experience with this one has been so amazing, peaceful and engaging.
I will describe: I sit outside when my life long partner is busy with business, I bring with me my pipe, my old latvia vintage tobbaco and a cigar (for if it comes to that level of pleasure), and a dose (or two) of whisky, and a few hours pass of extreme joy and peace of mind, and these headphones, which are nothing but a gadget to enjoy music, have brought me to levels of pleasure that are right there with the best I had in life, and trust me, I've been around.
Thanks to all in this forum whom shared their views and experience.
