[Colonel Faulkner]

Grill-modded, nothing further - were never interested into going more. Suits me well since a fairly long time now.
Thanks for your response - after the holidays I might push the buy button and get me an XS.

 

[theangelboy]

Could one of the XS owners tell me if they are a single or double sided magnet design? If it's double-sided, are the magnets on the ear side have wider ones in the middle or are they all the same width? I've been hunting online and I haven't seen any images that are definitive.

Just to be clear, I'm simply curious. I'm aware that more magnets ≠ more better.

 

[JoshG1217]

Anyone happen to know where I can get a gold planar 4.4 cable? I like that cable and would like to use with my XS. Can't find it separately anywhere. Open to other recs. I just like the black cable.

 

[pokrog]

Anyone happen to know where I can get a gold planar 4.4 cable? I like that cable and would like to use with my XS. Can't find it separately anywhere. Open to other recs. I just like the black cable.

I could send you mine if you pay shipping. It'll just probably live in my gold planar case forever otherwise.

 

[JoshG1217]

I could send you mine if you pay shipping. It'll just probably live in my gold planar case forever otherwise.

I'll take it!

 

[jasswolf]

Minor differences in impedance and sensitivity are indeed beside the point. What really sets the XS and XX apart would be enormous differences is measured FR and the fact that different magnet and diaphragm are used.

Personally I prefer the XS over the Ananda, although I think there are reasons to go with either. Even though the XS are priced lower than the Ananda in terms of technicalities the XS is surprisingly competent. Tonally, for selected genres such as country and other vocal-oritented types, I actually prefer the XS over my HE1000 V2. I will talk more about the comparisons if anyone's interested.

Soundstage aside, do you feel as though the XS falls behind the Ananda in technical performance? I find it highly detailed and resolving. Ultimately I think it falls on HE1000/Ananda tuning with close to what I understand to be HEX v2 technical performance, with the exception perhaps being soundstage.

And from a Chinese perspective, these are almost identically priced to the Ananda. HIFIMAN just took advantage of the hype with the Ananda and sell it for way more internationally.

Could one of the XS owners tell me if they are a single or double sided magnet design? If it's double-sided, are the magnets on the ear side have wider ones in the middle or are they all the same width? I've been hunting online and I haven't seen any images that are definitive.

Just to be clear, I'm simply curious. I'm aware that more magnets ≠ more better.

It's double-sided. You can see the inner magnets just looking inside the cups.

It's also been independently confirmed with a teardown on a forum that the admin do not like being mentioned here.

 

[disastermouse]

Soundstage aside, do you feel as though the XS falls behind the Ananda in technical performance? I find it highly detailed and resolving. Ultimately I think it falls on HE1000/Ananda tuning with close to what I understand to be HEX v2 technical performance, with the exception perhaps being soundstage.

And from a Chinese perspective, these are almost identically priced to the Ananda. HIFIMAN just took advantage of the hype with that one and sell it for way more internationally.


It's double-sided. You can see the inner magnets just looking inside the cups.

It's also been independently confirmed with a teardown on a forum that the admin do not like being mentioned here.

But HiFiMan doesn’t sell it internationally.

 

[jasswolf]

But HiFiMan current sell it internationally.

Sorry, that's a confusing sentence: the XS is priced similarly to the Ananda in China, where the Ananda is cheaper.

 

[disastermouse]

Sorry, that's a confusing sentence: the XS is priced similarly to the Ananda in China, where the Ananda is cheaper.

Autocorrect.

 

[jasswolf]

Autocorrect.

Haha I understood what you meant! I was referring to my own post.

Before tax, the Ananda is regularly a sub-$400 USD headphone in China, the same price the Edition XS will hover at for a while.

 

[blorg]

The Edition XS is still slightly cheaper in China, but it's not by much. But it is still set under the Ananda by Hifiman.

11.11 pricing for these on TaoBao was:

• Edition XS: ¥2499 ($390)
• Ananda: ¥2999 ($468)

The Ananda seems to have a permanent reduction now to $599 and many of the Western-oriented Chinese stores seem to have settled on $499 as the for the Edition XS; that's the same difference (Ananda is 20% more).

 

[jasswolf]

The Edition XS is still slightly cheaper in China, but it's not by much. But it is still set under the Ananda by Hifiman.

11.11 pricing for these on TaoBao was:

• Edition XS: ¥2499 ($390)
• Ananda: ¥2999 ($468)

The Ananda seems to have a permanent reduction now to $599 and many of the Western-oriented Chinese stores seem to have settled on $499 as the for the Edition XS; that's the same difference (Ananda is 20% more).

There seems to be clearance prices for the Ananda from some dealers, where I'm seeing as low ¥2699.

 

[gzbaga]

Soundstage aside, do you feel as though the XS falls behind the Ananda in technical performance? I find it highly detailed and resolving. Ultimately I think it falls on HE1000/Ananda tuning with close to what I understand to be HEX v2 technical performance, with the exception perhaps being soundstage.

The Ananda and HE1000 sound very different though, the latter being much brighter (or at least my pair is). But yea I agree that technical performance on the XS isn't bad at all. As I don't have the Ananda anymore I can't be certain about all aspects of technicalities. One thing stands out though that is punch and impact, as you have more subbasss on the XS I think they slam harder. If you prefer the softer, airier and more ethereal character you should go for the Ananda.

TBH I don't care that much about marketing stuff, and I've had my doubts on the 'stealth magnets'. The point is sound and the most straight forward representation of sound would be FR, in which terms I think the XS is a solid performer. If they sound and measure differently, I tend to believe the advertised differences in material etc.

 

[bhazard]

I have this unique tradition of listening to Cypress Hill during the holiday season (30 years now). I didn't realize they came out with a remixed/remastered expanded edition of their debut this year. I know the Cypress Hill album very well sound wise (it was poor), but this remaster is crystal clear and it's a whole new experience.

The Edition XS is just like this remaster, and listening with it is a treat. Clarity, thump, tuning, timbre, soundstage...
The original album is Skullcandy/Beats. The remaster is Edition XS. If you ever wanted to know why people pay $500 for headphones, then pay for a DAC, amp, etc, this is why.

All I've done is adjust the mids, sub-bass and mid-bass slightly by ear. Graphs and AutoEQ will make it even better.

 

[jasswolf]

The Ananda and HE1000 sound very different though, the latter being much brighter (or at least my pair is). But yea I agree that technical performance on the XS isn't bad at all. As I don't have the Ananda anymore I can't be certain about all aspects of technicalities. One thing stands out though that is punch and impact, as you have more subbasss on the XS I think they slam harder. If you prefer the softer, airier and more ethereal character you should go for the Ananda.

TBH I don't care that much about marketing stuff, and I've had my doubts on the 'stealth magnets'. The point is sound and the most straight forward representation of sound would be FR, in which terms I think the XS is a solid performer. If they sound and measure differently, I tend to believe the advertised differences in material etc.

As I understand it, the HE1000 and the SE were fairly bright, but the 1000 v2 dialled it in a bit.

Aside from bass extension, he biggest difference I'm seeing in measurements between the HE1000 SE and the Ananda is at 5kHz... maybe that was a resonance issue with the cheaper make of the driver, and they dialled that in?

The stealth magnets might have allowed them to let it ride, given there's supposedly less resonance generated by the shape of the Susvara magnet design.

A less blunted, more controlled Ananda makes sense to me, and similar to the Arya, the cost is a tiny bit of staging, presumably due to more control in the upper treble.