Hifiman Edition XS Review

Comfort

Comfort-wise the Edition XS distributes the weight nicely on the head with the new headband. That allows the user to listen to the headphone for long periods of time with a good comfort level.

The position of the headphone affects the overall comfort, so you can try different positions for finding the sweet spot. In my case, I position the headband a little on the front area of my head instead of the backside.

The swivelling (1 axis) asymmetrical ear cups make sure that the ear cups perfectly fit over your ears, and the pressure is just right to keep them in place. The material used for the pads is leather and velvet, and they feel soft and very comfy. My ears don’t touch the inside part of the earcups, which is also good.

Overall I haven’t had any comfort issues with the Edition XS. Of course, it’s not a very light headphone since it’s a planar unit. The dynamic headphones are lighter, such as the HD660 S or HD 800 series.

Sound

Hifiman headphones in general sound very good, resolving and they’re technically strong. Let’s see if the Edition XS is an exception or not.

The Edition XS sounds very clear, focused, fast, detailed and natural with a good sense of warmth and body. The headphone ticks a lot of boxes, especially for its price, and I personally couldn’t find an obvious weakness in its overall presentation.

It has good tonality, resolution, imaging, and proper texture and transparency. For 500 bucks, this is basically a flawless headphone by my experience. It present a pretty neutral sound overall with slightly energetic mids and bright treble.

Bass

The Edition XS’ bass is quite punchy and the slam is pretty good, especially for a planar Hifiman. I find the bass to be very natural and effortless without affecting the overall sound. Lows have good recovery and speed as well, thanks to the Ultra-Thin Diaphragm. So you have great decay, quickness and punch all at the same time.

Quantity-wise it’s sufficient for many scenarios. Therefore, I think Hifiman has done a good job of giving an adequate level of bass for many genres. I really liked RnB, Pop and Smooth Jazz recordings where you can hear that sweet bass which is not too much but not without a good hit and rumble. Though don’t expect a bass quantity such as the ones we hear from dynamic closed backs or Audeze planars. This is a neutral bass for sure.

The texture of the bass is pretty good as well. What I found just as impressive as the overall bass presentation is that; the sub-bass and midbass levels are quite equal. The headphone can reach quite deep with its sub-bass but also gives good midbass to present the base notes of the instruments nicely. Although you don’t have that amazing rumble that dynamic drivers give, you surely have a high-quality bass which is very very impressive and well balanced.

Mids

The mid-range sounds very crisp and clear with a very nice tonality and lively nature. The upper mid area is quite energetic but not too much, whilst the whole mid-area has a very lifelike feeling. Especially the vocals sound very impressive with the Edition XS. The timbre is very realistic and natural, and it doesn’t feel ”off” in any way whatsoever. Likewise, the overall tonality is very nice and sweet to listen to, which is quite close to my reference studio speakers.

The instruments are just a step back when compared to vocals, but they’re also nicely textured and positioned on a realistic stage. In some jazz songs without any vocalist, you can hear every nuance and detail with a good tonality performance. When you have some vocal presence, the vocal takes the spotlight -a very special voice like Natalie Cole’s or Randy Crawford’s for instance- and you just enjoy that life-like vocal presentation. But, if you want to focus on the instruments, you can smoothly do so. That implies the headphone’s separation performance very well.

Page 1: About Hifiman & Edition XS, Design and Build

Page 3: Treble, Technical Performance, Comparisons, Conclusion