popular
(refurb) HIFIMAN Edition XS Planar Magnetic Headphones ~$80 + Free S/H
$80
$149
46% off
AliExpress
Browse every Black Friday offer we could findBrowse every Black Friday offer we could find
View The SiftAliExpress
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Community Voting
Deal
Score
+11
Good Deal
Bad Deal
Join The Conversation
Share your experience with the Slickdeals community
Share information with the community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!
6 Comments
Sign up for a Slickdeals account to remove this ad.
Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank
With aliexpress deals, the price tends to jump around depending on how and when you view the listing. If you're seeing a higher price than the OP, try using different browsers and/or incognito mode. You must be signed into an AliExpress account and have your shipping address added to add items to your cart and place an order. It may take a few minutes after putting an address into your account for the "This item can't be shipped to your address" message to disappear and allow you to add the item to cart. You may have to manually type in the promo code to apply it at checkout. If you know where to look, there may be significant CB available on purchases from aliexpress.
These headphones are sold by the official hifiman local store (ships from the US so no concerns about customs, and comes with 1yr warranty), and at this price are pretty much a no-brainer for those looking to dip their toes into high-end audio. I personally nabbed a second pair in the previous iteration of this deal a couple of months ago, and am extremely happy with them. Previous frontpage deal with 95 upvotes for reference: https://slickdeals.net/f/19891212-refurb-hifiman-edition-xs-over-ear-open-back-planar-magnetic-headphones-84-90-free-s-h
A few basics to get out of the way first, since I know people wander onto these headphone deals not realizing these are audiophile cans for critical listening: these headphones are wired only (no bluetooth or wireless connections of any kind), have no form of active noise cancelling, have extremely poor sound isolation (you can hear what's going on around you, and everyone around you can hear what you're listening to), have no built in volume control or equalization, underperform somewhat without a proper amplifier driving them, and are fairly heavy and bulky. They are designed to be used at home with a dedicated audio setup.
The edition xs use the standard old hifiman headband (a version with the newer hammock style headband was recently released, but is much more expensive), have large oval earcups, and weigh 405g. I have an above average sized head, and I'd say the edition xs are very slightly large for me even at the minimal headband adjustment. Clamping force is also fairly low. If your head is on the smaller side, the edition xs will likely not fit well. The earcups are very roomy inside, my ears don't touch the insides of the cups at all which I greatly appreciate. The weight may take a while to get used to, I can wear them fairly easily for hours long sessions, but I can certainly imagine some people struggling. Fortunately, most of the issues with fit and comfort can be mitigated by getting a headband strap that functionally turns the headband into a hammock style one. The ~$25 capra strap is the most commonly recommended strap, but there are plenty of cheaper options available and even files available online to 3d-print a strap yourself.
The edition xs has an official impedance of 18 ohms (with some community measurements showing 14 oms instead) and a sensitivity of 92db. The combination of quite low impedance along with fairly low sensitivity means these headphones are current hungry and moderately difficult to drive. Unfortunately, most cheap onboard audio solutions, such as the all in one realtek codecs that are commonly used in laptops and motherboards, struggle greatly specifically at properly powering current hungry headphones. As long as you're not planning on using eq (equalization) you might be able to get away with not using an amp if you have a high quality integrated audio solution, or are willing to tolerate lower volume and poorer dynamics. In general though, you'll want at minimum a high powered usb dongle dacamp (ex. Jcally jm20 max, fiio ka11, etc).
These headphones are not designed for portable use, and most phones and low-power usb-c to 3.5mm dongles probably won't do a very good job of driving them. If you'd be eqing these headphones to any meaningful degree (negative preamp of more than 3db or so), a proper amp is even more highly recommended. As planar magnetic headphones with low distortion they take rather well to eq, so eq is highly recommended if you have an amp.
Oratory1990 presets are good starting point for eq: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/6y...xftbum&e=1
Autoeq can also be a helpful tool: https://github.com/jaakkopasanen/AutoEq
The tonality of the edition xs are overall fairly neutral, with a good amount of bass and sub-bass for an openback (particularly when boosted with eq) and some moderate harshness and sibilance in the treble. Separation, detail retrieval, and dynamics are excellent for headphones in this price class. The soundstage (much of perception of soundstage is psychoacoustic and depends on the person, so ymmv) is also quite expansive, and imaging is good though not exceptional. If absolute precision in imaging is more important for you than soundstage width and depth (for example primarily playing competitive multiplayer fps games), then you might want to consider angled driver headphones like the sennheiser hd560s instead. It's worth remembering that while headphone "burn in" is mostly a myth, the human brain takes a significant amount of time to get used to a new sound signature (for example, you might find treble to be annoyingly sharp at first, but not have it bother you much once you've used the headphones for a while). I recommend reserving judgement on any new pair of headphones until you've used them for at least a week.
Diyaudioheaven (run by solderdude from audiosciencereview forums) has a fairly in-depth review of the edition xs, keep in mind this review is in the context of the edition xs costing ~$500 at the time: https://diyaudioheaven.
Hifiman has a reputation for somewhat worse quality control and product longevity compared to many more established western brands (though their reputation has improved over the past few years). I've personally been using some of their headphones for over 3 years without any issues, but that's obviously anecdotal so ymmv. Since you're purchasing from an official hifiman store, these refurbished headphones come with the standard 1yr hifiman warranty. Hifiman's warranty policy can be found here: https://store.hifiman.c
The previous two refurbished edition xs I purchased (one a couple of years ago, and one in the past couple of months) both arrived in near pristine condition, and the same goes for another family member who ordered theirs with this same deal a couple months ago. The pair I received from aliexpress recently looked like they'd never been worn, a tiny bit of dust and a couple of small smudges were the worst of it. The pads appeared brand new, and there were no hairs or any other concerning signs. The headphones have no audible issues or signs of physical damage, my only complaint would be some slight squeaking from the headband hinges when I turn my head wearing them.
The packaging was ultimately serviceable but definitely could be improved upon, they came seated on a foam headphone stand loose in an ups box with some generic packing material around them. The included headphone cable I received was the "sundara" cable, its perfectly functional but fairly short. It was quite microphonic and stiff at first, massaging the cable for a little while improved that. My order arrived within a few days of being placed without any issues.
While there is now significantly more competition in the lower-midrange headphone space (particularly from fiio and their sub-brand jade), the value proposition of the edition xs at under $100 is pretty much unmatched. The only audio deal comparable in value to this recently would be the extremely ymmv best buy open box sennheiser hd 560s at ~$50, but they're only available for literally minutes at a time and I haven't seen any available for a couple of weeks. Overall, if these headphones would fit your use cases and you're willing to purchase refurbished, this is an excellent deal.
This give you a super wide soundstage and clear detail you will never hear on the xm4.
Sound preference is subjective and if you like the sound of the xm4 do not buy any pro headphones like this or sennheiser HD (600,650,800). You'll be dissapointed. Try the skullcandy crush evo
I feel like the headband sucks unless you have a watermelon head. So I got a Apos X Capra Audio Comfort Strap for it. Maybe try it without and know there's a suspension strap for it if you find that you need one.
R ak U Ten has 29% cashback at Ali Express right now. I sure wish I had bought mine at this price! I'm jealous.
Join The Conversation
Share your experience with the Slickdeals community
Share information with the community. Please follow our Community Guidelines and be kind!