Hifiman Edition XS

HiFi, OpenBack
Hifiman Edition XS — Arya DNA at a Fraction of the Cost

Every so often a manufacturer accidentally makes their expensive flagship look overpriced. Hifiman did exactly that with the Edition XS — it borrows the teardrop shell and stealth-magnet driver architecture straight out of the Hifiman Arya, launched at $499 and now drifted to roughly $269 street. For a while this quietly obsoleted the Hifiman Sundara as the value planar to buy, and it hasn’t really been dethroned since.

Build & Design

It’s still recognisably a Hifiman — mostly plastic, not remotely premium to the touch — but the suspension headband and deep, roomy pads are a genuine comfort upgrade over older models like the Sundara. At a little over 400g it’s not light, but the weight is well distributed rather than clamped onto your temples. The stealth magnets themselves are the headline feature: shaped to be acoustically invisible to the diaphragm, reducing the driver interference that limits ordinary planar magnet arrays, paired with a NsD diaphragm 75% thinner than the original Edition X’s. It’s not hard to drive — a decent dongle gets you there — but it visibly scales with more power, and most of the “thin” or “not loud enough” complaints online trace back to underpowering it.

Sound

Bass

Deep and punchy for an open-back planar, with more low-end presence than older Hifiman tunings managed. It’s still a lean, neutral bass rather than an elevated one, so EDM and hip-hop fans may want more weight than it’s willing to give.

Mids

Clean and even-handed, letting vocals and instruments sit naturally in the mix without the scooped, distant character that hurts some planars at this price.

Treble

The one genuine caveat. It’s brighter and zingier than neutral, and on treble-sensitive listeners or already-bright recordings it can turn fatiguing over a long session.

Soundstage & Imaging

This is where the Arya lineage shows. Huge, airy and unusually three-dimensional for the money, with imaging precise enough to genuinely surprise people expecting budget-planar performance.

Comparisons

Against the Hifiman Sundara, the Edition XS is the newer driver generation doing almost everything better — wider stage, faster bass, similar money. Against the FiiO FT1 Pro reviewed alongside it, the XS is the more spacious, more exciting listen, while the FT1 Pro stays the safer, less fatiguing one. It doesn’t touch my HD600 for midrange naturalness, and the treble peaks mean it’s not the all-day headphone the HD600 is, but as a taste of Arya-level scale for a third of the price, nothing else comes close.

Verdict

Pros

  • Arya-derived stealth-magnet driver at budget money
  • Huge, genuinely three-dimensional soundstage
  • Comfortable suspension headband, big pads
  • Clean, even mids

Cons

  • Treble peaks can fatigue on longer sessions
  • Bass stays lean — not for bass-head genres
  • Build quality is functional plastic, not premium
  • Stock cable is basic

Ratings:

  • Build & Design: 7 / 10
  • Sound: 9 / 10
  • Comfort: 8 / 10
  • Value: 9.5 / 10

The Edition XS is the headphone that made Hifiman’s own flagship look like a luxury tax — at £269 it’s still the planar to beat.