It's selling for $539 from Hifiman Amazon. This one shipped from Amazon UK. According to comment from previous deal any warranty issues need to get through Amazon UK
CamelCamelCamel.
Hifiman in general have pretty average QC, so yeah it's a bit of a risk
I bought a pair through the Amazon Hifiman shop last year. I have no quality concerns whatsoever. They are solidly built and the sound quality is amazing. I came from Sennheiser HD6XX and 560s and I barely use those since I got the Sundaras. I only use the 560s when I don't have access to DAC/amp (when listening through my phone). This price is fantastic.
these for $400 or the edition xs for $600?
This is also what I'm wondering. This price is tempting though
I'm on the same boat as you! haha.. I am also thinking of Anandas which are a bit better but they are about 1k.. sigh…
Ananda literally sounds worse to my ears than the XS. Same driver properties. The bass on the XS is so much more satisfying.
Perhaps the ananda has more vocal clarity in female vocals, but thats about it.
Yeah, it really can't be stressed enough that you need a decent amp for these - they WILL get loud if driven out of a phone but they will sound tinny as hell, devoid of bass and just miserable. Even running these balanced out of an ifi go blu which supposedly puts out 5.6v and 300mw of power these do not sound good.
I wouldn't bother using this with anything less powerful than a hip dac at an absolute minimum.
These only need 1.3V / 40mw to reach 110db. General consensus is to double the required power for any overhead required for voltage peaks and EQ preamp. Even a cheap amp like the E10K would be enough.
I assume you don't own any planar magnetic over-ears.
There are many, many things that are basically snake oil in audio, unfortunately the need for a lot of power to truly make planars sound as good as they can, isn't one of them.
A phone can make them loud but they will sound shrill, devoid of bass and and have a comparably narrow sound stage, an E10K will not make them sound any different. .
I own edition XS. I have demoed on various solid states and tubes with far over 1000mw power at minidisc. The difference is negligible if not based on placebo compared to my objective 2, e10k, and some class A's. However the change in Dac made a noticeable difference
Get the Hifiman HE400SE instead for half the price and apply equalisation - thank me later.
You will probably need an amp if you use equalisation (for example Douk U3 can be had for about $40-50 on ebay and uses the 5532, performs as an amp should - neutral. Just use a usb phone charger for clean power).
If you want to know how to apply equalisation, Crinacle has a great guide on youtube "Upgrade any headphone for free".
Fantastic headphones for the price when paired with a good AMP/DAC. Though some people report QC issues, so could be a bit of a gamble getting them from the UK for warranty/returns.