HiFiMan Edition X V2 Unboxing & Review 

Currawong as much as I love the hifiman sound I do not like hifiman pricing practices . They jack the price up according to hype which leads to very unhappy customers after a while.

Great review, just wondering what to get between this , Edition X V2 vs LCD 3? Thanks

Great idea.

I'm borrowing a Utopia soon, so that at least.

Well Focal Elear came along, so I am going to have another listening session next month and purchase one of them.

how did that go?

Now is $1299 and we can expect lower prices at amazon and promotions.

Ye, please.

Josh A relaxed sounding yes. if a good sealer yes. bit boring sounding yes. overall flagship level headphones.

2 years too late but yeah i jumped from 400i too many other headphones and now i'm using HEX V2, they're great and definitely an upgrade. one thing u would want to consider when buying hifiman headphones though is the build quality and driver issues. I buy my pair because i really like the sound but i'm aware of the risks that one day it may just die lol

I think just listening normally is fine. If I notice any significant changes I'll say, but these were fine out of the box.

Example: Singer sounds like they are inside your head not just in front of your face like technically they should, is this a HiFiman problem or an edition X problem. Otherwise the sound is amazing.

I don't have them here any more to answer that question, sorry.

But hte quality of the videos are great.

I tend to equate a "veiled" sound as something covering a large range of frequencies, so I wouldn't describe the Edition X that way. I'd simply say that they have less micro detail than the HE1000.

***** Or we call it maybe more smoothed. However he1000v2 sounds more solid shaped in the image than he1000.

Drew had the Black Dragon on the HD800 when I was there. Other than that, my opinion is pretty much "anything other than the stock cable".

Not at the moment. If I get a loaner offer I'll give it a go though.

Unless it was a flash sale, I can't find them on Amazon for $800 new. If you can get them for that though, that's a great bargain. Unfortunately I didn't have them here at the same time as the Aeon Flow. Both were loaners. However, the Aeon Flow is somewhat tuneable with the inserts, so can be made to sound "warmer", where I remember the Edition X tuned more neutral.

Only below the manufacturer's set price if the seller is willing to break their agreement.

Probably the HEX V2, but I listen to a lot of acoustic music. The Aeon Flow Open would probably be a better all-rounder like my Ether Flow Open.

@@Currawong I currently own HD650 and think it sounds fantastic for female voice. Which one would compliment the HD650 better? HEX v2? Thank you!

The HEX v2 has a more even tone, and can (going from memory, as I don't have it here any longer) do deeper bass. The main thing for me would be that they are better headphones overall.

I got it. Thank you!

I haven't used a Marantz product in decades, so I'm sorry I couldn't answer. Headphones don't have house sounds like amps and DACs do.

For the most part I agree with this, except when it comes to Beyerdynamic and Audeze. While other companies such as Sennheiser produce quite a wide variety of sound signatures, from the warmth of the HD650 to the analytical nature of the HD800, Beyerdynamic over and over tends to produce headphones with a bright, sometimes bass-heavy "fun" sound. Also, the Audeze headphones do tend to all follow a similar formula, where tone, timbre, and harmonics are a strong point of all of them that I have heard. Of course, no two headphones will sound the same, or else these companies couldn't sell more expensive ones.

I'd like to, but my rack is full. Maybe later in the year once I've had a chance to cycle through some stuff.

szman167 no way

If you have really big ears that stick out a long way, possibly not. There don't seem to be a lot of headphones out there that have really deep pads, as that can create too much of a chamber for sound to bounce around, or you'd lose too much bass.

In case you're still wondering, there's a trick to make it kick into high gear. Disconnect the cable from the headphone and then plug it into the phone. Then reconnect to the headphones. You're basically offering your phone an infinite resistance and it doesn't then revert when you connect the headphones. I do this with my Nighthawks and he400is.

Yup. I should do a video on it. They are pretty awesome gadgets.

My pair of LCD-X have the very original drivers, so I don't want to compare with them given that the drivers have changed over the years.

you still can tho, just mention that they have the old drivers

If you can afford the extra for them, I'd go the Ether Flow.

get the ..if not from wher

Agreed. I don't think they are a bad buy on their own, but I reckon if you can stretch to Ether Flows or the HD800 S + aftermarket cable, then I'd do that personally.

I've not had the chance yet to hear these Edition X, but thus far my opinion of the Hifiman headphones I have heard hasn't been great. I've owned a pair of the Elear for about a month now, and they are extremely satisfying for me. That said, I would still love a risk-free way of just evaluating some of the Hifimans. But I highly doubt they would beat the Elears for me, so I would feel guilty about doing the buy and return thing for headphones I know I most likely wouldn't keep.

I don't recall saying that about these headphones. Do you remember at what point that was?

@@Currawong 14.35-14.40 You mentioned it, but not sure if you were referring to the Hd800 or these...

The HD800s have a peak at 6.3 kHz which can bring out the sibilance in vocals easily. That being said, what do you mean by "power"? Are you not getting enough volume?

Thanks for the response: I am not sure. When I turn the volume up to 75% on the PHA-3 the music its loud and perfect, any louder and the vocals will become harsh and music will distort. I am now under the impression it is the Sennheiser HD800 that are failing after a certain volume. The same thing was occurring on a TEAC 301-DA. However, both tests were done with a 1/8" and 1/4" termination. Then I switched my cable to an L/R termination. It seemed like this made the PHA-3 work overtime, the unit would heat up and shut down after a certain volume. I got the plug to the wall and that never happened again. I feel that the portable units may not handle HD800's (300OHM) as well as a DC powered DAC or the HD800 may distort after a certain volume as you said. Can I request that you suggest a pair of headphones that are cleaner, more detailed, handle bass better and could go louder? The issue may reside in the headphones rather than the DAC? The same music files were tested on a pioneer receiver with the ability to playback DSD64, full set of Bowers & Wilkins speakers (By-wired). These speakers were screaming and very little distortion in the vocals.

I have plenty of portable gear here with which this just does not happen, so I'm very surprised that it is happening with the PHA-3. Do you have it set to high gain? What do you mean by a L/R termination? Do you have a custom cable to use the HD800 balanced with the PHA-3? Overheating and shutting down means that your unit is faulty or a connection may have been shorted. Edit: finally found the specifications for the PHA-3 and it indeed only has very low output power, which is surprising. I recommend selling it and getting a Mojo, if the specs of that suit you.

Yes it is an after market cable. It has a left and right 3.5mm plug that plugs into the PHA-3. I have it on high gain, I will check out the mojo! As for a better pair of headphones, what would you recommend?

Currawong no mojo doesn't work with hd800 is bad combination