HiFiMan Edition X V2 Headphones
Type:Semi-open, Over-ear
Driver:Planar magnetic
Impedance:25 ohms
Sensitivity:103dB
Frequencyresponse:8Hz-50kHz
Weight:399g
Price: $1,
Contact:Addicted to Audio
Telephone:(03) 9810 2999; (02) 9550 4041
Web:www.addictedtoaudio.com.auSPECS &CONTACTDETAILSAustralian Hi-Fi 15on a commute because they shed almost as
much sound outwards as they do inwards...
the same trait disqualifies them from an
office environment, unless perhaps everyone
else is under headphones, too, but what kind
of life is that?
In any case they’re so completely involving
that you’d never get any work done. It was
hard for us even to make reviewing notes
while playing these headphones, because at
the rare moments we came back to earth long
enough to open the Chromebook and write
something, we’d start recording our recent
experience only to be transported by a new
one. We find them trance-inducing, in the
best possible way.
The usual caveat—revealing headphones
reveal everything, and they are not the
headphones for listening to, say, internet pop
radio, where every low-res treble defect is
revealed, every back-beat pumped down with
compression. But they’re great for speech
and podcasts—we happened on some nicely
recorded radio drama and the Edition X V2s
delivered it with all the realism it achieved
with music.
An interesting example was ZZ Top’s Legs—
revealed as a seriously compromised shit of
an MP3, and yet the HiFiMan’s reveal of the
mix layers made it fascinating... again, we’d
never noticed (or at least focused on) the
track’s BB-esque minilicks punctuating the
vocal lines. Despite the source quality, we
haven’t enjoyed this track so much in years.
Certainly they delight in being given
extra drive from a good headphone amp, but
there’s no problem wandering your home
with phone in pocket and the Edition X V
lifting your life in general or distracting you
from a good book. We sat on a sunny balcony
for hours, transported by the tunes, wiggling
with semi-dance, and raising our hands in
the air.
‘Why are you jerking around like an idiot
out there?’ asked the missus. ‘Can’t help
it—awesome headphones’, we replied (havingheard her because the open design lets sound
in as well as spilling it outwards).
Are they a little heavy? As noted, we didn’t
think so when wearing them, but when we
switched straight to a pair of Final Sonorous
IIIs for a comparison, the Finals seemed
amazingly light, when previously we might
have considered them quite chunky them-
selves. But when you’re floating like a cloud
through the Edition X V2’s musical transpor-
tation, they seem effectively weightless.CONCLUSION
Every moment was magical with the HiFiMan
Edition X V2. No wonder they became
our ‘headphone to beat’ in the lead-up to
Sound+Image Magazine’s awards in 2016,
and no wonder nothing did beat them, so
that the HiFi Man Edition X V1 won ‘Head-
phone of the Year over $2,000’. But don’t
be thinking the V2 will win that award next
time around—it just ain’t going to happen.
Because it’s no longer over $2,000.
Whatever changes HiFiMan has made for
the new version, the sound quality has been
maintained while achieving a new price
in Australia of $1,899. A double whammy,
then—still stunning, and less money. If
you’re looking for headphones anywhere
near this price, make sure you hear them, and
particularly what they can do from a standard
portable source. Jez Fordthe opening bars here, or the fizzy electric
piano centre-stage of Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t
She Lovely, we’ve simply never noticed them,
or focused upon them, before. Our favourite
recording of Holst’s Jupiter had the orchestra
so microscopically delineated, the dynamics
so effective, that while we’re normally hum-
ming its tunes and banging fi sts on the big
bits, with the Edition X V2 we were simply
spellbound by the fi ne details of instrument
after instrument as they chased the soar-
ing planets and Gods through our galactic
headspace.
They even managed to resolve crazy Phil’s
walls of sound in George Harrison’s All
Things Must Pass—the uncountable and often
indivisible layers of the Dylan-cowritten Isn’t
It A Pity were clarifi ed within a vast depth of
production, hard-left to hard-right, front to
back, the washes of reverb working on each
element rather than mushing up the whole.
Delight.
Sharp-edged modern production gains
hyper-clarity; The Flaming Lips’ extreme
production was almost frightening when
their version of Floyd’s Money sawbladed its
way into our ears through the Edition X V2.
We loaded their new album ‘Oczy Mlody’
on Tidal, and if you want a demonstration
of their delivery of genuine and deep bass,
jump straight to track 2, How?? (or track 3...
or most of them, actually). While the Edition
X may not fully satisfy anyone in love with
street-style bass emphasis, they are in no
sense whatsoever ‘light’. It’s all there, and
it’s all so very real, revealed, impossible to
ignore.
MOBILE-FRIENDLY
The other big bonus of planar magnetics is
their sensitivity—here it is 103dBSPL, with
impedance of 25-ohms. That makes them
happy playing from a mobile device, whereas
many high-end headphones need the current
of a home headphone amp to drive them.
Mind you, the Edition X V2 will be no good
Version 2 brings new translucent cables with rock-solid Neutrik connectors, new more-angled earpads, a metal yoke, and additional adjustment room.