HiFi Moved Me to Tears
I have experienced HiFi for the first time in my life and it moved me to tears - literally. I have long read and watched reviews of HiFi equipment and listened to the descriptions and wondered - what am I missing? I have liked all my pedestrian gear and don’t have budget for much better - but is there anything actually going on with HiFi? Yes, yes there is. At least, and at last, I have experienced the minimal of HiFi with my new Hifiman Edition XS planar magnetic headphones. They debuted 4 years ago at $500ish and now go for $269. I bought my pair on Prime Day sale for $239. No $200 headphone sounds as good as a $1000 pair - but time marches on. These sound like what you needed to pay $1000 for five years ago.
The difference between these and any gear I’ve had before is both subtle and a leap. My Airpods Max have very nice sound as do my wired Phillips Fidelio X2HR’s. The latter being open back and optimized for great music listening experience, the former being a top notch blue tooth headphone. But these planar magnetic cans are a revelation. I used to say I didn’t have “hifi ears” - and yet now I can hear subtleties in the music I’ve never head before.
I’m driving these from my iPhone with a FiiO Q3 portable amp. You will need a headphone amp to run these off of a phone. This is true and “how life is” for the better and best headphones. Is there a pay off?
O - M - G! Yes! Listening to Keith Jarret’s Koln Concert is a revelation. It feels like I’m inside the piano. I hear the hammers strike, the sonic resonance of the keys nearby that weren’t struck, the reverberations inside the piano. The clarity is unreal. This piece has always ,moved me. Last night it moved me to tears it was so beautiful.
Rachmaninoff’s 2nd Piano Concerto, my favorite, was amazing. I could let the soft parts stay quiet. No need to raise the volume to hear. Amazing clarity - and as it builds to crescendo, loud and powerful and yet still able to hear all the instruments not a jumble of loudness. In fact, I found myself listening at lower volume than normal. I still don’t quite understand why. But the music feels right without having to make my ears bleed.
Listening to music reviews, you’d think that headphones like these are for classic music and jazz only. Not so. I listened to Apashe, my favorite EDM artist. I have all EQ turned off, no bass boost, no “rock music or EDM” mode. There is PLENTY of bass in Apashe’s music and these cans bring that music to life like I’ve never heard before. I’m intentionally keeping things neutral to learn what these headphones and the music I prefer - sound like as intended by the artist/sound engineers. Beats headphones are a scam. (not really) But the concept that your headphones have to boost the bass all the time is shown by these Editions XS to be a feature that cheap products need to appeal to consumers.
I was shocked at ELO’s Don’t Bring Me Down that it did NOT shine. Adam Ant’s Goody Two Shoe’s is night and day more complex and enjoyable. Don’t Bring Me Down is one of my all time favorite songs, but it was engineered for 70’s car stereos and boomboxes. And it shoes on these headphones like I’d never noticed before.
I’ll be writing more. I’m so happy with this new experience.
