u/Alphaomegalogs

Today I visited The Source Audio Video in LA, which holds one of the largest head-fi collections, if not the largest, in the country. I tried about a dozen different headphones and several source gear setups, and here were my impressions-

-Woo flagship tube amps are seemingly noisier on startup for way longer than my $250 Chinese OTL xDuoo TA-66, what’s up with that? Bad tubes?

-HD800S beat out or at least tied with everything I tried there with the exception of HEDDphone 2 GT, more on that in a second.

-Chord Hugo TT2+MScaler is a great system but doesn’t synergize well with HD800S. Could maybe be solved with a tube amp after the TT2 but I didn’t try that.

-Stax SR-009S is, in my honest opinion, worse than HD800S in nearly every way, sorry stax fans. It’s possible the X9000 is better but I haven’t heard it. DCA Corona was less sibilant and had stronger bass, but the overall tonality kinda annoyed me for some reason.

-DCA E3 is the widest sounding closed back I’ve ever heard, but the tonality isn’t my thing.

-DCA Expanse was very good but didn’t do anything really flagship worthy, as much as I love the comfort, name, and design.

-HEDDphone 2 GT is my next headphone purchase. I auditioned it on by far the worst source gear (a dongle and a little solid state headamp) and still adored it. HD800S wins in comfort, emotion, expansiveness and “out of the head” sound but the 2 GT won in pretty much everything else. Imaging, tonal balance, layering, bass extension, separation, vocal presence, and ESPECIALLY haptics. The haptics of a Grado without the Grado of a Grado (no real hate to Grado they make some good stuff but it’s funny to meme on them). Clarity and detail retrieval was very close but might go to HD800S by a hair

-The 2 GT’s adjustment system is hellish

-Meze Empy 2 is incredibly comfortable. HEDDphone 2 GT sounds more fun overall but Empy 2 is an easier listen.

-Some people still think the HD800S are power hungry. They are not, a Q5K is more than enough power wise. However I definitely suggest tubes with them.

Edition XV, my source chain, and my sick posters lol

I got these for my birthday, and holy cow are they great. I hate long reviews so I'll keep it to just the important stuff.

These are the best overall open back headphones I've ever heard. I own the Sennheiser HD800S and HD6XX as well, and they're both AMAZING and I use all three on rotation, but if I had to choose only one headphone to own for the rest of my life I'd grab Edition XV without a second of hesitation. I'd honestly take it over Focal Utopia 2022 or Audeze LCD-2, which I have auditioned but do not own.

First of all, comfort and aesthetics are spot on. Quite durable too.

It is certainly possible that my HRTF just really agrees with these headphones, but "technicalities" are amazing (detail, soundstage, imaging), the overall balance works so well for literally every genre (beaten by HD800S for most classical and jazz, and beaten by the HD6XX for emotional vocal heavy tracks. It wins for everything else). The bass isn't too loud (I hate boomy midbass), but rumbles with such authority and clean power that I almost ascend when I listen to subbass heavy music.

Complaints: if you have long ish hair (shorter than shoulder length but too long for very conservative businesses or schools) your hair will poke the drivers and make crinkling sounds. Also the pads are just okay and can get kind of hot.