Ok, they have a very crisp and precise typically Planer sound with a bit of welcome warmth in the tuning. 'U' shaped I'd say, the middle isn't recessed in any way but isn't pushed forward...all the jazz instrumentation and voices were beautifully presented in the middles....just different to, say, the sennheiser's.
I started with the second side of Miles's Milestones and was immediately stuck with the presence of the band, everything in its place and dealt with a hell of a lot of speed all the way through. These things are fast. I put on Mingus Ah Um and it just got better. Brilliant separation, lovely timbre to each part, every shout, grunt and exhortation clearly definable. I was sat in a holographic and musical centre.
The bass wasn't overwhelming me so I thought I'd see how far it dug and put on Hypersonic Dance-Tones (1990 techno bleep with a scratched run out message to "watch your speakers"). Oh man! Just pure, smooth sub bass. If there is bass on the recording these cans will give it to you.
Next I threw on some jangly 80's indie in the shape of the Wedding Present's George Best. This gave the XS a chance to sparkle in the upper registers and they did just that. The cascading guitars where bright, pinpoint and loads of fun...Gedge's often mumbling heartbroken lyrics were opened up and plainly understandable in the midst of it all. Great stuff, I've owned this record for years and know it inside out yet these revealed things I hadn't grasped before. A cliche I know but there you are.
Sunn 0))) tectonic wall off heavy feedback now. Oh yeah, yeah. Not just a wall of fuzz but I could hear the skeleton that holds up the behemoth. To bring out the musicality and frequency reach of music like this outside of a live hearing is some feat.
Some thoughts. I have a big head...always get the biggest hat size and they're often still tight but these fitted perfectly without me extending the arms. They are whoppers and the clamping force isn't tight. The supplied cable is adequate but a bit short, I sit right by my amp and managed to pull out the connecter a couple of times. They are nice and light, I found the pads comfy with no sweatyness and the headband disappeared. The build quality is sound. All the stitching, connections and pads are put together well. My Cyrus Amp delivers 2 x 1W and needed to be turned up two thirds-ish, despite being 18 ohms they like a big slug of power. I haven't tried them with a mobile device yet.
I can't wait to finish work later and get stuck in again. They seemed to improve over a few hours use (the Hifiman manual states they need 150 hours of burn in to properly shine! Argue away, I thought they were great out of the box but my ears definitely 'told' me it got better).
I can't compare them with a slew of other models because, frankly, I'm not made of money. However the job I wanted from them was to be able to approach the sound from my big B&W speaker and BK sub woofer when my long suffering partner and neighbours are in bed. And dear reader...they do.