Everyone’s ears are different! Glad you are enjoying them so much.

I certainly don’t completely disagree, as I’d say they really are one of the best under $500. However, I had a lot of issues with tonality (mids felt super sucked away/recessed, small, and dark), timbre, and comfort, but that’s kind of a side note. Tuning could be a plus for very specific music, but overall even for electronic it still was just “fine” to me - acceptable and on par or a hair better than the average headphone in this kind of price bracket. Where the XS seemed to shine was everything outside of tuning (and comfort haha).

Compared to something like the Ananda, it was immediate which one I preferred. I’m perhaps one of the few that would easily skip and XS and get the Ananda - no question. The price jump to the LCD-X does start to feel difficult. This is where I find diminishing returns to really start hitting hard…

Cheers!