Anandas sound even a bit more 'clean' than the XS, slightly less bass, slightly more treble. Slightly more detailed I've heard.

That's sort of the aesthetic they were going for

Thermal

Either rebind control to where caps lock is like OP has done, or use caps lock with your pinky instead of ctrl for crouching 🤷🏻‍♂️

It's how I play even when I do have a left ctrl

tbh I doubt that's your issue but yeah can't hurt to take a look!

Yes. I was gonna actually suggest to OP to check for the same thing. But for sure there was nothing floating around in the earcups or the drivers of both the units I tried.

That's the real frustrating thing. for sure good pair of XS exist out there, it just wasn't worth it to me to try a 3rd time.. Not trying to rain on your parade, I guess my bias just tends to make itself known at this point haha

After trying the XS I wound up with a pair of Moondrop Venus. Love em. They sound a lot like the XS but, cleaner somehow? When I went from the XS to these it almost made me feel like the XS have just a slight amount of bass bloat in comparison. Like vocals and things that live in the mids would be muddied down a bit by the XS, compared to sounding absolutely clear and "even" with the instruments through the Venus. The XS seemed to sort of apply their own sound to everything where to me the Venus let the song sound more how it was intended. Where the XS seemed to make everything sound equally 'big', some tracks can be a little more closed in or a little more open on the Venus, seemingly depending on how they were recorded. Playing Squad with the Venus I swear I can hear things happening farther away than ever before. But then if I put on Tom's Diner it sounds like Suzanne Vega is singing directly into my ears while the little ambient sounds in the track happen all around. Placement of sounds is better to me overall as is detail. I can hear things with these that I could not so much with the XS.

There was a little issue with mine when they showed up, one of the earcups had popped loose from the yoke thing on one side during shipping. But they're built so damn tough in comparison to anything else I've tried that I was able to just pop it back in and nothing was damaged or bent really at all. Absolutely zero problems with the sound, no weird buzzing or anything ever (unless it was something in the recording). Feel free to check my post history too, I posted somewhat of a review recently where I have a lot more to say.

Another vaguely similar headphone I can think of is the Monoprice M1570

I was 100% in the same boat. Loved the tuning & pretty much everything else about them except that one little flaw, really wanted to keep them but I just couldn't bring myself to.

With regards to burn in, this may be a little cynical of me but.. I somewhat believe that the reason companies suggest so much burn in time is to cut down on returns. As in, by the time the customer has taken the time to fully 'burn in' their equipment, most sites' return window will have closed. I don't have much to back that claim but it just seems to make sense. In my opinion 'burn in' is just our brains getting acclimated to different headphones' tuning. Sadly if you're already noticing it consistently, I don't see it going away unless you a.) EQ the bass waaaayyy down or b.) get enough hearing damage to not hear it anymore.

I tried two pairs of XS, both had that "buzzing" issue you describe. One was worse than the other, but I didn't find either one acceptable for $500 especially after owning cheaper headphones that were built better and didn't have any sort of noticeable distortion like that.

I didn't expect it to ever get better since it seemed to always return after a few minutes of listening at any kind of decent volume. Even after I turned my system off and let it sit for awhile, the issue would be gone for a bit but always came back. Maybe it was a problem with the stock cables? Both times? I did try different cables.. No idea, but like I said I expect $500 headphones to not do that out of the box, so both pairs I tried went back and that was the end of that.

Running two pair in ultra long distance mode

Had to return both to their respective vendors due to issues out of the box

That's fair then, yeah. I guess they are pretty cheap and available to where you could just pick one up to try and then return it later. And lots of people probs just have them laying around at this point. Did not mean to come off passive aggressive!

Could be a bad cable tbh. That's the first thing I would try if you have another one that's compatible. If you are able to try a different cable and still don't see a difference, then it's either a defective unit or you hate the tuning.

I had a pair of HE-4XX that I passed on to my gf (same drivers pretty much same headphones) and they easily went toe to toe with the HE560 I replaced them with. To my ears when I listened to them both through the same amp the 4XX were like 90% as capable easily, and those HE560 are a $300-500 headphone.

They are tuned a little bit different than Sundara and probably lean a bit towards "fun" rather than absolute detail.

Apple dongle would be a step backwards, your beef with Fiio aside. I don't think OP is short on power but if they swap to just an Apple dongle they definitely would be

Apple dongle works well with lots of headphones but it is not a one size fits all and I personally would never try to run planars off one and expect them to be their best.

Hifimans are known for a bit of suck-out in the mids, at least most of them except maybe Sundara. 'Warmth' tends to not be a characteristic of their headphones I have noticed.

They do impact, details, and staging pretty well first and foremost, with slightly elevated mid-bass and treble as an afterthought. I can see how you may be underwhelmed especially if you've been demoing them with classical. Gotta say I really doubt more power is going to help here.

You may just not like the tuning.

If you like a lot of rock and classical, one of the many Sennheisers or maybe Sundara would be more your cup of tea I think. But they all cost significantly more than the 400se :/

Moondrop Venus. It's like an Edition XS hit the gym, showered, saw a therapist and took a spa day.

Similar characteristics but Venus are just cleaner. Better with vocals too, much more 'honest' sounding. Every track seems to bring out slightly different aspects of them, whereas I feel like the XS apply their sound to everything.

E10k has long been reviewed as making things sound bright, not too too surprised.. To most that characteristic wouldn't be a very good match for the 6xx's tuning. Even if the E10k costs more and maybe puts out slightly more power (though it doesn't put out much) there is still room for preference here.

It may not be worth it to you to find out, but I guarantee there is something out there that will make your 6xx sound better to you and all your friends than that 2012 motherboard does. The E10k just ain't it.

Sorry to hear that happened and they're being the way they are.

I would recommend:

JDS Labs Atom+

Topping L30II

Fiio K5/K7

Geshelli Labs Archel/ENOG (<-- these are extra cool bc made in USA and you can customize)

Can't directly compare to an HD600 but I'd be willing to bet these are brighter, bassier and more impactful in comparison

Oof yeah that may be a different story, I was just talking about mine though!

I had seen a youtube reviewer also say that one of their earcups came loose in shipping.

TIL

Moondrop Venus

I'm familiar, I just was caught off guard that these (100dB, 18ohm) sometimes seem to need more power than my old HE560 (93dB, 50ohm) to feel equally loud. But then you may need to turn it down a good 15-20% to listen to another song comfortably, even within the same genre. It's like they just take up more of your usable volume range on a per track basis whereas the HE560 had almost a 'loudness normalization' effect. Maybe that just means I wasn't amping those enough?

I guess you could file this under QC or chalk it up to FedEx but mine did arrive with the right earcup partially detached (one side of one yoke arm had popped off the nub on the earcup)

I popped that back on and it's felt rock solid ever since. They really seem to be made with pretty tight tolerances coming from other headphones I've had, which I'm sure will cause them to feel a bit stiff to some especially new out of box. If someone needed to bend this headband for whatever reason they would have to try quite hard. Still gonna baby them cause I love the finish, but these don't feel like they need you to so much.

I do want a new cable for them though.

I feel like I haven't seen much about these since they launched, so here goes.

Coming from an HE560v4 I found myself looking for a bit more resolving headphone that could handle bass better, with good seperation and imaging. Wound up with these just a few days ago.

A couple things I immediately noticed:

Detail. For sure. Went from 7/10 to a solid 9.5 in terms of what I am used to. These do soft little dynamic background things extremely well and I've noticed new subtleties in all kinds of music. Not every song has it to the same extent, and things never come off as falsely overemphasized(?) the smallest things are just there where they never were. Feeling like I can tell exactly how much spit there was when the vocalist just did that thing with their mouth, feeling like I can hear the air reverberating through an acoustic guitar. Wind instruments get that same awesome sense of airiness. Not every recording has the same level of emphasis though, I feel like these are 'honest' in that respect. If the producer wanted you to hear it, you hear it. Different recording environments are made apparent on these for better or worse, but not in a way that has made anything unpleasant so far.

Bass: It may not be as encapsulating as something like an Edition XS (to me), but it's far from disappointing. If I were to A/B these with the XS I think I might almost find the XS a little bloated in comparison. It's not that I found their bass muddy or something; in comparison to the Venus it seems like the XS have just enough bump in the low end to where details can be pushed back or lost altogether sometimes during busy passages. I noticed that difference starkly when I listened to DnB and bass house on the Venus. These thump. They slam a bit too. Again, it seems like if the producer wanted there to be bass there is ample bass. Things like low synths and all that 20-60hz wonkiness you find in some EDM music are faithfully reproduced. Bass detail is very good, clean & refined even, while still providing a satisfying amount of thump.

Highs/Treble: It's good. Things have more "thwack" than I'm used to. Female vocals are more present as well, sometimes verging on 'ethereal' feeling if that makes any sense at all. Goosebumps have occurred more than once already. I'll admit these can get a little intense at times if you're listening at high volume, but I tend to take that as an indicator I should probably bump it down a bit. To me the nature of these is that they kind of make you actively listen to whatever content you've got going. Is that 'analytical'?

Timbre: These headphones helped me understand this word. I see the word 'natural' thrown around a lot and I feel like it really fits here. At least when referenced to the limited pool of Hifiman and Sennheiser products I've heard. Vocals are more forward (but not seemingly not moreso than instruments!) than with anything else I've heard, super clear. Stringed instruments sound so nice and full and plucky. Wind instruments sound real. Snare drums tend to have awesome 'pop' and that sense of airiness I mentioned is there sometimes with all percussion depending on the recording, most electronic music aside. Anything that my brain wants to have impact seems to have an appropriate amount of impact to satisfy.

Staging/Imaging: Still figuring this one out but I am liking what I hear. I think I agree with some reviewers in that these may not image as accurately as something like an XS (just gonna keep shamelessly referencing those) but a.) I'm not bothered by it, and b.) it does not seem to always be the case with all tracks/genres. It's close imo. Seperation of musical elements and textures is laser precise, but one cannot always quite pinpoint exactly where those different elements are in space... I would directly compare the size of the stage on these to the XS, but these are more variable whereas the XS seemed to make almost everything sound equally large. With these some tracks sound concert-hall-big and some come across more intimate like a studio recording. When I play Squad with these I can for sure hear things happening further away than I have with any headphone ever; PC37x, HE4xx, HE560v4, XS... none of those are on par with these with how big they can sound, in my opinion. When gaming in general I have not noticed a much of difference thus far in being able to pinpoint sounds, which is okay because I do think the HE560 I'm used to already had great imaging. Weirdly enough it's only in some music tracks thus far that I notice slightly blurred imaging.

Let's see what else.. Power? I would say drive these off at least a semi-beefy little amp for the best experience. It's a bit odd. With some tracks and genres these need more power to get to the volume I'm accustomed to, some significantly less. I can see how these are purported to be a little amp picky. Through my Archel 2.5XL the "loud" setting can live anywhere from 12 o'clock w/ low gain to 2-3 o'clock w/ high gain. Note my amp's high gain multiplier is reduced from their normal factor of 6x down to 4x.

So coming from what I had, and having tried an XS, I am much happier with these than I thought I could be within this price bracket. I am sitting down and just listening to things for longer periods of time than before, looking for things with my ears again because I feel like if details were put somewhere these are gonna go and find them and show me.

Edit: The only negative I really have so far is that the unbalanced cable + 3.5mm->1/4in adapter provided seem to not be the best. I've had a couple instances where I rotated the connector slightly and lost volume, lost some instruments, maybe vocals too, etc. I haven't been able to get any ill effects from just twisting or rubbing the cable itself so that's a plus, but the connections do seem a little spotty. So planning to invest in a nicer cable soon for sure. I'm sure the included 4.4mm cable is great, I'm just unable to use it with my amp. Otherwise the build of these is fantastic and really speaks for itself just in picking them up, putting them on, adjusting, etc. Very very solid feeling all around.

Ehhh you can definitely spend less than $500 to get a big, open sounding pair of headphones