I heard the XS last week and thought. These sound fun. So I bought a pair. Read someone's comment the HE1000 Stealth is like the XS, but better all around. Fuck it. I bought both.
The Edition XS is like the guy who shows up at a party with a pocket full of fun pills. While the HE1000 Stealth is standing in the corner going tsk tsk.
The XS is built like it came as a free toy in a cereal box. I would also like to note that Kellogg's cereal boxes are better quality than the boxes both headphones came in. Comfort appears to be equally bad. Is there such a thing as comfortable planars?
I am not going to go into describing the sound since everyone and their moms have already done that. Both are bright headphones, but the HE1kSE reaches the highs and lows without effort and then some. The XS will distort at the extremes of both ends. However, the XS is much more fun to listen to. The HE1kSE is like a matured headphone, all refined and sophisticated, but also a dull conversationalist. While the XS will rock the house down. I actually prefer the cheaper XS. Especially without EQ.
Not sure if I will keep the HE1kSE. I already have the LCD-X21 which I feel is a better all rounder. Have you tried both the XS and HE1kSE? Which one do you prefer? Which one did you keep, or not?
I must admit I like the metaphor.
I haven't tried the HEK Stealth yet, but I own both the XS and the HEKV2.
My initial plan was to simply replace my XS with the HEKV2. However, I quickly realised that I like them for different things, so I ended up keeping both.
The XS is definitely more fun, whereas the HEKV2 is a lot more sophisticated. Both are great at doing their thing.