Is the HiFiMAN Edition Xs worth the upgrade from the Wavefun Wave Pro X?

Verdict

Downgrade

The HiFiMAN Edition Xs actually scores 10.1 points below the Wavefun Wave Pro X, so on aggregate review consensus this is a step backwards. None of the shared sub-scores move by more than half a point, so the two behave very similarly on the things reviewers measure. On paper: driver size 40 mm to 80 mm. Worth checking: active noise cancelling goes No to No and drivers per side goes 2 to 1. One caution: this steps down a line tier (Wave Pro X to Edition Xs), and base models usually trade away tier features - check the codec and ANC rows above before trusting the score gap alone. And it costs $139 more for a lower score, which is hard to justify on the data alone. Only worth it if a specific feature above matters more to you than overall quality does.