Poll of the Day > Any audiophiles in here? Looking for cans with the best possible soundstage.

(+) Yeah! (+)

So I bought the HiFiMan Edition XS because it's considered one of the best headphones overall on RTINGS. While they sound great for music, I am extremely disappointed with the sound stage and imaging of them. RTINGS claim that "the soundstage seems fairly natural, wide, and as if sound is coming from speakers placed in the room around you rather than from inside your head. The soundstage also seems open and spacious." I wholeheartedly disagree with all of this.

The soundstage is very much in your head; feels like I have speakers lining the inside of my skull, pressed up against my brain. That's not what I want. I was looking for a realistic, 360 environment without having to spend thousands on a proper Dolby Atmos setup (not to mention that I live in a condo, so neighbors are an issue).

I should have trusted the PRTF response graph, instead of taking their word for it. There is a clear notch around 9.5kHz that shouldn't be there, which explains the poor staging. (https://www.rtings.com/headphones/reviews/hifiman/edition-xs#test_333)

The imaging isn't great, either. Audio coming from in front sounds like it's slightly above me, and I am having a much more difficult time with determining if something is above or below me in games, compared to my old headphones (Superlux HD 681). It's also difficult to pinpoint sounds that are in front of me. Anything to the side or behind is easily discernible, but sounds in front kind of blend together and are difficult to pinpoint.

I have to use virtual surround to get the audio out of my head (SBX), which I was hoping to avoid having to do after spending $500 on a pair of cans. Even my old 681s have a more open and natural soundstage than these, and they were 36 bucks!

So my question is (tl;dr): Is there another pair of open-back headphones for under $500 that have a better soundstage and imaging than the Edition XS, without sacrificing bass or any other frequencies? These cans were supposed to be among the best, so I really don't know where to go from here. If there is a better option, I'd like to hear about it.