Before commenting on the sound I made sure to give these at least 100 hours or burn-in and 100 hours of use. No major changes were noted during burn-in time and I feel that these are ready to go from the box.

I’m sure some of you are wondering why I’m bothering reviewing the sound quality of the XPT100 since I’ve already reviewed the HM5, why not copy and paste? Well that wouldn’t be fair to the XPT100 since different pads can cause the sound to be different and because I have not opened these up, I’m not much of a DIY, to determine beyond reasonable doubt that these are the exact same inside as the HM5 despite using the same drivers. Now how do the XPT100 sound? Well very close to the HM5, if not the same, it’s too hard to tell and honestly I would be nitpicking details from auditory memory since I would have to take the time to switch pads and the headphones. The sound of the XPT100 is best summed up as having a warm leaning neutral frequency response, with an impressive soundstage for a closed headphone that I enjoy for many music genres.

The bass here has nice presence, good clarity, and extends well, providing a very clean and slightly warm vibe to these headphones. I’ve been listening to a lot of electronic music on these and I find them very capable at hitting the very low frequencies required for songs like James Blake’s

Limit to Your Love

or The xx’s

Fantasy

, both of which have heavy sub-bass lines in them and the XPT100 never lets me down. Despite the good presence of the sub-bass I do feel that the XPT100 are a tad slow in replicating the very fast sub-bass fluctuations that are in the James Blake tune I mention above. Thankfully I don’t have many songs with sub-bass that fast, and for the slow basslines in

Fantasy

the XPT100 plays them back smoothly with no signs of distortion despite the extremely deep and strong sub-bassline. The mid-bass is decent as well having decent speed to keep up with fast kick drum segments like the double bass at the end of Between the Buried and Me’s

Mordecai

. At times I feel the XPT100 had a tad more punch, but there are times I feel it’s perfect, I’ll chalk that up to a recording or mastering thing though, not a fault of the headphone.

Mids are perhaps my focus when I’m purchasing a headphone since vocals and guitars are largely important to me when it comes to music. I want the mids to have energy, be clean, and a good presence. I can say that the mids in the XPT100 satisfy me very much. The mids are well balanced with the rest of the spectrum, certainly not aggressive like my Audio Technica Ad2000, nor are they recessed, they sit right where they should be in my opinion. Everything is very clean from the harmonica in The Beatles

Rocky Racoon

to the female vocals in Florence and the Machine’s

Cosmic Love

. I’m going to simply call the mids well balanced and clean, because really there’s nothing else to say about them. They do everything I’ve thrown at them right with a good presence and a great amount of realism for the instruments and vocals.

The highs may not stand out, but they are no slouch either. The highs extend well with good clarity and no signs of grain. Trumpets sound very realistic on this as I listen to Rubblebucket’s

540 Groove

which are forward, but not harsh, and balanced very well with the drums, percussion, guitar, and synths going on in this upbeat song. As I move on to Miles Davis the trumpet sounds crystal clear no matter what track while sounding very realistic. The highs are done very well here, I have not one complaint.

I think the thing that impresses me most with the XPT100 though is the soundstage. I don’t see it getting any better at this price range for a closed headphone. I’ve used these with Skyrim and the world felt beautifully open and realistic, movies and TV are also excellent to use with the XPT100. Music benefits as well, even during the most complex passages the instruments have their own space, even a slight air about them. The best I could describe it would be an intimate inside concert with the back half of the venue being open exposing the sky above.