I picked these up last week as part of a neverending quest to find a portable that's comfortable, convenient, sturdy and near-reference quality. Sad to say that the quest will continue. The XS is actually a good, fun sounding headphone with a fairly even and extended treble. The problem, as mentioned by Armaegis and Tyll, is that the 1-3khz region sounds nasty. My naive interpretation of this is that it is due to a breakup mode which is allowed in for purposes of HRTF frequency response compensation and made necessary by the duodiaphragm build (breakup from the smaller diaphragm made worse by its connection to the outer layer that is connected at its circumference, perhaps). I think a similar thing happens with some AKG models and is responsible for their boosted upper mids and periodic ringing. The low-treble/upper mids still sound all right and were it not for simple acoustic guitar and vocalist recordings I might not have been bothered by them. Unfortunately this upper mid annoyance also adds to imperfections in the recording, so if the audio's clipped in that range it will sound even worse.

The bass is elevated but not grossly so, certainly not to the level of the M-100/LP2s. I like a fun little mid bass boost, though in this case it makes what should be punchy sound a little loose.

The build quality, as always with V-moda, is remarkable. The XS is a damn decent deal at a little over 200$.