Pros:

     Insane Lows

     Excellent Mids

     Excellent Highs

     Excellent Imaging and Soundstage, Especially for a Closed-Back

     Great Value to Performance

Mediocre:

     Initial Tuning Was Meh

     Best Cable is an Add-On

BULL:

     Too Heavy and Not all that Comfortable

BLUF:

The JMA XTC 2.5 is an epic closed back headphone let down only by some lower-budget headband parts and a pretty high weight.

Up for review today is the weirdly named JM Audio Editions XTC^2.5 Euphoric Xtreme Trip Limited Edition – or the JMA XTC2.5 EXT LE for short. Honestly, John, we need to get you a marketing department. It should have been called the JMA Amphitheatre (Amp for short) since that’s the main tech behind the ear cups on these – they’re designed with bevels like an ancient Amphitheatre. I have to complain for a sec about JMA’s naming conventions because they’re just confusing. The XTC (ecstasy) I get, or even an XTC 1.5 if you changed the tuning or material but kept the original design. An XTC 2 even makes sense as a replacement for the original XTC. Instead, there are (at least) 7 versions of the XTC available, some are open back, some are closed, and there are different driver options and different grills – it’s very confusing and some clear delineation between products is much needed – sorry John. Anyway, as one of the original reviewers of the XTC-O and XTC-C (open and closed v1’s), I felt that the XTC 2.5 might fill the closed-back void I had at the time (now I have too many.) I really enjoyed the original XTC-O, but the XTC-C fell a bit flatter than its open-back brother. So, almost a year later, how does the larger/heavier XTC 2.5 hold up to the original XTC-C?

Comfort/Build (Can you wear it for long periods, or will it fall apart after 1 use?): This is the biggest weakness I see with this set of headphones. The first version of these that I got had too much clamping force – John fixed that for me when I sent it back for retuning. The second version had a perfect level of clamp, but the earcups are a bit too heavy (610 grams without the cable!) and very bulky, putting some pressure on the jaw. The headband itself is comfortable, though the build quality is pretty mediocre – someday I see JMA upgrading the build quality here, but for now, it feels a bit too homemade. At least it’s more comfortable than the Rosson RAD-0, which weighs about the same – but nowhere near the comfort of the 466g Kennerton Rognir, or the 390g Meze Liric. The XTC 2.5 is nowhere as sleek as the XTC-C was, but it also sounds quite a bit better, so some sacrifices had to be made for sound quality. Therefore, they’re not the best for portable closed-back listening, though they’re definitely able to do so – they are exceptionally easy to drive, but every time you bend your head down they’ll try to fall off. 3 different ear pads come included with the XTC 2.5, velour, fluffy ear pads, and leather ear pads, all of which are quite comfortable and will change the sound profile a bit. The heavy-duty carrying case is a nice touch, though I doubt I’ll ever use it since it’s far too large to travel with. JMA needs a svelte case like Focal/Abyss/Meze use.

The stock cable is nothing amazing, but it’s also nothing terrible – it’s hasn’t changed a whole lot since the original XTC and is basically a Kennerton stock cable. The upgraded Copperhead though has evolved from decent to excellent. Low microphonics, a good weight, and a balanced connection make for a really nice cable. I’d say it’s worth the added expense since a cable this nice would usually cost $200-$400 from most companies. Overall, the score here is a 3 (Average) for comfort and build quality for the JMA XTC2.5 – it’s nice, but not super nice.

I am powering these headphones off of my home theater desktop setup which consists of an EverSolo DMP-A8 Streamer/DAC that feeds into an iFi iCAN Phantom AMP through 3-pin XLR connections. This combo eliminates the need to be hooked up to my computer as a source and the Phantom can power anything from sensitive IEMs to E-stats to power-thirsty planars – allowing me to use the same setup for every review going forward. A quick note on the ease of driving these. The original tuning I had worked at 2/100 volume level on the Phantom on low gain – they were far too sensitive, and you’d blow out your ears if you weren’t careful when switching headphones. The second tuning, which sounded far better runs around 7-30/100 – still easy to drive, but not weirdly so.

Below are the test tracks used to test each headphone we review. The songs are in order to test sub-bass (bass you can feel) first, followed by mid-bass (bass drums and bass guitars – bass you can hear), then a spectrum of mids evaluating different instruments and vocals (where most of the music is presented), then highs (higher pitched instruments and cymbals) and lastly sibilance (sharp S sounds).

Lows (Sub-bass/bass quality and quantity): I’ve listened to 4 sets of JM headphones in the last year or so and one thing that John does extremely well is bass. Now, his preferences are different from mine, which is why I didn’t love the initial tuning I got from John. He loves big, boomy bass with tons of quantity, but not so much in the quality department. My second tuning keeps the bass quantity while tightening it up a bit so that I get both quantity and quality without cutting into the mids. My retune of the XTC2.5 definitely gets that right with some bombastic bass that doesn’t bleed into the mids. “Seven Nation Army” is absolutely nuts on the XTC2.5. The XTC2.5 have crazy reverb and sub-bass while maintaining all the detail and volume I expect in the mid-bass. These are truly basshead headphones – and earn a score of 5 (Among the Best) for bass

Mids (Vocals/Instrument clarity and presence): There is a reason these are ranked as my #1 closed-back headphones (at least for now,) they can go from thumping EDM to acoustic without any issues. They have all the detail I expect from a top-end set of headphones in the mids. The strings on “Liar” are beautifully presented and both the female and male vocals are present – that wasn’t the case on my first tune, but the retune nailed it. “Landing in London” was no exception either – the guitars and vocals are excellent and the hidden guitar on the left side can be heard clearly. The XTC2.5 also has a more 3D soundstage than the Diana MR, reaching around behind the ears for some notes. They portray vocals, guitars, pianos, and anything else you throw at them brilliantly with a large feeling soundstage – super impressive for closed backs. The XTC2.5 earns a 5 (Among the Best) for mids.

Highs (Cymbals/High pitched vocals or instrument quality and presence): OK, so the lows and mids are good, so the highs must suck right? Nope. I have no clue how he pulled that off, but the cymbals can be heard quite clearly from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Now, the bass does step on the highs just a little when it’s going hard, but the cymbals can still be clearly heard with a nice long decay. The XTC2.5 also nails the “Adventure of a Lifetime,” easily hitting the high notes and cymbals in the song without skipping the mids or the bombastic bass. There’s also no painful sibilance to speak of from Simon and Garfunkel. Truly an impressive showing. The XTC2.5 earns a 5 (Among the Best) for highs as well.

Soundstage/Imaging (How big and accurate the song sounds): The soundstage is the craziest thing that these headphones do. They manage to take a closed-back set of headphones and make them sound open back with a gigantic soundstage. Yes, it comes at the cost of weight and bulk, but it’s an impressive experience nonetheless. The drummer in “The Sound of Silence” sounds behind me and to the left while the guitarist sounds in front and to the right with the vocals coming in from the middle. Awesome imaging. A quick note about the instrument separation – it’s very good, but the giant bass presentation occasionally overwhelms some instruments, especially the snare drum. It’s a minor quibble because it only does it on occasion. The overall score here is a 5 (Among the Best) for soundstage and imaging from a closed-back set of headphones.

Value (Cost vs Performance): It’s easy to say that JMA offers excellent value. In fact, I still haven’t discovered a set of headphones that offers better sound for cheaper than most of what John makes. If Focal offered performance like the XTC 2.5, they would charge $3-4k for it (they do, it’s called the Stellia, though it’s getting outdated.) The Stellia only offers one tuning, and one set of earpads, though it does come with a couple of cables and a more useful carrying case. Both have Beryllium drivers, though the Stellia is sleeker and more comfortable (and lighter.) Still, the XTC 2.5 is less than half the price for what I would say is a better overall sound. You don’t get the Focal build quality, but the value is excellent and easily ranks a 5 (Among the Best.)

Conclusion: John Massaria has been called an Audio Wizard before – it might have even been by me. There’s a reason for that. His ability to retune headphones to match your preference makes his headphones almost unbeatable – you don’t have to search around for the headphone that fits your preference, you pick the headphone and have it changed to match you – for free. Now, the above thoughts are based upon my retune of the XTC 2.5 – I didn’t like the original very much – it was too bassy and missing pieces of the mids and highs. All I had to do was let John know that and a week later I got back a beautifully tuned masterpiece of audio engineering. Keep that in mind if you don’t like the initial tuning on yours – these are some of the only headphones you can change the sound of. In the end, I’m ranking these as my #1 best-sounding closed-back headphones that I’ve ever heard – easily beating the old XTC-C, just be careful with the comfort and the bass if you’re bass sensitive.

Bytes & Bull Overall Score: 5 (Among the Best)