GEARS USED: FIIO X1 II + TOPPING NX1s, Shanling UA 1
MUSIC SOURCE: SPOTIFY & PERSONAL FLAC/DSD LIBRARY
Packaging and Accessories: (7/10) This IEM came in a reasonably mid-sized box but boy it was quite heavy. The package design and aesthetics gave it quite a premium feel but at the end of the day it could have been better rather than being typical chi fi design. The carry case is one of the main attractions, its bold heavy and very well constructed made with brushed aluminum design. The case is not very practical or pocketable. It came with two boxes of ear tips. The large sized tips fitted me well, so I didn’t bother about rest of the bunch. Though it came with quite a selection of tips (S, M, L) none were of very high quality.
Build quality: (9/10) The build quality is very robust and well-engineered. Even though the size looks humongous being an iem but due to its driver size it had to extend its radius quite a bit. The iem faceplate had a rounded texture to it which is unique to the look and feel. The branding on faceplate could be avoided anyways. The cable quality is very premium. Its supple soft and has a decent cable length. Starting from the mmcx connector to the chin slider to the 3.5mm termination everything was screaming quality. No complain about the cables and build design. The cable won’t need any upgrade unless someone is looking for a cooper cable to go along with it for making it a tad bit warmer.
Fit & Comfort: The bigger faceplate may scare the crowd but trust me it fits nicely if you have a well fitted tip. Maybe people with small ears will suffer with fitting but general sized ears won’t face any trouble. You can use this all day long since the shells aren’t very heavy.
Power Requirement: It’s a 14.8-ohm driver and sensitivity is 104 db. But it can be misleading, even though you can power this with any smartphone, and it will go to decent levels but using an additional amp/dac r dongle can pull out the best from this IEM.
Sound Impressions:
Bass: (8.5/10) The bass on this is very present. It is not shying away in any aspect. Starting from the Sub bass it was quite extended and had very well texture to it. It never felt bloomy or bloated, it was just the right amount to satisfy you for any sort of genre. The decay and speed are very fast as a planer should perform. The mid bass attack was a bit on the softer side. It may not kick you in the face but its decent enough not to overshadow the rest of the frequency range. People who are skewed towards warm and bassy signature can live with this easily. Bass gets better with burn-in but it will never be earth shattering.
Mids: (7/10) The mids may not be the star of the show here but its better than rest of the generic crowd. The mids are a little but pushed back from the bass giving the overall signature a slight V shape tuning. But it came across quite nice on most tracks. Vocals represented natural timbre and not very tinny. Male vocals had its girth for the elevation towards bass which gave the vocals more body. The upper mids were also non fatiguing and very pleasing. They had no sibilance or sharpness to it until you turn up the volume loud. From my perspective the mids were very tasteful.
Treble: (8.5/10): The treble over here is the main attraction and the star of the show. The upper registers are very well extended and very tastfully tuned. When I listened to it the first time, I instantly felt it was very very airy. The micro details were swarming all around my ears whereas at other iems it’s not very prominent. They had not major peaks at treble but too much volume can make you feel fatigued since they are very detailed. All the small artifacts in songs that were hiding in the mix could be heard effortlessly. They had good separation among them.
Soundstage & Imaging: (6/10) The iem is only limited in this category. The soundstage and imaging are just average. They don’t give you the widest feeling. The typical iem staging you can expect from this. Regarding imaging they are also average at best you can tell where certain groups of instruments are coming from, but you cannot easily pinpoint instrument locations. If only they had above average soundstage, I wouldn’t have any complains regarding it.
Conclusion: Now I know why there is so much hype around it. From past released planer iems this had the most decent tuning and it hit a very comfortable price point for enthusiasts to tap in the hifi realm. For this price the tuning and the offering is currently unbeatable since its technically very capable.
