Tag: IEM

FiiO FH1 REVIEW

The FiiO FH1.

FiiO’s taking aim at the meat of the market.

The FiiO FH1 is a shot at the Beats babies. That is a good shot to take as they are a massive chunk of market.

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The FH1 uses

(x1) Dynamic 10mm Titanium

(x1) Balanced armature drivers. the “Knowles”33518

Specification

Frequency Response: 20Hz – 40KHz

Impedance: 26Ω

Sensitivity: 106dB/mW

Maximum Input: 100mW

Plug Type: 3.5mm + 2.5 mm

Cord Length: 120cm

Single Earbud Weight: 3.65g

Design

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FiiO has made a plastic design with an MMCX connect and mesh covered nozzle with a lip for securing the eartips. The interior is lined with plastic to secure the driver and reduce resonance. The nozzle is fitted with a brass tube to control bass resonance and reflection

It feels like a peanut which is cool cuz it sits in your ear like hearing protection. Like all of the Fiio F9, F9 PRO and this FH1, they all fit very good. VERY good.

Sound impressions:

STAGE

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Foreplay/It’s been such a long Time

From F9 PRO

The wide spacey intro “Foreplay” is the kind of stadium rock anthem the the F9 PRO shine on. The treble clarity and peaks create a great sense of space. There is no perceived restriction on the virtual playback stage. Live recordings or those with large presentations from Classic to live 70’s arena rock shine on these

The FH1 has a slightly more intimate presentation but it is by no means restrictive.I just watched a vid describing this but damned if he mentioned a song…any song. The fuuu?

Using the song above the sense of space was still there but comparing with the F9 PRO it is not as wide..the sense of width anyway but that comes from treble peaks and i would take this over the F9 PRO

MIDS

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Gold Dust Woman

Original F9 PRO comments

Male and Female vocal Fundamentals are stretched across the entire mid range.
Stevie Nicks and at times Lindsey Buckingham and others sound well balanced and well placed. The mids would be slightly forward or proper. There is no recess detected to my ears. The mid to early treble is one of the strong points of this set. Guitar also sounds very good both electric and acoustic.

FH1 (Same) CUZ IT’S almost.. SAME

Male and Female vocal Fundamentals are stretched across the entire mid range.

Stevie Nicks and at times Lindsey Buckingham and others sound well balanced and well placed. The mids would be slightly forward or proper. There is no recess detected to my ears. The mid to early treble is one of the strong points of this set. Guitar also sounds very good both electric and acoustic.

If you know where the mids start and finish you will note the almost identical lines so  clowns claiming the mids are of less quality than the F9 PRO are just full of shit.

hibynn

You.. of the broken ears and crippled morals or.. are just too lazy to even mention the music you listened to, to arrive at conclusions with no reflections to point to in measurements c’mon… I have been noting that since Summer 2017 and you folks are kinda messed up. This is music gear. What in the good god fuck did you listen to for fucks sake?

Music mentions when reviewing music gear..WHAT???

Has HBB gone mad!!  Seriously. Sweep the garbage sites away by ignoring them. Ignore this site if the truth makes you queasy and uneasy.

FiiO did a graph:

fi freq

BASS

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Dazed and Confused

The opening notes of John Paul Jones Bass guitar are clear and extend into the harmonic range nicely. The lower sub-bass seems to be somewhat lacking. These are not basshead in any form nor were they advertised as such

Now this is where the real difference occurs. The bass is impactful and authoritative without EQ yet it does not bother the mids at all. This is easily my favorite “F” series IEM done by FiiO.  Texture? Cmon man, 35Hz is 35Hz. It (the driver) moves with enough speed to play bass guitar solo’s with all 4 strings doing their thing and you hear it clearly. All music sounds great but,  Reggae like Bob Marley – “Natural Mystic” sound dope. Nice punchy bass with Bob Marley and the Wailers coming in loud and clear

TREBLE

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Shorty Wanna be a Thug

From F9 PRO review
There is a ton of studio deck mixing going on on this track and the better the treble the more you will hear. Everything comes through loud and clear. The F9 has a peak at 7-8Khz. The PRO has one at close to the same point according to their graph. it seems less harsh than the F9 to me? They could graph out identical but while it sounds like a bright IEM it does not grate on me like the F9 did initially. I got used to it or this is just a bit better in resolution, clarity and no worse than the F9 peak perhaps better. This could be my brain getting burnt in though so take that with 2 grains of Salt

The treble of the FH1 is not as airy or rough as the F9’s. Both of those sets are not comfortable for me listening to whole albums or sides of albums. The FH1 gets all the detail of this track with a slightly less sense of space due to treble peak position. It is an easy compromise for me as i like detail but not so much it limits my listening marathons.

Conclusion

Did FiiO do what they set out to do?

I dunno?

What were they trying to do with the colors….hmmmm bass and colors…sounds like…yup!

About time. That is a big market and they should make lots of these and hopefully sell them all. I LOVE THE FIIO FH1!!  They finally got it right if 80% of the market means anything and damn…son….it sure as fu does!

1= BAD

10= AWESOME?

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Initial unboxing video

 Compared to F9 and F9PRO

FH1 Video Review

Buy it here:

https://www.amazon.com/Headphones-Earphones-Earbuds-Monitors-Compatible/dp/B077TXG33Q/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_product_top?ie=UTF8

 

 

 

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Monk IEM “Biggie” REVIEW

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It’s Biggie when he was smalls…get it? Nah? nevermind…

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I will do a review and post it … and hit up the social networks when it’s done.

Biggie and Smalls and the “7 day Theory”

Day #1

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Figured Biggie would get clear benefits from a hardware bass boost.

This set-up Note4 and FiiO Q1mkII is much better than the X7II with stock AM3A amp.

Vinyl rip of…yeah Vinyl rip of All Eyez on Me sound nice. Bass boosted by EQ and hardware and some boost in treb and this sounds much nicer. All the dope mixing by Johhny J and D.J. Quick behind 2pac’s lyrics shining through.

Day #2

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I figured the Shozy Alien + would provide the power for VE Biggie but it is revealing the need for an eq in the late bass /mids?

Is the bass blooming into the early mids or are they recessed? Never seen a chart but it is one of the 2. Shame the Shozy doesn’t have even a basic EQ as the pair seems great but not enough tweakability. Actually sounds like something needs a boost more than a cut…

I will work on other devices EQ’s. This coulda been a nice pairing as the Shozy is epic in sound and ghetto in all else.

Day #3

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Sounds better than the Shozy because of EQ but still not shining like with the hardware bass boost on the Q1mkII

This is good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not bass boosted goodness 😉

Day #4

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Sorry about the finger prints but it was crashing again 😦

Headfonics reviewed this while it was still on a early beat firmware which blew my mind. 3 months later and it is still having issues. 3 moths ago Hiby was crashing, the storage was going ghost and most folks reported that. Some sites need to balance being first with being….looking like a moron/tool/hype site

I got nothing about Biggie. Thing wouldn’t start. likely not a good pair due to power and limited EQ. I like the device but it needs work.

Sorry Biggie. Day 4 just walked out the door and didn’t leave nuttin’

Day #5

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Pairing Biggie with the OPUS#2

Using the same EQ I used on the X7MKII and it sounds very good. This is still not as good as the Q1MKI which is really tripps since that is a amp/dac and it’s not very expensive but like the Melody ME.1…The Biggie seem to sound best with a good hardware bass boost.

I told Lee pretty quick that I liked Small the best of the 2 but with a good flick of a bass switch that choice is less easy. These need power. No question. Particularly to get good bass and through what seems like a slight veil? Not sure, but the increased dynamics that come from power do a lot for biggie

Day #6

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Mmm, no.

The more power the better. That is without doubt. Burn in be damned, these need to be kicked in with some juice. Gonna try to throttle em with an amp then see where we at.

Day #7

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Best pairing…and most potent source. Q1MKII with bass boost might be better though.

Biggie likes power

MONK IE BIGGIE

Style In-Ear

Detachable Cable

Connectors 0.78mm 2pin

Driver Dynamic

Resistance 80Ω

Sound

The Biggie monk IEM reminds me of the TFZ 5s.

Biggie has a detachable cable and fits better due to smaller housing though.

 

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2pac’s   “Shorty wanna be a Thug”

 

Lots of minute details going on in the background and if the bass is elevated to a tactile level the mids and some details get lost.  They are named after my favorite Hip hop artist’s chief rival but they are not best suited for basshead or bass dominant stuff.

 

Some folks will be happy to hear that

 

 

 

 

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“Wanna be startin’ Somethin'”

This sounds better as it does not require a big bass boost and the mids are left along to play back the Quincy jones engineered audio info fest. There is a lot going on and you can catch most of it at regular listening levels.

 

 

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“Never Goin’ back Again”

 

Not as crisp as Biggies brother “Smalls” but pretty much what the TFZ gave me.  I sometimes think I shoulda started with Smalls but I got a feeling Biggie will be left behind little brother over time so I start with biggie.

 

 

 

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Foreplay/It’s been such a long Time

 

Because of the electric guitar’s range the Biggie actually do good here because the mix is done well and besides the “Foreplay” minutia the rock group members come through nicely though the vocals seem a tad back

 

 

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Biggie is not a stage monster.

This album sounds great but I use it for stage mostly and that is not this sets strong point.

 

 

So where the fuck are we?

 

Bass

Can slam with power but it WILL hurt the mids. I gotta feeling they are slightly elevated stock leaving less headroom before distortion or a veil forms. The Sony EX series are basically flat and have lots of room and 16mm and good power input handling so they are rare. Most single dynamic will start choking on 55Hz boosts.

 

**Hardware bass boost can help as it is not a DSP like EQ is…not really anyway, it helps this set a lot**

 

Mids

 

Fine as they are but will get pushed back by bass EQ.  Use a hardware bass switch to leave the mids alone as much as you can. These are not mid forward so you will push them back even further

 

 

Treble

 

Surprisingly not bad. The “V” ish sig means the treble is there and not piercing at all. Could be rolled after 9-10Khz but that shouldn’t bother most folks

 

If “Smalls” wasn’t so damn good and coming with “Biggie” I might like it more but little brother steals Biggie’s spotlight.

 

 

Conclusion

 

Lee.

 

It’s about the music, the clan and being in it.

It’s never been about the money.  That, that is Strictly business. Venture Clan is about more than business. They helped a person, not in the clan, I hope not, cuz I sent a mail telling him to show some damn respect so if he is family…my bad.

I do not do good things to make others happy. I do them to make myself happy….about myself. Lee is like that.

Try and join the clan and get booted for being a fool or supported for trying not to be.

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If you are a power user Biggie will be fine as he needs amp and a bass switch but since you get the really excellent brother “Smalls” (pic top of review…white IEM)…you get BOTH for less than you pay for 1 mediocre set from many companies….you pull triggers…you pull them nowz!!

 

https://www.veclan.com/engappliance_sel_one?eng_ApplianceVo.eac_id=23