Audiophilepure

Last but not least, the JH5 also packs no less than four balanced armature drivers – blended in two structure – allowing the IEM to produce ultra-high frequencies with ease, even with low-powered source. FiiO also explained how they chose those specific drivers so they could be able to match the frequency response of the dynamic driver, to have a resonance peak at 2.8kHz, which is supposed to be a resonance frequency formed by the shape of the human ear, says FiiO

oBravo Clio Review

n the intro part we also always look at how the company’s marketing departments describe the unit’s sound. Building on the new AMT6 platform oBravo wanted a more resolving, more mature sonic performance from Clio. The goal was to develop an earphone that adds further texture to the low frequencies over Venus and focuses specifically on Clio’s voice, ensuring amazing transparency and exceptional resolution. In the case of the Clio, we found the following description:

With a special tilting design, oBravo combines Air Motion Transformers and dynamic drivers to deliver powerful, crisp bass, well-balanced mids and crystal-clear high notes. Enhancing low frequency performance, its crystal-clear highs and rich, warm bass conveys a vibrancy second to none and brings you into a new realm of fine audio fidelity. Let the goddess of history be moved by the plot and warmth of the music, and tell you with a soft and pulsating bel canto voice.

The two biggest drawback of the earphone is probably the touch interface and the overall build of the case. The touch interfaces is a bit…touchy. While this is by no means unique to the AK UW100MKII (I’ve come across far too many hard-to-use touch surfaces in the TWS market) a ultra responsive surface would just have been more consistent with the rest of the steller features of the earphone. To get the touch capabilities to work, one needs to touch the earphone only on the conical tip of the design, and nowhere else. The touch needs to be done with an exact pressure as well, which takes some getting used to. With proper training, a useful interaction can be had, but I found this hurdle to be under par for the rest of the exceedingly  impressive feature set as a whole. However, outside of a few athletic implications, I typically just control things from my phone, so the issue is neither here nor there for most of my daily listening routines. 

The new HIFIMAN Svanar Wireless IEMs have some cool tech implemented including an R2R Himalaya Ladder DAC section, a Topology driver that features special Nanoparticle coatings on the driver diaphragm, and a custom headphone amplifier module. Among the Bluetooth codecs supported HIFIMAN has thoughtfully included LDAC for higher bitrate transmission. The advanced Active Noise Cancellation is claimed to reduce outside noise by up to 35 dB.

It is the largest of the modules visible through the window and is still small enough that four of the SIPs would fit on a dime. The whole process uses 3mA @ 2 Volts making for an extraordinarily low battery draw.  

Add to that an impressively low THD+N of 0.0002% and you have a master class in miniaturization of audio components.   

Needless to say, this is not a setup that is going to be usable for anything but highly efficient IEMs which may explain Questyle’s hesitancy to divulge too much information about the drivers as it might give away some proprietary trade secrets.

A single LED is illuminated for AAC or CD quality input, whilst a second LED indicates the decoding of a 24-bit/192kHz file. Testing with Qobuz confirmed this to be the case.

The design of the shells contributes significantly to this level of comfort. Despite housing a complex 10-driver hybrid setup, Vision Ears has achieved a remarkable feat in engineering by ensuring a compact and snug fit that remains comfortable. The seamless integration of the 10-driver hybrid design into such a compact shell proves Vision Ears’ expertise in ergonomics.

For those who might not find SpinFit as their ideal choice, Vision Ears offers an alternative; the AZLA SednaEarfit SE1500. Crafted from 100% medical-grade silicone, these prioritize comfort and aim to reduce skin irritation. They not only deliver a supremely comfortable experience but also enhance isolation compared to SpinFit, catering to different preferences and needs.

In terms of signal latency, my Snapdragon 8 Gen1+ phone running Android 14 showed some latency within the YouTube app. However, activating the gaming mode available through the app reduced this latency to a more manageable level. Despite this improvement, I would not recommend these earphones for gaming due to the lag. On iOS devices, which are limited to the AAC codec, latency is slightly lower, resulting in better audio-visual synchronization within apps such as YouTube and offering a slight advantage over Android devices using AptX Adaptive with the Gaming mode enabled. However, I can’t recommend it for iOS gaming, either.