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Fitear MH334 vs Fit-ear PS-5 ? Can anyone shed any light on this, please..?

post #1 of 4
1/31/12 at 4:17pm
Thread Starter 

I was just casually browsing the net this evening, looking at flagship CIEMs.

 

Above my pricerange, but out of curiosity, I Googled for Fitear, expecting to find the MH334 (which I did):

 

http://fitear.jp/music/product/334.html

 

Japan 2.jpg

 

 

But I ALSO found the following (note the URL name):

 

http://www.fit-ear.com/products-page/professional-stereo-plugs/ps-5-five-driver/

 

Japan USA.jpg

 

 

This doesn't appear (to me, at least) to be the same company or IEM, in spite of the dubiously-similar URL name, and I'm intrigued, as I've never heard anyone mention the PS-5.

 

It looks to be a 3-way 5-driver, whereas the Fitear Japan MH334 is a 3-way 4 driver IEM.

 

Owing to the URL of this website being 'Fit-ear.com' my initial reaction was to wonder if it might be a slight variant of the MH334 under an English name, but no.. it looks quite different to me. However, it does look to be moulded to a very high standard. I wonder if these may be outsourced, perhaps?

 

Whatever the case, I'm thinking they have no relationship whatsoever to Fitear Japan.

 

Still, I'd be very interested to know if anyone has purchased and/or heard the PS-5. At $1650 for a relatively unknown USA brand, it's certainly in premium custom territory and should be expected to sound very good indeed. Those canal inserts look unusually long, too.

 

Can anyone shed any light on this..?

 

 

 


Edited by Mython - 1/31/12 at 5:05pm
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post #2 of 4
1/31/12 at 5:48pm
Thread Starter 

Limited info but some mention of what may, perhaps, be the same company, here:

 

http://www.head-fi.org/t/577039/every-top-end-product-of-every-headphone-and-iem-brand-currently-in-existence-forever-current-list

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post #3 of 4
1/31/12 at 8:26pm

The two companies are completely different; I have no idea how products from Fit-Ear sound, but the demos I heard from Suyama FitEar are excellent. They have a very impressive list of clients that spells like a Who's Who of J-Pop.

 

If you notice, the customs from Fit-Ear use the normal Westone/JH type plugs, while Suyama FitEar uses special plugs (very similar to HD600 plugs) that the Japanese Self Defence Forces use. Also, AFAIK, Suyama FitEar only produces five-driver customs for their professional line, the 335 and 335DW.

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post #4 of 4
2/27/12 at 2:25pm

I actually stumbled upon the Fit-Ear last month at the Cleveland Motorcycle Show. Their main focus at the show was making custom ear protection for motorcyclists. However, I noticed a nice array of custom IEM's lined up on one of the tables and decided to ask the guys in the booth what the deal was since I was already on the hunt for a pair.

I immediately identified myself as a head-fi'er and a straight up audio geek with some pro studio creds to back me up, since I didn't want them thinking this was my first rodeo. The owner smiled and whipped out his rig, modded Dec Audio Zen Head, iModded Gen 5 ipod and his PS-5's. Luckily he had a non-custom demo pair of PS-5's there, so I got to enjoy the typical audiophile demo tunes while bikers filed past oblivious to the beautiful sound filling my head. 

While I'm not the best at throwing around adjectives, these things were fantastic. They carried all the weight and authority that I'm used to hearing on my HD-600's while providing more detail and a slightly bigger soundstage. I really wanted those IEM's, but since I was at the show to look at new bikes, I had to ratchet down my dreams and get practical. I picked the PS-2's, due to price and the similarities to my Ety 4S (both dual drivers), since I've been quite happy with them for the past 10 years or so (i recently bought the ACS custom tips for them and it was money well spent). They took my ear impressions right there (yeah, i did feel a bit goofy, but it saved me close to $100 bucks and an hour drive!) and within 3 weeks I had new IEMs!

I'll give you my first impressions - detail and authority. right out of the box they had a bit too much midrange for my taste, vocals felt like they took up too much space and were overshadowing the more subtle parts of the music. Thankfully, after about 40 hours of burn-in the midrange is firmly in check and right back where it should be. Now I've got nice balanced midrange and plenty of detail on the highs without being fatiguing.

The bass is powerful and tight, but not booming, and way more plentiful than the Ety's. I used to think of the Ety's as being "neutral" but they really are probably a little light on the bass (I used to think people who said that were all bass hogs, who drove around in boom cars, but that may have been an incorrect assumption on my part...). I can easily drive them with just an iPod and don't feel cheated or like I'm missing out. in fact, they do not seem to be a good match for my ASL OTL Head 32 Triode (with NOS Telefunken 12AX7 and new Genelex Gold Lion 6BQ5s). The only portable amp I've got at the moment is the PortaCorda II and that does seem to mesh well with the PS-2s. I was actually on the fence about the Zen Head before I bought these, and I'm still trying to decide between it and the RS Tomahawk. So time will tell on that front. 

I just wanted others to know that Fit-Ear is out there and they are quite serious about good sound.

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