Shozy x AAW Hibiki Mk2

I first caught wind of Shozy way back 2014 with their Alien DAP which gained a significant amount of advocates and it was such a good time for Shozy that they made a Gold Edition for the Alien. Fast forward to 2018 and Shozy is still rocking but now they have AAW (Advanced AcousticWerkes) in tow, 1st with the original Hibiki and now the Hibiki Mk2 which we would be realviewing. Priced at $67, it offers what a blend of 2 audiophile companies can come up after working together, as they say, it’s sweeter the 2nd time around.

Thanks to DDAudio/Linsoul for providing the sample unit in exchange for an honest review, you can cop the Shozy/AAW Hibiki Mk2 from their respective Amazon and AliExpress sites. The Hibiki Mk2 takes its cue from its prior form the Mk1 which got a lot of attention on 2017. The Mk2 features a 10mm Bio Cellulose Membrane Proprietary Full Range Dynamic driver with a Frequency response of 20Hz to 40000Hz, Sensitivity of 102dB SPL@1mW, an Impedance of 18Ohm@1KHz and a 0.78mm 2-pin interface connector. The Hibiki Mk2 sure got it in paper of what it takes to be a great buy yet with the Mk1 still to be considered, will it be enough? Let’s find out.

Packaged in a clean white glossy box with a black flap box within, simple and clean, as all black and white packages go. Accessory set is straightforward, 1 set of single flange black silicon tips and then nothing, no pouch or a shirt clip which is really fine and we’ll get to why that is the case since most at the $60 range has at least a pair of foam tips or a shirt clip.

The IEM itself is a 2-piece shell/faceplate design which is made of plastic. The faceplate features a gorgeous shiny holographic carbon fiber finish with an AS logo which reflects light quite well while being lined with chrome giving a great breakoff point towards the large black glossy housing marked with L and R respectively which I personally think is too much for a single dynamic driver, the nozzle is unified with the shell and is short although it has a lip which made tip rolling a little bit easier. The 0.78mm 2-pin interface is recessed and reinforced with clear plastic against the black housing, tiny bits of details that provides more build quality points.

The included cable is made of 26awg copper and insulated with TPE rubber and is black ensuring a smooth transition from the housing to the cable itself, it has a great balance of flexibility and stiffness perfect for storing without retaining the folds. It also comes with a 3-button (pause/play-volume up and down) in-line mic control which worked great on my mobile phone when accepting a call. The cable uses a round braid below the Y-split and twisted towards the IEMs themselves, strain relief is minimal but the cable itself isn’t flimsy to really need too much of a strain relief, the in-line mic control even has strain relief, details again, details. There is a very well formed over-ear guide which features a plastic joint where the curvature starts, the over-ear guide though doesn’t sit too snug when used so occasional tugging of the cable to guarantee the over-ear cable doesn’t get off your ears. It uses the L-plug gold-plated 3.5mm plug with a black housing with a silver top. Isolation is mediocre despite the large shell size so securing the right ear tips is paramount. No major microphonic noise was observed when used on the go where a lot of movement happens.

I find it amusing that I didn’t had the chance to get intimate with the Hibiki Mk1 which would save me from feeling what I lost and gained with the Mk2. I made sure to have the Mk2 undergo the recommended 250-hour burn-in process for believers and non-believers alike. For the duration of the realview, I used the Final Audio Type E ear tips as the stock ones that give me great seal. I used an Opus 1, Xduoo x3ii as well as the Sony CAS-1 system all using 16/44 Flac files which I would mention along the realview. The Hibiki Mk2 emanates warmly soundwise and gives a focus on the low-end tonal spectrum which fits the on-the-go portable IEM target market it is aimed for.

Testing out the low end performance was Bruno Mars’s Calling All my Lovelies track which from the intro itself has an overload of sub bass and bass. The sub bass on the Mk2 is fat coupled with great extension for both the left and right channels. Bass drop is thumpy and transitions smoothly towards the midrange giving the Mk2 its signature warmth. Notable rumble is also observed.

The midrange of the Mk2 is its least favored frequency. Angela Bofill’s I’m On Your Side was used for the midrange performance which gives out sufficient loads of low midrange and midrange hits. The low midrange had great cohesion with the midrange and rendered the sound puffy which resulted in the midrange being laid back and making it sound soft and unnatural. Upper midrange has no extension and timbre is once again unnatural.

The Mk2’s distinct low end focus was clearly attempted to be mitigated and balanced out by boosting its highs and thank goodness it wasn’t overdone. Scorpion’s Under the Same Sun was completely tolerable using the Mk2, instrumental hits were distinct and clarity didn’t take a hit from the low end prowess. There isn’t your peaky highs IEM nor will it cause you any high frequency fatigue. Sparkle is observable on treble-heavy tracks which is still not harsh to the ear.

Intimacy is key for the Mk2. The large housing used on this IEMs although doesn’t possess great curvatures does a great job of providing passive external noise reduction at the expense of comfort. Soundstage isn’t wide which might not be too good for those not really into the Mk2’s low end focus although the imaging is on-point and harmonics are detailed and articulate, easy to identify horizontal and vertical orientation.

The Hibiki Mk2 is another love-child of Shozy and AAW which Shozy being the dominant parent giving it a much more friendly price. It is a solid buy for the portable audio fanatics, those who regularly use public commutes and are smack right in the middle of crowded and noisy environments with its distinct warm signature and non-fatiguing high frequency performance. It wouldn’t be too great for those with smaller ears with the Mk2’s large housing although the great cable and in-line mic control might still pull some through yet after all this I still just wish that Shozy and AAW thought of giving their love-child a pouch to carry around.

Shozy/AAW Hibiki Mk2

Disclaimer: B9Scrambler kindly loaned me a few in ears that I hadn’t had the pleasure of auditioning. I’d like to take a moment to thank him and if you haven’t checked out his blog yet, you should.

Unboxing / Packaging:

We can dispense with this section as I received them as just the earpieces and cable wrapped with a wire tie.

Build:

The earpieces are a fairly thick half moon shape with the nozzles angled at 45° out the front. Construction is plastic and the earpieces are lighter than I expected which does bring some durability concerns. With adequate care, they should provide years of service but if you are type to throw your in-ears in a backpack, this may be a consideration. The Nozzles do have a pronounced lip to hold tips and a better quality grate with circular ports arranged in a circular pattern rather than using a simple piece of screen wire. The inner surface of the shell is clearly marked R or L and has a small vent immediately below the label. This is of particular importance as the sound is altered by blocking this vent and its position makes it susceptible to being blocked by the ear. Faceplates are carbon fiber with the AAW and Shozy logos blended and a silver border around the edge of the plate. The one complaint I have regarding the shells is that both of the bi-pin connectors while nicely recsessed into the shells, show gaps along one edge (and it isn’t the same edge on both). I have tried to show that in the photos below. Whether these gaps go all the way through and alter the sound or are just unsightly is not something I was able to investigate as these were a loan.



Internals:

The Hibiki Mk2 uses a 10mm dynamic driver with a listed impedance of 18Ω and a sensitivity high enough to be easily driven by a standard phone or laptop. The paperwork does not list whether this is the same driver used in the MkI with a slightly different tuning or if the driver itself has been upgraded since MkI but all listed specs for both models are the same so I suspect only tuning differences and not changes to the biocellulose driver are involved in the MkI vs MkII.

Cable:

The cable packed with the Hibiki is the AAW Ethos and is 26gauge 4 strand copper with a 90º jack (which I prefer for portables and in ears). The strain relief is minimal at the jack so the 90º bend helps protect it where a straight jack might be more subject to breakage at that point. The aluminum backplate on the cable is a nice touch but couple have been amped up a bit by going to a matching carbon fiber plate. The braid is nice and tight up to the splitter and the twisted pair above the splitter is equally well done. The upper end of the cable has weighted earhooks that provide good strain relief and shape without the need for memory wire. I do like the indexing of the bi-pin connectors as the cable has a groove between pins on one side and the connector on the earpiece has a matching ridge to prevent installation of the cable incorrectly. This is a feature I would like to see more makes adopt. Overall the cable doesn’t seem to develop much of a memory and microphonics are kept to a minimum.









Microphone/Remote:

The cable has a 3 button remote on the right ear side in a smoked gray translucent housing. The order of the buttons may throw some people at first as the bottom is the start/stop with volume minus in the middle and volume plus at the top position. All are clearly labeled, but when worn the mic is close enough to the face to make looking at the labels difficult. Once you are used to the order, all worked as advertised with both iPhone and android phones that I tested. The microphone is positioned well and worked well for making calls but is susceptible to noise from movement or wind.



Fit:

The Shell on the Hibiki is large and sits shallowly in the ear which leaves a lot of the sides in open space. The size will cause fit issues for smaller ears. The forward rake of the nozzles does make fit comfortable for me as the nozzles don’t fit particularly deep but are still able to maintain a good seal. The downside is even with a good seal, the combination of the thin material used and the large exposed surface area makes isolation less than average.



Sound:

All of my listening notes are done with Auvio wide bore tips installed.

Bass:

Between the MkI and MkII bass seems to have changed very little if at all. Both had good low end extension with plenty of sub-bass rumble and a forward mid-bass that results in a bit of extra warmth to the signature. They have done a good job at keeping the bass in proportion to the rest of the signature so tracks that are not particularly bass heavy still come across as such, but the bass is the star of this show. Both also suffer from the same things. Texture is not particularly good and at times the driver can get overwhelmed by busy passages. Blues hand me down that I use for exactly this tests starts showing a bit of congestion and gets muddy on some of the faster runs.

Mids:

Mids are slightly recessed and some mid-bass bleed is evident. Clarity remains good and detail improves as you move into the upper-mids where the bleed is less overshadowing. Female vocals were slightly better rendered than male on most of the tracks I listened to. Male vocals tended to be slightly thick while female timbre seemed spot on or nearly so with several of the more difficult vocals to render well.

Treble:

The MkII is still treble forward, but some of the things that were most problematic about the previous rendition have been fixed. Gone is the sometimes harsh upper treble, replaced by a well extended but well behaved upper range. If there is a drawback to improving the behavior of the treble, it is that some detail is lost to doing so. The mids come across as more detailed than the treble as a result and at times create a somewhat odd dichotomy. Cymbals have lost a bit of their edge and are not quite as clean as they should be. While this creates a non-fatiguing in-ear, it wasn’t a trade off I would make as the air and sparkle are reduced when compared to others in its price class and even when compared to the MkI.

Soundstage / Imaging:

Probably the single most obvious difference for me between the MkI and the MkII is the improved soundstage on the MkII. The MkII has a wider than average sound stage with depth at or slightly over the average and gives much more of a feeling of space than the MkI. When listening to the Cowboy Junkies Trinity Sessions, on the MkI I felt like I was in a church, with the MkII I get more of a feeling of the Cathedral as the echoes and distance seem to come from much further away. Imaging is good but suffers some as things get busy as previously mentioned.



Thoughts / Conclusion:

The collarboration of AAW and Shozy has now yielded two generations of the Hibiki and both have their own merits. The MkII is making moves in the right direction in my estimation as it has addressed most of what were the largest concerns of the MkI. AAW has provided a cable that typically wouldnt be had on an iem at this price point otherwise as well. When judging the Hibiki MkII, I have to remember that its price point isnt $400 or even $200. It can be had for slightly over the $50 price point. While neither MkI or MkII is my preferred signature as both are bass forward and particularly mid-bass, I still think you get an awfully competitive iem and cable combination in the Hibiki models for the asking price. If you are looking in the Sub $100 bracket and like a V shaped signature, you should have a look at the Hibiki.