AudioMX HS-5S Studio Monitor Over Ear Headphones for Recording, Hi-Fi, Stereo Headset with 42mm Dynamic Driver, Replaceable Connector (3.5mm & 6.3mm)

Greetings Head-fi,
 
Today we are going to be checking out a reasonably inexpensive, open-back headphone from AudioMX; the HS-5S.
 
AudioMX has been around for five years and sell a variety of products, such as their entry-level dual dynamic driver in-ear, a virtual 7.1 surround sound gaming headset, to a variety of wireless options. The HS-5S is their "audiophile-friendly" entry. I have been running them as daily driver with my laptop for gaming and general music listening, functions at which they perform admirably.
 
Let's take a closer look shall we?
 

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Disclaimer:
 
The HS-5S (5S from here on in) was provided complimentary in exchange for a fair and impartial review. This headphone is still considered the property of AudioMX until they state otherwise. I am not receiving financial or any other form of compensation for this review. All comments and opinions within are my own and do not represent AudioMX or any other entity.
 
The 5S at the time of this review was selling for 59.99 from AudioMX's official Amazon retailer, Avantek. You can check it out here.
 
My Gear and I:
 
 

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Packaging and Accessories:
 
The 5S is stored in a fairly large cardboard box with AudioMX branding and a glossy image of the headphones on the front. The rear contains a wireframe profile shot which reflects a slightly forward rake to the head band. You are also provided some important specifications;
 
Driver size: 42mm
Impedance: 54 ohms
Frequency Response: 15Hz-30KHz
Sensitivity: 95dB +/-3dB
Cable Length: ~3.0 m
Weight: 388g
 
Inside the headphones are nestled in a plastic tray displaying the interesting grilled design of the outer cups. Accessories are somewhat sparse, but still useful;
 
- 3.5mm to 1/4" stereo adaptor
- One pair of velour pads
 
Overall the unboxing experience is quick and simple, and the box is sturdy enough to be used for storage when the headphones are not in use. A carry bag or case would have been a welcome addition, but the 5S is a pretty beefy headphone and not really suitable for portable use so this omission isn't much of a loss.
 

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Build and Comfort:
 
The first thing I noticed about the 5S when I lifted it from it's package was the weight. This is not a light headphone. Their build screams of sturdiness and durability. The upper half of the headband feels as if it's made from a solid hunk of rubber coated in a pleather-like material. The soft padding underneath is coated in what reminds me of the smooth yet rugged material used on some mountain-biking gloves.
 
Moving down to the earcups they are a good size with either included pad option, easily enveloping my ears. The pre-installed pleather pads use a fairly dense yet still quite plush and flexible material. They are beautifully stitched together. My only complaint is that they are fairly shallow and as a result comfort suffers a bit. The velour pads, despite being a little scratchy as budget velour often is, are a few millimeters thicker which helps with a more natural fit. Build on these is a little more generic lacking the same material quality and attention to detail as the pleather option. Overall comfort is pretty excellent due to strong ergonomics that do a great job of distributing all that weight evenly around your head.
 
The cups themselves are a mix of metal (matte grey ring) and plastic and come across rock solid. The exterior metal grills that show off and protect the drivers look and feel excellent in hand. The thin strip of chrome surrounding them adds a tasteful accent to the earphone which otherwise is somewhat understated with it's matte black and grey motif.
 
The cable is quite long at 3 meters but is very well-behaved. The sheath uses a thick, pliable rubber that is quite flexible and resists holding memory. The threaded metal straight jack is well-relieved via a spring, not a common sight in this price range. The spring could stand to be a touch stiffer and offer greater resistance to bending, but it works just fine as is.
 
Overall the 5S is a chunky, well-constructed earphone made from quality materials. Fit and finish is stellar from headband to jack and everything in between. Despite them being quite the weighty thing, comfort is great and I had little issue wearing them for hours at a time. They don't get warm over time and the excellent weight distribution avoids painful hotspots. The only con I can levy at the 5S' build is that the cable is not removable.
 

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Sound Quality:
 
Warm and slightly bassy with lush but veiled mids and relaxed treble, the 5S makes for an easy listening, non-fatiguing experience. Throwing them on to listen to an album is like coming coming home after a long hard day, kicking your shoes off, and settling in with your significant other for a night of movies and cuddling. It's an intimately comfortable headphone that does next to nothing to offend.
 
One of the most desirable qualities of an open-back headphone is that they can provide listeners with an airy and expansive soundstage that envelops them in their music, game, or whatever it is they happen to be listening to. The downfall to this is that noise can easily enter and escape the ear cups, limiting practicality outside of a dedicated listening environment.
 
The 5S doesn't have the huge soundstage I would expect to hear from an open back and is more akin to what I would expect to get from something that's semi-open. It certainly has a larger soundstage than what you'd find with Sony's oddly designed MDR-MA300, but falls short of something truly open like HiFiMan's HE-350. A change of pads to Brainwavz's hybrid velour/pleather pads definitely helps in this area, pulling the drivers away from your ear allowing the 5S to breath and impress upon you a true sense of space. They also show off the 5S's decent imaging and instrument separation
 
Treble response on the 5S is smooth and tight, though not particularly prominent. If you prefer a brighter sound you're going to want to dive into your device's EQ setting and play around. For everyone else, the 5S should offer enough presence to satisfy. The midrange with the stock pads comes across somewhat veiled, with everything having a softness to it that takes away from some of the detail and clarity you would expect. Throwing on the above-mentioned Brainwavz pads lifts this veil significantly, but it will still bother some. For me, when listening to the headphone critically and not for the enjoyment of the music it did take away from my enjoyment. However, for general use it was not an issue and I was able to listen to music and read, write, etc. without any sense of disappointment. Bass on the 5S is lightly elevated. Out if the box it lacked depth but give it some play time, or "burn in", and these drivers start to flex their muscles. They can offer up some serious rumble if needed and could take a 24dB boost through Creative's Trustudio EQ and some uncomfortably high volumes without distorting. Not necessarily pleasant to listen to (for me at least), but it's cool to know the 5S could take such punishment.
 
Overall I really enjoyed my listening time with the 5S. They're not the last word in soundstage or detail and are simply a quality sounding headphone with a signature that plays well with anything I toss at it. If you're willing to put down some extra money to upgrade the pads, you'll net a fairly significant boost in performance.
 

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Final Thoughts:
 
If you're looking for a solid performing, extremely well-built headphone the AudioMX HS-5S is worth a look. This is not the type of headphone you'll need to baby or take great care of. It's rough and tumble build and materials means it can take some abuse, shrug it off, and come out the other side ready to go another round.
 
What they lack in raw clarity and detail they make up for in genre versatility and modding potential (via EQ or physically). Those that are willing to put in some extra time with the 5S and personalize it to their tastes will be rewarded. I for one am loving their sound with a simple pad swap, a 1dB increase at 6k, and a 2dB boost at 16k. They're pretty much permanently affixed to my laptop and Recon3D amp, replacing my modded HifiMan HE-350 as my primary headphone for casual listening.
 
Thanks for reading!
 
- B9Scrambler
 
***** ***** ***** ***** *****
 
Test Songs:
 
Aesop Rock - Saturn Missiles
BT - The Antikythera Mechanism
Daft Punk - Touch
Dillon Francis and NGHTMRE - Need You
Gramatik - Bluestep (Album Version)
Incubus - 2nd/3rd/4th Movements of the Odyssey
Infected Mushroom - Deeply Disturbed
Infected Mushroom - The Legend of the Black Shawarma
Jessie J - Bang Bang
Kiesza - Hideaway
King Crimson - Red (full album)
Pink Floyd - Money
Run The Jewels - Oh My Darling (Don't Cry)
Skindred - Death to all Spies
Supertramp - Rudy
The Prodigy - Get Your Fight On
 

The AudioMX HS-5S arrived in a large box, 11 x 9 x 4 inches. A jet black box with a nice pictures of the headphones printed on top. The headphones is inside on the right, and there is a small box on the other side. LIfting that small plastic box reveals a nice surprise: The HS-5S comes with an extra pair of valor ear pads.
 

Quality

 
The entire package and the headphones themselves are of high quality. The cable is think and flexible, reminds me a little of the cable of my Grado RS-1. The cable attaches to both left and right ear cups, and joined in a molded stress relief plastic piece. The cable is long, over 8 ft. The jack at the end is a combined 3.5mm and 6.35mm (1/4 inch) Jack. The 6.35 jack is an adaptor. The cable end has a small stress relief spring attached.
 
The ear cups and headband are reasonably padded with a leatherette material. The top side of the headband is a matte plastic with the audioMX brand tastefully recessed into the material.
 
The HS-5S is of a open design. The grill on the ear cup is a hard black grid material. While there are metal looking parts on the ear cups, it is all plastic, but of high quality.
 
The red color used in both sides of the ear cup (see photos) also give the headphones a nice design punch.
 
Overall, the HS-5S looks and feels like a much more expensive pair of headphones.
 

Sound Quality

 
I tested these headphones with my iPhone 7, my Macbook Pro, and with a small headphone amp fed by my Macbook Pro via USB. The sound quality is very good. The response is reasonably flat — on some pieces of music the high frequencies are slightly boosted. The bass is clear and strong. Since it is a pair of open design, I was slightly disappointed  that the sound stage is not as wide as, say my RS-1. But it is perfectly acceptable, especially considering that the RS-1 costs about ten times more.
 
Some specific test track that I used:
 
Holly Cole - If you go away, Night (2012) - The warm vocals separate well from the piano and the deep bass. The sound is intimate with very natural vocals
 
Radiohead, Exit Music (For a Film), OK Computer - The booming vocal is clear. As the supporting vocals and instruments build up, each layer is clearly separated.
 
Don’t Know Why, Norah Jones, Come Away with Me — I use this track to see how well the headphones render the piano against the guitar and vocals, and the HS-5S handles this well.
 
Brad Mehldau, Exit Music (For a Film) - Songs: The Art of the Trio, Vol. 3 — This is the jazz piano version of the Radiohead song. I love how the percussion builds up cleanly as we get into the track. This is one track that I wish the soundstage is wider.
 

Comfort

 
The headband is well padded, as are the ear cups. The ear cups swivel for a good fit. The ear cups are large enough to go completely over my ear. The clamping force is high, together with the large ear cups, it does press down a bit much on my thick rim glasses. So I have to take the headphones off every so often just to relief the pressure. Otherwise it is a very comfortable pair of headphones.
 

Conclusion

 
This is a great pair of Asian branded audiophile grade headphones, for a very reasonable price. The specs are great. The extras are nice surprises. The sound quality is good. This is a good pair of budget audiophile open back headphone. 
 
Note: audioMX kindly supplied me with a pair of these for review, but be sure all opinions are of my own.
 

Pictures