Hisenior custom hybrid iem 1+1

What sort of a person could benefit from reading this review: Someone who is considering buying his/hers first pair of customs but is somewhat reluctant to spend a lot of money. Or a person who prefers to use inears for work/commuting but has a comfort/fit/isolation issues with them.
 
Disclaimer: In spite of the company being called Hi-Senior, the earphones in the following article are not hearing aids for elderly people. But feel free to buy them even if you are old. Or young. Or a Vogon.
 
Disclaimer1.1: I am in no way affiliated with the Topeco Electronics. I asked the seller for a discount (I received discount about 25%) in exchange for writing this review, because at the time I bought the iems there was not any. So it was sort of a blind date. Frankly, I am glad I went.
 
Introduction (you can easily skip this part ) 
 
I had parts of this review written for some time but was somewhat reluctant to finish it. One of the reasons for this was, that even though I really liked these ciems, I was in a sense underwhelmed by their performance in some areas. I used Xduoo X3 as the main signal source, sometimes I plugged them into my ol’ O2 amp (through Aune T1 Dac) and it sounded very good with some songs, but anaemic with others. And it was not a question of music genre, it was more like these earphones were oddly picky. Around the beginning of this year, I’ve received a package with a new Xduoo X10 player. I plugged it in and… Bam!... Copernican Revolution in my ears. I am slightly exaggerating, but things changed a lot. For the good, of course. Because of this, you can find the traces of comparison between SQ of X3 and X10 in this review.
 
Other earphones for comparison: I own bunch of KZ earphones as well as Asterotec AX35 hybrid. These iem are great in their weight class but are no match for this Ciem either in terms of SQ or price-wise. So for the majority of comparisons I’ve used a well known AKG K702 cans as a reference.
 
Review 
 
First thing first. The process of getting your own custom earphones differs quite a bit from buying ordinary off counter iems. Because of this I have to stress the great service I got from Topeco Electronics. There was a lot of questions from myself and Gareth from Topeco always answered them unhesitatingly and on time. I even received a photo of my new customs without having to ask for it before they send it to me. Really great service!
 
Package: 9/10 The package came in the ordinary cardboard box stuffed with bubble wrap. Instead of standard plastic or paper box the earphones themselves were enclosed in the nice sturdy pelican case, which is quite nice touch for the money. Besides of, earphones there was a microfiber cloth and silver plated(?) cable in the case. There was also standard earphone case in the box as well. The only thing I really miss is a cleaning tools for sound bores. The stock cable is very good sound-wise but rather substandard quality-wise.
 
 
 
Sound
 
Bass: 9.0/10 Bass is rich, detailed and has good extension even with the X3. The subbass kick could be a little bit stronger on some tracks. Otherwise close to my idea of bass-perfection. X10 emphasises the bass a bit more. But there is considerable “boost” in mids and separation as well with X10, so the sound gets more balanced.
 
Mids: 8.8/10 This is what I wrote on account of mids before I got X10: Mids are nice natural sounding in the most recording. They are not as clean & crisp as they should be, and might on a few occasions sound veiled. Especially on X3 and in comparison with a superb K702. On the other hand, they are definitely not bad sounding. Just not excellent... Mids were just weird with the old player, right? Sometimes playing hi-class, sometimes veiled and thin. With the X10 they acquired more body and they are not anaemic and picky anymore. They are rich and lively (lovely)  sounding. A big change. Now they are excellent.
 
Treble: 8.5/10 This one is hardest to judge. I do not miss anything, there is not sibilance with the stock cable (this cannot be said about the cheap silverplated(?) cables I got from aliexpress). It has a nice extension.
 
Soundstage: 7.2/10 Again, impressions upon listening with X3 & O2: Here the comparison with the open back K702 is really not fair, but in addition to X3’s rather constricted soundstage the earphones could sometimes create unpleasant left-right stage without much depth. Things get better when a more powerful O2 is introduced. Nevertheless the soundstage never gets really big and airy. Magic has it’s limitation, the soundstage of these iems is not on par with K702 even when powered with X10. But again, the change is really noticeable. With X3 the soundstage was literally between my ears, positioning was ok, but it was all really constricted, like if you would try to cram the orchestra into can. A big no-no.
 
Comfort: 9.5/10 These are custom made monitors, right? The comfort with ciem earphone will probably differ a bit from person to person, needless to say, most people find ciem much more comfortable than universals. H-S ciem is no exception to the rule.
 
Isolation: 9/10 Same as with the comfort, the isolation of custom earphones is probably better than your average plug (with a few exceptions).
 
Price/performance ratio: 9/10 Even though these are most likely not the very best iems on the market, and it is possible that SQ-wise there could be better universal earphones for the price, one cannot overlook the fact that cheapest ciem hybrid earphones are starting at roughly twice the price (and it is normal for this kind of earphones to cost ten times more). For this reason, I could recommend these earphones to people who were not contemplating to buy customs because of the price tag as well as to people who are considering to buy ciem with a higher price tag, but would like to try the cheap ones first.  Because normally there is no “trying” with ciem, these earphones could act as a good starting point for those who are considering to pay $1500 for a pair of higher ends. On the other hand, I do not think people who already own expensive ciem would benefit much from buying these (other than for exercise or as a spare pair).
 
Bottom line
HiSenior 1+1 are dark sounding custom earphones with a pleasantly balanced sound and average detail. The SQ is dependent on the source, they are also quite sensitive (noticeable hiss even with Xduoo X10). They aren't a good sparring partner for popular low-fi Xduoo X3 player.
 
You can buy them here: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Hisenior-Hybrid-DD-Knowles-BA-Balanced-Armature-ED-TWFK-Drivers-UIEM-CIEM-Noise-Cancelling-In-Ear/32734529283.html?spm=2114.13010608.0.0.q6mmSC .
 
Thank you for reading this review.