They are surpsisngly fun sounding and they give almost surround sound effect with detailed mids and good punchy bass and almost good for all genres music. The highs are not extended but overall they are detailed yet fun sounding and with good built quality. If compare to the X10i then X10i are more warm and very detailed in mids, more highs, with deep punchier bass than X5. But i find X5 are more fun, more balanced and very engaging IEMs.

The Etymotic HF3 are surprisingly detailed in mids with good punchy bass( due to the tight seal no need of heavy deep bass like JVC FX700,  Sennheiser IE8) and highs are crisp, clear. The istrument separation, imaging is very good on these and they sound very good with instumental music like Jazz, pop, Country but they are little cold sounding.