Reviews by Leonne

First of all I must admit, Im tad bit disappointed with Olina. It's a good pair of IEM, but not as good as some people/reviewers praised it. it sounds like what I expected from a $100 IEM. Use my review as other reference on how Olina is actually sound. As a matter of fact, I love IEM with good technical capabilities like Olina, however, its weakness and cheap material it used simply a bummer to overall experience in enjoying Olina.

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Eartips


Olina's eartips are such a joke for its price range, i wonder why nobody ever mention it, it looks like the eartips you got from a $5-$20 IEM. You may disagree with my review regarding how Olina sounds, but its low quality eartips is a fact. it's so thin, fragile,its core is too soft and may deformed inside our ear canal, the texture of the eartips feels more cheap than any $100 IEM i've ever encountered. My picture above may not give you idea how bad the provided eartips, but trust me, if you hold it in your hand and compare it with any decent eartips, you will know what i mean, one of the provided eartips looks like FiiO's eartips (used in FiiO FH1s and FD3), but FiiO eartips which only a bit thicker are firmer yet still flexible, its texture also smoother and more delicate when touched with hand.

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Fitting

Olina got light fitting, it stick to your ears well but you wont feel heavily isolated and still aware of your surrounding. I think that's why they consider to use a cheap eartips, because even with better eartips like Spinfit CP100, Olina's noise isolation is not that good tbh. Personally, i don't need IEM with good isolation and fitting, but if you use IEM in noisy environment, you might need to reconsider buying Olina.

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Sound Quality

The strong Point from Olina is its relative wide sound stage, strong imaging, and solid separation. Sound stage is certainly wide, not huge like some said but certainly above average. Vocals are pushed upfront while some instruments pushed behind, simply a good experience especially when listening to a song with a lot of instruments. Imaging and separations are good, i can easily pinpoint where are each instruments.

Upper mid frequency is lifted and a bit too shouty for some songs, not to mention the texture is a bit crude and harsh especially under the usage of loud volume. contrary to most believe, Taming the treble by using Mesh Mod is not a good solution tbh, attack on some electronic instruments feels more blunt and vocals feel a bit behind, your Olina may sounds more balanced and faultless but at the same time you lost a lot of good points what makes Olina is a good IEM.

I can enjoy an IEM with weak bass such as Tin P1, but I think Olina should have more bass to tame the upper mid a bit or at least make it to have heavier tonality.

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Conclusion



Olina is a good IEM for its price, yes it has a strong technical capabilities but it also got some weakness which reduce my enjoyment towards olina, not something that would leave me in awe. I've tried to tame the upper mid frequency like changing eartips, mesh modding and using Copper cabble but I can't tame the treble without losing a lot of good aspects from this IEM. Honestly I think Olina stops being Olina if you try to meddle with its sound. My score might be a bit too low than most reviewers, but i think it's a fair assessment considering Olina still got major negative points and its shell feels too cheap for its price (compared to other IEMS at its price such as Aria, reecho SG-03, FiiO FD3, and a lot more)

About me:

I'm a sucker for technical aspect, for me things like separation and imaging is more important than the tuning itself. I'm an open minded person, bassy earphone or treble heavy IEM is good for me as long as technical aspects are good and i try not to be biased by Frequency Response on any IEM i use.

Part 1: The Honeymoon Period


*it caught some scratches over time

In my place, people don't appreciate FH5s, an used FH5s with 11 months of active warranty is offered at as low as $130 because nobody would care enough to buy it. Thus I was moved to make this review to give people a proper truth about FH5s. I Bought FH5S on July 2021 which was around 7 months ago by the time i wrote this review. being a cable believer, in September I bought the the LC-RC Cable to make it into the "Pro" version. To be honest, im one of those guys who loves the regular version of FH5S and bought the pro cable for the sake of making my FH5S sounds better, had the Pro version never been released, i would still be pleased by regular FH5s.

My FH5s sounds really good to my ears (at that time), The pro cable adds more tonal weight to the regular FH5s (which sounds too thin) without sacrificing the airyness feeling and separation from regular FH5s, the Pro cable also add more width to the soundstage as well. the depth in FH5s Pro is very good, female vocals are brought to front while instruments are noticably significant behind the vocals, however With its nice transparancy and solid separation even female vocals doesn't sound too overwhelming and instruments still got good detail and texture. Male vocals are not as forward as female vocals although malesvocals still sounded pretty wide and got big proportion on the overall soundstage. Thebass is very good for my taste, it has a good slam whilst maintaining a good control of never crossing to mid frequency, it also got a better bass texture than than FiiO FD5.

FH5s Pro mid frequency sounds pretty natural for hybrid, it has nice texture and sense of reality something that smooth sounding IEM like Blessing 2 is lacking. FH5s Pro also got a good extension on the treble, something that I wish existed in Moondrop Blessing 2, wide soundstage with the feeling of airyness is simply a cherry on top for FH5s pro. Overall FH5s is a neutral-ish / mild V-shape with very nice technical performance, in all honesty, I don't get all the fuss from those who don't like FH5s because tonality and timbre is pretty good for me

Part 2: Change of Heart

I don't know whether i woke up on the wrong side of the bad or simply got revelation or maybe maybe my FH5s just sounded differnt after a certain time of usage, one day i tried my FH5s Pro after not using it for like 2-3 weeks, I was surprised that suddenly I agree with all the negative comments revolving around FH5s. Even with my Pro cable, i still think the FH5s sounded too thin and the airyness feeling of the FH5s simply ruin the separation and imaging, instruments sounds too flurry thus disturb my ability to pinpoint where the instruments sound are coming from. Female vocals sounds like both Dynamic driver and BA are overalpping on the same frequency, simply make a very weird timbre on the vocals. the Shout on the uppermid range somehow become unbearable on certain tracks. The more i listened to it, the more chaos it become, everything was so wrong with not good technical aspect to back it up.




Lucky for me, FH5s is a very scalable IEM in the first place, any change in cable and eartips will cause noticeable difference. i change the pro cable into my custom made copper cable. I know it isn't fair to assess IEM with after market accessories in the first place, so i just add this as a side note. with Copper cable, gone is the weird timbre in the female vocal and that flurry sounding treble that ruin imaging, it also adds more weight to the tonality which is a really good news if you hate the thin sounding FH5s. However, using copper cable came at a price, the quality of transparency is reduced, soundstage width is slighty reduced as well. Although i can now properly pinpoint instrument, but the distance between instruments are shrink, the empy area or black background area between each instrument is gone as well. although copper cable is decent trade off to make FH5s sounded good again, there are still price to pay.

Part 3: Closing

This is the first IEM which i feel and understand emotionally both side of the love and hate. I still don't know whether i got change of heart or simply my FH5s just sounded diffrently. with copper cable I still give it a 4.5 stars, however my 3.5 stars of score based on its initial performance and its possibility to fix its sound. All in all, I still pick my FH5s than my Blessing 2 any time of the day, it has better dynamic range, more slam and excitement than the carefully tuned Blessing 2. If you have a decent copper cable, just go for it, not to mention those aesthetic looks on FH5s simply a cherry on the top which unrivaled in its price range.

*using my own cable because my vivo Z1 pro still using micro usb
*using Alpha n Delta KS1 in this review
*after using this for a few days, the harsh sounding upper mid is gone. afraid my ears playing tricks on me, i stopped using it for a week and compared to another DAP as refference only to confirm that i need to revised some of my review content.

About me
So, this is my first experience with USB Dongles so ive no idea about the norm, what to expect, and how average dongles should sound. But yes, my first experience with dongles is full of disappointment. so please just regard this is a review from a guy who expect too much and know nothing about dongles standard.

ive been using only using DAP in the past 2 years, im experienced with shanling M5S, M6, Fiio M11 and pro version, some AKs, some Sonys and a lot of stuffs including Modded DAP.

it's been around 2 years since the last time i used an External DAC Such as Radius, Picolo Dac, Topping Nx4, mojo, and stuffs. I dont really update my ear about newer DAC on the market

i will cut to the case, i wont bother discussing spec and form factor as you can scroll to find that information and i've no new information to add.

Review of using and Foobar Spotify

The first thought crossing my mind was "where the hell my da*n $40 go". Although i can agree with a lot of reviewers inside and outside headfi that using this dongle will give you fuller, deeper, and thicker bass, and brighter upper mid. but, other than the bass, every improvement i said is really small, so small that i have to put an effort to know what difference it actually made.

My previous experience with external DACs are always positive, they carry enough improvement for it to be easily noticed. But using this dongle is a meh. The difference in tonality and timbre is next to nothing. tonality and timbre are two major chracteristic that make me want to buy a DAC or DAP in the first place. However using Sonata HD Pro, The timbre and tonality are almost the same like using my phone -_-

The other technical aspect is also tad small improvement. small improvement in transparency, a little bit cleaner although a little grainy, please it is really noticeable grain yet nobody mention it, try to use any affordable DAC such as NX4 and you know what does non grainy sound was like, or if you have budget you can buy sony Nw a55 or ZX300 for true clean sound as a reference. This dongle only gives slightly better separation, little to no improvement on imaging.

Like please, people debating whether cable and eartips really improve the sound while the real culprit is USB dongle, duh..

i dont know if other dongle give you similar experience like this, but if it does, you better spend your money elsewhere like buying some cheap secondhand external DAC, decent cable or even just a pair of eartips. On the side note, using USB Audio Player Pro sure give this dongle extra edge, but im expecting to use spotify for casual listening session so it doesnt serve its main purpose.

Review with Audio Player Pro (UAPP)

Activating UAPP seriously give improvement to this dongle since the UAPP able to bypass the android driver and let the Dongle to fully process the song file directly to its driver.

With UAPP, theres noticeable alteration in timbre and I kinda understand about the sound characteristic of Cirrus chip (the one used in this dongle) that has been hiding before. Vocal sounds more forward, the bass get even deeper and tight, UAPP aso slightly improve dynamic range.


Verdict

Using this dongle will result in no significant upgrade in terms of sound quality compared to using my phone in usual way. Using UAPP, although it gives an extra edge, it still an inefficient purchase at the price of $40

if you have any plan to buy dongle, just buy anything cheaper or just invest in other resource like cable and stuffs.

The sound difference is there and observable, but using a mid level DAC chip such as CS43131, i kinda expect something more out of it.