INTRODUCTION
Hello again guys, I am Areek Nibras, a junior Head-fier and a recently graduated physician from Bangladesh. Today I will be reviewing the recently released Titanium diaphragm in-ears called the Fiio EX1, which is essentially a slightly altered and cheaper version of the Dunu Titan 1, the IEMs that came and won over every budget audiophile out there. The EX1 currently goes for just 69.99$ from amazon.com whereas the dunu's version goes for 118$. I was the proud owner of the Titan 1 when these released and soon after the release, Fiio arranged the 'Fiio EX1 World Tour'. I was instantly interested in taking part in the tour to find out if the EX1 could hold the sq of the original Titan 1 at a lot cheaper price. I was selected on the 1st list and the 3rd and candidate to receive the Fiio EX1 after @Tobius89 and @ezekiel77 in Asia. But unfortunately I had visited Canada in the meantime and lost my Dunu Titan 1 there during my travel. So after I came back, I decided to try the EX1 out and if it were similar sounding, I would go for these instead.
Thanks to @Joe Bloggs for arranging the tour and helping the members whenever an issue came up during the tour.
I tested the iems in both my pc and portable setup, tried out music, movies and gaming with these. Even took these outside while riding a bus to my pg classes, to test the isolation and should these really be used while commuting. I will try to describe my thoughts and experiances in this thread.
DISCLAIMER
I have received the Fiio EX1 demo unit as a part of a world tour arranged by Fiio. I am in no way affiliated with Fiio other than being owners of other Fiio products like the Fiio X1 DAP and the Fiio E12 amp. I, like the other participants were given the demo unit for a duration of 10 days in exchange for my honest review regarding the EX1.
APPEARANCE, BUILD, ACCESSORIES:
The Fiio EX1 comes in a slender box that is much smaller than the Titan 1 came with and feels less premium but compact. This is cost effective this is a fair compromise. There is a transparent portion on the box that shows the earpieces and rest is hidden under the packaging. Upon opening, we can see a box at the bottom, which contains all the accessories that come with the iem and acts as the carrying box for the iems.
Inside the box, there is a paper with manual and warranty info, a shirt clip and the supplied tips. The single thing that is mising from the Titan 1 packaging is the 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold plated adapter, which is rather useless for me, I have a lot of those sitting in my drawers not being required.
As you can see, these come with total 3 types of different silicone tips, each type having 3 sizes (S/M/L). This is really good considering the price. I wished that the Titan had included the comply tips but they didn't. But for these, no complaints. These tips are quite comfortable. Although, for review purposes, I tried out the comply isolation tips as well, I will get to that during the sq part.
So, enough talk about the accessories and packaging, time to check out the IEM itself. The driver housing looks similar to the Titans but come with a shiny chrome finish which gives these a sparkly look.There are 11 holes on the inner aspect which contribute to the openness of the iems. These are half in ear designs with the housing sits partly outside the tragus of ear. The R/L drivers are easily distinguishable by red/blue color coding around the housing. the big difference from the Titan is the cable, which now has a plastic like sleeving instead of the clothed sleeving that came with the titans. These are non detachable, feel really strong and might provide better protection than the Titan 1, but these feel springy and if you don't get a proper fit, these can pop out off the ear. The Y-splitter is matte silver and is quite compact and feels solid. There is a chin slider as well. Another awesome thing is that they kept the rubber cable tie from the Titans, which is a Dunu patent and I feel is an absolutely brilliant inclusion. All the in-ears should have it. The cable terminates into an L shaped 3.5mm gold plated jack. Overall, even though the packaging did not look much, the build surely looks premium with the EX1 and are these are built to last.
Next up, the sound.
HOW THESE SOUND:
Coming from the Dunu Titan 1's, I was pretty much expecting a slightly U-shaped sound; slightly boosted but accurate bass, airy and lifelike mids and sparkly and clear highs. I got what I expected. I had used the Titan 1 about 15 days before I got these in my hands, and from my memory these sound almost the same, although I felt the highs were a bit more controlled and the bass might have been slightly altered. Description below-
Gears used-
PC > JDS labs Odac+O2 > Fiio EX1 ( 2.5x gain, 10 o' clock position)
Fiio X1 > Fiio E12 > Fiio EX1 (low gain, 11 o' clock position)
Lows- 8.5/10
The bass has really good quality and comes with just the right amount of quantity that is loved by most of the people. There is slight mid bass boost which never tends to bleed too much and gives a feeling of satisfaction. The bass punch feels great, although with some songs I felt the a bit of extra thump. Remember that this are not in any way a bass heavy iem, these just have a very rich bass which compliment with the overall SQ of the iems.
Mids- 8.5/10
The mids have the airy feeling that sounds magical and even when these are U shaped, the mids really shine on their own. These can sound ever so recessed due to the prominant lows and highs, but the airyness along with the soundstage makes up for the flaws.Guitar tunes feel almost lifelike. The clarity is superb. Some of the female vocals sounds really sharp. I really enjoy these with tracks by Norah Jones, Ed Sheeran but even in hard rock and metal music these can bring out the voices to an quite clear and understandable level and I enjoyed these with Eluveitie and other metal bands.
Highs- 8.5/10
Sharp, revealing, sparkly. Might be a bit too much for the sensitive ears but as I am used to the signature, I really enjoy the clarity these produce. Although, some rock/metal tracks can be a bit fatiguing, specially when heard with the ODAC+O2 combo. The X1 with E12 stack sounded a bit more rounded and less fatuguing. But highs are still one of the stronger feats of the EX1.
Soundstage- 10/10
These are open iems with a big soundstage. This is the factor which takes it a step above the other budget iems at sub 100$. These sound like I am listening to a room during a live performance. Imaging is accurate. Every instrument feels like in their right places. Other than music, I also play compatitive counter strike global offensive and in some cases I have found these to be more accurate in positional audio than my Hifiman HE-400 cans. These open up more with the O2+ODAC combo which is known for providing a larger soundstage and the effect is astonishing. I can hear foorsteps easily and pick up a lot on in game ambient sound that I usually couldn't with my HE-400. So if there is any fps gamer looking for iems, this could be a really good option.
Isolation- 3/10
The major setback for these would be the lack of isolation due to the open nature of the iems. If I put these on without any music on, they barely isolate and I can hear my ceiling fan and my pc hardware running. With soft music, there was slightly audible ceiling fan sound during the quieter segments. Then I took these outside while riding a bus to my pg class. The local buses running in Dhaka are mostly old and noisy, there is also a lot of traffic. Here's a picture of the bus I ride mostly, just for fun
So, as you can guess, pretty noisy. And while listening to the EX1 while riding one of these......well, I could hear every other car horns, traffic whistles and people talking inside the bus. So, if you need your iem to be super isolating and keep the noises away, this won't cut it. Not even with the comply isolation tips, they don't help here at all. But, being said that, it's a common scenario in my country so I wasn't bothered much by it. Not sure about the passenger sitting beside me though, because the sounds leak quite a bit and anyone sitting closer can hear it..
Silicone vs Comply tips
The 200 series tips by Comply can be used with the Fiio EX1 as well as with the Titan 1. I had the T-200 isolation tips and tried them out. These alter the highs a bit, making them a bit more rounded, but I feel it also somehow alters the sound a bit. I feel like the silicone tips articulate the sound a bit better or maybe it's just me. The silicone tips are quite comfortable and provide a good fit. Anyways, it will be the users preference to use the comply tips, just do not go for the active series tips, those alter the sound quite a bit.
Comparison with Philips SHE3590
A lot of people know and praise the 3590 as the sub 10$ king of iems, producing clear, rich sound that can compete with iems 2-3 times or more of it's value, and I agree. However, the EX1 is clearly a couple of steps up. The huge soundstage of the EX1 along with the airy mids, clear highs, tight bass make the 3590 sound cluttered, slightly congested and a lot less sparkly. Vocals lack the depth and texture the EX1 can produce. Higher frequencies feel rolled off. The bass lacks quality and punch. Well, this is no way a fair comparison but the 3590 has got enough praise to make me compare these with the EX1. I really like both iems at their price point. The build with the 3590 is awful though and these demand a lot of care.
Comparison with Soundmagic E80
Another budget iem closer to the pricing of the EX1 is the Soundmagic E80. Luckily for me, my friend had recently bought one and lend me his pair for trying out and compare with the EX1(Sorry I forgot to take a picture). The E80 sounds truly neutral with a flat SQ. The bass has almost no impact but is accurate. Mids are really good with this one although there is not a hint of sibilance. And the highs have good clarity but these never get too sharp with any kind of songs. Compared to these, the EX1 sounds like more consumer friendly, has good bass punch which purists might say feel a bit fake, but is liked better by general people. The mids in the EX1 feel a bit recessed but the airyness makes up for that. Vocals sound almost similar with great texture on both but the EX1 gives a bit of sparkle to the female vocals which is rather a love/hate thing. The highs in the E80 feel less sparkly than the EX1 and is well controlled, never becoming painful, but lacked a bit of clarity compared to the EX1. The EX1 wins due to it's bigger soundstage with the U-shaped SQ. But those who prefer flat SQ might prefer the E80 more. I personally like the EX1 due to it's fun signature.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
So, Dunu Topsound came up with the Titan 1 which took over the 'below 150$ market' by flash. And I can safely say that the Fiio EX1 is here to rule the 'sub 100$ market'. I have previously owned the Monoprice 8320, Soundmagic E10 & E30, Steelseries Flux iems and tried out the Hifiman RE400, Vsonic GR07 BE and a few other iems before and these took me away completely by surprise. It comes with a big sound at an affordable price and I believe with more availability as Fiio has dealers in a lot of countries around the world. I believe that these are the best value iems below 100$. So, if you are looking for a pair of fun sounding iems you wanna use for music, movies or games, the EX1 should be the 1st pair you should be demoing. And yes, I am getting one for myself.
Hello again guys, I am Areek Nibras, a junior Head-fier and a recently graduated physician from Bangladesh. Today I will be reviewing the recently released Titanium diaphragm in-ears called the Fiio EX1, which is essentially a slightly altered and cheaper version of the Dunu Titan 1, the IEMs that came and won over every budget audiophile out there. The EX1 currently goes for just 69.99$ from amazon.com whereas the dunu's version goes for 118$. I was the proud owner of the Titan 1 when these released and soon after the release, Fiio arranged the 'Fiio EX1 World Tour'. I was instantly interested in taking part in the tour to find out if the EX1 could hold the sq of the original Titan 1 at a lot cheaper price. I was selected on the 1st list and the 3rd and candidate to receive the Fiio EX1 after @Tobius89 and @ezekiel77 in Asia. But unfortunately I had visited Canada in the meantime and lost my Dunu Titan 1 there during my travel. So after I came back, I decided to try the EX1 out and if it were similar sounding, I would go for these instead.
Thanks to @Joe Bloggs for arranging the tour and helping the members whenever an issue came up during the tour.
I tested the iems in both my pc and portable setup, tried out music, movies and gaming with these. Even took these outside while riding a bus to my pg classes, to test the isolation and should these really be used while commuting. I will try to describe my thoughts and experiances in this thread.
DISCLAIMER
I have received the Fiio EX1 demo unit as a part of a world tour arranged by Fiio. I am in no way affiliated with Fiio other than being owners of other Fiio products like the Fiio X1 DAP and the Fiio E12 amp. I, like the other participants were given the demo unit for a duration of 10 days in exchange for my honest review regarding the EX1.
APPEARANCE, BUILD, ACCESSORIES:
The Fiio EX1 comes in a slender box that is much smaller than the Titan 1 came with and feels less premium but compact. This is cost effective this is a fair compromise. There is a transparent portion on the box that shows the earpieces and rest is hidden under the packaging. Upon opening, we can see a box at the bottom, which contains all the accessories that come with the iem and acts as the carrying box for the iems.
Inside the box, there is a paper with manual and warranty info, a shirt clip and the supplied tips. The single thing that is mising from the Titan 1 packaging is the 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold plated adapter, which is rather useless for me, I have a lot of those sitting in my drawers not being required.
As you can see, these come with total 3 types of different silicone tips, each type having 3 sizes (S/M/L). This is really good considering the price. I wished that the Titan had included the comply tips but they didn't. But for these, no complaints. These tips are quite comfortable. Although, for review purposes, I tried out the comply isolation tips as well, I will get to that during the sq part.
So, enough talk about the accessories and packaging, time to check out the IEM itself. The driver housing looks similar to the Titans but come with a shiny chrome finish which gives these a sparkly look.There are 11 holes on the inner aspect which contribute to the openness of the iems. These are half in ear designs with the housing sits partly outside the tragus of ear. The R/L drivers are easily distinguishable by red/blue color coding around the housing. the big difference from the Titan is the cable, which now has a plastic like sleeving instead of the clothed sleeving that came with the titans. These are non detachable, feel really strong and might provide better protection than the Titan 1, but these feel springy and if you don't get a proper fit, these can pop out off the ear. The Y-splitter is matte silver and is quite compact and feels solid. There is a chin slider as well. Another awesome thing is that they kept the rubber cable tie from the Titans, which is a Dunu patent and I feel is an absolutely brilliant inclusion. All the in-ears should have it. The cable terminates into an L shaped 3.5mm gold plated jack. Overall, even though the packaging did not look much, the build surely looks premium with the EX1 and are these are built to last.
Next up, the sound.
HOW THESE SOUND:
Coming from the Dunu Titan 1's, I was pretty much expecting a slightly U-shaped sound; slightly boosted but accurate bass, airy and lifelike mids and sparkly and clear highs. I got what I expected. I had used the Titan 1 about 15 days before I got these in my hands, and from my memory these sound almost the same, although I felt the highs were a bit more controlled and the bass might have been slightly altered. Description below-
Gears used-
PC > JDS labs Odac+O2 > Fiio EX1 ( 2.5x gain, 10 o' clock position)
Fiio X1 > Fiio E12 > Fiio EX1 (low gain, 11 o' clock position)
Lows- 8.5/10
The bass has really good quality and comes with just the right amount of quantity that is loved by most of the people. There is slight mid bass boost which never tends to bleed too much and gives a feeling of satisfaction. The bass punch feels great, although with some songs I felt the a bit of extra thump. Remember that this are not in any way a bass heavy iem, these just have a very rich bass which compliment with the overall SQ of the iems.
Mids- 8.5/10
The mids have the airy feeling that sounds magical and even when these are U shaped, the mids really shine on their own. These can sound ever so recessed due to the prominant lows and highs, but the airyness along with the soundstage makes up for the flaws.Guitar tunes feel almost lifelike. The clarity is superb. Some of the female vocals sounds really sharp. I really enjoy these with tracks by Norah Jones, Ed Sheeran but even in hard rock and metal music these can bring out the voices to an quite clear and understandable level and I enjoyed these with Eluveitie and other metal bands.
Highs- 8.5/10
Sharp, revealing, sparkly. Might be a bit too much for the sensitive ears but as I am used to the signature, I really enjoy the clarity these produce. Although, some rock/metal tracks can be a bit fatiguing, specially when heard with the ODAC+O2 combo. The X1 with E12 stack sounded a bit more rounded and less fatuguing. But highs are still one of the stronger feats of the EX1.
Soundstage- 10/10
These are open iems with a big soundstage. This is the factor which takes it a step above the other budget iems at sub 100$. These sound like I am listening to a room during a live performance. Imaging is accurate. Every instrument feels like in their right places. Other than music, I also play compatitive counter strike global offensive and in some cases I have found these to be more accurate in positional audio than my Hifiman HE-400 cans. These open up more with the O2+ODAC combo which is known for providing a larger soundstage and the effect is astonishing. I can hear foorsteps easily and pick up a lot on in game ambient sound that I usually couldn't with my HE-400. So if there is any fps gamer looking for iems, this could be a really good option.
Isolation- 3/10
The major setback for these would be the lack of isolation due to the open nature of the iems. If I put these on without any music on, they barely isolate and I can hear my ceiling fan and my pc hardware running. With soft music, there was slightly audible ceiling fan sound during the quieter segments. Then I took these outside while riding a bus to my pg class. The local buses running in Dhaka are mostly old and noisy, there is also a lot of traffic. Here's a picture of the bus I ride mostly, just for fun
So, as you can guess, pretty noisy. And while listening to the EX1 while riding one of these......well, I could hear every other car horns, traffic whistles and people talking inside the bus. So, if you need your iem to be super isolating and keep the noises away, this won't cut it. Not even with the comply isolation tips, they don't help here at all. But, being said that, it's a common scenario in my country so I wasn't bothered much by it. Not sure about the passenger sitting beside me though, because the sounds leak quite a bit and anyone sitting closer can hear it..
Silicone vs Comply tips
The 200 series tips by Comply can be used with the Fiio EX1 as well as with the Titan 1. I had the T-200 isolation tips and tried them out. These alter the highs a bit, making them a bit more rounded, but I feel it also somehow alters the sound a bit. I feel like the silicone tips articulate the sound a bit better or maybe it's just me. The silicone tips are quite comfortable and provide a good fit. Anyways, it will be the users preference to use the comply tips, just do not go for the active series tips, those alter the sound quite a bit.
Comparison with Philips SHE3590
A lot of people know and praise the 3590 as the sub 10$ king of iems, producing clear, rich sound that can compete with iems 2-3 times or more of it's value, and I agree. However, the EX1 is clearly a couple of steps up. The huge soundstage of the EX1 along with the airy mids, clear highs, tight bass make the 3590 sound cluttered, slightly congested and a lot less sparkly. Vocals lack the depth and texture the EX1 can produce. Higher frequencies feel rolled off. The bass lacks quality and punch. Well, this is no way a fair comparison but the 3590 has got enough praise to make me compare these with the EX1. I really like both iems at their price point. The build with the 3590 is awful though and these demand a lot of care.
Comparison with Soundmagic E80
Another budget iem closer to the pricing of the EX1 is the Soundmagic E80. Luckily for me, my friend had recently bought one and lend me his pair for trying out and compare with the EX1(Sorry I forgot to take a picture). The E80 sounds truly neutral with a flat SQ. The bass has almost no impact but is accurate. Mids are really good with this one although there is not a hint of sibilance. And the highs have good clarity but these never get too sharp with any kind of songs. Compared to these, the EX1 sounds like more consumer friendly, has good bass punch which purists might say feel a bit fake, but is liked better by general people. The mids in the EX1 feel a bit recessed but the airyness makes up for that. Vocals sound almost similar with great texture on both but the EX1 gives a bit of sparkle to the female vocals which is rather a love/hate thing. The highs in the E80 feel less sparkly than the EX1 and is well controlled, never becoming painful, but lacked a bit of clarity compared to the EX1. The EX1 wins due to it's bigger soundstage with the U-shaped SQ. But those who prefer flat SQ might prefer the E80 more. I personally like the EX1 due to it's fun signature.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
So, Dunu Topsound came up with the Titan 1 which took over the 'below 150$ market' by flash. And I can safely say that the Fiio EX1 is here to rule the 'sub 100$ market'. I have previously owned the Monoprice 8320, Soundmagic E10 & E30, Steelseries Flux iems and tried out the Hifiman RE400, Vsonic GR07 BE and a few other iems before and these took me away completely by surprise. It comes with a big sound at an affordable price and I believe with more availability as Fiio has dealers in a lot of countries around the world. I believe that these are the best value iems below 100$. So, if you are looking for a pair of fun sounding iems you wanna use for music, movies or games, the EX1 should be the 1st pair you should be demoing. And yes, I am getting one for myself.