INTRO:-
Few days ago I reviewed the Schmitt S10, its time for the bigger brother Schmitt S20. Doubling on the Knowles drivers the S20 has one BA for Bass and other one churns out the mid and highs. It has the exact form factor, comes in only one color, White, priced at $250 it has plenty of competition.
Get one for yourself from here.
http://www.accessoryjack.com/headph...e-driver-in-ear-monitor-headphones-white.html
P.S. I will and have never received any money from any one of any amount of sale of any of the earphones I have ever reviewed.
ABOUT ME:-
Some of you might know me. I admire balanced sounding earphones without much emphasis on bass and specially mid-bass, and if it has mid bass, decay has to be snappy. Sub-bass is welcome.
I have been called a mid-head, was ridiculed for it, but man, for me all the magic happens here. For some, mids are not a big deal, they don’t listen to much vocals but I am more of a person who likes a good balance between vocals and instruments.
I like my highs with good amount of spark and energy, it is better if it has good extension. An early roll off is a no no. But then the price of the earphone comes into play. One can't ask an sub $50 earphone to have fantastic extension and that is understandable. You get what you pay for.
I listen to all kind of music, specially soft, alt and pop-rock, some pop (no K-pop, sorry) with good vocals and instruments, I don’t care about the artist, he should make some sense with his words and should not be a bit too cheesy.
I am not affiliated with anyone, I receive no money from any one, all my review are done with goodwill.
ACCESSORIES:-
I got the S20 in the S10 box, so no retail box here. the S20 has exactly same accessories package as the S10. Two cables, one with mic and other one is a braided audio cable. There are 6 pairs of tips out of the box, Foam (M/L), Single Flange and Triple flange (both S/M), all of them in two sizes. No cable clips out of the box.
BUILD AND ERGONOMICS, COMFORT AND SEAL:-
I like the way the S20 fits, the long narrow nozzle helps with a deeper fit and the curvy Westone like design gives it a nice and comfortable feel in ear. ergonomically its very good.
The S20 looks more sturdy than the S10, the semi-transparent shells looks very good.
The longer nozzle helps the S20 with a very good seal.
The S20 MIC cables is supple and not much bouncy but has memory problems, the audio cable is really nice with very supple feel to it, not bouncy at all. The best thing about both the cable is that they don’t have any cables guides make things uncomfortable.
SOUND QUALITY:-
With the increase in driver count, the level of details has gone significantly up. The S20 is fairly balanced with similar Signature with the S10, but the S20 is slightly V shaped at the vocal region. Its more natural sounding aiming for good amount of accuracy and precision the S20 doesn’t shy away from a bit of sharper notes.
The signature is slightly bright and fairly neutral. The S20 sounds
lush and absolutely cohesive.The ability to fill the whole stage with instruments irrespective of the type of music is the best thing about the S20.
The S20 is burned for more than 100 hrs and I am using stock single flange tips for this review. Sources used are Plenue R and Shanling M2.
(going balanced helps big time).
BASS:-
The smaller brother S10 was not bad at all, but the S20 still improves on that with added details, impact, nicely rounded body and better amount of air. It has better sub-bass presence than any of the 2BA earphones I have, let it be EN210 or q-jays. Yes S20 can't be compared to something like the King pro or Kaleido( The king pro and Kaleido are far more bassy and lack some of detailsas the decay is considerably slower) It has good amount of rumble to it and moves enough air, decay is slightly slower than what one can expect from a BA driver, giving the S20 a more organic timber.
Needless to say that the lower end of the S20 has very good extension, there is still some mid-bass emphasis, aided by faster decay it brings more texture and details to the mix. Upper bass has fair amount of energy and very good amount of details, which the S10 lacked.
The best thing about the Bass is the body, its fuller and makes the S20 stand out in the crowd of FiioF9/pro, DT500 and other BA based earphones, and the added texture gives it a more detailed presentation and it has better sense of space too.
MID RANGE:-
The S10 has a bit of vocal emphasis, the S20 has more even emphasis across the range. Transition from upper bass to lower mids is very good, yes its not as flaw less as the ER-4P or AF180 but it does better than F9/pro, DT500 and even the Onkyo E900m in this regards. All the instruments and notes are very clear.
The S20 performs admirably with the vocals. The flaw with the S10 has been taken care of with the S20. Notes are not overly thick or blunt anymore. There is good amount of sharpness to them, Female vocals still need a bit more sharpness to sound more natural, Someone like J-Lo still sounds sharp, but Nina Simone sounds unnaturally thick. Male vocals on the other end sound better with plenty of energy to the notes.
A dip around the upper mid range makes the S20 sound slightly less detailed, it lacks the required amount of energy. Another bigger problem is it doesn’t have "the" level of precision or accuracy with the instruments. And lack good bit of micro details.
Anything that rises above the veil prospers. Instruments do sound very pleasing and mild, doesn’t stress the ears at all. With that you know you are missing some details.
Sound stage too is bigger than the Fiio F9/pro. The s20 has better height, width but the depth is slightly lacking, still its more rounded in comparison.
HIGHS:-
Highs are far better compared to the S10. The S20 has good amount of energy to them and extends far more in to the spectrum compared to the Fiio F9 and the Lear Kaleido. Lear Kaleido is performs badly here. (lets save it for another review)
It might not have the spark or energy of the Q-jays which goes really deep into the spectrum, it still maintains good amount of energy to makes its presence felt and keeps any type of sibilance out of the equation. Extension is just above average.
Notes are better defined and is clearer and more transparent compared to the upper mid. The S20 has good amount of details, still average for the asking price.
Thanks to the lack of micro details at the ground level, layering and separation is subpar. Instrument separation in other hand is marginally better.
CONCLUSION:-
The biggest question is
"if the S20 lacks details why should I buy it?"
The answer is, if you are critical about details, don’t buy this. buy it because..
The S20 is very engaging unless you are listening critically, it is one of the light hearted fun loving jolly sounding earphone which sounds very lush and cohesive, and delivers good amount of details. Let it be the synergy, energy or tonality the S20 delivers in every front, its not limping but not running as fast as q-jays as far as details are concerned.
And if you want more details, you can do one thing.. Go balanced, and re discover the S20 shine across the board with better female vocal accuracy, better spectrum wide notes sharpness, better micro details, top end energy and extension, layering and separation, the S20 becomes a UE900S, with slightly less micro details. Going balanced brings the best out of the S20. Just spend 30-50 usd and you are good to go. I used a $30 2.5mm OFC copper cable.
Above all the level of details is subpar with stock cable. (I would request Schmitt,
Please provide a 2.5mm audio cable, instead of the Single Ended). But the synergy, the enthusiastic energy is hard to find irrespective of price range. It’s a very engaging earphone, unless you are looking for micro details.
(P.S. Schmitt audio is looking for distributors, if interested please, contact :- soundwellco@gmail.com & schmittacoustics@gmail.com) - Requested by unit provider.
I hope you guys are having a nice day, Enjoy your music, Cheers.
