Hyla CE-5:
This thing is like, the proto-Z1R. It’s that V/U shaped bass boosted deal done in a fairly... unusual way.
The CE-5 is notorious for its frequency response favoring very electronic genres of music. It’s not hard to see why, because that bass tonality is just beautiful. It extends perfectly and has a level of midbassy-ness that almost sounds sweet. Does that even make sense, bass sounding sweet? It just sounds really full and well rounded while not overshadowing the subbass at all. I don’t know how this was accomplished but it’s really impressive. Decay is also perfect, subbass is slow without being muddy at all. It’s not quite as clean and fast with attack as the Z1R, but it’s pretty goddamn close.
The midrange, however, is where things begin going south. It’s thin, but it’s the flavor of thin that sounds a bit off. With say Schoenberg’s first string quartet performed by the Arditti, it honestly sounds like it overemphasizes a slight graininess in the bowing of the instruments, which is a bit unsightly. With brass instruments, say Mingus’ Solo Dancer, it can have a little too much unintended rawness, especially in instruments in the lower frequencies like tenor saxes and tubas. Jon Anderson’s voice on Close to the Edge is left feeling a little bit shrill, and guitars have a very noticeable crunchiness and bite that seems to emphasize the hit of the plectrum very heavily compared to the ring and decay of the notes. Honestly quite intense, and a little fatiguing. Certainly not unlistenable like the FW10k inches towards, but it’s not really enjoyable for casual listening.
The treble on the CE-5 is, interestingly, done by a piezoelectric tweeter, which is something I usually hate. But here Hyla have managed to tune it somewhat competently. It’s a very strong lower treble sound that’s impressively enough, not sibilant at all, with a little mid treble to aid out with cymbal decay. Upper treble is unfortunately lacking, leaving cymbals with minimal decay. It’s actually a pretty decent sound in practice. No splashiness on King Crimson’s Red, and lots of timbre to boot. The opening of Slint’s Breadcrumb Trail definitely displays the lack of decay, but when you get to the climax of the song, the stick impacts have a nice emphasis. Not as sparkly as I’d usually like, but hey, it’s not bad.
Technicalities are pretty decent. You’re not getting anything particularly impressive here but they’re serviceable enough. Soundstage is ever so slightly out of your head, as is the case with a lot of standard acrylic shell pseudo-customs. Layering and presentation are also competent. Separation handles itself just fine with dense tracks. I do feel like imaging precision could be better but it’s no slouch. It’s average, but on the good side of it.
The whole deal with the CE-5, really, is that it’s a worse but cheaper Z1R. Both are bass boosted, with recessed lower mids, boosted upper mids and lower treble emphasis. And herein lies the problem with it: The Z1R just takes what makes the CE-5 good and brings it to the next level. But at the same time, it’s a lot more expensive, and the CE-5 definitely has a more apparent midrange than the Z1R. It’s a tradeoff really. I think the Z1R slightly invalidates the CE-5 in the TOTL “money is no object” sense, but the CE-5 still has its appeal.
All listening was done from the WM1A’s 3.5mm jack.
Recommended? It’s, as mentioned, definitely not bad at all, but the existence of the Z1R make it questionable if this a worthy purchase in comparison if one had no budget. However, it has like 80% of that performance in a cheaper package, and is about half the price. If one can look past the wonky midrange and poor treble extension, I think it’s a worthy V/U shaped IEM for what it is.
Rating: 6/10
Note: Driver flex is a massive problem with this IEM. For the first 10 seconds of After the Flood I was left wondering where the hell the bass was until I readjusted it. This also prevented me from getting a real deep fit, which is usually what I aim for. Oh well.
This thing is like, the proto-Z1R. It’s that V/U shaped bass boosted deal done in a fairly... unusual way.
The CE-5 is notorious for its frequency response favoring very electronic genres of music. It’s not hard to see why, because that bass tonality is just beautiful. It extends perfectly and has a level of midbassy-ness that almost sounds sweet. Does that even make sense, bass sounding sweet? It just sounds really full and well rounded while not overshadowing the subbass at all. I don’t know how this was accomplished but it’s really impressive. Decay is also perfect, subbass is slow without being muddy at all. It’s not quite as clean and fast with attack as the Z1R, but it’s pretty goddamn close.
The midrange, however, is where things begin going south. It’s thin, but it’s the flavor of thin that sounds a bit off. With say Schoenberg’s first string quartet performed by the Arditti, it honestly sounds like it overemphasizes a slight graininess in the bowing of the instruments, which is a bit unsightly. With brass instruments, say Mingus’ Solo Dancer, it can have a little too much unintended rawness, especially in instruments in the lower frequencies like tenor saxes and tubas. Jon Anderson’s voice on Close to the Edge is left feeling a little bit shrill, and guitars have a very noticeable crunchiness and bite that seems to emphasize the hit of the plectrum very heavily compared to the ring and decay of the notes. Honestly quite intense, and a little fatiguing. Certainly not unlistenable like the FW10k inches towards, but it’s not really enjoyable for casual listening.
The treble on the CE-5 is, interestingly, done by a piezoelectric tweeter, which is something I usually hate. But here Hyla have managed to tune it somewhat competently. It’s a very strong lower treble sound that’s impressively enough, not sibilant at all, with a little mid treble to aid out with cymbal decay. Upper treble is unfortunately lacking, leaving cymbals with minimal decay. It’s actually a pretty decent sound in practice. No splashiness on King Crimson’s Red, and lots of timbre to boot. The opening of Slint’s Breadcrumb Trail definitely displays the lack of decay, but when you get to the climax of the song, the stick impacts have a nice emphasis. Not as sparkly as I’d usually like, but hey, it’s not bad.
Technicalities are pretty decent. You’re not getting anything particularly impressive here but they’re serviceable enough. Soundstage is ever so slightly out of your head, as is the case with a lot of standard acrylic shell pseudo-customs. Layering and presentation are also competent. Separation handles itself just fine with dense tracks. I do feel like imaging precision could be better but it’s no slouch. It’s average, but on the good side of it.
The whole deal with the CE-5, really, is that it’s a worse but cheaper Z1R. Both are bass boosted, with recessed lower mids, boosted upper mids and lower treble emphasis. And herein lies the problem with it: The Z1R just takes what makes the CE-5 good and brings it to the next level. But at the same time, it’s a lot more expensive, and the CE-5 definitely has a more apparent midrange than the Z1R. It’s a tradeoff really. I think the Z1R slightly invalidates the CE-5 in the TOTL “money is no object” sense, but the CE-5 still has its appeal.
All listening was done from the WM1A’s 3.5mm jack.
Recommended? It’s, as mentioned, definitely not bad at all, but the existence of the Z1R make it questionable if this a worthy purchase in comparison if one had no budget. However, it has like 80% of that performance in a cheaper package, and is about half the price. If one can look past the wonky midrange and poor treble extension, I think it’s a worthy V/U shaped IEM for what it is.
Rating: 6/10
Note: Driver flex is a massive problem with this IEM. For the first 10 seconds of After the Flood I was left wondering where the hell the bass was until I readjusted it. This also prevented me from getting a real deep fit, which is usually what I aim for. Oh well.
