I recently bought two new earphones after experiencing what the VE monk plus had to offer for the price range. I decided to get the Fengru EMX500S (with blue cable) for fun and the DIY PK2 from a recommendation. I would like to make a short comparison between the monks and the EMX500s that I got. The PK2s are still in the air somewhere in the US.
Everyone here is rather knowledge of the Monk plus' sound signature as, for many, the monks are what got us here in the first place.
To MY ears (emphasis on MY):
For me, the Monks have very little low-end extension, weak but clean mid-bass response, forward mids - both male and female vocals sound wonderful on the monks with female vocals just edging out slightly, and the highs are detailed and spacious but when listening on high volumes, I found that the higher frequencies tend to get a little too hot at times.
From my listening session with both the monks and the EMX500S, here are some direct sonic differences that I have noticed:
Bass:
The Fengru has much deeper subbass. The low end extension on this earphone is killer. I typically listen to Yosi Horikawa's : Wandering for a taste of subbass frequencies and wow did this earbud shock me. I never really expected the subbass to reach this deep on an earphone which in some cases even beats out some of my leaner iems.
The midbass was well done and I could clearly tell from the overall sound sig that this earbud was more focused on the bass than any other frequency (compared to the monks).
However, that came with some caveats.
Mids:
To me, the Fengru mids were just not as magical as the monk mids. I do prefer a forward midrange and the lower mids on the Fengru were a little too distant for my absolute pleasure. Don't get me wrong however, the mids are still very intelligible and I found that the tiny amount of bass bleed unto the mids were very very negligible. As a result though, the lower mids were distant and I found that Dean, a Korean R&B artist I love, didn't have the same magical buttery smooth and lush vocal presence on the EMX500S when listening to his new song: Instagram compared to the monks. Female vocals were better as they were more forward than the male vocals and cello and higher piano notes sounded wonderful. Overall, the mids are to me a mixed bag. The male vocal representation (which is my personal favorite zone) was not up to my standards but they were very intelligible and clear, it was just a personal preference thing for me. The female vocals were great, still somewhat distant, but still much more manageable to me than the lower mid range.
Treble:
The Fengru are very laid back in terms of the treble. Coming from the monks, which were just slightly a bit too hot for my ears at high volumes, the Fengru has less treble extension and that led to a very laid back earphone sound signature. I can see myself blasting the Fengrus and not worrying too much about fatigue as I would have given I was listening to the monks. Coming from the monks, the EMX500S were slightly lacking and didn't have the sparkle I was looking for. Nonetheless, I felt the treble was still adequate and that the laid back treble was a bonus for extended listening sessions. The electronic music list that I use to test higher frequencies just felt slightly constricting to me however coming from the monks.
I honestly do not know how to gauge the size of the soundstage nor do I know how to accurately say whether the imaging was good or bad but I never felt that the soundstage was congested like when I listen to some closed back headphones and some IEMs. The imaging seemed to be very good from my ignorant experience.
I would also like to add that I did not do any foam-rolling of any sort. I used the stock foams that came with the EMX500s and I used the stock thin monk foams on the monks.
Overall, I think that the Fengru EMX 500S are a wonderful set of earbuds that for the price, have a definite positive value. Personally for me, the lower-mid range was slightly distant but the subbass and the midbass on these were just awesome compared to the Monks. I definitely think that the EMX500S do make a very good complementary earbud to the monks as they are perfect for more modern, slightly low-end emphasized music intended for long listening sessions whereas the monks I thought were perfect for more vocal driven detailed music. Hope that helps for people who are thinking of getting the EMX500S and who only have the monks to compare with. I am not an audiophile and I do not have the best ears. These are my personal impressions so take everything I said with a grain of salt. With that in mind, the Fengru EMX500S are pretty darn good for the price they are offered at. I can't wait to get the PK2s as those are the earbuds i'm really waiting for. Listen on everyone!
