just received my F5 last week, I feel a little salty when writing this.
My main inear is ER4s which I use for 3 years and always get amazed by its details and built quality. But its sound signature makes me feel a bit stressful sometimes, so that's why I want to experience a soft and wide soundstage IEM.
The phone from Fiio is actually really good, especially its soundstage. This is actually a step up from my beloved ER4S. Its mid is a bit thin, and laid back, so I have to crank my phone volume a little bit more ( - or maybe because I am too familiar to my ER4S sound). I swapped its defaul tips to spin fit tips and its treble gets too pronounced, not its mid, so spin fit is not a good idea.
Unfortunately, when I was enjoying Fiio F5, its sound was cut sometimes when I rotated my head, and there were static noises, come from the right. I unplugged and rechecked the MMCX connector, the right pin from the cable is broken.
I emailed to Fiio technical team (support@fiio.net) to ask for their supports, but there are no replies. I purchased this IEM from Amazon US and took it to Vietnam so not quite possible for me to claim a replacement from Amazon US.
The balance cable is still functional, but I don't have any good DAP at the moment to use it. I may need to replace its balanced plug to the normal 3.5 if I wan to use the Fiio F5 in the future.
Final words:
The broken pin may come from my fault when I tried to plug them together, but I do have experience with those connectors (I am the owner of Sennheiser HD25, Soranik custom and ER4s). I believe Fiio F5 pins are not really well built.
Also Fiio disconnects the inear phone and its cable at the beginning, they should put them together at the first time. I don't enjoy unpluging those connectors apart often because I know they are frangile.
Below is some pictures and sorry for my bad English. Just want to share some of my general impression about its build quality and sound.
The broken pin from 3.5mm cable
my handsome Fiio F5 and ugly ER4S