[iems0nly]

E4000 review is up! Enjoy the read.

 

[SpeedyClaxton4]

Hmm. I liked both the E2000/E3000. For $45/$55 you'd be hard pressed to do much better IMO, both very good, essentially the same level just different tuning. Now the upgrades to both of these are priced $130 apart? To me that means either the E4000 has to be crazy good value, or the E5000 has to be a significant step up? From the few impressions I've seen it seems similar to the previous models, lower model being a bit more neutral, the higher being a bit warmer, but both being very capable. I realize the 5000 is stainless steel and the cable seems better, but still, the pricing confuses me.

 

[TLDRonin]

Hmm. I liked both the E2000/E3000. For $45/$55 you'd be hard pressed to do much better IMO, both very good, essentially the same level just different tuning. Now the upgrades to both of these are priced $130 apart? To me that means either the E4000 has to be crazy good value, or the E5000 has to be a significant step up? From the few impressions I've seen it seems similar to the previous models, lower model being a bit more neutral, the higher being a bit warmer, but both being very capable. I realize the 5000 is stainless steel and the cable seems better, but still, the pricing confuses me.

The cable the e5000 comes with retails for the almost same price as the e5000 itself.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

The cable the e5000 comes with retails for the almost same price as the e5000 itself.

LoL....
I have E4000 and my friend have E5000, listened to both of them but I liked E4k more....

We swapped cable with plusssound X8 pure silver(stolen....sorry joke intended, a audiophile lender us) and just saw a little improvent in the blackness of IEM....

I realised then, final drivers a heck linear on impedance ...their sound scale very less with DAC and AMP(until or unless it is a crappy amp). That's a good thing as I can use cheap cables which have low impedances if they ever needed replacement.

On sweetspot volume setting, lay on your bed and close your eyes....these sounds so euphoric that if you listen classical, you will fall asleep in 2mins.

They are not neutral but euphorically balanced.

E5000 is like iBasso it01 with a little more depth and stage.
@CoiL iBasso it01 can beat it with a flick(that was a joke, but it can, because he did tuned the driver himself).

By the way E4000 is pure love

 

[CoiL]

E5000 is like iBasso it01 with a little more depth and stage.
@CoiL iBasso it01 can beat it with a flick(that was a joke, but it can, because he did tuned the driver himself).

My modded IT01 does have little more depth and stage compared to stock IT01 but please don`t say things like that (yes I understood it was more of joke) because
I tuned them perfect only to my ears & gear. Before someone could measure my mod against stock one and maybe some other IEMs, no-one can claim anything about them.
I`m just happy I achieved that result for myself and don`t think & like to hype it as "better than everything".
Btw, I have absolutely no experience with final audio, so, sorry for offtopic.

 

[dhruvmeena96]

My modded IT01 does have little more depth and stage compared to stock IT01 but please don`t say things like that (yes I understood it was more of joke) because
I tuned them perfect only to my ears & gear. Before someone could measure my mod against stock one and maybe some other IEMs, no-one can claim anything about them.
I`m just happy I achieved that result for myself and don`t think & like to hype it as "better than everything".
Btw, I have absolutely no experience with final audio, so, sorry for offtopic.

Lol


That was a joke bro

 

[ChaosLink]

Just got my E5000. Warm (maybe dark), lush and detailed. Spectacular when paired with Kann on high gain. Probably my go-to IEMs now. Granted they are not nearly as good as Piano Forte. But I would not wear my Piano Forte XX-CC out when I'm walking.

 

[TLDRonin]

The stainless steel finish on the e5000 is nice, but it picks up surface scratches very easily. None of the scratches deep/feelable, but you have to look under a light to really see it.



I almost always keep it in the case since I knew this would eventually happen

 

[Feilong4]

Anyone heard the E5000 and the Sony XBA N3?

 

[kevinscottcaja]

Hi all, I just bought the E5000 as I don't want to bring my Westone UMPro50 v2 on my daily commute. Anyway, has everyone tried removing the white filter in front of their E5000? The filter itself is a bit thick and compared to other earwax filters from some of my dynamic driver IEMs this one has much smaller and finer holes which cuts out a lot of treble. I removed mine and the treble is now very clear. Bass is now balanced and still goes very deep specially in the sub bass region. It almost sounds like my Westone UMPro50 v2 but more coherent but still lacks that top end clarity. I might need to find a similar sized metal grill to prevent earwax from entering the dynamic driver, or eartips with wax guard. Anyway, very happy with my modded E5000 sound.

 

[kevinscottcaja]

DELETE

 

[TLDRonin]

Hi all, I just bought the E5000 as I don't want to bring my Westone UMPro50 v2 on my daily commute. Anyway, has everyone tried removing the white filter in front of their E5000? The filter itself is a bit thick and compared to other earwax filters from some of my dynamic driver IEMs this one has much smaller and finer holes which cuts out a lot of treble. I removed mine and the treble is now very clear. Bass is now balanced and still goes very deep specially in the sub bass region. It almost sounds like my Westone UMPro50 v2 but more coherent but still lacks that top end clarity. I might need to find a similar sized metal grill to prevent earwax from entering the dynamic driver, or eartips with wax guard. Anyway, very happy with my modded E5000 sound.

I'm almost sure its tunes with the filter in mind, so I personally wouldn't remove it from mine. I don't find the bass unbalanced at all; I like and trust how final audio tuned the E5000s

 

[Feilong4]

Well I pulled the trigger and got myself an E5000. Someone's mention of the natural timbre had me sold - well also of course because of the warm sound signature coupled with the smooth treble response that I've been reading about. I was considering these or the Sony XBA-N3, but I eventually went for the E5000 because 20 bucks is 20 bucks.. (The N3 is 299 USD on Amazon whereas the E5000 is 279 USD). Ok well no, another deciding factor was that the E5000 looks like it would isolate more than the N3. Oh and that braided cable though.. *drools*

Babble:
So I guess as an "about my preferences" in IEMs or preface, I like warmer sound in IEMs so that it's less fatiguing while out and about. I really dislike being drilled by any sorts of sharpness or peakiness especially with IEMs - I think it may be because the distance is shorter from the driver to the eardrums but I dunno. I find headphones to be more tolerable in this area. As some kind of reference, I found the Andromeda to be a bit too bright up top - my source was (and will be for the following E5000 impressions) an LG V20 so take what you will. I'm also very picky with the midrange and upper midrange. I don't like much emphasis there - example being the "Audio Technica's house sound" which I find pretty unnatural and shouty. As for bass, I like an elevated response though not much mid-bass bloat.

I wanted to "upgrade" from my current IEMs, the Spider Realvoice, for something that is more refined in the upper midrange and treble, while also being just a bit less bassy. Well, I got one out of the two.

General first impressions:
- Nice minimalistic packaging
- Soft-shell case is a bit uhh.. disappointing. It might be more protective than I think, but it doesn't really inspire confidence if I happen to drop them with the IEMs inside.
- Nice soft braided cable - fair amount of cable noise if it hits against the body
- Seemingly very durable right-angle jack with a good amount of strain relief - I'd imagine this part won't start wearing down for a while.
- Earpieces themselves feel very nice though I imagine the letterings on them will wear out pretty quickly.
- Isolation is pretty good with stock eartips. I would say above average - quite a bit better than the Andromeda as a comparison.
- No hissing! Woo! Needs a bit of power with its fairly low sensitivity at 93 db/mW
- Just realized, no driver flex! It's using a 6.4mm dynamic driver. I had a look on their product site and the acoustics going on inside is very interesting (well to me at least).

First impressions on sound (using Sony hybrid eartips):
Well, these do have a pretty natural timbre. I just notice there seems to be a slight upper midrange emphasis that gives instruments and vocals just a slightly brighter characteristic. It's not unpleasant but surprisingly kinda pleasant and welcomed when listening to Pop or female vocalists (the latter consisting 90% of my music library). Otherwise, no complaints from me in the midrange - pretty natural and smooth sounding, no odd emphasis that really sticks out nor lack of clarity from recession. With the Sony hybrid eartips, it seems like this region is reduced just a bit.

Moving towards what I think the strongest point of this IEM is in its treble response. Smooth, but articulate and clear. I don't notice any harsh peaks nor weird dips. One song in particular that I'm listening to that is mastered hot, sounds great ("Million Clouds" by Maaya Sakamoto). That song is so sibilant that it has me wincing on brighter headphones/IEMs, but with the E5000 it's pleasant and hey, no wincing! Doesn't give an immediate sense of detail, but I think it's tuned very well in this region.

Now moving towards to what I think is the most disappointing part: Its bass response. Well for the things it does well, it's punchy; extends well - I can hear the rumbles clearly; and with its mid-bass emphasis, the E5000 gives this fairly warm and pleasant response for the most part. Even so, the response is fairly boomy with its bass boost creeping into the midrange which was my main complaint with the Spider Realvoice. A couple of songs that don't sound too good with this warm response are "Get Lucky" and "Lose Yourself to Dance", both by Daft Punk. With the two songs, the E5000 sounds bloated and way too thick. However in certain electronic tracks like "Yours Truly (Jikes Remix)" by MrFijiWiji or "Transcendence" by Lindsey Stirling, I found the E5000 to be really fun to listen to in this regard. All in all, a hit and miss in this region for different songs.

Going back to what I said in the second paragraph of the "Babble" section, I wanted something a bit less bassy than what the Spider Realvoice. With that in mind, I was already expecting/hoping for something else so sure, not entirely fair. To the E5000's credit, they do sound much more natural and articulate in the upper midrange and treble. The Realvoice sounds congested in comparison to the E5000 - Rather than frequency responses dictating my thoughts here, I think it's because the E5000 does a noticeably better job of separation instruments in that it doesn't sound like a cluster of instruments like in the Realvoice.

Overall:
Pretty happy and only "pretty happy" because I'm cheap and I got these for 279 USD on Amazon. I'd be a lot happier at 200 USD and ecstatic at 150 USD. Warm and pleasant sound. A bit too much mid-bass emphasis that carries onto the lower midrange and midrange. Otherwise, very refined and smooth response from the midrange on up.

Measurements (on MiniDSP EARS, MiniDSP's In-ear diffuse field calibration, no smoothing):

 

[Jawed]

First impressions on sound (using Sony hybrid eartips):

I wouldn't be surprised if they're the cause of the bass problem.

 

[Oscar-HiFi]

I wouldn't be surprised if they're the cause of the bass problem.

Agreed, the E series tips were developed especially for them.