thesheik137
1000+ Head-Fier
After spending a week with the FiR M5, I feel like I can finally post my impressions.
Since I typically go for mostly neutral/warm-neutral tuned IEMs, it took some time to get accustomed to the M5 tonality. I forced brain burn-in by almost only listening to the M5 during this time. Sources ranged from LP6K to MBPro to ifiBL, but with Lid tech did not feel too much of a difference, with the exception of LP6K from which almost everything sounds better to me.
Boring Stuff:
Build quality, housings and cable are all very acceptable. Design is definitely not the most exciting out there, but it is very utilitarian: fits well, is solidly built and will definitely last. Its a shame that it is difficult to use other cables with the RCX connectors (using adapters did not lead to good fit for me), but the stock cable is quite good so I didn't mind too much.
Sound:
Strengths:
- Bass texture, kick, slam, decay are all outstanding.
- Mid-bass focused and natural tone, but quantity is quite a lot (borderline basshead?).
- Large quantity, but smooth/clean lower treble. Clear sound with no peaks. Non-fatiguing and very rarely gets too hot.
- (mid)bass and (lower)treble very present and in large quantities. Uniquely tuned to be both exciting and non-fatiguing.
Weaknesses:
- Upper-treble and slight sub-bass roll-off
- Pushed back mids, especially female vocals
- In-your-face layering and separation. Not quite TOTL.
- Soundstage is more vertical (mainly height rather than depth) and average horizontally
- Does not cope well with lots of background elements /complexity in music. They get lost in the mix due to stronger mid-bass and lower-treble presence
Other Comments:
- Able to recreate a live club/PA soundsystem-like experience
- Exciting, yet non-fatiguing "v-shape" (actually more like "m-shape")
- Not an all-rounder, but extremely enjoyable for simpler pop, electronic, rap/hip-hop genres.
(Simpler = not too many layers, easier to follow (4x4) bass/drums and melody/vocals)
- Would not recommend for complex music with lots of background elements or for female vocal focused music.
Thanks to @John2e and FiR for letting me be part of this tour, it has been an an enjoyable experience and I look forward to trying out more products from FiR.
Since I typically go for mostly neutral/warm-neutral tuned IEMs, it took some time to get accustomed to the M5 tonality. I forced brain burn-in by almost only listening to the M5 during this time. Sources ranged from LP6K to MBPro to ifiBL, but with Lid tech did not feel too much of a difference, with the exception of LP6K from which almost everything sounds better to me.
Boring Stuff:
Build quality, housings and cable are all very acceptable. Design is definitely not the most exciting out there, but it is very utilitarian: fits well, is solidly built and will definitely last. Its a shame that it is difficult to use other cables with the RCX connectors (using adapters did not lead to good fit for me), but the stock cable is quite good so I didn't mind too much.
Sound:
Strengths:
- Bass texture, kick, slam, decay are all outstanding.
- Mid-bass focused and natural tone, but quantity is quite a lot (borderline basshead?).
- Large quantity, but smooth/clean lower treble. Clear sound with no peaks. Non-fatiguing and very rarely gets too hot.
- (mid)bass and (lower)treble very present and in large quantities. Uniquely tuned to be both exciting and non-fatiguing.
Weaknesses:
- Upper-treble and slight sub-bass roll-off
- Pushed back mids, especially female vocals
- In-your-face layering and separation. Not quite TOTL.
- Soundstage is more vertical (mainly height rather than depth) and average horizontally
- Does not cope well with lots of background elements /complexity in music. They get lost in the mix due to stronger mid-bass and lower-treble presence
Other Comments:
- Able to recreate a live club/PA soundsystem-like experience
- Exciting, yet non-fatiguing "v-shape" (actually more like "m-shape")
- Not an all-rounder, but extremely enjoyable for simpler pop, electronic, rap/hip-hop genres.
(Simpler = not too many layers, easier to follow (4x4) bass/drums and melody/vocals)
- Would not recommend for complex music with lots of background elements or for female vocal focused music.
Thanks to @John2e and FiR for letting me be part of this tour, it has been an an enjoyable experience and I look forward to trying out more products from FiR.