[zeissiez]

Wow! Thank you for these impressions! Sounds quite interesting to me! Do you own any higher priced IEM and could comment on "punches above its price range - yes or no?"

My daily drivers were Shure SE846 and Oriolus which I bought and sold years ago. Just got back to the hobby again lately and demoed quite a number of IEMs in a span of about 2 months. I demoed Softear Turii, Softear RSV, Dunu SA6, Dunu Zen, Tanchjim Oxygen, Moondrop Blessing2, Fiio FD5 (3 times, keep coming back to it ), Fiio FH5S, Meze Rai Penta, Rai Solo, Final Audio A4000, 64 Audio NEO, QDC Qmagic Triple DD. While most of these are great, but I would say the Fiios, A4000, the Moondrops stand out in value for money.

 

[alamnp]

My daily drivers were Shure SE846 and Oriolus which I bought and sold years ago. Just got back to the hobby again lately and demoed quite a number of IEMs in a span of about 2 months. I demoed Softear Turii, Softear RSV, Dunu SA6, Dunu Zen, Tanchjim Oxygen, Moondrop Blessing2, Fiio FD5 (3 times, keep coming back to it ), Fiio FH5S, Meze Rai Penta, Rai Solo, Final Audio A4000, 64 Audio NEO, QDC Qmagic Triple DD. While most of these are great, but I would say the Fiios, A4000, the Moondrops stand out in value for money.

How did you get to demo those???

 

[270995]

@FiiO
Availability in Europe?
Price in €?

 

[davehutch]

@FiiO
Availability in Europe?
Price in €?

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002547825019.html?spm=a2g0s.12269583.0.0.23fc7fbd08HbwT
Free shipping but Ali charge you the tax for your Country...or at least they do for the UK

 

[Hanesu]

My daily drivers were Shure SE846 and Oriolus which I bought and sold years ago. Just got back to the hobby again lately and demoed quite a number of IEMs in a span of about 2 months. I demoed Softear Turii, Softear RSV, Dunu SA6, Dunu Zen, Tanchjim Oxygen, Moondrop Blessing2, Fiio FD5 (3 times, keep coming back to it ), Fiio FH5S, Meze Rai Penta, Rai Solo, Final Audio A4000, 64 Audio NEO, QDC Qmagic Triple DD. While most of these are great, but I would say the Fiios, A4000, the Moondrops stand out in value for money.

Nice! So how do you think the FH5s compare to the Oriolus, Rai Penta and Blessing 2 with similar driver count and type?

 

[Hanesu]

Just the accessories of the FH5s seem to have a tremendous cost-performance! Great case, swappable cable with all included adapters....just wow for this price bracket! Btw, I like that Fiio took over the look and brading of their pure silver cables for this one!

 

[zeissiez]

Just the accessories of the FH5s seem to have a tremendous cost-performance! Great case, swappable cable with all included adapters....just wow for this price bracket! Btw, I like that Fiio took over the look and brading of their pure silver cables for this one!

Semi-open design, tuning switches, build quality, accessories, for this price is pretty attractive.

 

[zeissiez]

Nice! So how do you think the FH5s compare to the Oriolus, Rai Penta and Blessing 2 with similar driver count and type?

I can only describe the characteristics of them rather than the absolute sound quality, because I don’t have them side by side for comparison, and I haven’t heard the FH5S in its full potential.

The Blessing2 has a nice FR, but the FH5S is more coherent than the Blessing2. The Blessing2 has a bass more forward than the mids and treble. It’s also more trebly than the FH5S at default setting. I prefer the FH5S.

The Oriolus is always my benchmark for coherency, and the FH5S is just as good in this regard. The Oriolus is warmer than the FH5S and perhaps more euphoric. The FH5S is more neutral overall.

The Rai Penta has great resolution and richness in the mids. Both are natural sounding. Both having a mature sound. Without any part of the FR sticking out. If the original FH5 tries to call for attention in its bass, vocal and treble, the FH5S is quite the opposite of that, perhaps a little introverted.

A headfi show is coming up in 2 weeks, I’ll try to play with the switches and driven them with different sources.

 

[zeissiez]

How did you get to demo those???

At the local headfi shops here

 

[alamnp]

At the local headfi shops here

oh wow... where do you live?
I also want to open a headfi shop here in California, but I am afraid it won't have much foot traffic and sales...

I really loves Hi Fi sounds and systems

 

[zeissiez]

oh wow... where do you live?
I also want to open a headfi shop here in California, but I am afraid it won't have much foot traffic and sales...

I really loves Hi Fi sounds and systems

In my opinion, the conditions in the States and in East Asia are quite different. In the States, most people drive to work. In this part of the world, people live in small apartments, there’s little room for speakers, and they normally take public transport to work. And top of that, return policies in the States are more lenient. Having said that, if you have a space which doesn’t cost you too much rental, providing a place where headfiers can spend time comparing gear and exchange opinions does have its attractiveness. If you have a big enough scale, most of the demo units are supplied by the makers anyway. From what I have observed, a few of the half-hearted ones here died out. Let’s say there are 1000 iems in the market, carrying 100 is not satisfying for customers. Some of the headfi shops in China are pretty crazy, literally a good portion of what we find in a Canjam exhibition is available in a single shop, from top international brands to local startups. They have to do that to survive. It’s the same in Hong Kong and Japan.

 

[Ronion]

oh wow... where do you live?
I also want to open a headfi shop here in California, but I am afraid it won't have much foot traffic and sales...

I really loves Hi Fi sounds and systems

Where in CA? It might just work in SF, but I’d have my doubts anywhere outside of there and retail rent (as well as residential) is very high there, it wouldn’t be lucrative. It would be cool if you could do it! It’s definitely a tough market here. just look at the number of companies making headfi in East Asia vs here now. We have a nice HiFi here in Mountain View, but most of their business is in big, custom home theater jobs. They wouldn’t survive without that. They do sell headphones, including mostly the local brand(s) and German brands, but it’s just one small section in the store. It’s mostly Home Theater.

 

[LoryWiv]

Where in CA? It might just work in SF, but I’d have my doubts anywhere outside of there and retail rent (as well as residential) is very high there, it wouldn’t be lucrative. It would be cool if you could do it! It’s definitely a tough market here. just look at the number of companies making headfi in East Asia vs here now. We have a nice HiFi here in Mountain View, but most of their business is in big, custom home theater jobs. They wouldn’t survive without that. They do sell headphones, including mostly the local brand(s) and German brands, but it’s just one small section in the store. It’s mostly Home Theater.

I am in SF Bay Area and will be your 1st customer! Retail rents are dropping I'm told as people work from home, come on in!

 

[alamnp]

Where in CA? It might just work in SF, but I’d have my doubts anywhere outside of there and retail rent (as well as residential) is very high there, it wouldn’t be lucrative. It would be cool if you could do it! It’s definitely a tough market here. just look at the number of companies making headfi in East Asia vs here now. We have a nice HiFi here in Mountain View, but most of their business is in big, custom home theater jobs. They wouldn’t survive without that. They do sell headphones, including mostly the local brand(s) and German brands, but it’s just one small section in the store. It’s mostly Home Theater.

just a bit south of LA. I really want to open one small Hi Fi store, but don’t really want to throw my money down to the toilet, because I will be up against Amazon and Aliexpress.

Brick and mortar is dead IMO

 

[alamnp]

I am in SF Bay Area and will be your 1st customer! Retail rents are dropping I'm told as people work from home, come on in!

Rental retail here is about $5000 per month for 900 square feet. SF prolly $12000 per month in the Macy’s square.

I have to sell at least 20 big items per month to make it.

I was thinking doing high mid low tier and try to stay away from ultra high tier.