u/Yuppersbutters

BASN MMCX

TL:DR

10/10 unboxing, 8/10 sound, 10/10 accessories, 1/10 cable, 7.25/10 overall

Pros:

Sound quality

Unboxing

Most Accessories 

Fit

Cons: 

Cable

Intro

Let me start off by saying this: this IEM is one of the first I've ever reviewed where I genuinely hate something about it. It's also my lowest-scoring IEM, and that's not because of the sound. It's because of the cable.

And honestly, that's kind of crazy.

I absolutely pride myself on being honest in my reviews, and this cable is bad enough that I'll probably never use this IEM with it. But everything else about this set is honestly damn near beyond reproach.

I wouldn't be much of a reviewer if I wasn't honest about that. My goal is to help people make informed decisions, and if I didn't highlight something this significant, I wouldn't be doing my job very well, now would I?

But honestly, if this were my first IEM, this cable might have been enough to keep me from getting into this hobby in the first place! With that said, I have a new cable coming, and if this finally makes it into my daily rotation, I'll update the review accordingly!

With all of that said!!!!! Out of all the unboxings I've ever done, and I don't just mean IEMs, I mean every unboxing I've ever done, this might be the most luxurious.

But there's more to it than just that.

You can tell that BASN really focuses on the luxury side of the audio world. They seem to put a huge amount of emphasis on a part of this hobby that most of us don't really think about...

The musicians.

And that philosophy comes through pretty clearly with the MMCX.

You're getting what I'd call a warm, fun IEM with hella bass, but there is a trade-off.

You lose a little bit of comfort.

But I'll get more into that later.

Epic Story

I was born with a guitar in my hands... almost literally.

My father died when I was two years old, and his family came in like vultures, collected all of his belongings, and pushed my mother and me out.

The one thing I was left with was his guitar.

I learned to play before I had even really started school, and I've played on and off pretty much my entire life.

Eventually, I picked up other instruments too. Piano? Done it. Violin? Listen, Lastat was awesome in Queen of the Damned... don't judge me.

And a bunch of others.

But when I got into high school, I made a group of friends, and one of them, we'll call him JJ... because that was his name... had a barn.

And that barn became our hangout.

We'd get together every weekend. We'd have these two-day jam sessions where we'd just play music until we couldn't play anymore.

And the funny thing about this barn was that it had electricity...

But it wasn't grounded.

So if you took your shoes off and grabbed an electric guitar, you'd get shocked.

Hell, we used to have contests to see who could play the longest without quitting.

I won't say I won that contest every time...

But I held my own.

Let's just say I got really comfortable being uncomfortable.

Disclosure

Listen, BASN sent me this set for the purpose of a review. They didn't pay me to say nice things about it, and all opinions are my own.

What's in the Box

Yeah, you read above that I believe this IEM has one of the most luxurious unboxing experiences I've ever seen, especially in this price range...

But I didn't actually tell you what's in the box.

So I guess I should probably get on that.

First, obviously, you get the BASN MMCX itself, which is a triple-driver IEM.

Two dynamic drivers, which are heavily focused on the lows, as they should be.

And one balanced armature doing it all, with the mids and highs being handled... rather well.

Then we've got two detachable cables.

You've got the silver-plated audio cable, which BASN designed for maximum audio clarity on stage, and you've also got a woven mobile cable with an inline microphone and volume controls.

This is the part of the set I absolutely dislike, and honestly, it drops the whole thing down two points.

The silver-plated braided cable is absolutely uncomfortable. It isn't pre-shaped to your ears... no, it's like a bread twist tie.

Great idea, awful execution.

It never sits quite right, it's stiff, and it fights against you the whole time. And the cable itself is actually just as bad. It's sharp instead of soft.

The other cable is better. The one with the mic is actually pretty decent. It still has the same weird twist-tie thing, but that's somehow better. It actually stays put, even if, after a few hours, it tries to fight its way back to being straight.

The whole cable thing is weird because everything else about this set is great!

Like the fact that it comes with...

Twelve pairs of ear tips.

Three pairs of memory foam in small, medium, and large.

Three pairs of single-layer silicone.

Three pairs of double-layer silicone.

And three pairs of triple-layer silicone.

And let me tell you, I've actually used most of these testing out other sets of IEMs too. They're actually all that good...

That's saying a lot.

You've also got a hard protective carrying case, a 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold-plated adapter, a shirt clip, a little cleaning brush, and the instruction manual.

The case is actually interesting. Most cases these days are thick and not pocket-friendly, but they can hold a couple pairs of IEMs and a DAC. This one is thin.

Like, really thin.

I was only able to fit the IEMs in the case. No DAC, no extra set.

But I will tell you, it's incredibly pocketable.

And it's shiny, sleek, and more like a Lambo than any other set I've ever used!

And if you want to see the entire unboxing, you can check that out here:

I also tried some new editing with this one, so definitely let me know what you think.

Tech Stuff

Driver configuration: 2 dynamic drivers + 1 balanced armature

Dynamic drivers: Dual 10mm diaphragms

Frequency response: 20 Hz–22 kHz

Impedance: 34 Ω

Sensitivity: 107 dB

Connector: MMCX

Cable length: 1.5 m

Detachable cables: 2

Intended use: Musicians, singers, drummers, and stage monitoring

Noise isolation: Passive/sealed design

Price: $95.99 USD

Actual Review

Sound

So what do these actually sound like?

Honestly, the sound on these is great!

They are...

Warm. Fun. And bassy as hell.

The low end has a lot of presence without completely swallowing everything else. The mids stay surprisingly clean, and the treble gives these enough detail to keep things from getting muddy.

But what really surprised me was the technical performance.

The soundstage is bigger than I expected, and the imaging is genuinely impressive for something in this price range.

And honestly... the out-of-box tuning is almost exactly what I want.

Which makes the cable situation even more frustrating.

But because of that cable...

I never reach for these.

Honestly, I'd rather use the PULA than these, and that kind of sucks because I really like how these sound.

It's bad enough that I actually ordered a replacement cable just so I can use these without all the little inconveniences that come with the cable.

And that's where I land with the BASN MMCX.

Would I replace these if they were lost or broken?

No.

Not with the current cable.

Would I replace them if they were on sale?

They're actually on sale right now, and even then, no... unless we're talking strictly about the IEM itself.

If we're judging these purely on sound and the accessories BASN includes, then absolutely.

I'd buy them without thinking twice.

But as an entire package, that cable changes the equation for me.

And that's frustrating, because underneath that cable is an IEM that I genuinely really like.

In Closing

If you don't mind buying a new cable, or if you don't mind a weird-fitting IEM, grab these.

The IEM itself sounds great for the price range. Not the best, but it's good enough!

It's honestly good enough that I would use these sometimes when I'm out and about, or when I'm grilling or smoking meats.

But the cable keeps me from reaching for them, and I'm likely being overly critical!

So maybe... just maybe... you should try them for yourself!

I will rewrite this review with a better cable when my new one arrives.

Rating

 Sound: 8 out of 10

Accessories: 10 out of 10

Cable: 1 out of 10

Overall: 7.25 out of 10

BASN MMCX

TL:DR

10/10 unboxing, 8/10 sound, 10/10 accessories, 1/10 cable, 7.25/10 overall

Pros:

Sound quality

Unboxing

Most Accessories 

Fit

Cons: 

Cable

Intro

Let me start off by saying this: this IEM is one of the first I've ever reviewed where I genuinely hate something about it. It's also my lowest-scoring IEM, and that's not because of the sound. It's because of the cable.

And honestly, that's kind of crazy.

I absolutely pride myself on being honest in my reviews, and this cable is bad enough that I'll probably never use this IEM with it. But everything else about this set is honestly damn near beyond reproach.

I wouldn't be much of a reviewer if I wasn't honest about that. My goal is to help people make informed decisions, and if I didn't highlight something this significant, I wouldn't be doing my job very well, now would I?

But honestly, if this were my first IEM, this cable might have been enough to keep me from getting into this hobby in the first place! With that said, I have a new cable coming, and if this finally makes it into my daily rotation, I'll update the review accordingly!

With all of that said!!!!! Out of all the unboxings I've ever done, and I don't just mean IEMs, I mean every unboxing I've ever done, this might be the most luxurious.

But there's more to it than just that.

You can tell that BASN really focuses on the luxury side of the audio world. They seem to put a huge amount of emphasis on a part of this hobby that most of us don't really think about...

The musicians.

And that philosophy comes through pretty clearly with the MMCX.

You're getting what I'd call a warm, fun IEM with hella bass, but there is a trade-off.

You lose a little bit of comfort.

But I'll get more into that later.

Epic Story

I was born with a guitar in my hands... almost literally.

My father died when I was two years old, and his family came in like vultures, collected all of his belongings, and pushed my mother and me out.

The one thing I was left with was his guitar.

I learned to play before I had even really started school, and I've played on and off pretty much my entire life.

Eventually, I picked up other instruments too. Piano? Done it. Violin? Listen, Lastat was awesome in Queen of the Damned... don't judge me.

And a bunch of others.

But when I got into high school, I made a group of friends, and one of them, we'll call him JJ... because that was his name... had a barn.

And that barn became our hangout.

We'd get together every weekend. We'd have these two-day jam sessions where we'd just play music until we couldn't play anymore.

And the funny thing about this barn was that it had electricity...

But it wasn't grounded.

So if you took your shoes off and grabbed an electric guitar, you'd get shocked.

Hell, we used to have contests to see who could play the longest without quitting.

I won't say I won that contest every time...

But I held my own.

Let's just say I got really comfortable being uncomfortable.

Disclosure

Listen, BASN sent me this set for the purpose of a review. They didn't pay me to say nice things about it, and all opinions are my own.

What's in the Box

Yeah, you read above that I believe this IEM has one of the most luxurious unboxing experiences I've ever seen, especially in this price range...

But I didn't actually tell you what's in the box.

So I guess I should probably get on that.

First, obviously, you get the BASN MMCX itself, which is a triple-driver IEM.

Two dynamic drivers, which are heavily focused on the lows, as they should be.

And one balanced armature doing it all, with the mids and highs being handled... rather well.

Then we've got two detachable cables.

You've got the silver-plated audio cable, which BASN designed for maximum audio clarity on stage, and you've also got a woven mobile cable with an inline microphone and volume controls.

This is the part of the set I absolutely dislike, and honestly, it drops the whole thing down two points.

The silver-plated braided cable is absolutely uncomfortable. It isn't pre-shaped to your ears... no, it's like a bread twist tie.

Great idea, awful execution.

It never sits quite right, it's stiff, and it fights against you the whole time. And the cable itself is actually just as bad. It's sharp instead of soft.

The other cable is better. The one with the mic is actually pretty decent. It still has the same weird twist-tie thing, but that's somehow better. It actually stays put, even if, after a few hours, it tries to fight its way back to being straight.

The whole cable thing is weird because everything else about this set is great!

Like the fact that it comes with...

Twelve pairs of ear tips.

Three pairs of memory foam in small, medium, and large.

Three pairs of single-layer silicone.

Three pairs of double-layer silicone.

And three pairs of triple-layer silicone.

And let me tell you, I've actually used most of these testing out other sets of IEMs too. They're actually all that good...

That's saying a lot.

You've also got a hard protective carrying case, a 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold-plated adapter, a shirt clip, a little cleaning brush, and the instruction manual.

The case is actually interesting. Most cases these days are thick and not pocket-friendly, but they can hold a couple pairs of IEMs and a DAC. This one is thin.

Like, really thin.

I was only able to fit the IEMs in the case. No DAC, no extra set.

But I will tell you, it's incredibly pocketable.

And it's shiny, sleek, and more like a Lambo than any other set I've ever used!

And if you want to see the entire unboxing, you can check that out here:

I also tried some new editing with this one, so definitely let me know what you think.

Tech Stuff

Driver configuration: 2 dynamic drivers + 1 balanced armature

Dynamic drivers: Dual 10mm diaphragms

Frequency response: 20 Hz–22 kHz

Impedance: 34 Ω

Sensitivity: 107 dB

Connector: MMCX

Cable length: 1.5 m

Detachable cables: 2

Intended use: Musicians, singers, drummers, and stage monitoring

Noise isolation: Passive/sealed design

Price: $95.99 USD

Actual Review

Sound

So what do these actually sound like?

Honestly, the sound on these is great!

They are...

Warm. Fun. And bassy as hell.

The low end has a lot of presence without completely swallowing everything else. The mids stay surprisingly clean, and the treble gives these enough detail to keep things from getting muddy.

But what really surprised me was the technical performance.

The soundstage is bigger than I expected, and the imaging is genuinely impressive for something in this price range.

And honestly... the out-of-box tuning is almost exactly what I want.

Which makes the cable situation even more frustrating.

But because of that cable...

I never reach for these.

Honestly, I'd rather use the PULA than these, and that kind of sucks because I really like how these sound.

It's bad enough that I actually ordered a replacement cable just so I can use these without all the little inconveniences that come with the cable.

And that's where I land with the BASN MMCX.

Would I replace these if they were lost or broken?

No.

Not with the current cable.

Would I replace them if they were on sale?

They're actually on sale right now, and even then, no... unless we're talking strictly about the IEM itself.

If we're judging these purely on sound and the accessories BASN includes, then absolutely.

I'd buy them without thinking twice.

But as an entire package, that cable changes the equation for me.

And that's frustrating, because underneath that cable is an IEM that I genuinely really like.

In Closing

If you don't mind buying a new cable, or if you don't mind a weird-fitting IEM, grab these.

The IEM itself sounds great for the price range. Not the best, but it's good enough!

It's honestly good enough that I would use these sometimes when I'm out and about, or when I'm grilling or smoking meats.

But the cable keeps me from reaching for them, and I'm likely being overly critical!

So maybe... just maybe... you should try them for yourself!

I will rewrite this review with a better cable when my new one arrives.

Rating

 Sound: 8 out of 10

Accessories: 10 out of 10

Cable: 1 out of 10

Overall: 7.25 out of 10

​

TL:DR

10/10 unboxing, 8/10 sound, 10/10 accessories, 1/10 cable, 7.25/10 overall

Pros:

Sound quality

Unboxing

Most Accessories 

Fit

Cons: 

Cable

Intro

Let me start off by saying this: this IEM is one of the first I've ever reviewed where I genuinely hate something about it. It's also my lowest-scoring IEM, and that's not because of the sound. It's because of the cable.

And honestly, that's kind of crazy.

I absolutely pride myself on being honest in my reviews, and this cable is bad enough that I'll probably never use this IEM with it. But everything else about this set is honestly damn near beyond reproach.

I wouldn't be much of a reviewer if I wasn't honest about that. My goal is to help people make informed decisions, and if I didn't highlight something this significant, I wouldn't be doing my job very well, now would I?

But honestly, if this were my first IEM, this cable might have been enough to keep me from getting into this hobby in the first place! With that said, I have a new cable coming, and if this finally makes it into my daily rotation, I'll update the review accordingly!

With all of that said!!!!! Out of all the unboxings I've ever done, and I don't just mean IEMs, I mean every unboxing I've ever done, this might be the most luxurious.

But there's more to it than just that.

You can tell that BASN really focuses on the luxury side of the audio world. They seem to put a huge amount of emphasis on a part of this hobby that most of us don't really think about...

The musicians.

And that philosophy comes through pretty clearly with the MMCX.

You're getting what I'd call a warm, fun IEM with hella bass, but there is a trade-off.

You lose a little bit of comfort.

But I'll get more into that later.

Epic Story

I was born with a guitar in my hands... almost literally.

My father died when I was two years old, and his family came in like vultures, collected all of his belongings, and pushed my mother and me out.

The one thing I was left with was his guitar.

I learned to play before I had even really started school, and I've played on and off pretty much my entire life.

Eventually, I picked up other instruments too. Piano? Done it. Violin? Listen, Lastat was awesome in Queen of the Damned... don't judge me.

And a bunch of others.

But when I got into high school, I made a group of friends, and one of them, we'll call him JJ... because that was his name... had a barn.

And that barn became our hangout.

We'd get together every weekend. We'd have these two-day jam sessions where we'd just play music until we couldn't play anymore.

And the funny thing about this barn was that it had electricity...

But it wasn't grounded.

So if you took your shoes off and grabbed an electric guitar, you'd get shocked.

Hell, we used to have contests to see who could play the longest without quitting.

I won't say I won that contest every time...

But I held my own.

Let's just say I got really comfortable being uncomfortable.

Disclosure

Listen, BASN sent me this set for the purpose of a review. They didn't pay me to say nice things about it, and all opinions are my own.

What's in the Box

Yeah, you read above that I believe this IEM has one of the most luxurious unboxing experiences I've ever seen, especially in this price range...

But I didn't actually tell you what's in the box.

So I guess I should probably get on that.

First, obviously, you get the BASN MMCX itself, which is a triple-driver IEM.

Two dynamic drivers, which are heavily focused on the lows, as they should be.

And one balanced armature doing it all, with the mids and highs being handled... rather well.

Then we've got two detachable cables.

You've got the silver-plated audio cable, which BASN designed for maximum audio clarity on stage, and you've also got a woven mobile cable with an inline microphone and volume controls.

This is the part of the set I absolutely dislike, and honestly, it drops the whole thing down two points.

The silver-plated braided cable is absolutely uncomfortable. It isn't pre-shaped to your ears... no, it's like a bread twist tie.

Great idea, awful execution.

It never sits quite right, it's stiff, and it fights against you the whole time. And the cable itself is actually just as bad. It's sharp instead of soft.

The other cable is better. The one with the mic is actually pretty decent. It still has the same weird twist-tie thing, but that's somehow better. It actually stays put, even if, after a few hours, it tries to fight its way back to being straight.

The whole cable thing is weird because everything else about this set is great!

Like the fact that it comes with...

Twelve pairs of ear tips.

Three pairs of memory foam in small, medium, and large.

Three pairs of single-layer silicone.

Three pairs of double-layer silicone.

And three pairs of triple-layer silicone.

And let me tell you, I've actually used most of these testing out other sets of IEMs too. They're actually all that good...

That's saying a lot.

You've also got a hard protective carrying case, a 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold-plated adapter, a shirt clip, a little cleaning brush, and the instruction manual.

The case is actually interesting. Most cases these days are thick and not pocket-friendly, but they can hold a couple pairs of IEMs and a DAC. This one is thin.

Like, really thin.

I was only able to fit the IEMs in the case. No DAC, no extra set.

But I will tell you, it's incredibly pocketable.

And it's shiny, sleek, and more like a Lambo than any other set I've ever used!

And if you want to see the entire unboxing, you can check that out here:

I also tried some new editing with this one, so definitely let me know what you think.

Tech Stuff

Driver configuration: 2 dynamic drivers + 1 balanced armature

Dynamic drivers: Dual 10mm diaphragms

Frequency response: 20 Hz–22 kHz

Impedance: 34 Ω

Sensitivity: 107 dB

Connector: MMCX

Cable length: 1.5 m

Detachable cables: 2

Intended use: Musicians, singers, drummers, and stage monitoring

Noise isolation: Passive/sealed design

Price: $95.99 USD

Actual Review

Sound

So what do these actually sound like?

Honestly, the sound on these is great!

They are...

Warm. Fun. And bassy as hell.

The low end has a lot of presence without completely swallowing everything else. The mids stay surprisingly clean, and the treble gives these enough detail to keep things from getting muddy.

But what really surprised me was the technical performance.

The soundstage is bigger than I expected, and the imaging is genuinely impressive for something in this price range.

And honestly... the out-of-box tuning is almost exactly what I want.

Which makes the cable situation even more frustrating.

But because of that cable...

I never reach for these.

Honestly, I'd rather use the PULA than these, and that kind of sucks because I really like how these sound.

It's bad enough that I actually ordered a replacement cable just so I can use these without all the little inconveniences that come with the cable.

And that's where I land with the BASN MMCX.

Would I replace these if they were lost or broken?

No.

Not with the current cable.

Would I replace them if they were on sale?

They're actually on sale right now, and even then, no... unless we're talking strictly about the IEM itself.

If we're judging these purely on sound and the accessories BASN includes, then absolutely.

I'd buy them without thinking twice.

But as an entire package, that cable changes the equation for me.

And that's frustrating, because underneath that cable is an IEM that I genuinely really like.

In Closing

If you don't mind buying a new cable, or if you don't mind a weird-fitting IEM, grab these.

The IEM itself sounds great for the price range. Not the best, but it's good enough!

It's honestly good enough that I would use these sometimes when I'm out and about, or when I'm grilling or smoking meats.

But the cable keeps me from reaching for them, and I'm likely being overly critical!

So maybe... just maybe... you should try them for yourself!

I will rewrite this review with a better cable when my new one arrives.

Rating

 Sound: 8 out of 10

Accessories: 10 out of 10

Cable: 1 out of 10

Overall: 7.25 out of 10

​

TL:DR

10/10 unboxing, 8/10 sound, 10/10 accessories, 1/10 cable, 7.25/10 overall

Pros:

Sound quality

Unboxing

Most Accessories 

Fit

Cons: 

Cable

Intro

Let me start off by saying this: this IEM is one of the first I've ever reviewed where I genuinely hate something about it. It's also my lowest-scoring IEM, and that's not because of the sound. It's because of the cable.

And honestly, that's kind of crazy.

I absolutely pride myself on being honest in my reviews, and this cable is bad enough that I'll probably never use this IEM with it. But everything else about this set is honestly damn near beyond reproach.

I wouldn't be much of a reviewer if I wasn't honest about that. My goal is to help people make informed decisions, and if I didn't highlight something this significant, I wouldn't be doing my job very well, now would I?

But honestly, if this were my first IEM, this cable might have been enough to keep me from getting into this hobby in the first place! With that said, I have a new cable coming, and if this finally makes it into my daily rotation, I'll update the review accordingly!

With all of that said!!!!! Out of all the unboxings I've ever done, and I don't just mean IEMs, I mean every unboxing I've ever done, this might be the most luxurious.

But there's more to it than just that.

You can tell that BASN really focuses on the luxury side of the audio world. They seem to put a huge amount of emphasis on a part of this hobby that most of us don't really think about...

The musicians.

And that philosophy comes through pretty clearly with the MMCX.

You're getting what I'd call a warm, fun IEM with hella bass, but there is a trade-off.

You lose a little bit of comfort.

But I'll get more into that later.

Epic Story

I was born with a guitar in my hands... almost literally.

My father died when I was two years old, and his family came in like vultures, collected all of his belongings, and pushed my mother and me out.

The one thing I was left with was his guitar.

I learned to play before I had even really started school, and I've played on and off pretty much my entire life.

Eventually, I picked up other instruments too. Piano? Done it. Violin? Listen, Lastat was awesome in Queen of the Damned... don't judge me.

And a bunch of others.

But when I got into high school, I made a group of friends, and one of them, we'll call him JJ... because that was his name... had a barn.

And that barn became our hangout.

We'd get together every weekend. We'd have these two-day jam sessions where we'd just play music until we couldn't play anymore.

And the funny thing about this barn was that it had electricity...

But it wasn't grounded.

So if you took your shoes off and grabbed an electric guitar, you'd get shocked.

Hell, we used to have contests to see who could play the longest without quitting.

I won't say I won that contest every time...

But I held my own.

Let's just say I got really comfortable being uncomfortable.

Disclosure

Listen, BASN sent me this set for the purpose of a review. They didn't pay me to say nice things about it, and all opinions are my own.

What's in the Box

Yeah, you read above that I believe this IEM has one of the most luxurious unboxing experiences I've ever seen, especially in this price range...

But I didn't actually tell you what's in the box.

So I guess I should probably get on that.

First, obviously, you get the BASN MMCX itself, which is a triple-driver IEM.

Two dynamic drivers, which are heavily focused on the lows, as they should be.

And one balanced armature doing it all, with the mids and highs being handled... rather well.

Then we've got two detachable cables.

You've got the silver-plated audio cable, which BASN designed for maximum audio clarity on stage, and you've also got a woven mobile cable with an inline microphone and volume controls.

This is the part of the set I absolutely dislike, and honestly, it drops the whole thing down two points.

The silver-plated braided cable is absolutely uncomfortable. It isn't pre-shaped to your ears... no, it's like a bread twist tie.

Great idea, awful execution.

It never sits quite right, it's stiff, and it fights against you the whole time. And the cable itself is actually just as bad. It's sharp instead of soft.

The other cable is better. The one with the mic is actually pretty decent. It still has the same weird twist-tie thing, but that's somehow better. It actually stays put, even if, after a few hours, it tries to fight its way back to being straight.

The whole cable thing is weird because everything else about this set is great!

Like the fact that it comes with...

Twelve pairs of ear tips.

Three pairs of memory foam in small, medium, and large.

Three pairs of single-layer silicone.

Three pairs of double-layer silicone.

And three pairs of triple-layer silicone.

And let me tell you, I've actually used most of these testing out other sets of IEMs too. They're actually all that good...

That's saying a lot.

You've also got a hard protective carrying case, a 3.5mm to 6.3mm gold-plated adapter, a shirt clip, a little cleaning brush, and the instruction manual.

The case is actually interesting. Most cases these days are thick and not pocket-friendly, but they can hold a couple pairs of IEMs and a DAC. This one is thin.

Like, really thin.

I was only able to fit the IEMs in the case. No DAC, no extra set.

But I will tell you, it's incredibly pocketable.

And it's shiny, sleek, and more like a Lambo than any other set I've ever used!

And if you want to see the entire unboxing, you can check that out here:

I also tried some new editing with this one, so definitely let me know what you think.

Tech Stuff

Driver configuration: 2 dynamic drivers + 1 balanced armature

Dynamic drivers: Dual 10mm diaphragms

Frequency response: 20 Hz–22 kHz

Impedance: 34 Ω

Sensitivity: 107 dB

Connector: MMCX

Cable length: 1.5 m

Detachable cables: 2

Intended use: Musicians, singers, drummers, and stage monitoring

Noise isolation: Passive/sealed design

Price: $95.99 USD

Actual Review

Sound

So what do these actually sound like?

Honestly, the sound on these is great!

They are...

Warm. Fun. And bassy as hell.

The low end has a lot of presence without completely swallowing everything else. The mids stay surprisingly clean, and the treble gives these enough detail to keep things from getting muddy.

But what really surprised me was the technical performance.

The soundstage is bigger than I expected, and the imaging is genuinely impressive for something in this price range.

And honestly... the out-of-box tuning is almost exactly what I want.

Which makes the cable situation even more frustrating.

But because of that cable...

I never reach for these.

Honestly, I'd rather use the PULA than these, and that kind of sucks because I really like how these sound.

It's bad enough that I actually ordered a replacement cable just so I can use these without all the little inconveniences that come with the cable.

And that's where I land with the BASN MMCX.

Would I replace these if they were lost or broken?

No.

Not with the current cable.

Would I replace them if they were on sale?

They're actually on sale right now, and even then, no... unless we're talking strictly about the IEM itself.

If we're judging these purely on sound and the accessories BASN includes, then absolutely.

I'd buy them without thinking twice.

But as an entire package, that cable changes the equation for me.

And that's frustrating, because underneath that cable is an IEM that I genuinely really like.

In Closing

If you don't mind buying a new cable, or if you don't mind a weird-fitting IEM, grab these.

The IEM itself sounds great for the price range. Not the best, but it's good enough!

It's honestly good enough that I would use these sometimes when I'm out and about, or when I'm grilling or smoking meats.

But the cable keeps me from reaching for them, and I'm likely being overly critical!

So maybe... just maybe... you should try them for yourself!

I will rewrite this review with a better cable when my new one arrives.

Rating

Sound: 8 out of 10

Accessories: 10 out of 10

Cable: 1 out of 10

Overall: 7.25 out of 10

Intro

I remember when I first heard they had cut the wires out of audio. I remember sitting there thinking, “Oh, this is really cool!” At the time, wireless earbuds had this really heavy V, almost U-shaped tuning. They were bass-boosted, energetic, and honestly, they really spoke to me. Think Dunu DN-142, but leaning even harder into that V-shaped sound.

I believe the year was 2016, and the earbuds were the Apple AirPods Gen 1. Sure, there were true wireless earbuds before them, but these were the ones that really set the standard and made TWS mainstream, at least here in America. A couple of months later, Samsung dropped the IconX, and these were something completely different. The AirPods became what we know today, and damn near every pair of true wireless earbuds that followed seemed to take inspiration from that formula. Samsung, on the other hand, basically said, “Nah bro, that's boring as hell,” and dropped the IconX.

The IconX was basically a whole DAP stuffed into an earbud. I'm not even kidding. It had 4GB of internal storage, meaning you could actually load music directly onto the earbuds and leave your phone behind. The problem, and probably the reason you don't remember them, is that Samsung wasn't really marketing them to you or me. They were marketing them to athletes.

And I don't mean the guy down the road who's uncannily good at basketball, or Tom Jones Schmidt who can somehow get a birdie on a par 3 while he's so drunk he can't stand straight even with a back brace. No! We're talking professional runners, cyclists, and serious athletes. I'm sure Samsung sold plenty of them, but the entire campaign was so specifically targeted that most people probably never even knew they existed. I can tell you, though, they were epic. Hell, I'd go as far as to say they were iconic.

But those two products helped establish what wireless audio was supposed to be. And once something becomes the standard, why innovate?

Every gym bro, every teacher, every mom and dad with a newborn, basically every human on the damn planet who looked at a headphone cable and said, “Nah bro, wires are oppressive,” switched over.

The problem was that, for all the convenience wireless gave us, the sound often left a lot to be desired. A huge number of early TWS products were heavily bass-boosted and treble-boosted, and there was a reason for that. Bluetooth simply didn't have the bandwidth we were accustomed to getting from wired audio. It was like trying to run a Hoover Dam vacuum through a garden hose. There was only so much information you could push through the air, and manufacturers had to find ways to make that compressed signal sound exciting.

Then Sony said, “We got this,” and dropped LDAC.

Wildly enough, Sony had already developed LDAC in 2015, before the first mainstream true wireless earbuds even hit U.S. shelves. But the technology sat there for a couple of years before Android 8.0 Oreo brought native LDAC support to the Android ecosystem in 2017.

Suddenly, wireless audio had a way to transmit dramatically more information and start closing the gap between wired and wireless listening.

Of course, the rest of the technology still wasn't quite there. Bluetooth connections weren't always strong enough. The hardware was expensive. The chips capable of handling everything weren't exactly cheap.

And let's be honest. As fans of this hobby, we all know damn well that almost none of us were going to drop $1,000 on a pair of headphones just to get better wireless audio.

Right?

....RIGHT????

So a few years went by with relatively little movement. Then, around 2021, HiBy released the WH2, and TWS started feeling like it was finally moving forward again. HiBy positioned the WH2 as the first officially LDAC-certified TWS earphone, with support for transmission rates up to 990kbps.

Crazy what can happen in just five years, isn't it? Innovation is a funny thing. And that brings me to the ROSESELSA Ceramics Ultra.

I could lie to you and tell you that every aspect of the Ceramics Ultra represents some massive innovation. I could tell you the sound is so good that it's going to blow your mind like the meme.

It's not.

What it is going to do… or at least what it did for me… is become a part of your daily life.

Whenever I'm gardening, cutting down trees, working around the house, or doing damn near anything else, they're firmly planted in my ears. And that's actually what surprised me most about the Ceramics Ultra.

I didn't find myself reaching for them because I was reviewing them. I found myself reaching for them because I genuinely wanted to listen to them.

And honestly? I think that's worth talking about.

Disclaimer: These were sent to me by ROSESELSA for the purpose of this review. There was no monetary compensation for producing this review. While ROSESELSA provided the product, that did not influence my opinions or conclusions. As always, these are my honest observations and listening impressions.

The Tech Stuff

This is one of those sections I don't think anyone actually reads, but people would totally notice if I didn't add it! So let's make this fun: If you actually read this, drop your favorite color in the comments.

Did you do it?

Okay, good!

Let's look at what's actually under the hood of the Ceramics Ultra and see how far TWS tech has crawled out of that 2016 bottleneck we were just talking about.

1. The Core Architecture & Codecs

Unlike the primitive Bluetooth constraints of early earbuds that choked on high-bitrate audio, this thing is packing Bluetooth 6.0 with a Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP and a dedicated DAC/amp stage.

High-Res Support: It doesn't just settle for standard AAC and SBC. It handles high-resolution codecs including LDAC and LHDC 5.0, with transmission rates reaching up to roughly 1Mbps depending on codec and connection conditions. ROSESELSA lists SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LHDC 5.0 as supported codecs.

The Real-World Translation: You can actually feed a high-resolution source file into a wireless earbud without immediately being limited to the basic Bluetooth codecs we've been dealing with for years.

That's right! That's four separate codecs in one tiny, comfortable shell!

Really quick I'd like to talk about the difference between LDAC and LHDC 5.0 because I know until now I had actually never heard of it so maybe you haven't either!

LDAC and LHDC are competing high-resolution Bluetooth codecs designed to transmit more audio data than basic SBC or AAC. LDAC is more widely supported, while LHDC can offer similarly high or slightly higher bitrates depending on the implementation, in my testing though with the Ceramics Ultra, LHDC was considerably more stable than LDAC, and I couldn't hear an obvious difference in sound quality between them.

Oh and none of them work with iPhone! So if you're an iPhone user, welp you're SOL!

2. The Driver

ROSESELSA threw in a single 10mm dynamic driver featuring its HR+ Planck diaphragm design.

The company says the driver uses a rigid diaphragm structure paired with a flexible surround, allowing for greater excursion than a conventional TWS driver. Rather than pretending I independently measured that claim, I'll tell you what I can actually hear... the driver moves some serious air.

And that matters.

Because whatever the engineering behind it, the result is a driver capable of producing some genuinely physical low-end without completely burying everything above it.

ROSESELSA also lists the Ceramics Ultra as a 2026 Red Dot award winner.

3. ANC and Practical Tech

The Ceramics Ultra uses active noise cancellation rated up to 50dB, along with a dedicated wind-noise reduction mode and four microphones. It also includes a low-latency gaming mode. On paper, this is exactly the kind of feature set you'd expect from a modern TWS product. The interesting part is finding out how much of that technology actually matters once you start using the thing.

And that's where the testing gets interesting.

The Unboxing

When you first open the box, you're presented with the device itself... nothing else on the surface. But once you pull the product out, you realize that there are two additional boxes underneath. One is hiding the eartips, and the other hides the charging cable.

It's all presented in an elegant, minimalistic way that, although not stunning, is nice on its own.

You can watch the whole unboxing here!:

https://youtube.com/shorts/aAaeB3LB83c?is=2XjwuTGRIhobuYBh

The Battery Life

Okay, this is insane!

Listen, I've read about a bajillion tech spec sheets over my life, and the biggest lie they all tell is about battery life. Every time they say 7, 8, 9, or 10 hours, it's almost always at least half that.

Maybe even less!

Especially after you drop some serious hours on the product. I mean, my Samsung Buds2 Pro are lucky if they last 45 minutes at this point!

Then here comes the Ceramics Ultra. I can't say the battery is gonna be as good as it is now in 10 years... it won't! But I can say ROSESELSA rates these for up to 11 hours of playback from the earbuds and up to 40 hours total with the charging case. And honestly, that's pretty damn close to what I've experienced. I've listened to two audiobooks, four movies, and about 50 songs on these before I ever even started writing this review, and I can tell you the case is still at 32%. That's wild! If anything, they undersold what these babies can do in the hours-listened department.

Hell, I've not even charged them yet!

Sound Cancelling

Listen!

I've been anti-TWS since I made the switch back to wired, but these do make a difference... though honestly, I think the active noise cancellation on these is kinda bad. Sitting about 10 feet away from my wife, I could hear her show playing on her phone. I've tried 15 different eartips with these to see if it helps in any way... nothing did. This is one of the biggest downfalls of the Ceramics Ultra.

ROSESELSA rates the ANC at up to 50dB, but in my real-world testing, the difference was nowhere near what I expected. It reduced some outside noise, but it didn't come close to creating the level of isolation I get from some of my other TWS sets. And somehow, I still got that pressure-suction feeling that so many users shy away from with ANC. So yeah… The ANC isn't great. That's probably the biggest disappointment I've had with these.

Microphone

One of the most impressive aspects of the Ceramics is its microphone!

Honestly, bro, listen!

I've recorded probably 35 test clips... some outside, some inside, and one with me standing in only shorts on top of my air conditioner just to get a feel for what this device's mic can really do! And let me tell you… It's crystal clear. No matter what I tried to do to disrupt it. There was no Mr. Roboto. No consonant clipping. No obvious collapse when the environment got loud. It's actually amazing. I tried to break it to see what would happen, and it actually broke me... almost seriously. There was a whole thing where the garden hose tried to take me out.

But that's a story for another review!

The Sound Quality

Let's Break Down the Sound

Let's start with the bass, because this is where the Ceramics Ultra immediately makes its personality known.

The bass hits nice. It's resolute, it has some real boom behind it, and most importantly, it doesn't overly bleed into the mids.

That is something I really appreciate with a V-shaped tuning. You can give me that extra low end, but if it starts stepping all over the vocals and instruments sitting above it, we've got a problem.

Thankfully, that's not what I'm hearing here.

The bass has presence without completely taking over the room.

Male vocals are crisp and clear, and they aren't recessed nearly as much as I expected them to be. There's enough presence here that voices retain their character without getting swallowed up by the bass.

Female vocals, though… Damn.

These are really good.

They're intimate, warm, and have this really enjoyable sense of closeness that works extremely well with the tuning. And I have to bring up Behind Blue Eyes here, especially the new remaster. This song is an outright resounding experience on the Ceramics Ultra. The left and right separation is particularly noticeable, and there are moments where the presentation just clicks. You can hear those elements sitting distinctly apart from one another, and it gives the track a much bigger sense of space than I expected from a set of TWS earbuds.

Now, before I get carried away, let's talk about the mids.

Yes...

They're recessed.

But this is a V-shaped tuning, and honestly, I went into this expecting it. The mids aren't disappearing, but they aren't being pushed directly into your face either. And that's probably the first thing I wanted to change once I finished my initial listening. I personally prefer my vocals and midrange a little more in-your-face. That's the beauty of having EQ available. I don't have to decide whether the tuning is objectively right or wrong. I can decide whether it's right for me. Then we get to the treble, and this is where the Ceramics Ultra surprised me.

Most TWS sets I've used seem to be really good at one thing... sound cancellation... while everything else feels like an afterthought. The Ceramics Ultra almost feels like the exact opposite.

The noise cancellation is… Well… Kinda bad….

But everything else? Actually pretty damn good.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you the treble is some mind-blowing revelation that completely changes what I thought TWS could do.

It isn't.

But the detail retrieval is genuinely surprising, especially considering what these are designed to be. And that changes the way I think about these. Because when I'm out and about and the world starts getting a little too damn loud, these are going in my pocket. When I need to escape for a few minutes, I want something that can give me that little break from everything around me.

And despite the fact that the noise cancellation isn't particularly impressive, the actual listening experience is good enough that I know I'll keep reaching for them.

I feel like that's a pretty important distinction.

The Ceramics Ultra may not be the best noise-cancelling TWS I've ever used, but they are absolutely among the better-sounding sets I've heard in this category.

More importantly...

They're the set I'll actually keep in my pocket. Because they are good enough! In every way, and more importantly….

they are actually pleasurable to use!

EQ

So, as promised, I threw some EQ at these.

For me, bringing the mids forward just a little bit made the Ceramics Ultra considerably more pleasurable to listen to. I also darkened the treble slightly, but left everything else exactly as it was.

I didn't try to completely change the character of these. I just nudged them in the direction my ears prefer.

And honestly… That's exactly what I wanted to find.

The stock tuning has its own personality, and I don't think you need to EQ these to enjoy them. But with those small changes, they became much more my kind of sound.

I'm not going to drop my EQ settings into this review, though.

I'd actually much rather encourage you to experiment with them yourself. Play around with that EQ. Bring the mids forward a little. Try darkening the treble. Leave the bass alone and see what happens.

And when you do… Absolutely come back here and tell me what you find. Because that's one of the coolest things about having an EQ available.

Your ears aren't my ears, and what sounds perfect to me might not be what sounds perfect to you.

The Range

Honestly, the range isn't great on these.

If you're the type of person who carries your phone on you at all times, this won't matter at all, so you can skip to the next section.

But I thought it would be worth testing, so I did.

In SBC/AAC, the effective range in my testing was about 65 feet. There is a huge difference between these, my AirPods, and my Galaxy Buds2 Pro, which actually get about 300 feet consistently before clipping starts.

In LDAC, I can't even make it to my front door before clipping starts.

And in LHDC, I can maybe make it to my kitchen with my phone on my bed before the clipping sets in.

It's not horrible by any means.

You're probably going to use these at the gym, working around the house, or wherever else you don't want to have your phone out. In those situations, you're probably going to be only a few feet from your source anyway.

Still...

It's something worth knowing.

The App

I feel like I should add that I love a good app.

You can see that for yourself, though, so I'll just highlight my favorite parts of it.

1. 10-Band EQ

It's not a PEQ... maybe they will add that in the future?!? But it is good enough that I feel like I'm not really missing anything, which is great.

2. Codec Switching

You can switch between codecs on the fly with a short reset while the earbuds adjust. This is something I tested a lot during this review. I wanted to see how long my phone, a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, would take to actually update between codecs. It did. And it was quick. I will say that LDAC with these isn't perfect. In my testing, it clipped constantly. LHDC, on the other hand, was considerably more stable, and honestly, I couldn't hear an obvious difference between the two.

So do with that information as ye will.

Touch Controls

Let's be real...

Touch controls are one of those things that we all say we won't use, but we actually use constantly.

Even if it's just by accident.

Left Ear:

- Single click: Increase volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Previous track

- Long press: Phone's assistant

Right Ear:

- Single click: Lower volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Next track

- Long press: Noise-cancelling controls

The controls and taps are incredibly responsive... to the point that I've accidentally turned up the volume just putting a hat on.

And honestly?

That's exactly what you want in this case. Or at least, it's exactly how responsive I want mine to be. The long press takes about three seconds, and it opens my phone's assistant or switches the noise-control modes easily enough. But more importantly, it's consistent. It's intuitive.

I like it.

Closing

I went into this testing expecting just another commercial TWS unit that I would test out and eventually give to someone else as a gift after I was done.

What I wasn't expecting was that, at under 50 bucks, I'd find a TWS unit that actually made me reconsider my whole mentality on wireless. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The ANC could be considerably better. The range isn't impressive. LDAC was unstable in my testing.

But here's the thing...

I don't care. Because after all the testing was done, I kept putting them back in my ears. I kept taking them with me. I kept listening to them. And eventually, I realized something. I didn't just review the Ceramics Ultra. I actually started using them. And for a product that costs under $50, I think that's one hell of an accomplishment.

Before I fully wrap this up, let's do the question of the day!

Unaffiliated links

Amazon:

https://a.co/d/04cTQTrg

Rose:

https://global.roseselsa.com/collections/wireless-earbuds

Question of the Day

If you could have dinner with any artist, past or present, who would it be? What's the first question you'd ask? And why?

I think I'd pick Monet.

I'd ask him, What was it like as you went blind?

His relationship with color changed dramatically as his eyesight deteriorated. He had famously rejected black as something he didn't believe belonged in nature, yet as his vision changed, darker tones became increasingly present in his work.

I'd love to know what that experience actually felt like from inside his own head.

What did he see? What did he think he was painting?

And what did it feel like when the world he had spent his entire life observing began disappearing? I too am going blind, so I think it would be an interesting conversation.

And hon

Intro

I remember when I first heard they had cut the wires out of audio. I remember sitting there thinking, “Oh, this is really cool!” At the time, wireless earbuds had this really heavy V, almost U-shaped tuning. They were bass-boosted, energetic, and honestly, they really spoke to me. Think Dunu DN-142, but leaning even harder into that V-shaped sound.

I believe the year was 2016, and the earbuds were the Apple AirPods Gen 1. Sure, there were true wireless earbuds before them, but these were the ones that really set the standard and made TWS mainstream, at least here in America. A couple of months later, Samsung dropped the IconX, and these were something completely different. The AirPods became what we know today, and damn near every pair of true wireless earbuds that followed seemed to take inspiration from that formula. Samsung, on the other hand, basically said, “Nah bro, that's boring as hell,” and dropped the IconX.

The IconX was basically a whole DAP stuffed into an earbud. I'm not even kidding. It had 4GB of internal storage, meaning you could actually load music directly onto the earbuds and leave your phone behind. The problem, and probably the reason you don't remember them, is that Samsung wasn't really marketing them to you or me. They were marketing them to athletes.

And I don't mean the guy down the road who's uncannily good at basketball, or Tom Jones Schmidt who can somehow get a birdie on a par 3 while he's so drunk he can't stand straight even with a back brace. No! We're talking professional runners, cyclists, and serious athletes. I'm sure Samsung sold plenty of them, but the entire campaign was so specifically targeted that most people probably never even knew they existed. I can tell you, though, they were epic. Hell, I'd go as far as to say they were iconic.

But those two products helped establish what wireless audio was supposed to be. And once something becomes the standard, why innovate?

Every gym bro, every teacher, every mom and dad with a newborn, basically every human on the damn planet who looked at a headphone cable and said, “Nah bro, wires are oppressive,” switched over.

The problem was that, for all the convenience wireless gave us, the sound often left a lot to be desired. A huge number of early TWS products were heavily bass-boosted and treble-boosted, and there was a reason for that. Bluetooth simply didn't have the bandwidth we were accustomed to getting from wired audio. It was like trying to run a Hoover Dam vacuum through a garden hose. There was only so much information you could push through the air, and manufacturers had to find ways to make that compressed signal sound exciting.

Then Sony said, “We got this,” and dropped LDAC.

Wildly enough, Sony had already developed LDAC in 2015, before the first mainstream true wireless earbuds even hit U.S. shelves. But the technology sat there for a couple of years before Android 8.0 Oreo brought native LDAC support to the Android ecosystem in 2017.

Suddenly, wireless audio had a way to transmit dramatically more information and start closing the gap between wired and wireless listening.

Of course, the rest of the technology still wasn't quite there. Bluetooth connections weren't always strong enough. The hardware was expensive. The chips capable of handling everything weren't exactly cheap.

And let's be honest. As fans of this hobby, we all know damn well that almost none of us were going to drop $1,000 on a pair of headphones just to get better wireless audio.

Right?

....RIGHT????

So a few years went by with relatively little movement. Then, around 2021, HiBy released the WH2, and TWS started feeling like it was finally moving forward again. HiBy positioned the WH2 as the first officially LDAC-certified TWS earphone, with support for transmission rates up to 990kbps.

Crazy what can happen in just five years, isn't it? Innovation is a funny thing. And that brings me to the ROSESELSA Ceramics Ultra.

I could lie to you and tell you that every aspect of the Ceramics Ultra represents some massive innovation. I could tell you the sound is so good that it's going to blow your mind like the meme.

It's not.

What it is going to do… or at least what it did for me… is become a part of your daily life.

Whenever I'm gardening, cutting down trees, working around the house, or doing damn near anything else, they're firmly planted in my ears. And that's actually what surprised me most about the Ceramics Ultra.

I didn't find myself reaching for them because I was reviewing them. I found myself reaching for them because I genuinely wanted to listen to them.

And honestly? I think that's worth talking about.

Disclaimer: These were sent to me by ROSESELSA for the purpose of this review. There was no monetary compensation for producing this review. While ROSESELSA provided the product, that did not influence my opinions or conclusions. As always, these are my honest observations and listening impressions.

The Tech Stuff

This is one of those sections I don't think anyone actually reads, but people would totally notice if I didn't add it! So let's make this fun: If you actually read this, drop your favorite color in the comments.

Did you do it?

Okay, good!

Let's look at what's actually under the hood of the Ceramics Ultra and see how far TWS tech has crawled out of that 2016 bottleneck we were just talking about.

1. The Core Architecture & Codecs

Unlike the primitive Bluetooth constraints of early earbuds that choked on high-bitrate audio, this thing is packing Bluetooth 6.0 with a Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP and a dedicated DAC/amp stage.

High-Res Support: It doesn't just settle for standard AAC and SBC. It handles high-resolution codecs including LDAC and LHDC 5.0, with transmission rates reaching up to roughly 1Mbps depending on codec and connection conditions. ROSESELSA lists SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LHDC 5.0 as supported codecs.

The Real-World Translation: You can actually feed a high-resolution source file into a wireless earbud without immediately being limited to the basic Bluetooth codecs we've been dealing with for years.

That's right! That's four separate codecs in one tiny, comfortable shell! 

Really quick I'd like to talk about the difference between LDAC and LHDC 5.0 because I know until now I had actually never heard of it so maybe you haven't either! 

LDAC and LHDC are competing high-resolution Bluetooth codecs designed to transmit more audio data than basic SBC or AAC. LDAC is more widely supported, while LHDC can offer similarly high or slightly higher bitrates depending on the implementation, in my testing though with the Ceramics Ultra, LHDC was considerably more stable than LDAC, and I couldn't hear an obvious difference in sound quality between them.

Oh and none of them work with iPhone! So if you're an iPhone user, welp you're SOL!

2. The Driver

ROSESELSA threw in a single 10mm dynamic driver featuring its HR+ Planck diaphragm design.

The company says the driver uses a rigid diaphragm structure paired with a flexible surround, allowing for greater excursion than a conventional TWS driver. Rather than pretending I independently measured that claim, I'll tell you what I can actually hear... the driver moves some serious air.

And that matters.

Because whatever the engineering behind it, the result is a driver capable of producing some genuinely physical low-end without completely burying everything above it.

ROSESELSA also lists the Ceramics Ultra as a 2026 Red Dot award winner.

3. ANC and Practical Tech

The Ceramics Ultra uses active noise cancellation rated up to 50dB, along with a dedicated wind-noise reduction mode and four microphones. It also includes a low-latency gaming mode. On paper, this is exactly the kind of feature set you'd expect from a modern TWS product. The interesting part is finding out how much of that technology actually matters once you start using the thing.

And that's where the testing gets interesting.

The Unboxing

When you first open the box, you're presented with the device itself... nothing else on the surface. But once you pull the product out, you realize that there are two additional boxes underneath. One is hiding the eartips, and the other hides the charging cable.

It's all presented in an elegant, minimalistic way that, although not stunning, is nice on its own.

You can watch the whole unboxing here!:

https://youtube.com/shorts/aAaeB3LB83c?is=2XjwuTGRIhobuYBh

The Battery Life

Okay, this is insane!

Listen, I've read about a bajillion tech spec sheets over my life, and the biggest lie they all tell is about battery life. Every time they say 7, 8, 9, or 10 hours, it's almost always at least half that.

Maybe even less!

Especially after you drop some serious hours on the product. I mean, my Samsung Buds2 Pro are lucky if they last 45 minutes at this point!

Then here comes the Ceramics Ultra. I can't say the battery is gonna be as good as it is now in 10 years... it won't! But I can say ROSESELSA rates these for up to 11 hours of playback from the earbuds and up to 40 hours total with the charging case. And honestly, that's pretty damn close to what I've experienced. I've listened to two audiobooks, four movies, and about 50 songs on these before I ever even started writing this review, and I can tell you the case is still at 32%. That's wild! If anything, they undersold what these babies can do in the hours-listened department.

Hell, I've not even charged them yet!

Sound Cancelling

Listen!

I've been anti-TWS since I made the switch back to wired, but these do make a difference... though honestly, I think the active noise cancellation on these is kinda bad. Sitting about 10 feet away from my wife, I could hear her show playing on her phone. I've tried 15 different eartips with these to see if it helps in any way... nothing did. This is one of the biggest downfalls of the Ceramics Ultra.

ROSESELSA rates the ANC at up to 50dB, but in my real-world testing, the difference was nowhere near what I expected. It reduced some outside noise, but it didn't come close to creating the level of isolation I get from some of my other TWS sets. And somehow, I still got that pressure-suction feeling that so many users shy away from with ANC. So yeah… The ANC isn't great. That's probably the biggest disappointment I've had with these.

Microphone

One of the most impressive aspects of the Ceramics is its microphone!

Honestly, bro, listen!

I've recorded probably 35 test clips... some outside, some inside, and one with me standing in only shorts on top of my air conditioner just to get a feel for what this device's mic can really do! And let me tell you… It's crystal clear. No matter what I tried to do to disrupt it. There was no Mr. Roboto. No consonant clipping. No obvious collapse when the environment got loud. It's actually amazing. I tried to break it to see what would happen, and it actually broke me... almost seriously. There was a whole thing where the garden hose tried to take me out.

But that's a story for another review!

The Sound Quality

Let's Break Down the Sound

Let's start with the bass, because this is where the Ceramics Ultra immediately makes its personality known.

The bass hits nice. It's resolute, it has some real boom behind it, and most importantly, it doesn't overly bleed into the mids.

That is something I really appreciate with a V-shaped tuning. You can give me that extra low end, but if it starts stepping all over the vocals and instruments sitting above it, we've got a problem.

Thankfully, that's not what I'm hearing here.

The bass has presence without completely taking over the room.

Male vocals are crisp and clear, and they aren't recessed nearly as much as I expected them to be. There's enough presence here that voices retain their character without getting swallowed up by the bass.

Female vocals, though… Damn.

These are really good.

They're intimate, warm, and have this really enjoyable sense of closeness that works extremely well with the tuning. And I have to bring up Behind Blue Eyes here, especially the new remaster. This song is an outright resounding experience on the Ceramics Ultra. The left and right separation is particularly noticeable, and there are moments where the presentation just clicks. You can hear those elements sitting distinctly apart from one another, and it gives the track a much bigger sense of space than I expected from a set of TWS earbuds.

Now, before I get carried away, let's talk about the mids.

Yes...

They're recessed.

But this is a V-shaped tuning, and honestly, I went into this expecting it. The mids aren't disappearing, but they aren't being pushed directly into your face either. And that's probably the first thing I wanted to change once I finished my initial listening. I personally prefer my vocals and midrange a little more in-your-face. That's the beauty of having EQ available. I don't have to decide whether the tuning is objectively right or wrong. I can decide whether it's right for me. Then we get to the treble, and this is where the Ceramics Ultra surprised me.

Most TWS sets I've used seem to be really good at one thing... sound cancellation... while everything else feels like an afterthought. The Ceramics Ultra almost feels like the exact opposite.

The noise cancellation is… Well… Kinda bad….

But everything else? Actually pretty damn good.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you the treble is some mind-blowing revelation that completely changes what I thought TWS could do.

It isn't.

But the detail retrieval is genuinely surprising, especially considering what these are designed to be. And that changes the way I think about these. Because when I'm out and about and the world starts getting a little too damn loud, these are going in my pocket. When I need to escape for a few minutes, I want something that can give me that little break from everything around me.

And despite the fact that the noise cancellation isn't particularly impressive, the actual listening experience is good enough that I know I'll keep reaching for them.

I feel like that's a pretty important distinction.

The Ceramics Ultra may not be the best noise-cancelling TWS I've ever used, but they are absolutely among the better-sounding sets I've heard in this category.

More importantly...

They're the set I'll actually keep in my pocket. Because they are good enough! In every way, and more importantly….

they are actually pleasurable to use!

EQ

So, as promised, I threw some EQ at these.

For me, bringing the mids forward just a little bit made the Ceramics Ultra considerably more pleasurable to listen to. I also darkened the treble slightly, but left everything else exactly as it was.

I didn't try to completely change the character of these. I just nudged them in the direction my ears prefer.

And honestly… That's exactly what I wanted to find.

The stock tuning has its own personality, and I don't think you need to EQ these to enjoy them. But with those small changes, they became much more my kind of sound.

I'm not going to drop my EQ settings into this review, though.

I'd actually much rather encourage you to experiment with them yourself. Play around with that EQ. Bring the mids forward a little. Try darkening the treble. Leave the bass alone and see what happens.

And when you do… Absolutely come back here and tell me what you find. Because that's one of the coolest things about having an EQ available.

Your ears aren't my ears, and what sounds perfect to me might not be what sounds perfect to you.

The Range

Honestly, the range isn't great on these.

If you're the type of person who carries your phone on you at all times, this won't matter at all, so you can skip to the next section.

But I thought it would be worth testing, so I did.

In SBC/AAC, the effective range in my testing was about 65 feet. There is a huge difference between these, my AirPods, and my Galaxy Buds2 Pro, which actually get about 300 feet consistently before clipping starts.

In LDAC, I can't even make it to my front door before clipping starts. 

And in LHDC, I can maybe make it to my kitchen with my phone on my bed before the clipping sets in.

It's not horrible by any means.

You're probably going to use these at the gym, working around the house, or wherever else you don't want to have your phone out. In those situations, you're probably going to be only a few feet from your source anyway.

Still...

It's something worth knowing.

The App

I feel like I should add that I love a good app.

You can see that for yourself, though, so I'll just highlight my favorite parts of it.

1. 10-Band EQ

It's not a PEQ... maybe they will add that in the future?!? But it is good enough that I feel like I'm not really missing anything, which is great. 

2. Codec Switching

You can switch between codecs on the fly with a short reset while the earbuds adjust. This is something I tested a lot during this review. I wanted to see how long my phone, a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, would take to actually update between codecs. It did. And it was quick. I will say that LDAC with these isn't perfect. In my testing, it clipped constantly. LHDC, on the other hand, was considerably more stable, and honestly, I couldn't hear an obvious difference between the two.

So do with that information as ye will.

Touch Controls

Let's be real...

Touch controls are one of those things that we all say we won't use, but we actually use constantly.

Even if it's just by accident.

Left Ear:

- Single click: Increase volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Previous track

- Long press: Phone's assistant

Right Ear:

- Single click: Lower volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Next track

- Long press: Noise-cancelling controls

The controls and taps are incredibly responsive... to the point that I've accidentally turned up the volume just putting a hat on.

And honestly?

That's exactly what you want in this case. Or at least, it's exactly how responsive I want mine to be. The long press takes about three seconds, and it opens my phone's assistant or switches the noise-control modes easily enough. But more importantly, it's consistent. It's intuitive.

I like it.

Closing

I went into this testing expecting just another commercial TWS unit that I would test out and eventually give to someone else as a gift after I was done.

What I wasn't expecting was that, at under 50 bucks, I'd find a TWS unit that actually made me reconsider my whole mentality on wireless. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The ANC could be considerably better. The range isn't impressive. LDAC was unstable in my testing.

But here's the thing...

I don't care. Because after all the testing was done, I kept putting them back in my ears. I kept taking them with me. I kept listening to them. And eventually, I realized something. I didn't just review the Ceramics Ultra. I actually started using them. And for a product that costs under $50, I think that's one hell of an accomplishment.

Before I fully wrap this up, let's do the question of the day!

Unaffiliated links

Amazon:

https://a.co/d/04cTQTrg

Rose:

https://global.roseselsa.com/collections/wireless-earbuds

Question of the Day

If you could have dinner with any artist, past or present, who would it be? What's the first question you'd ask? And why?

I think I'd pick Monet.

I'd ask him, What was it like as you went blind?

His relationship with color changed dramatically as his eyesight deteriorated. He had famously rejected black as something he didn't believe belonged in nature, yet as his vision changed, darker tones became increasingly present in his work.

I'd love to know what that experience actually felt like from inside his own head.

What did he see? What did he think he was painting?

And what did it feel like when the world he had spent his entire life observing began disappearing? I too am going blind, so I think it would be an interesting conversation.

And honestly...

I'd really like to hear the answer.

Intro

I remember when I first heard they had cut the wires out of audio. I remember sitting there thinking, “Oh, this is really cool!” At the time, wireless earbuds had this really heavy V, almost U-shaped tuning. They were bass-boosted, energetic, and honestly, they really spoke to me. Think Dunu DN-142, but leaning even harder into that V-shaped sound.

I believe the year was 2016, and the earbuds were the Apple AirPods Gen 1. Sure, there were true wireless earbuds before them, but these were the ones that really set the standard and made TWS mainstream, at least here in America. A couple of months later, Samsung dropped the IconX, and these were something completely different. The AirPods became what we know today, and damn near every pair of true wireless earbuds that followed seemed to take inspiration from that formula. Samsung, on the other hand, basically said, “Nah bro, that's boring as hell,” and dropped the IconX.

The IconX was basically a whole DAP stuffed into an earbud. I'm not even kidding. It had 4GB of internal storage, meaning you could actually load music directly onto the earbuds and leave your phone behind. The problem, and probably the reason you don't remember them, is that Samsung wasn't really marketing them to you or me. They were marketing them to athletes.

And I don't mean the guy down the road who's uncannily good at basketball, or Tom Jones Schmidt who can somehow get a birdie on a par 3 while he's so drunk he can't stand straight even with a back brace. No! We're talking professional runners, cyclists, and serious athletes. I'm sure Samsung sold plenty of them, but the entire campaign was so specifically targeted that most people probably never even knew they existed. I can tell you, though, they were epic. Hell, I'd go as far as to say they were iconic.

But those two products helped establish what wireless audio was supposed to be. And once something becomes the standard, why innovate?

Every gym bro, every teacher, every mom and dad with a newborn, basically every human on the damn planet who looked at a headphone cable and said, “Nah bro, wires are oppressive,” switched over.

The problem was that, for all the convenience wireless gave us, the sound often left a lot to be desired. A huge number of early TWS products were heavily bass-boosted and treble-boosted, and there was a reason for that. Bluetooth simply didn't have the bandwidth we were accustomed to getting from wired audio. It was like trying to run a Hoover Dam vacuum through a garden hose. There was only so much information you could push through the air, and manufacturers had to find ways to make that compressed signal sound exciting.

Then Sony said, “We got this,” and dropped LDAC.

Wildly enough, Sony had already developed LDAC in 2015, before the first mainstream true wireless earbuds even hit U.S. shelves. But the technology sat there for a couple of years before Android 8.0 Oreo brought native LDAC support to the Android ecosystem in 2017.

Suddenly, wireless audio had a way to transmit dramatically more information and start closing the gap between wired and wireless listening.

Of course, the rest of the technology still wasn't quite there. Bluetooth connections weren't always strong enough. The hardware was expensive. The chips capable of handling everything weren't exactly cheap.

And let's be honest. As fans of this hobby, we all know damn well that almost none of us were going to drop $1,000 on a pair of headphones just to get better wireless audio.

Right?

....RIGHT????

So a few years went by with relatively little movement. Then, around 2021, HiBy released the WH2, and TWS started feeling like it was finally moving forward again. HiBy positioned the WH2 as the first officially LDAC-certified TWS earphone, with support for transmission rates up to 990kbps.

Crazy what can happen in just five years, isn't it? Innovation is a funny thing. And that brings me to the ROSESELSA Ceramics Ultra.

I could lie to you and tell you that every aspect of the Ceramics Ultra represents some massive innovation. I could tell you the sound is so good that it's going to blow your mind like the meme.

It's not.

What it is going to do… or at least what it did for me… is become a part of your daily life.

Whenever I'm gardening, cutting down trees, working around the house, or doing damn near anything else, they're firmly planted in my ears. And that's actually what surprised me most about the Ceramics Ultra.

I didn't find myself reaching for them because I was reviewing them. I found myself reaching for them because I genuinely wanted to listen to them.

And honestly? I think that's worth talking about.

Disclaimer: These were sent to me by ROSESELSA for the purpose of this review. There was no monetary compensation for producing this review. While ROSESELSA provided the product, that did not influence my opinions or conclusions. As always, these are my honest observations and listening impressions.

The Tech Stuff

This is one of those sections I don't think anyone actually reads, but people would totally notice if I didn't add it! So let's make this fun: If you actually read this, drop your favorite color in the comments.

Did you do it?

Okay, good!

Let's look at what's actually under the hood of the Ceramics Ultra and see how far TWS tech has crawled out of that 2016 bottleneck we were just talking about.

1. The Core Architecture & Codecs

Unlike the primitive Bluetooth constraints of early earbuds that choked on high-bitrate audio, this thing is packing Bluetooth 6.0 with a Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP and a dedicated DAC/amp stage.

High-Res Support: It doesn't just settle for standard AAC and SBC. It handles high-resolution codecs including LDAC and LHDC 5.0, with transmission rates reaching up to roughly 1Mbps depending on codec and connection conditions. ROSESELSA lists SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LHDC 5.0 as supported codecs.

The Real-World Translation: You can actually feed a high-resolution source file into a wireless earbud without immediately being limited to the basic Bluetooth codecs we've been dealing with for years.

That's right! That's four separate codecs in one tiny, comfortable shell! 

Really quick I'd like to talk about the difference between LDAC and LHDC 5.0 because I know until now I had actually never heard of it so maybe you haven't either! 

LDAC and LHDC are competing high-resolution Bluetooth codecs designed to transmit more audio data than basic SBC or AAC. LDAC is more widely supported, while LHDC can offer similarly high or slightly higher bitrates depending on the implementation, in my testing though with the Ceramics Ultra, LHDC was considerably more stable than LDAC, and I couldn't hear an obvious difference in sound quality between them.

Oh and none of them work with iPhone! So if you're an iPhone user, welp you're SOL!

2. The Driver

ROSESELSA threw in a single 10mm dynamic driver featuring its HR+ Planck diaphragm design.

The company says the driver uses a rigid diaphragm structure paired with a flexible surround, allowing for greater excursion than a conventional TWS driver. Rather than pretending I independently measured that claim, I'll tell you what I can actually hear... the driver moves some serious air.

And that matters.

Because whatever the engineering behind it, the result is a driver capable of producing some genuinely physical low-end without completely burying everything above it.

ROSESELSA also lists the Ceramics Ultra as a 2026 Red Dot award winner.

3. ANC and Practical Tech

The Ceramics Ultra uses active noise cancellation rated up to 50dB, along with a dedicated wind-noise reduction mode and four microphones. It also includes a low-latency gaming mode. On paper, this is exactly the kind of feature set you'd expect from a modern TWS product. The interesting part is finding out how much of that technology actually matters once you start using the thing.

And that's where the testing gets interesting.

The Unboxing

When you first open the box, you're presented with the device itself... nothing else on the surface. But once you pull the product out, you realize that there are two additional boxes underneath. One is hiding the eartips, and the other hides the charging cable.

It's all presented in an elegant, minimalistic way that, although not stunning, is nice on its own.

You can watch the whole unboxing here!:

https://youtube.com/shorts/aAaeB3LB83c?is=2XjwuTGRIhobuYBh

The Battery Life

Okay, this is insane!

Listen, I've read about a bajillion tech spec sheets over my life, and the biggest lie they all tell is about battery life. Every time they say 7, 8, 9, or 10 hours, it's almost always at least half that.

Maybe even less!

Especially after you drop some serious hours on the product. I mean, my Samsung Buds2 Pro are lucky if they last 45 minutes at this point!

Then here comes the Ceramics Ultra. I can't say the battery is gonna be as good as it is now in 10 years... it won't! But I can say ROSESELSA rates these for up to 11 hours of playback from the earbuds and up to 40 hours total with the charging case. And honestly, that's pretty damn close to what I've experienced. I've listened to two audiobooks, four movies, and about 50 songs on these before I ever even started writing this review, and I can tell you the case is still at 32%. That's wild! If anything, they undersold what these babies can do in the hours-listened department.

Hell, I've not even charged them yet!

Sound Cancelling

Listen!

I've been anti-TWS since I made the switch back to wired, but these do make a difference... though honestly, I think the active noise cancellation on these is kinda bad. Sitting about 10 feet away from my wife, I could hear her show playing on her phone. I've tried 15 different eartips with these to see if it helps in any way... nothing did. This is one of the biggest downfalls of the Ceramics Ultra.

ROSESELSA rates the ANC at up to 50dB, but in my real-world testing, the difference was nowhere near what I expected. It reduced some outside noise, but it didn't come close to creating the level of isolation I get from some of my other TWS sets. And somehow, I still got that pressure-suction feeling that so many users shy away from with ANC. So yeah… The ANC isn't great. That's probably the biggest disappointment I've had with these.

Microphone

One of the most impressive aspects of the Ceramics is its microphone!

Honestly, bro, listen!

I've recorded probably 35 test clips... some outside, some inside, and one with me standing in only shorts on top of my air conditioner just to get a feel for what this device's mic can really do! And let me tell you… It's crystal clear. No matter what I tried to do to disrupt it. There was no Mr. Roboto. No consonant clipping. No obvious collapse when the environment got loud. It's actually amazing. I tried to break it to see what would happen, and it actually broke me... almost seriously. There was a whole thing where the garden hose tried to take me out.

But that's a story for another review!

The Sound Quality

Let's Break Down the Sound

Let's start with the bass, because this is where the Ceramics Ultra immediately makes its personality known.

The bass hits nice. It's resolute, it has some real boom behind it, and most importantly, it doesn't overly bleed into the mids.

That is something I really appreciate with a V-shaped tuning. You can give me that extra low end, but if it starts stepping all over the vocals and instruments sitting above it, we've got a problem.

Thankfully, that's not what I'm hearing here.

The bass has presence without completely taking over the room.

Male vocals are crisp and clear, and they aren't recessed nearly as much as I expected them to be. There's enough presence here that voices retain their character without getting swallowed up by the bass.

Female vocals, though… Damn.

These are really good.

They're intimate, warm, and have this really enjoyable sense of closeness that works extremely well with the tuning. And I have to bring up Behind Blue Eyes here, especially the new remaster. This song is an outright resounding experience on the Ceramics Ultra. The left and right separation is particularly noticeable, and there are moments where the presentation just clicks. You can hear those elements sitting distinctly apart from one another, and it gives the track a much bigger sense of space than I expected from a set of TWS earbuds.

Now, before I get carried away, let's talk about the mids.

Yes...

They're recessed.

But this is a V-shaped tuning, and honestly, I went into this expecting it. The mids aren't disappearing, but they aren't being pushed directly into your face either. And that's probably the first thing I wanted to change once I finished my initial listening. I personally prefer my vocals and midrange a little more in-your-face. That's the beauty of having EQ available. I don't have to decide whether the tuning is objectively right or wrong. I can decide whether it's right for me. Then we get to the treble, and this is where the Ceramics Ultra surprised me.

Most TWS sets I've used seem to be really good at one thing... sound cancellation... while everything else feels like an afterthought. The Ceramics Ultra almost feels like the exact opposite.

The noise cancellation is… Well… Kinda bad….

But everything else? Actually pretty damn good.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you the treble is some mind-blowing revelation that completely changes what I thought TWS could do.

It isn't.

But the detail retrieval is genuinely surprising, especially considering what these are designed to be. And that changes the way I think about these. Because when I'm out and about and the world starts getting a little too damn loud, these are going in my pocket. When I need to escape for a few minutes, I want something that can give me that little break from everything around me.

And despite the fact that the noise cancellation isn't particularly impressive, the actual listening experience is good enough that I know I'll keep reaching for them.

I feel like that's a pretty important distinction.

The Ceramics Ultra may not be the best noise-cancelling TWS I've ever used, but they are absolutely among the better-sounding sets I've heard in this category.

More importantly...

They're the set I'll actually keep in my pocket. Because they are good enough! In every way, and more importantly….

they are actually pleasurable to use!

EQ

So, as promised, I threw some EQ at these.

For me, bringing the mids forward just a little bit made the Ceramics Ultra considerably more pleasurable to listen to. I also darkened the treble slightly, but left everything else exactly as it was.

I didn't try to completely change the character of these. I just nudged them in the direction my ears prefer.

And honestly… That's exactly what I wanted to find.

The stock tuning has its own personality, and I don't think you need to EQ these to enjoy them. But with those small changes, they became much more my kind of sound.

I'm not going to drop my EQ settings into this review, though.

I'd actually much rather encourage you to experiment with them yourself. Play around with that EQ. Bring the mids forward a little. Try darkening the treble. Leave the bass alone and see what happens.

And when you do… Absolutely come back here and tell me what you find. Because that's one of the coolest things about having an EQ available.

Your ears aren't my ears, and what sounds perfect to me might not be what sounds perfect to you.

The Range

Honestly, the range isn't great on these.

If you're the type of person who carries your phone on you at all times, this won't matter at all, so you can skip to the next section.

But I thought it would be worth testing, so I did.

In SBC/AAC, the effective range in my testing was about 65 feet. There is a huge difference between these, my AirPods, and my Galaxy Buds2 Pro, which actually get about 300 feet consistently before clipping starts.

In LDAC, I can't even make it to my front door before clipping starts. 

And in LHDC, I can maybe make it to my kitchen with my phone on my bed before the clipping sets in.

It's not horrible by any means.

You're probably going to use these at the gym, working around the house, or wherever else you don't want to have your phone out. In those situations, you're probably going to be only a few feet from your source anyway.

Still...

It's something worth knowing.

The App

I feel like I should add that I love a good app.

You can see that for yourself, though, so I'll just highlight my favorite parts of it.

1. 10-Band EQ

It's not a PEQ... maybe they will add that in the future?!? But it is good enough that I feel like I'm not really missing anything, which is great. 

2. Codec Switching

You can switch between codecs on the fly with a short reset while the earbuds adjust. This is something I tested a lot during this review. I wanted to see how long my phone, a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, would take to actually update between codecs. It did. And it was quick. I will say that LDAC with these isn't perfect. In my testing, it clipped constantly. LHDC, on the other hand, was considerably more stable, and honestly, I couldn't hear an obvious difference between the two.

So do with that information as ye will.

Touch Controls

Let's be real...

Touch controls are one of those things that we all say we won't use, but we actually use constantly.

Even if it's just by accident.

Left Ear:

- Single click: Increase volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Previous track

- Long press: Phone's assistant

Right Ear:

- Single click: Lower volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Next track

- Long press: Noise-cancelling controls

The controls and taps are incredibly responsive... to the point that I've accidentally turned up the volume just putting a hat on.

And honestly?

That's exactly what you want in this case. Or at least, it's exactly how responsive I want mine to be. The long press takes about three seconds, and it opens my phone's assistant or switches the noise-control modes easily enough. But more importantly, it's consistent. It's intuitive.

I like it.

Closing

I went into this testing expecting just another commercial TWS unit that I would test out and eventually give to someone else as a gift after I was done.

What I wasn't expecting was that, at under 50 bucks, I'd find a TWS unit that actually made me reconsider my whole mentality on wireless. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The ANC could be considerably better. The range isn't impressive. LDAC was unstable in my testing.

But here's the thing...

I don't care. Because after all the testing was done, I kept putting them back in my ears. I kept taking them with me. I kept listening to them. And eventually, I realized something. I didn't just review the Ceramics Ultra. I actually started using them. And for a product that costs under $50, I think that's one hell of an accomplishment.

Before I fully wrap this up, let's do the question of the day!

Unaffiliated links

Amazon:

https://a.co/d/04cTQTrg

Rose:

https://global.roseselsa.com/collections/wireless-earbuds

Question of the Day

If you could have dinner with any artist, past or present, who would it be? What's the first question you'd ask? And why?

I think I'd pick Monet.

I'd ask him, What was it like as you went blind?

His relationship with color changed dramatically as his eyesight deteriorated. He had famously rejected black as something he didn't believe belonged in nature, yet as his vision changed, darker tones became increasingly present in his work.

I'd love to know what that experience actually felt like from inside his own head.

What did he see? What did he think he was painting?

And what did it feel like when the world he had spent his entire life observing began disappearing? I too am going blind, so I think it would be an interesting conversation.

And honestly...

I'd really like to hear the answer.

Intro

I remember when I first heard they had cut the wires out of audio. I remember sitting there thinking, “Oh, this is really cool!” At the time, wireless earbuds had this really heavy V, almost U-shaped tuning. They were bass-boosted, energetic, and honestly, they really spoke to me. Think Dunu DN-142, but leaning even harder into that V-shaped sound.

I believe the year was 2016, and the earbuds were the Apple AirPods Gen 1. Sure, there were true wireless earbuds before them, but these were the ones that really set the standard and made TWS mainstream, at least here in America. A couple of months later, Samsung dropped the IconX, and these were something completely different. The AirPods became what we know today, and damn near every pair of true wireless earbuds that followed seemed to take inspiration from that formula. Samsung, on the other hand, basically said, “Nah bro, that's boring as hell,” and dropped the IconX.

The IconX was basically a whole DAP stuffed into an earbud. I'm not even kidding. It had 4GB of internal storage, meaning you could actually load music directly onto the earbuds and leave your phone behind. The problem, and probably the reason you don't remember them, is that Samsung wasn't really marketing them to you or me. They were marketing them to athletes.

And I don't mean the guy down the road who's uncannily good at basketball, or Tom Jones Schmidt who can somehow get a birdie on a par 3 while he's so drunk he can't stand straight even with a back brace. No! We're talking professional runners, cyclists, and serious athletes. I'm sure Samsung sold plenty of them, but the entire campaign was so specifically targeted that most people probably never even knew they existed. I can tell you, though, they were epic. Hell, I'd go as far as to say they were iconic.

But those two products helped establish what wireless audio was supposed to be. And once something becomes the standard, why innovate?

Every gym bro, every teacher, every mom and dad with a newborn, basically every human on the damn planet who looked at a headphone cable and said, “Nah bro, wires are oppressive,” switched over.

The problem was that, for all the convenience wireless gave us, the sound often left a lot to be desired. A huge number of early TWS products were heavily bass-boosted and treble-boosted, and there was a reason for that. Bluetooth simply didn't have the bandwidth we were accustomed to getting from wired audio. It was like trying to run a Hoover Dam vacuum through a garden hose. There was only so much information you could push through the air, and manufacturers had to find ways to make that compressed signal sound exciting.

Then Sony said, “We got this,” and dropped LDAC.

Wildly enough, Sony had already developed LDAC in 2015, before the first mainstream true wireless earbuds even hit U.S. shelves. But the technology sat there for a couple of years before Android 8.0 Oreo brought native LDAC support to the Android ecosystem in 2017.

Suddenly, wireless audio had a way to transmit dramatically more information and start closing the gap between wired and wireless listening.

Of course, the rest of the technology still wasn't quite there. Bluetooth connections weren't always strong enough. The hardware was expensive. The chips capable of handling everything weren't exactly cheap.

And let's be honest. As fans of this hobby, we all know damn well that almost none of us were going to drop $1,000 on a pair of headphones just to get better wireless audio.

Right?

....RIGHT????

So a few years went by with relatively little movement. Then, around 2021, HiBy released the WH2, and TWS started feeling like it was finally moving forward again. HiBy positioned the WH2 as the first officially LDAC-certified TWS earphone, with support for transmission rates up to 990kbps.

Crazy what can happen in just five years, isn't it? Innovation is a funny thing. And that brings me to the ROSESELSA Ceramics Ultra.

I could lie to you and tell you that every aspect of the Ceramics Ultra represents some massive innovation. I could tell you the sound is so good that it's going to blow your mind like the meme.

It's not.

What it is going to do… or at least what it did for me… is become a part of your daily life.

Whenever I'm gardening, cutting down trees, working around the house, or doing damn near anything else, they're firmly planted in my ears. And that's actually what surprised me most about the Ceramics Ultra.

I didn't find myself reaching for them because I was reviewing them. I found myself reaching for them because I genuinely wanted to listen to them.

And honestly? I think that's worth talking about.

Disclaimer: These were sent to me by ROSESELSA for the purpose of this review. There was no monetary compensation for producing this review. While ROSESELSA provided the product, that did not influence my opinions or conclusions. As always, these are my honest observations and listening impressions.

The Tech Stuff

This is one of those sections I don't think anyone actually reads, but people would totally notice if I didn't add it! So let's make this fun: If you actually read this, drop your favorite color in the comments.

Did you do it?

Okay, good!

Let's look at what's actually under the hood of the Ceramics Ultra and see how far TWS tech has crawled out of that 2016 bottleneck we were just talking about.

1. The Core Architecture & Codecs

Unlike the primitive Bluetooth constraints of early earbuds that choked on high-bitrate audio, this thing is packing Bluetooth 6.0 with a Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP and a dedicated DAC/amp stage.

High-Res Support: It doesn't just settle for standard AAC and SBC. It handles high-resolution codecs including LDAC and LHDC 5.0, with transmission rates reaching up to roughly 1Mbps depending on codec and connection conditions. ROSESELSA lists SBC, AAC, LDAC, and LHDC 5.0 as supported codecs.

The Real-World Translation: You can actually feed a high-resolution source file into a wireless earbud without immediately being limited to the basic Bluetooth codecs we've been dealing with for years.

That's right! That's four separate codecs in one tiny, comfortable shell! 

Really quick I'd like to talk about the difference between LDAC and LHDC 5.0 because I know until now I had actually never heard of it so maybe you haven't either! 

LDAC and LHDC are competing high-resolution Bluetooth codecs designed to transmit more audio data than basic SBC or AAC. LDAC is more widely supported, while LHDC can offer similarly high or slightly higher bitrates depending on the implementation, in my testing though with the Ceramics Ultra, LHDC was considerably more stable than LDAC, and I couldn't hear an obvious difference in sound quality between them.

Oh and none of them work with iPhone! So if you're an iPhone user, welp you're SOL!

2. The Driver

ROSESELSA threw in a single 10mm dynamic driver featuring its HR+ Planck diaphragm design.

The company says the driver uses a rigid diaphragm structure paired with a flexible surround, allowing for greater excursion than a conventional TWS driver. Rather than pretending I independently measured that claim, I'll tell you what I can actually hear... the driver moves some serious air.

And that matters.

Because whatever the engineering behind it, the result is a driver capable of producing some genuinely physical low-end without completely burying everything above it.

ROSESELSA also lists the Ceramics Ultra as a 2026 Red Dot award winner.

3. ANC and Practical Tech

The Ceramics Ultra uses active noise cancellation rated up to 50dB, along with a dedicated wind-noise reduction mode and four microphones. It also includes a low-latency gaming mode. On paper, this is exactly the kind of feature set you'd expect from a modern TWS product. The interesting part is finding out how much of that technology actually matters once you start using the thing.

And that's where the testing gets interesting.

The Unboxing

When you first open the box, you're presented with the device itself... nothing else on the surface. But once you pull the product out, you realize that there are two additional boxes underneath. One is hiding the eartips, and the other hides the charging cable.

It's all presented in an elegant, minimalistic way that, although not stunning, is nice on its own.

You can watch the whole unboxing here!:

https://youtube.com/shorts/aAaeB3LB83c?is=2XjwuTGRIhobuYBh

The Battery Life

Okay, this is insane!

Listen, I've read about a bajillion tech spec sheets over my life, and the biggest lie they all tell is about battery life. Every time they say 7, 8, 9, or 10 hours, it's almost always at least half that.

Maybe even less!

Especially after you drop some serious hours on the product. I mean, my Samsung Buds2 Pro are lucky if they last 45 minutes at this point!

Then here comes the Ceramics Ultra. I can't say the battery is gonna be as good as it is now in 10 years... it won't! But I can say ROSESELSA rates these for up to 11 hours of playback from the earbuds and up to 40 hours total with the charging case. And honestly, that's pretty damn close to what I've experienced. I've listened to two audiobooks, four movies, and about 50 songs on these before I ever even started writing this review, and I can tell you the case is still at 32%. That's wild! If anything, they undersold what these babies can do in the hours-listened department.

Hell, I've not even charged them yet!

Sound Cancelling

Listen!

I've been anti-TWS since I made the switch back to wired, but these do make a difference... though honestly, I think the active noise cancellation on these is kinda bad. Sitting about 10 feet away from my wife, I could hear her show playing on her phone. I've tried 15 different eartips with these to see if it helps in any way... nothing did. This is one of the biggest downfalls of the Ceramics Ultra.

ROSESELSA rates the ANC at up to 50dB, but in my real-world testing, the difference was nowhere near what I expected. It reduced some outside noise, but it didn't come close to creating the level of isolation I get from some of my other TWS sets. And somehow, I still got that pressure-suction feeling that so many users shy away from with ANC. So yeah… The ANC isn't great. That's probably the biggest disappointment I've had with these.

Microphone

One of the most impressive aspects of the Ceramics is its microphone!

Honestly, bro, listen!

I've recorded probably 35 test clips... some outside, some inside, and one with me standing in only shorts on top of my air conditioner just to get a feel for what this device's mic can really do! And let me tell you… It's crystal clear. No matter what I tried to do to disrupt it. There was no Mr. Roboto. No consonant clipping. No obvious collapse when the environment got loud. It's actually amazing. I tried to break it to see what would happen, and it actually broke me... almost seriously. There was a whole thing where the garden hose tried to take me out.

But that's a story for another review!

The Sound Quality

Let's Break Down the Sound

Let's start with the bass, because this is where the Ceramics Ultra immediately makes its personality known.

The bass hits nice. It's resolute, it has some real boom behind it, and most importantly, it doesn't overly bleed into the mids.

That is something I really appreciate with a V-shaped tuning. You can give me that extra low end, but if it starts stepping all over the vocals and instruments sitting above it, we've got a problem.

Thankfully, that's not what I'm hearing here.

The bass has presence without completely taking over the room.

Male vocals are crisp and clear, and they aren't recessed nearly as much as I expected them to be. There's enough presence here that voices retain their character without getting swallowed up by the bass.

Female vocals, though… Damn.

These are really good.

They're intimate, warm, and have this really enjoyable sense of closeness that works extremely well with the tuning. And I have to bring up Behind Blue Eyes here, especially the new remaster. This song is an outright resounding experience on the Ceramics Ultra. The left and right separation is particularly noticeable, and there are moments where the presentation just clicks. You can hear those elements sitting distinctly apart from one another, and it gives the track a much bigger sense of space than I expected from a set of TWS earbuds.

Now, before I get carried away, let's talk about the mids.

Yes...

They're recessed.

But this is a V-shaped tuning, and honestly, I went into this expecting it. The mids aren't disappearing, but they aren't being pushed directly into your face either. And that's probably the first thing I wanted to change once I finished my initial listening. I personally prefer my vocals and midrange a little more in-your-face. That's the beauty of having EQ available. I don't have to decide whether the tuning is objectively right or wrong. I can decide whether it's right for me. Then we get to the treble, and this is where the Ceramics Ultra surprised me.

Most TWS sets I've used seem to be really good at one thing... sound cancellation... while everything else feels like an afterthought. The Ceramics Ultra almost feels like the exact opposite.

The noise cancellation is… Well… Kinda bad….

But everything else? Actually pretty damn good.

I'm not going to sit here and tell you the treble is some mind-blowing revelation that completely changes what I thought TWS could do.

It isn't.

But the detail retrieval is genuinely surprising, especially considering what these are designed to be. And that changes the way I think about these. Because when I'm out and about and the world starts getting a little too damn loud, these are going in my pocket. When I need to escape for a few minutes, I want something that can give me that little break from everything around me.

And despite the fact that the noise cancellation isn't particularly impressive, the actual listening experience is good enough that I know I'll keep reaching for them.

I feel like that's a pretty important distinction.

The Ceramics Ultra may not be the best noise-cancelling TWS I've ever used, but they are absolutely among the better-sounding sets I've heard in this category.

More importantly...

They're the set I'll actually keep in my pocket. Because they are good enough! In every way, and more importantly….

they are actually pleasurable to use!

EQ

So, as promised, I threw some EQ at these.

For me, bringing the mids forward just a little bit made the Ceramics Ultra considerably more pleasurable to listen to. I also darkened the treble slightly, but left everything else exactly as it was.

I didn't try to completely change the character of these. I just nudged them in the direction my ears prefer.

And honestly… That's exactly what I wanted to find.

The stock tuning has its own personality, and I don't think you need to EQ these to enjoy them. But with those small changes, they became much more my kind of sound.

I'm not going to drop my EQ settings into this review, though.

I'd actually much rather encourage you to experiment with them yourself. Play around with that EQ. Bring the mids forward a little. Try darkening the treble. Leave the bass alone and see what happens.

And when you do… Absolutely come back here and tell me what you find. Because that's one of the coolest things about having an EQ available.

Your ears aren't my ears, and what sounds perfect to me might not be what sounds perfect to you.

The Range

Honestly, the range isn't great on these.

If you're the type of person who carries your phone on you at all times, this won't matter at all, so you can skip to the next section.

But I thought it would be worth testing, so I did.

In SBC/AAC, the effective range in my testing was about 65 feet. There is a huge difference between these, my AirPods, and my Galaxy Buds2 Pro, which actually get about 300 feet consistently before clipping starts.

In LDAC, I can't even make it to my front door before clipping starts. 

And in LHDC, I can maybe make it to my kitchen with my phone on my bed before the clipping sets in.

It's not horrible by any means.

You're probably going to use these at the gym, working around the house, or wherever else you don't want to have your phone out. In those situations, you're probably going to be only a few feet from your source anyway.

Still...

It's something worth knowing.

The App

I feel like I should add that I love a good app.

You can see that for yourself, though, so I'll just highlight my favorite parts of it.

1. 10-Band EQ

It's not a PEQ... maybe they will add that in the future?!? But it is good enough that I feel like I'm not really missing anything, which is great. 

2. Codec Switching

You can switch between codecs on the fly with a short reset while the earbuds adjust. This is something I tested a lot during this review. I wanted to see how long my phone, a Google Pixel 10 Pro XL, would take to actually update between codecs. It did. And it was quick. I will say that LDAC with these isn't perfect. In my testing, it clipped constantly. LHDC, on the other hand, was considerably more stable, and honestly, I couldn't hear an obvious difference between the two.

So do with that information as ye will.

Touch Controls

Let's be real...

Touch controls are one of those things that we all say we won't use, but we actually use constantly.

Even if it's just by accident.

Left Ear:

- Single click: Increase volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Previous track

- Long press: Phone's assistant

Right Ear:

- Single click: Lower volume

- Double click: Play / pause

- Triple click: Next track

- Long press: Noise-cancelling controls

The controls and taps are incredibly responsive... to the point that I've accidentally turned up the volume just putting a hat on.

And honestly?

That's exactly what you want in this case. Or at least, it's exactly how responsive I want mine to be. The long press takes about three seconds, and it opens my phone's assistant or switches the noise-control modes easily enough. But more importantly, it's consistent. It's intuitive.

I like it.

Closing

I went into this testing expecting just another commercial TWS unit that I would test out and eventually give to someone else as a gift after I was done.

What I wasn't expecting was that, at under 50 bucks, I'd find a TWS unit that actually made me reconsider my whole mentality on wireless. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. The ANC could be considerably better. The range isn't impressive. LDAC was unstable in my testing.

But here's the thing...

I don't care. Because after all the testing was done, I kept putting them back in my ears. I kept taking them with me. I kept listening to them. And eventually, I realized something. I didn't just review the Ceramics Ultra. I actually started using them. And for a product that costs under $50, I think that's one hell of an accomplishment.

Before I fully wrap this up, let's do the question of the day!

Question of the Day

If you could have dinner with any artist, past or present, who would it be? What's the first question you'd ask? And why?

I think I'd pick Monet.

I'd ask him, What was it like as you went blind?

His relationship with color changed dramatically as his eyesight deteriorated. He had famously rejected black as something he didn't believe belonged in nature, yet as his vision changed, darker tones became increasingly present in his work.

I'd love to know what that experience actually felt like from inside his own head.

What did he see? What did he think he was painting?

And what did it feel like when the world he had spent his entire life observing began disappearing? I too am going blind, so I think it would be an interesting conversation.

And honestly...

I'd really like to hear the answer.

​

Intro:

The Tanchjim Space II is one of those almost overly unassuming DACs... not because it isn't pretty. It is.

But because of what it isn't. It's not some huge, flashy DAC that you'd see sitting on the desk of one of those half head shaved A holes... (audiophile as…) you get the point. It's not big. It's not bulky. But with 225mW of power at 32Ω, it absolutely gets the job done. And that's what I love about it. It's small enough to fit in your pocket, it's made out of metal, it feels incredibly solid, and honestly... It's become a daily driver for me.

Not because I hate the Fosi MD3. I actually really like the MD3. It's because the Space II is everything the MD3 isn't. It's Small. Portable. Easy to carry. And it has basically everything I actually need in a dongle DAC. Oh... and did I mention the app? Because the app is amazing. But more on all of that later… Because it's EPIC STORY TIME!

Epic Story:

So I remember the first time I noticed the sky… And no, I don't mean NOTICED THE SKY… I mean the first time I really took the time to look up. To actually look at the stars. To notice how everything looked. And I remember just looking up and uttering… "Wow..." It was 1993. I was 5... almost 6. My grandmother's husband of the year took me to a lake in Boston. We went out to this small island that day for a little fair they were having. And I won a pie eating contest. It was segregated by age, obviously. And the results? Well... honestly, that depends on who you believe. I remember eating at least 15 whole cherry pies directly to my face. My grandmother would have told you a completely different story. She'd say it was one large piece or something like that! But let's be real… I like my story way better. Anyway, rowing back to the trailer, night fell. There was a summer sun shower just as the stars began to peek into the night sky. And it was absolutely stunning. I'll never forget that day. The pie was amazing. And I ate at least 20 full pies that day! George got in trouble because I ruined all of my clothes with pie stains. But somewhere between the lake, the rain, the stars, and a ridiculous amount of cherry pie… I saw the sky for the first time. After that day, I would always look at the sky, I studied space like I was going to be an astronaut one day! Hell I even went to space camp once….. but that passion never died, which leads me to the Tanchjim Space 2…

DISCLAIMER:

Tanchjim sent me this unit for review purposes! All opinions expressed are my own. No money was exchanged to influence my opinion or the outcome of this review.

TECH STUFF:

DAC Chips:

Dual CS43131

Outputs:

3.5mm Single-Ended

4.4mm Balanced

Power Output:

225mW @ 32Ω

PCM:

Up to 32-bit / 384kHz

DSD:

Native DSD256

DNR:

132dB

SINAD:

110dB

Dimensions:

4.2 × 2.1 × 1.2 cm

Weight:

15.1g

Power Consumption:

Approximately 0.4W

Volume Memory:

Yes

Microphone Input:

3.5mm

DSP:

Full DSP and Game Audio Suite

PEQ:

10-band Parametric EQ

App:

Tanchjim App

Gain:

Low Gain / High Gain

DAC Modes:

Class AB / Class H

Connectivity:

USB-C

Price:

Approximately $79.99 at launch

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

Alright... let's keep this one simple.

The Space II doesn't come with a giant pile of accessories, but honestly, I don't think it needs one.

Inside the box you get:

• USB-C to USB-C cable

• USB-A adapter

• Warranty card

• QC card

• Instruction manual

And that's it.

No giant collection of cables you're probably never going to use. No random accessories thrown into the box just to make it look fuller. It's a pretty straightforward package that gets you from opening the box to listening to music without much fuss. And honestly… That's exactly what I want from something designed to live in my pocket.

You can actually watch the unboxing here:

https://youtu.be/RWK73R8Z0ks?is=uzjc16AyLymtGw8L

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Let me start off by saying this thing is tiny, it's the kind of small you can lose it in your pocket! It's all metal, with a small window where you can see all the cool little bits and bobs in it, the buttons are few, basically just a volume clicker, which all works well enough.

My only problem that I ran into is the ports. Those tiny little bastards had rigor mortis the first time I tried them. I literally had to shove the 4.4mm termination into that damn port so hard that I was sure I was going to break it. I didn't, and now after a couple weeks I can tell you... it's smooth and perfect!

THE APP

Now let's talk about the app, because honestly... this is where the Space II really starts to separate itself from a lot of the other dongle DACs I've used. The Tanchjim app is actually useful, which shouldn't be as surprising as it is, but I've used enough DAC apps to know that's not always the case. It connected quickly, stayed connected, and I didn't have to fight with it every time I wanted to change something.

You've got your standard controls like volume and gain, but then things get really interesting. There are different modes and presets that actually change the presentation, including a tube amp style preset, a vinyl style preset that adds some character and distortion, and even a CD player preset. That one honestly gave me a little nostalgia hit I wasn't expecting.

But the feature that matters most to me is the 10-band system-wide PEQ. This isn't one of those features that exists on the spec sheet just so the company can say it has PEQ. You can actually use it, and it makes an audible difference across your listening. You can build your own tuning or use existing profiles, and that makes the Space II much more versatile than a basic dongle DAC.

There are also options for channel balance, DAC modes, filters, microphone gain, DRE optimization, and game audio features. I haven't found myself using every single one of them, but the important thing is that they're there and they actually work.

The biggest downside is also pretty damn simple... iOS users are left out. The Space II's app functionality isn't available on iOS, which is a legitimate limitation if you're deep in the Apple ecosystem. For Android users, though, my experience has been excellent, and even my Google Pixel played nicely with it.

For me, the app is probably the biggest reason the Space II doesn't feel like just another tiny DAC. It's a little pocket-sized source with an entire toolbox of ways to change how you listen.

REVIEW

After actually living with the Space II for a couple of weeks, I think the biggest compliment I can give it is that I stopped thinking about it. And I mean that in the best possible way. It just became part of my setup.

I didn't have to think about whether I wanted to grab it. I didn't have to think about whether it was going to work. I just plugged it in and listened.

And that's honestly what I want from a portable DAC.

The Space II doesn't feel like something I have to build my listening experience around. It just gets out of the way and lets me listen to my music.

I've used it with different IEMs and different sources, and I've found it incredibly easy to live with. The combination of its size, power, features, and the flexibility of the software makes it one of those pieces of gear that I can see myself continuing to reach for long after the review is finished. 

MY SCORE

Unboxing: 8.9/10

Quality: 9.5/10

App: 10/10

Giftability: 9.5/10

MY WIFE'S Review

So I went back and forth between the dac that I have and the space2.  I for some reason the dac that I have seems to almost like, make the headphones quieter and even though the dac that I have now you can really dial in the volume. It never gets as rich as when I would plug in the space 2 dac and I didn't realize that a dac could have so much effect on the quality of the sound. But I'm a little bit jealous that you're keeping it for yourself. Just going to say that out loud right there because I want it also. I like cuz so I'm a girl and I like the fact that it has a little window where you could see the little bits inside and I thought it was really cute. I also like the fact that it's not bulky. It doesn't need a magnet to stick to your phone. It feels way more portable than the dac that I have now. I like that it's compact. I like that it has both a 3.5 and a 4.4 mm even though the 4.4 mm stuck for a second and we got it in after like kind of forcing it. But I do like that it has both options in such a small package

Unboxing: 10/10

Quality: 10/10

App: 10/10

Giftability: 10/10

Her reasoning is pretty simple...

She wants one. Or two just in case one breaks!

Closing:

Honestly out of all the DACs I've ever used this one is it, it's probably my DAC endgame…. And I hate that for me because let's be real finding new gear is the best part of this hobby! 

Hell it's honestly something I'm using for every iem review since I got it! 

And that's probably the biggest surprise for me. I started this review wanting to find reasons not to like it. Instead, I ended up wondering whether I actually need my DAP with me anymore.

That's a pretty damn good problem for a $79.99 dongle DAC to give me.

Question of the Day

If you could only keep one, would you take a dedicated DAP or a tiny dongle DAC like the Space II? And why?

​

Intro:

The Tanchjim Space II is one of those almost overly unassuming DACs... not because it isn't pretty. It is.

But because of what it isn't. It's not some huge, flashy DAC that you'd see sitting on the desk of one of those half head shaved A holes... (audiophile as…) you get the point. It's not big. It's not bulky. But with 225mW of power at 32Ω, it absolutely gets the job done. And that's what I love about it. It's small enough to fit in your pocket, it's made out of metal, it feels incredibly solid, and honestly... It's become a daily driver for me.

Not because I hate the Fosi MD3. I actually really like the MD3. It's because the Space II is everything the MD3 isn't. It's Small. Portable. Easy to carry. And it has basically everything I actually need in a dongle DAC. Oh... and did I mention the app? Because the app is amazing. But more on all of that later… Because it's EPIC STORY TIME!

Epic Story:

So I remember the first time I noticed the sky… And no, I don't mean NOTICED THE SKY… I mean the first time I really took the time to look up. To actually look at the stars. To notice how everything looked. And I remember just looking up and uttering… "Wow..." It was 1993. I was 5... almost 6. My grandmother's husband of the year took me to a lake in Boston. We went out to this small island that day for a little fair they were having. And I won a pie eating contest. It was segregated by age, obviously. And the results? Well... honestly, that depends on who you believe. I remember eating at least 15 whole cherry pies directly to my face. My grandmother would have told you a completely different story. She'd say it was one large piece or something like that! But let's be real… I like my story way better. Anyway, rowing back to the trailer, night fell. There was a summer sun shower just as the stars began to peek into the night sky. And it was absolutely stunning. I'll never forget that day. The pie was amazing. And I ate at least 20 full pies that day! George got in trouble because I ruined all of my clothes with pie stains. But somewhere between the lake, the rain, the stars, and a ridiculous amount of cherry pie… I saw the sky for the first time. After that day, I would always look at the sky, I studied space like I was going to be an astronaut one day! Hell I even went to space camp once….. but that passion never died, which leads me to the Tanchjim Space 2…

DISCLAIMER:

Tanchjim sent me this unit for review purposes! All opinions expressed are my own. No money was exchanged to influence my opinion or the outcome of this review.

TECH STUFF:

DAC Chips:

Dual CS43131

Outputs:

3.5mm Single-Ended

4.4mm Balanced

Power Output:

225mW @ 32Ω

PCM:

Up to 32-bit / 384kHz

DSD:

Native DSD256

DNR:

132dB

SINAD:

110dB

Dimensions:

4.2 × 2.1 × 1.2 cm

Weight:

15.1g

Power Consumption:

Approximately 0.4W

Volume Memory:

Yes

Microphone Input:

3.5mm

DSP:

Full DSP and Game Audio Suite

PEQ:

10-band Parametric EQ

App:

Tanchjim App

Gain:

Low Gain / High Gain

DAC Modes:

Class AB / Class H

Connectivity:

USB-C

Price:

Approximately $79.99 at launch

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

Alright... let's keep this one simple.

The Space II doesn't come with a giant pile of accessories, but honestly, I don't think it needs one.

Inside the box you get:

• USB-C to USB-C cable

• USB-A adapter

• Warranty card

• QC card

• Instruction manual

And that's it.

No giant collection of cables you're probably never going to use. No random accessories thrown into the box just to make it look fuller. It's a pretty straightforward package that gets you from opening the box to listening to music without much fuss. And honestly… That's exactly what I want from something designed to live in my pocket.

You can actually watch the unboxing here:

https://youtu.be/RWK73R8Z0ks?is=uzjc16AyLymtGw8L

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Let me start off by saying this thing is tiny, it's the kind of small you can lose it in your pocket! It's all metal, with a small window where you can see all the cool little bits and bobs in it, the buttons are few, basically just a volume clicker, which all works well enough.

My only problem that I ran into is the ports. Those tiny little bastards had rigor mortis the first time I tried them. I literally had to shove the 4.4mm termination into that damn port so hard that I was sure I was going to break it. I didn't, and now after a couple weeks I can tell you... it's smooth and perfect!

THE APP

Now let's talk about the app, because honestly... this is where the Space II really starts to separate itself from a lot of the other dongle DACs I've used. The Tanchjim app is actually useful, which shouldn't be as surprising as it is, but I've used enough DAC apps to know that's not always the case. It connected quickly, stayed connected, and I didn't have to fight with it every time I wanted to change something.

You've got your standard controls like volume and gain, but then things get really interesting. There are different modes and presets that actually change the presentation, including a tube amp style preset, a vinyl style preset that adds some character and distortion, and even a CD player preset. That one honestly gave me a little nostalgia hit I wasn't expecting.

But the feature that matters most to me is the 10-band system-wide PEQ. This isn't one of those features that exists on the spec sheet just so the company can say it has PEQ. You can actually use it, and it makes an audible difference across your listening. You can build your own tuning or use existing profiles, and that makes the Space II much more versatile than a basic dongle DAC.

There are also options for channel balance, DAC modes, filters, microphone gain, DRE optimization, and game audio features. I haven't found myself using every single one of them, but the important thing is that they're there and they actually work.

The biggest downside is also pretty damn simple... iOS users are left out. The Space II's app functionality isn't available on iOS, which is a legitimate limitation if you're deep in the Apple ecosystem. For Android users, though, my experience has been excellent, and even my Google Pixel played nicely with it.

For me, the app is probably the biggest reason the Space II doesn't feel like just another tiny DAC. It's a little pocket-sized source with an entire toolbox of ways to change how you listen.

REVIEW

After actually living with the Space II for a couple of weeks, I think the biggest compliment I can give it is that I stopped thinking about it. And I mean that in the best possible way. It just became part of my setup.

I didn't have to think about whether I wanted to grab it. I didn't have to think about whether it was going to work. I just plugged it in and listened.

And that's honestly what I want from a portable DAC.

The Space II doesn't feel like something I have to build my listening experience around. It just gets out of the way and lets me listen to my music.

I've used it with different IEMs and different sources, and I've found it incredibly easy to live with. The combination of its size, power, features, and the flexibility of the software makes it one of those pieces of gear that I can see myself continuing to reach for long after the review is finished. 

MY SCORE

Unboxing: 8.9/10

Quality: 9.5/10

App: 10/10

Giftability: 9.5/10

MY WIFE'S Review

So I went back and forth between the dac that I have and the space2.  I for some reason the dac that I have seems to almost like, make the headphones quieter and even though the dac that I have now you can really dial in the volume. It never gets as rich as when I would plug in the space 2 dac and I didn't realize that a dac could have so much effect on the quality of the sound. But I'm a little bit jealous that you're keeping it for yourself. Just going to say that out loud right there because I want it also. I like cuz so I'm a girl and I like the fact that it has a little window where you could see the little bits inside and I thought it was really cute. I also like the fact that it's not bulky. It doesn't need a magnet to stick to your phone. It feels way more portable than the dac that I have now. I like that it's compact. I like that it has both a 3.5 and a 4.4 mm even though the 4.4 mm stuck for a second and we got it in after like kind of forcing it. But I do like that it has both options in such a small package

Unboxing: 10/10

Quality: 10/10

App: 10/10

Giftability: 10/10

Her reasoning is pretty simple...

She wants one. Or two just in case one breaks!

Closing:

Honestly out of all the DACs I've ever used this one is it, it's probably my DAC endgame…. And I hate that for me because let's be real finding new gear is the best part of this hobby! 

Hell it's honestly something I'm using for every iem review since I got it! 

And that's probably the biggest surprise for me. I started this review wanting to find reasons not to like it. Instead, I ended up wondering whether I actually need my DAP with me anymore.

That's a pretty damn good problem for a $79.99 dongle DAC to give me.

Question of the Day

If you could only keep one, would you take a dedicated DAP or a tiny dongle DAC like the Space II? And why?

Intro

One of the hardest parts of being a reviewer is staying subjective. You get different IEMs, all in different price brackets, and you test them. Hell, you test them on a level that most casual listeners will never achieve, even if this is their daily set. You get to know them on such an intimate level they become almost like a girlfriend that you put inside your...... ears...... but here's the truth: every set you use at every price bracket, at least the ones I've tested, has pros and cons.

And usually, the cheaper the set, the more cons there are. So at $54.99 USD for the 3.5mm/4.4mm set and $59.99 USD for the 3.5mm/USB-C dongle version, I was expecting to find some pretty glaring cons with relatively few pros.

So let's delve into it. Let's see what I found, and how all of those pieces work together to make up this set.

Is it a dream? Or was JUZEAR's head in the clouds when they made the Nimbus?

Disclosure

HiFiGo sent me this set for review purposes. No money was exchanged to sway my views.

I'm sure some people would say that because it was sent to me, all subjectivity is gone. I mostly disagree with that standpoint. Honestly, there may be some sway, but I'm going to do my best to remain objective and remember not only is this set different from the others I've tested, but also that it's a sub-$60 USD IEM.

Epic Story Time

When I was younger, I lived in the country. There wasn't a whole lot of kids around, and my family and I lived on an old ranch. I worked and spent all my free time outside, except on Sundays, when I went fishing.

Granny caught me once, and I can tell you the ass-whooping I got. Well, let's just say I will never again fish on Sunday.

I spent so much time outside by myself that, honestly, I got real familiar with that pond. I knew exactly what fish were biting at exactly what time of day. Hell, I could thread my line through a hollow from 20 yards away!

There was a stump I used to use as a makeshift pole vault, and I almost got bit by a cottonmouth one day. I can say I'll never do that again!

I never felt lonely because I had my music, my headphones, my pole, and my cat.

That's right. I had a fishing cat.

He went to the pond with me every day. He would sit there and watch me. He hated fish but loved hanging out with me. I miss that cat every day. His name was Kujo.

One thing you'll learn when you fish every day is that there's a lot of downtime. Like, a lot.

Sometimes you sit in your chair for five or six hours without a single nibble, so I'd sit and stare at the sky. Watch the clouds as they passed. Some would even say I had my head in them, there clouds.

Hell, I spent so much time staring at the sky that a few years ago I had my eyes checked, and the eye doctor asked me if I used to just stare at the sun.

I replied, "Kinda."

Anyways, thanks for taking some time out of your day to read my nostalgic walk down memory lane!

Now, onto the actual review. But before that, let's take a look at the tech stuff. You know, if I don't add it, someone's gonna be like, "But what's under the hood?!"

Tech Specs

10mm single dynamic driver

MACCD multilayer amorphous carbon composite diaphragm

TPEE flexible suspension

Large "Big Black" voice coil

N52 neodymium magnet

32Ω impedance

108dB ±1dB SPL/mW sensitivity

20Hz...20kHz frequency response

≤0.8% harmonic distortion

26dB noise reduction

9.2g per earpiece

0.78mm 2-pin connectors

4-strand single-crystal copper, silver-plated cable

CNC precision-engraved zinc-alloy construction

Laser colorful glass faceplate

Three interchangeable tuning nozzles

3.5mm + 4.4mm interchangeable plug system

USB-C Version Only

CX31993 DAC

32-bit/384kHz

124dB SNR

Distortion as low as -108dB

What's in the Box

JUZEAR Nimbus IEMs

3 pairs of interchangeable tuning nozzles

White

Red

Black

9 pairs of ear tips

PU leather spring-protection storage bag

High-purity single-crystal copper, silver-plated cable

Interchangeable 3.5mm + 4.4mm plug system or

3.5mm microphone cable + USB-C DAC dongle, depending on the version

Tuning Nozzle Test

JUZEAR says that each nozzle does a different thing. Here's what they say!

White nozzle... pre-installed

Balanced

Gentle

Smooth

Solid bass

Natural vocals

Transparent treble

Intended as the core/all-around tuning

Suitable for most music

Red nozzle

Increases the energy in the high and ultra-high frequencies

Makes the presentation brighter, more transparent, and airier

JUZEAR specifically recommends it for strings, female vocals, instrumental music, and ACG where stronger high-frequency presence is desirable

Black nozzle

Reduces the energy in the high and ultra-high frequencies

Makes the bass stronger

Creates a richer, more atmospheric presentation

JUZEAR recommends it for pop, electronic, DJ, and rap where rhythm and impact are important

Okay, so now that I've written all of that out, I can now tell you what the plans are for the nozzles and how imma run my test!

For this first test I really wanted to focus on the tuning nozzles. JUZEAR gives you three different options, and since the default nozzle is the baseline tuning, that's where I wanted to start.

The White

Everything seems smoothed out with the white nozzle. Nothing is overly pronounced. It's a bit chill, a little refined, but honestly, nothing really stands out.

And I mean that in a good way.

It makes for a really pleasurable listening experience. Nothing is fighting for your attention, nothing is screaming "look at me!"... it just lets you sit back and enjoy the music.

The Red

It's interesting just how obvious the difference is between the red nozzles and the pre-installed white ones. I can tell you right now, these won't be my daily-driver nozzles for this set.

Honestly, they make the Nimbus way too bright and shiny for my taste. But for you? They may be absolutely perfect.

So when you get this set, make sure you test them! That's the beauty of having three different tuning options... you can find the one that works best for your ears and your music.

The Black

The black nozzle is perfect for me. It adds in a ton of warmth, smooths out the treble, and honestly, these are my EDC.

This is the nozzle where everything just clicks for me. It's warm, relaxed, and easy to listen to, without feeling like it's missing anything. Out of the three, this is the one I'd be reaching for every day.

Okay, so we got our nozzles picked... what's next?

The Review

Accessories

I really want to spend some time talking about the accessories because the unboxing is absolutely fun.

You can watch the unboxing here!

https://youtu.be/A611QMms2Mw?is=tNTYu4QDNG75qyXS

It's easily in my top 10 sets I've opened, honestly probably top 3, right behind BASN (review coming soon) and Erand Resonance 5.

I got the 3.5mm version with the USB-C dongle DAC because, honestly, I wanted to test their DAC and the included microphone.

And honestly? The DAC is great for what it is. It's a dongle DAC built around the CX31993, supporting up to 32-bit/384kHz audio, with a claimed 124dB signal-to-noise ratio and distortion as low as -108dB. For something included with a sub-$60 IEM, that's pretty damn impressive.

The ear tips are actually great, too. I always use whatever ear tips come in the box at first before switching to my preferred tips for the set, and these are definitely good enough that I wouldn't feel the need to immediately replace them.

Then there's the cable.

This thing is absolutely thick and tightly wound. Like, seriously, it's tight. But despite that, it's not heavy, and out of all the cables I've used, this is easily one of the least microphonic.

All in all, when I'm rating the accessories alone, I'm giving the Nimbus a 10/10.

Hear me out... I know exactly what you're thinking right now! Cool, the accessories are good... how's it sound?!

Sound

Honestly, the sound is just okay.

Is it better than the Chu 2? Yes.

Is it better than the GeekWold S12 Ultra? No.

But here's where I think the Nimbus gets interesting... is it a great gift? Is it worth picking this set up for the accessories and the sound? Or, more importantly, would this make a great first set?

Fuck yeah.

Would I have been hyped if this was my first set?

Also yes.

And I think that's where the Nimbus really starts to make sense. You're getting a genuinely versatile set, three different tuning options, an excellent accessory package, and, depending on which version you buy, a pretty damn useful little USB-C DAC and microphone.

It's not going to beat every IEM I've tested. It doesn't need to.

What it does need to do is give someone who's getting into this hobby a reason to be excited about their first real set of IEMs.

And I think it does that.

So, let's deep dive into the sound and figure out exactly what you're getting for that $54.99...$59.99 price tag.

The Test

Although prior to this test I lived with them for about 40 hours, testing hundreds of songs, ASMR, and audiobooks, I'll be speaking specifically about these five tracks. Each one is designed to test a different part of the IEM's performance.

I will also only be using the Tanchjim Space 2, which will allow me to have a controlled baseline for my test.

The songs are:

Massive Attack... "Angel"

Fleetwood Mac... "Dreams"

Billie Eilish... "Bad Guy"

Tool... "Chocolate Chip Trip"

Daft Punk... "Giorgio by Moroder"

Massive Attack... "Angel"

Sub-bass: Deep but refined

Bass: Thick and gritty, with good texture

Bass bleed: Slightly bleeds into the mids

Overall: Adds a nice warmth to the presentation

The black nozzle definitely leans into the warmer side here, and you can hear that low-end character without it completely taking over the track.

Fleetwood Mac... "Dreams"

Vocals: Rich and resonant

Midrange: Even with the black nozzle, the mids remain warm and pleasant

Instrument separation: Honestly, it just isn't there. At all.

Upper mids: The warmth starts to muddy things up a bit

This is where that warmth starts to show its downside. Vocals sound great and the overall presentation is pleasant, but when the track gets busier, the instruments don't separate the way I'd like them to. There's a bit of congestion creeping into the upper mids.

Billie Eilish... "Bad Guy"

Midrange energy: Just okay

Vocal detail: Good, but it could be better, even compared to the similarly priced GeekWold GK12 Ultra... it's missing a lot

Upper treble: There are still some slight peaks, even with the black nozzle

Treble character: Those peaks can occasionally become almost piercing

Spatial separation: Almost nonexistent

The black nozzle definitely smooths things out, but it doesn't completely eliminate those upper-treble peaks. They're not constantly in your face, but when they show up, they can be almost piercing.

Also, spatially, things feel pretty cramped. There's almost no separation between elements, which makes the presentation feel more closed-in than I'd like.

Tool... "Chocolate Chip Trip"

This one is interesting because it's one of the first tracks where you can really hear the separation, imaging, and soundstage.

Imaging: Good

Soundstage: Maybe 1...2 inches off your head

Instrument placement: Conical

Layering: Surprisingly good, and honestly one of the major pluses of this set

Layering is actually best heard on this track. While the Nimbus doesn't give you a huge soundstage, it does a surprisingly good job of placing individual elements within that limited space.

It's not wide, but what space it does give you is being used pretty effectively.

Daft Punk... "Giorgio by Moroder"

The vocals are crystal clear and genuinely good. There's a point where you can actually hear the emotion enter Giorgio Moroder's throat, and the Nimbus captures that really well.

Vocals: Crystal clear with good emotional texture

Bass: Excellent

Treble: Good, without becoming overly intrusive on this track

Detail: Still a little muddy in places, especially when the mix gets busy

Percussion: The little click-click sounds are really nice

And honestly, the Nimbus handles this song better than it has any right to, especially considering everything else we've heard on this test list.

This is genuinely pleasant.

And because of that, I'm bumping this entire section from a 6.5 to a 7.

Sound Rating: 7/10

Closing Thoughts

So, is this a perfect set?

No.

Can you find better-sounding IEMs in this price range?

Yes.

Does the Nimbus give you way more than most other sets at this price?

Oh, hell yeah.

Would I recommend this set to a friend?

Honestly, probably not... unless he came to me saying, "Dude, I love your headphones. I want to try something that has a ton of extras."

That's where the Nimbus really shines.

Would I Replace Them If I Lost Them?

On sale? Yes.

If these went on sale, I'd probably replace them. The accessories alone make the Nimbus worth considering at the right price.

Full price? No.

The sound is mid at best for the money. There are better-sounding options available if sound quality is your only priority.

Who Is It For?

I think the Nimbus is primarily for the new guy getting into the hobby.

It's an approachable first set that gives you a ridiculous amount of stuff to play with, and the three tuning options give a new listener a chance to figure out what they actually like.

It's also a good choice for people who enjoy electronic music, pop, and other busy tracks, especially if you prefer a warmer presentation.

And apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks the tuning works.

My wife genuinely likes these and gives them a 9/10. The only set we have that she likes more is the Simgot EW300, which is very much her daily driver.

My son loved these so much that they're actually replacing his previous favorite, the PULA Audio Arc.

So if you asked him to rate the Nimbus?

I'm pretty sure he'd give it a 10/10.

And honestly, that's probably the most important thing about the Nimbus.

It's not the best-sounding IEM I've tested.

But for someone getting their first set, getting all of this for around $55...$60, having a bunch of accessories, multiple tuning options, and a DAC/microphone option?

That's a pretty damn good first step into the hobby.

Final Rating... 8/10

The sound alone would score lower, but the Nimbus isn't just about sound. The accessories, tuning options, DAC/microphone version, build, and overall package add a lot of value.

It won't be in my daily rotation, but it will be in my son's... and that's important.

It proves just how subjective this hobby really is.

QotD

What's one audio purchase you regret not making sooner?

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

Non affiliate link!

https://klink.cc/hifichoi@gmail.com

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

Non affiliate link!

https://klink.cc/hifichoi@gmail.com

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

Non affiliate link!

https://klink.cc/hifichoi@gmail.com

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

Non affiliate link!

https://klink.cc/hifichoi@gmail.com

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

Non affiliate link!

https://klink.cc/hifichoi@gmail.com

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

Non affiliate link!

https://klink.cc/hifichoi@gmail.com

​

Pros: 

Exceptional sound with PEQ, great sound without

Deep, powerful sub-bass

Excellent imaging & detail retrieval

Great performance even from weak sources 

Outstanding accessories and presentation seriously best unboxing experience I've had ever

Actually replaced my previous daily driver!

Cons:

Cable tangles comically easily

Vocals/mids are slightly recessed out of the box

Soundstage is intimate rather than expansive

Disclaimer: 

Let me be clear I received these free from HiFiChoi. No payment. No requirement for a positive review.

Listen I know it's silly but this is one of those things that absolutely has to be dropped smack dab right here or the government will get all upset! So this review was sponsored by HiFiChoi ha, no they didn't send any money or anything but they did send me this unit! Which is really cool of them! The deal was as always that my opinion had to be my own, honest, and probably the best opinion that's ever been had by anyone ever! (Okay so the last part wasn't part of the deal, but I mean come on!)

Epic Story

I remember the first time I got my fingerprints taken.

My elementary school used to have this Halloween fair with really cheesy games and even cheesier prizes. Unless you were a parent, of course. Parents got to play bingo all night and win the actual good stuff.

Except for one prize.

Musical chairs.

The prize was an entire cake that someone's grandma had apparently made the week before. So you know that thing was dry as hell. But I'll tell you what, my chubby ass competed for that cake every single year.

And even after all that, my mom would make us go all the way through high school so she could try her hand at the old B-I-N-G-O board. Every single year she failed to bring home a prize.

Statistically speaking, that's probably the most impressive part of this entire story.

But one year, somewhere between musical chairs for me, balloon darts for my sisters, and my mother losing another war against bingo, they had one of those fingerprint-your-kids stations.

You guys remember those?

You know, the little kits where they took your fingerprints so they could identify you if you were ever kidnapped?

I'm pretty sure they never actually saved a single child.

But here's the important part:

They gave us ten free tickets each for doing it.

So naturally, I walked right up, dipped my fingers in ink, and became the first kid in line to officially receive the world's least reassuring “please don't steal me” kit.

And honestly? I've been fascinated with fingerprints ever since.

Which brings me to the Resonance 5.

Because the first thing I noticed about these wasn't the five drivers. They're cool as hell, but no.

It wasn't the crossover either. I mean, brains are cool, but somehow that still wasn't what caught my attention.

No.

What got me was the faceplates.

They look like fingerprints.

And suddenly I was seven years old again, standing in the middle of a school Halloween fair with ink all over my fingers, wondering why the hell someone thought a fingerprint kit was going to stop a kid from getting kidnapped.

Intro 

I absolutely love the sexy fingerprint faced piece of high end audio equipment that fits squarely right smack dab in the middle of the beginner gear price range ($179). But it does have one flaw that really bothers me, the cable is the most tangling cable I've had since the early 2000s, you really need to make sure you wrap these up well or you'll spent the first 15 mins of your ten minute break trying to get the cable to just stop being a tangled mess, but even with that said these have become my daily drivers at least for now.

What's is in the box

You can watch my full unboxing video here! 

https://youtu.be/0AogelBr0oc?is=56C2H8OyEDygx5um

Okay so now that all the techies are totally satisfied, i have to say this set is actually stunning, there's a depth to the face plate that I've never seen with any set I've ever had before, and the accessories in the box are actually some of my favorite like let me tell you about the box…. We all know by now I love a great box, this one is like a velvet that is really nice to the touch, although I will say that the zipper is a lot stuff from the offset but it does loosen up a bit with use… it's also deep enough to hold 2 pairs of iems, cable and all, about 5 sets of tips and a whole dac… which I have to say is kinda insane…. It's also not for everyone; it's kinda large in case you didn't catch that from the description.

The ear tips that come in the box are actually some of my favorites. There's some clear liquid silicone tips that actually replaced the dunu candy tips as my favorite, the seal is so good they actually suction when you go to take them out which is wild…. The other tips are equally well thought out and precisely made… but imma skip going into detail with them because honestly, the liquid silicone ones are perfect for me… so much so if I get any other sets from hifichoi I'm going to ask for extras! 

The cable is actually wrapped which is either great or not depending on your whole opinion on that, I feel like 50% of the people here are going to say that it sucks extra microphonics and the rest are going to be like heck yeah that's perfect for me! But honestly I love it, it's flexible, it's comfortable, and it's everything the binary Acoustics 1900s cable wasn't! Oh and did I mention it's modular!!! You get a 3.5 and a 4.4mm term… that's something I wish more companies did, it makes it easier for everyone but especially reviewers to really flesh out the sound profile! So thanks HiFiChoi for making that choice!

Huge con on the cable though, it tangles quicker than an angry rattlesnake in the middle of summer.

First Impressions

Sources used

Samsung s10 plus

Hidizs ap30 music boy

Tanchjim Space 2

Rog Ally z1 extreme 

When I first opened the box I was really surprised, this is the most premium unboxing experience I've ever actually had, just look!

But then I plugged it in, the first thing I noticed was it actually has a really great sub bass response, I mean it should right? Most IEMs with two dynamic drivers almost always do but I have to say compared to my 1900 or even my dunu this is outright growling!  it's deep and rumbling it's right in the middle of my comfort zone and honestly I loved it but as I played more and more tracks, I realized the vocals were slightly recessed, it's tuned here to be slightly warm and natural but honestly it felt lacking, it also wasn't as warm as I normally enjoy, and honestly although I liked them, but the mids were not as good as the dunu dn 142 or the binary acoustics 1900, but it's 60 dollars cheaper and even without EQ it was still really close. Then I remembered my dunu needed EQ to like I messed with them a lot,  as much as +4.5 in some places to get the warmth I love. So I did the same here. 

Here's my peq settings!

So with the new peq settings put in place! These things absolutely exploded with sexy sound sparkle.. rainbows and unicorns descended from the sky!!!!!!..... And I can honestly say they nearly instantly became my number one iems, the cord tangles a lot though because aware they tangle so quickly it's almost like a magic trick! But the sound, listen, I seriously retired my Dunu Dn 142s…. Don't worry though I didn't bring them out to pasture or give them a viking burial or anything they are safely taking a well deserved rest in their case on my book shelf. That alone should tell you how I feel about these headphones though! Like seriously these are special! 

The sound stage is a little more in your face than with other sets I've used its 3d and holographic but it's not sitting 10 feet away, or anything like that it's more a small sultry bubble sitting a few feet off your head! the imagery is on point and the sound, the sound on these is just wow with a little bit of tuning even with a weak source these are amazing! And with that I mean a decade old Samsung Galaxy s10+ these drive so well! But the soundstage expands a bit with a better source as you see from the image I'm sporting the Tanchjim space 2 as my daily drivers and the Hidizs ap30…. And these things sing!!!! With a better source! So I guess I can honestly say it's sexy and intimate with a weak source, but more like a personal concert with a better source… 

Tech stuff! 

(From the manufacturer)

​1. 5-Driver Hybrid Configuration

​Liquid Silicone Dynamic Driver (10Hz – 200Hz): Delivers ultra-deep sub-bass with rich density.

​Dynamic Driver (200Hz – 800Hz): Produces warm, textured low frequencies.

​Improved Midrange Balanced Armature (800Hz – 4kHz): Renders natural, realistic vocals.

​High-Frequency Balanced Armature (4kHz – 9kHz): Provides clear, crisp treble presence.

​Micro Planar Driver (9kHz – 20kHz): Ensures extreme high-frequency extension and resolution.

​Result: Seamless frequency response from 10Hz to 35kHz.

​2. 5-Tube Phase Interference Suppression

​Unlike traditional 2 to 3-tube designs, the RESONANCE 5 utilizes 5 precision-calculated acoustic tubes merged into a compact 3-tube nozzle. This engineering approach eliminates phase interference and ensures a smooth crossover between drivers without compromising comfort.

​3. Advanced RLC Crossover Network

​While most earphones rely on basic RC filters that still permit driver interference, the RESONANCE 5 adopts a high-order RLC crossover featuring inductors (L). This significantly reduces inter-driver interference to deliver a cleaner, purer, and more transparent sound.

My Rating!

(From me)

Honestly out of the box these are probably an 9.3 hear me out here, at this price range there's nothing better, the sound is better than a few of the more expensive sets I have, but the tuning is just a little too safe for me so I knocked off .5 points for that, and the cable being so finicky I knocked off .2 for it because honestly this is a great cable it just tangles wayyyyy to easy. But with my preferred peq though these become a 10, they are pretty, (I mean just take a moment to look at the pictures! Or watch the unboxing video, then you add that they sound amazing, or consider the accessories which are well thought out and of great quality, and they are everything I think iems should be and honestly I believe these will be most people's early endgame and the craziest part of it all is this is HiFiChoi’s first attempt at their own iems, 

Sound Signature 

No EQ

Base line:

Sub bass: 

deep, resounding, rumbling… honestly perfect where it is

Mid bass:

 full bodied without ever becoming bloated, warm and textured while never bleeding into the mids

Lower mids: 

The lower mids are probably my biggest complaint with the stock tuning. They're recessed enough that male vocals in particular lose some of their body and resonance. Instead of sitting right up front and grabbing your attention, they can feel like they're sitting a few feet behind the rest of the mix. They're clean, but honestly? They're a little boring. There's not enough weight or intimacy there for my taste, and it makes male vocals feel almost distant compared to the bass and upper frequencies.

Upper mids: 

The upper mids are a completely different story from the lower mids. Female vocals have plenty of presence and are much more forward in the mix. They're clear, immediate, and right in your face…in a good way. There's none of the distant quality I hear with male vocals. If anything, the upper mids are one of the reasons the RESONANCE 5 can sound so detailed and engaging.

Treble:

The treble is energetic and extremely convincing with percussion. Cymbal hits and other high-frequency transients have enough impact that I actually find myself blinking when they hit…almost like I'm sitting directly beside the drum kit and the cymbal is crashing on both sides of my head at once. It's crisp, immediate, and physical without being something I would describe as excessively bright.

Vocal presentation 

Male: pushed back almost distant, lacks presentation. 

Female: right in your face in the best way possible

Sound Stage: 

The RESONANCE 5 has an excellent 3D, holographic soundstage. The left-to-right positioning is particularly impressive; with Yosi Horikawa's Bubbles, I can track the individual balls as they move through the stereo field with remarkable precision.

The stage isn't enormous, though. Instead of placing sounds far out in the distance, the RESONANCE 5 creates a relatively intimate but extremely coherent space. The sounds feel roughly three feet away from my head… close enough that, if those balls were actually bouncing around the room, I feel like I could reach out and catch one.

There is also a convincing sense of verticality. I'm perceiving information roughly 1–2 feet above and below my head, which gives the presentation a genuine three-dimensional quality rather than simply being a wide left-to-right image.

Imaging:

The imaging is exceptionally precise. With Yosi Horikawa's "Letter," I can close my eyes and track exactly where the individual sounds are occurring. The opening notes sit slightly left of center, and as the pencil begins moving across the paper, I can follow its position continuously as it travels to the right.

What's particularly impressive is that the presentation doesn't just give me a left-to-right location. I can actually perceive the angle of the paper as the pencil moves across it. The entire recording feels like a physical object occupying a specific position in space rather than simply sounds being panned between the two channels.

Detail

Agnes Obel – "Familiar" was particularly revealing. At approximately 1:18, during the repeated "time, time, time," there's a very subtle dip in pitch that I'd never noticed before. It's incredibly easy to miss…so subtle that I initially wondered whether I was imagining it. After replaying the section, though, I could clearly hear it.

That was one of those moments where I stopped listening to the song and started listening to the recording itself. The fact that the RESONANCE 5 exposed such a small vocal nuance that I'd never picked up on with my other IEMs is exactly what I mean when I describe its detail retrieval as exceptional.

It makes me wonder whether my other IEMs were simply smoothing over or masking that tiny variation.

Dynamics:

Hans Zimmer's "Why So Serious?" is where the RESONANCE 5 really demonstrates its dynamic ability. Around the 5-minute mark, the track begins with a slow, deep rumbling bass that almost makes me want to duck. It builds and builds...the bass comes in, the trumpets fire off, and suddenly I can hear the frantic movement of the cellist's fingers. Then the violin joins in, and I get chills.

The guitarists begin picking at the strings, and the emotional intensity keeps building. It's not simply getting louder; the entire performance is becoming more urgent and alive. Then it slows, with a deep, resonant violin building underneath everything. For a moment, the chaos becomes completely clear before transforming into something more refined. The music develops drive and purpose.

The RESONANCE 5 handles these transitions exceptionally well. Quiet passages retain their tension, while the increasingly intense sections feel genuinely explosive rather than simply louder. Instruments maintain their individual character as the arrangement becomes increasingly dense, giving the track a convincing sense of emotional progression and physical impact.

Separation:

The RESONANCE 5 has good overall separation, and even in busy passages I can still identify the individual elements of the recording. However, when instruments begin to overlap, some elements lose a little of their prominence. In particular, during denser sections, some of the drum hits take a slight backseat to the synth.

Nothing disappears completely...the information is still there...but the hierarchy of the mix changes. The synth can take priority over percussion that I would normally expect to remain equally distinct. It's more of a slight loss of separation under heavy overlap than an actual inability to resolve the individual elements.

Would I have noticed, had I not been listening for it no!

Comfort:

The RESONANCE 5 is exceptionally comfortable for me. I've worn them for up to eight hours without developing any meaningful discomfort. With the stock ear tips, there's just enough pressure to remind me they're there without ever becoming intrusive…almost like a warm hug for your ears.

The shells fit my ears extremely well, and once they're in place, the cable practically disappears. I don't notice it pulling, weighing down the IEMs, or interfering with my listening.

Obviously, fit is subjective, and what works perfectly for my ears won't necessarily work for everyone. But for my ears specifically, the RESONANCE 5 is one of the most comfortable IEMs I've used.

Isolation:

Isolation is excellent. Once the RESONANCE 5 is in place and music is playing, the outside world practically disappears. Even at relatively low listening volumes, the combination of the seal and the IEM's passive isolation does an excellent job of keeping outside noise out.

It's particularly impressive with quieter material. Even ASMR doesn't require much volume before the outside world becomes an afterthought. Someone would have to get pretty damn loud to get my attention while I'm listening.

The important part is that this level of isolation doesn't require cranking the volume to achieve it. The physical seal is doing the heavy lifting.

Sub-Bass:              [10/10]

Mid-Bass:              [9.5/10]

Lower Mids:           [7.5/10]

Upper Mids:           [9.5/10]

Male Vocals:          [7.5/10]

Female Vocals:      [9.5/10]

Treble:                    [9.5/10]

Sound Stage:          [9.3/10]

Imaging:                  [10/10]

Detail:                     [10/10]

Dynamics:               [10/10]

Separation:             [8.8/10]

Instrument Layering:  [9/10]

Bass Control:         [9.5/10]

Tonal Balance:       [8.7/10]

Sound:                   [9.3/10]

Comfort:                 [10/10]

Fit:                          [10/10]

Isolation:                 [10/10]

Cable Comfort:        [9.5/10]

Cable Handling:       [6.5/10]

Quality:                    [9.8/10]

Accessories:            [10/10]

Giftability:                 [10/10]

My opinion is, honestly you’re supposed to fumble the first few baddies you get your hands on and HiFiChoi absolutely didn't! But don't just take my word for it here's the rest of my family's opinions!

Wife's Rating

They were really good, they are some of the clearest headphones, I liked the volume but I don't know how to describe that honestly with those headphones. So I pulled up the song that I normally used Test  headphones on and I heard something in the song that I have never heard before on other headphones and I thought that maybe I was just missing it. So I was switching back and forth between two different sets of headphones and I realized that it just accentuated the sound that I had been missing and other headphones and I thought it was really cool that it kind of picked up all of the different instruments and sounds that was in the song that I hadn't noticed in different headsets before. I also like how the way that the song is recorded sometimes is like in one ear like something is happening just in one ear and you can hear that like you can hear the difference when something is supposed to be coming from the left. It sounds like it's coming from the left. Does that make sense? I liked how clear it was. It wasn't even what the volume turned way up. It didn't have any distortion and there was no. I don't know how to describe it like wobbly sounds when you turn up the volume too high. You know what I mean. It also didn't sound tinny. There was no cuz you know when you trim the volume way up to the point where your ears are like cuz that's enough and sometimes, what do you call it? Peaky sounds 10 out. There was not any tiny sound in it and I was very rich and it was a very nice experience. It was like having gourmet ice cream when everyone else is just eating the cheap stuff. I was like eating gelato when everyone else is just having like $5 ice cream!

Sound Stage  [10/10]

Imagery:         [10/10]

Giftability:       [10/10]

Sound:           [10/10]

Quality:          [8.5/10]

Accessories:  [7/10] 

Sons Rating

It sounded good. It's better than my regular headphones but I like the tuning of my regular headphones better. And that's where his review ended he wanted to go play astroneer. 

Rating: [8/10]

So in conclusion

Honestly these are perfect for me as long as we're talking post PEQ, pre PEQ I'll say it again for those of you who skimmed the whole review but  they are a 9.3 and let's be real that's better than pretty much anything else I've reviewed, especially in this price range, I can honestly say I wasn't even subjective with these, I straight head to headed them against every set I own and was still pleasantly surprised,  when these things pulled a Rocky and came out on top! 

Who are these for? 

Honestly everyone who wants a really great set for rock, rap, hip-hop, RnB, pop punk, and anyone who wants to dip their toes in without spending an arm and a leg. But also anyone who's been here a while and wants to try a new meta tuning. Because honestly. These start off sounding different then anything else I've heard and that's a good thing! At least in my opinion!

Are they worth the $179 dollars 

Man that's a tough question, would I go without food for a few days for these? Probably not. Would I save up and buy these myself? Definitely! If I lost these would I replace them? In a heartbeat! 

But it's all subjective, I loved them will you? I don't know. But honestly maybe you owe it to yourself to find out? Maybe this is your new favorite set I know it was mine!

QotD

If you figured out a way to telepathically send your mind back in time to any specific point, but you only had 10 seconds to do whatever your goal is, what would you do? When would you go? And why would you choose that point in time?

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