HieGi foams arrived today.
FAR more comfortable this time around, and the material isn’t causing my ears to go beet red and itch like hell. Also the foams are wide/plush enough to make contact with the concha, making them less prone to falling out/pulling on my ear.
As for sound, my comments on resolution are still the same, but the foams alleviated the treble issue I was having by darkening the sound.
There are many different thicknesses, densities, and types of foams you can try. They can be used to tune earbuds much like tips are used on IEMs or pads on headphones. I’m glad the HieGis worked pretty well for you, though. They are amongst the most comfortable foams out there, for sure.
My dad loves music just as much as I do and I figured for Christmas I can get him something better than I usually do, he’s a bluetooth kind of guy so I was just wondering what would be some good TWS earbuds options? He listens to mostly rock and edm
I don’t do the TWS thing so I have nothing as far as recs go. I was just posting because this thread is generally about flathead or “old school” eatbuds and not the TWS kind that gets inserted into the ear canal so you’ll probably get more replies if you crosspost this to IEMs. Good luck and happy hunting!
Honestly? The usual from Amazon since fit/comfort and usability will probably be the biggest issue so a quick and easy return if they don’t work well for him would be a good idea.
And then in that case, the usual culprits are recommended: galaxy buds 2/pro, airpods pro 1/2, wf-1000xm4, akg n400
Serratus is out for delivery 
Oh nice! That red one does look stunning! Looking forward to reading your impressions when you get a chance!
On another note, my Ripples is likely to arrive tomorrow!
Nice!! How exciting! I’m waiting for mine to clear customs…
Anyone try the Yincrow Calf? Can’t find much online or how it slots into the RW lineup…
There are a couple favorable posts on it on the Earbuds Round-up thread on Headfi IIRC. I haven’t tried it myself though.
They seem to be more along the lines of “satisfied with sound” but the only description I could find was neutral bright… will have to consider taking one for the team - I think they are around €55 at the moment so not to bad.
May as well ask your thoughts on the EBX21 whilst I have a bud aficionado here - can pick them up for around €95 new and wanted to know how they compete with higher end offerings from TGXears, VE & Rikubuds.
By the way - your NS shilling (jokes) had me pick up the LCP 80ohm in DIY driver & Copper shell also. Bad influence 
- will report back.
I hope you like the NSC 80ohm LCPs. They’re quite the pickup for the money. The EBX21s are very detailed with a pretty big soundstage. The treble is bright (too bright for some people) and the bass is tight and articulate, but some find it lacking. For me the EBX21 is more of a specialist bud for critical listening and it’s very good for that.
That’s really helpful / exactly what I was intending to use it for so I think that works - thanks
My FF5s cleared customs yesterday so I should have them soon. After the FF3s turned out to be one of my favorite buds, I’m excited to see what Fiio managed to do with the FF5s. The earbuds community has been eagerly awaiting this release for months now. 
I got my FF5s today! Below I quoted my post on Earbud Round-up over on Headfi for anyone who’s interested:
Okay, so after an hour of listening my very early/preliminary impressions are a bit of a mixed bag. The FF5s are a nicely balanced pair of buds with some good detail retrieval, a reasonably wide soundstage, and more treble extension than the FF3s. I would like a bit more depth to the soundstage, but that’s more of a nitpick.
Where the negative comes in, though it’s not really a negative per se, is that I think there are buds out there that do what the FF5s are trying to do better than the FF5s. If I was looking for a pair of buds in this price range with a good balanced sound signature I would pick the Yincrow RW-2000s or the Shozy BKs and possibly others over the FF5s. Not that the FF5s are a bad pair of buds. They’re actually quite good, but they don’t really excel at any one thing.
Where @drewbadour says that the FF5s keep most of the magic of the FF3s, I have to disagree a bit. The magic of the FF3s is in that massive and authoritative presentation and, IMO, that is nowhere to be found in the FF5s. The FF3s aren’t as balanced, but they aren’t trying to be. Let me put it this way, my FF3s aren’t going anywhere, but I’m not sure I need to keep the FF5s around. The FF3s are a special pair of buds that do what they do better than any pair of buds I have yet heard. I don’t feel that way yet about the FF5s.
Keep in mind that I still have a lot of listening to do and I have only tried the FF5s on a single source, my Cayin N8ii, so there is still a lot of time and potential for these buds to show me things they haven’t had the opportunity to show me yet. Another thing to keep in mind is that my impressions are coming from the perspective of a guy who already has multiple pairs of buds with balanced sound signatures that are some of the best available. Period. That means that for another balanced bud to be something I get excited about, it’s gonna have to show me something that I’m not getting elsewhere.
I know some folks had specifically been wondering how the FF5s stack up to the Serratus. I will do some ABing and maybe put up something more in depth, but I think the Serratus is the better of the two sound wise. Which brings me to one last point, the FF5s are really a very nicely built and finished earbud. They are light, the machining of all the hardware us high quality, the MMCX connectors have a nice snap to them, but aren’t particularly hard to pull apart, the fit is actually quite similar to the FF3s for me in how they sit in my ear which is a good thing because I love the FF3’s fit, and the FF5s look great.
I’m still listening and I imagine I’ll be going for a number of hours putting the FF5s through their paces. I have the FF3s and the Serratus standing by for some AB listening once I’ve got more ear time with the FF5s by themselves. If anyone has any other comparisons they want me to do with other buds in my collection just let me know.
Overall, my first reaction to the FF5s has been a pretty neutral one. They’re a good listen, they don’t do anything offensive, they aren’t fatiguing though they have good extension at both ends of the spectrum, and all of that makes them a fine earbud. They just haven’t shown me anything special yet and because they are the “successor” to the FF3s I had some pretty high hopes for them as I think others did too. All in all, I think people should stop thinking of these as a successor to the FF3s and just another option from Fiio instead.
I have a pair of EM5s on their way since my bassist is the current custodian of my old pair and I didn’t want to give comparison impressions from memory since it has been a while since I listened to the EM5s. I’ll post some impressions on that comparison later as well.
Edit: As always, please excuse any typos as I typed and posted this quickly from my phone while listening to the FF5s so my big thumbs and wandering attention don’t bode well for typing/spelling accuracy. 
This is a little disappointing after how good the FF3 are and the anticipation for the FF5.
I was going to pick these up today but think I will hold off now until they are on sale in the future.
Thank you for your service in blind buying buds so we don’t have to 
As @crinacle would say, they’re just ok. Nothing that really stands out to make them bad or good. Just ok
