Hisenior Okavano - Make’s You Want To Crave It Fortnightly
Pros: What I Liked:
Lush Musical Mids
Excellent lows and sub extension
Balanced Highs Non fatiguing yet detailed
Customizable Shell designs only $50
Customizable Tunings
CIEM Options with Digital imprint and mold options.
Warm and Bassy and beautifully colored tonality laid back tuning
Treble switch for those who like a zippy top end with a tonne of extra energy.
Cons: What I Though Needed Improvement: (Subjective)
Bass saturates the mids adding a thickness to female vocals and mutes the resolution a-bit without the treble switch
Treble switch for my preferences added to much of a good thing and makes the highs sound un-natural.
Tuning switches for those who hate switches like me are evil I would rather just have a set tuning.
Micro Nuances and details could be better in the balanced mode
Stage Depth is good but just average , head space is intimate and height is just ok.
Mib bass could have more snap bit soft for my tastes
HiSenior Okavango Aug 2023
HiSenior Okavango - All The Magic Sauce For A Musical Ride
INFO AND PURCHASE LINKS: $399-$469
Thank you to Hisenior for choosing me to be part of the reviewer group and getting a discount on the unit.
As you will see from the pictures I paid extra for the custom shell design.
I choose Abalone top plates and silver pearl shells.
Lets Start Off with the who cares not important nerdy stuff: (SOUND IS THE IMPORTANT STUFF)
Hisenior Okavango 1+6 Hybrid IEM
1x 9.5mm Dual Magnet Bio-Cellulose Dynamic Driver
4x SONION Balanced Armature for the Mids
2x KNOWLES Balanced Armature for the Highs
4 way X-over
Frequency response 10Hz-30KHz
Sensitivity 112db 1mW
Impedance of 20 Ohms
2 Tuning Switches ( Bass+/Soundstage+/Vocal+/Balanced )
Pictured in final configuration for sound impressions with Hakugei Golden Boudi PRO Cable, Moondrop Springtips L. The stock cable I swapped out because I liked of the synergy of this mixed Metal Cable. Gold Plated 7NOCC & Litz Silver Plated 7NOCC & Copper Silver Palladium Alloy $90.
I used this cable because I wanted to tighten up the bottom end, and brighten up the upper mids and treble. - Did it work? Only slightly over the stock cable but enough that I thought it was the best cable to bring out the special sauce of the Okavango.
Now cables, while some people get called out for including cable impressions as shills, I don’t think that’s fair honestly. If you cant hear a difference that’s OK. If you can then great why not cable roll. My belief is that I can hear a difference , though not earth shattering like some people state that make my roll my eyes I do honestly believe cable to some extent shape the overall sound. I find pure copper enhances the bass, Graphene enhances and tightens the Mids, a gold element thickens and enhances vocals while softening the highs and Silver and Palladium enhance the highs. That’s my take on how I perceive the tuning changes I hear and whether you agree or not is totally allowed as you have your own beliefs on the subject.
Mostly my choice in cables come down to what attributes I think I can instill into the IEM I am listening too, to enhance or detract to achieve my ideal sound preference but mostly
I WANT IT TO LOOK COOL! Silly as that sounds it floats my boat.
I treat fine tuning my Impressions including cables like this in my journey with IEM’s.
TIPS CHANGE THE SOUND GREATER THAN ANYTHING ELSE. ( Stage, bass, vocals, highs ) Can be greatly altered by tips and are first thing I try for fitment and comfort and overall shaping the sound to my desired preference.
Sources are second for me. Since my new Hiby R6 Pro2 almost rivals my desktop stack Geshelli Labs AKM J2/ Topping A90D , I stuck with the Hiby solely with this review because my DACS are out being modded by Geshelli for OP-AMP upgrades.
Subjective Part of my Audio Review -
I share my impressions as I hear them with my ears.
As all our ears are different shapes & size so what I hear as bright or bass heavy -you might hear as dull and Vise-Versa; just something to be mindful of.
What makes my ears happy as a sound signature is a slightly more aggressive L shape. I love my Bass Sub and Mid Bass slam, love it all actually; and in balanced quantity. With the Bass, I prefer a faster decay the faster the better so as to not bleed into the mids., I am treble sensitive and prefer a slightly darker warmer replay with good treble extension.
I prefer the fast speedy bass of the Beryllium Coated Driver of my Xenns Mangird UP with a Beryllium Coated Driver. My reference is my THOR Mjölinar MKII single DD.
Of course, there are exceptions in the market - as I also find the bass of the PENON 10th Anniversary IEM special - has some great mid bass snap as well as some serious sub-bass!
My music Library is widely varied from; Metallica, Great White, Cowboy Junkies, Pink Floyd, Adelle, Melisa Ethridge, Fleetwood Mac, Five for Fighting, Mänskin, Poncho Sanchez, Jimmy Smith, Chopin, The Crystal Method just to name a few. When not listening to my test tracks the majority is Jazz or Alternative Rock especially Female Rock. Lorde, Halsey, Alanis Morrisette, Evanescence. All depends on my mood.
Sources: Solely used the most excellent Hiby R6 PRO2 on 4.4 Pentaconn out.
Tips Used for the OKAVANGO Impressions were the Moondrop Springtips
Before I begin with some sound impressions, I would like to share a bit of my journey with the OKAVANGO
I like sharing this part as it gives context on how I came upon my sound impressions:
PRESSURE BUILD UP & DRIVER FLEX:
- This is a big deal for me possible for many others without even realizing it, and the reason I have not enjoyed any set for any length of time when I experience this effect.
- Without vented shells - My GS Audio SE12 $1000, NF Audio NF2U, Hisenior T2 , Hidizs MS5, all give me a headache after 5 Minutes , I get a loss of bass and a enhancement of the highs that vastly contour my sound impressions to the actual intended tuning. Now to be fair on past reviews I didn’t pick up on this until recently when another member of the community I respect Mr. Paul Wasabi suggested foam tips to alleviate the pressure and mitigate the issue. Using foam tips also has their downside for me as I find the highs are muted as well.
- I normally tip roll with some of my favorite tips, AZLA Crystal, BGVP W01, JVC Spiral Dots, to name a few. All of these are wide bore for maximum stage and vocals.
- What I experienced was a little bit of driver flex - NOT HORRIBLE just a bit but more importantly the pressure build up would change the sound for me and make the Okavango uncomfortable after about 40 minutes of listening.
- Happy to say after switching to spring tips from Moondrop it completely eliminated the Driver Flex issue and pressure build up. Springtips have a softer sidewalls and allow some pressure to escape while keeping the bass in play and stage large as possible.
NOW THIS NEXT PART IS IMPORTANT AND WHY I THINK COMPANIES LIKE HISENIOR ARE ONES TO KEEP YOUR EYE ON:
- I reached out to Gareth the Hisenior representative and gave some feedback, as myself and others were experiencing this with certain ear tips.
- With a few days Gareth responded with a solution for a upgraded venting system you will see in a running change to the Okavango.
- This is a company listening to its customers and willing to take the steps to fix even small things most people won’t even notice and that seriously commendable and gains a huge amount of respect from me and the community in large.
- Now to be fair most people won’t notice the driver flex nor pressure build up so this is less of a issue and certainly not a concern for the driver’s longevity and I don’t think something you need to worry about if you were thinking about picking a unit up prior to the fix unless you are super sensitive like myself.
TUNING SWITCHES:
- 2 - Tuning switches- I hate Tuning switches most don’t work on IEM’s enough to make it a useful feature.
- Again I am happy to report that not only can you turn the Okavango into a into a treble monster you can also tune it to a Balanced or even a bassy warm set if you so choose.
- Okavango has really only two major tunings , bassy warm and musical and a setting to seriously enhance 6200Hz to 14000 +12db for treble heads who want maximum details at the expense of natural tonality and timbre - this setting was great for certain song without too much high frequency energy in the mix but that ratio changed the music became harsh and sibilant with noticeable distortion.
- A perfect tuning would have been adding 2-3db in that same range with the switch off and maximum +6db with treble switch on a tweak not a blast per say.
- 00 Bassy, warm, musical, lush, effortless musical chill vocal forward setting by far my most favorite setting and the bass was snappier It would make the Okavango perfect for my tastes! ( All my next sound impressions based on this setting )
- 01 An assault on my treble sensitivities just too much in the wrong place makes instruments pop but in a un-natural way
- 10 Made bass too muddy and by reducing the mid energy at 2-4k makes female vocals too thick and unnatural my least favorite setting
- 11 Wrong in all the full context of the word, bloated bass , vocals way off and all that extra high frequency energy just made the Okavango so unbalanced.
SOUND IMPRESSIONS:
OK from reading above You would think that I didn’t enjoy my time with the Okavango, But that couldn’t be further from the truth this is the first IEM in the new WILD-NATURE series. What Hisenior has set out to do by stating that they were trying to get a “clear profound dynamic and relaxed music anywhere you need it” I definitely think they hit the nail smack dab on the head. Mission accomplished!
The Bass is warm and organic in a old school ported sub box big box speaker sound. When run on sentence needed for that description but that’s exactly how I would describe it. The bass is nicely weighted and sub bass focused, can go low and sustain continuous hits without breaking up or distorting. A excellent quality driver showing great control with excellent decay on the notes but at times lack the snap and attack I prefer from the low frequency transducers. With the setting at 01 the bass did not have as much effect as the 00 setting on the overall tonality of the upper mids and treble adding in too much huskiness and wight to female vocals.
Mids and vocals are defiantly the star of the show no big surprise here and the use of a whopping 4 SONION Balanced Armature drivers made sure your vocals both male and female comes across as musical and lush. (PENON LOOK OUT)
Vocals come across on the warmer side and a bit forward in the mix.
Now I won’t say they come across as purely natural on 00 setting as there defiantly is some colorization going on adding more body to vocals than neutral, but to me I love this kind of tuning. I would so rather have extra note weight than listen to a dry and thin midrange tunings.
Highs have lots of details, they present clean, clear and crisp. No sibilance or sharpness to detect. BA timbre was not detectable and the overall coherence with the DD & BA’s were well tuned working together for a very coherent tuning. This again is based off of 00 Setting with the treble switch OFF.
I do feel the extra energy from the lower frequencies pulls some attention away from making the overall replay as open and detailed as it could be, giving you a lesser sense of sparkle and air on certain tracks.
Stage is very much not 3D , width is good, depth is OK, height is OK. Is this a death sentence? For some maybe but honestly it plays really well into the overall tuning allowing you to fully immerse yourself into the music, instead of trying to pick apart a song to analyze all the minutiae. This kind of stage is great for when you just want to listen to music and not the gear playing it. Overall stage sounds more intimate rather than giving you a greater sense of spaciousness.
To be fair I have the Amazing Softears Twilight and have yet to hear anything close to this IEM’s ability to project a 3D stage not even the 64 Audio gear can come remotely close, and everything else seems intimate to me now with that as a reference.
CONCLUSION:
If you are someone who prioritizes details, want a very analytical set while stilling not sacrificing the bass - the Okavango might be for you with the treble switch set to on? That being said you still not going to get a neutral tuning. There will be a lot of the Hisenior colourization going on making this set kind of unique with a tuning that I have not heard before and quite unique experience for me.
If you are a mid bass lover that lives for the attack / slam and perfect tonality in snares and high hats as I do , you just might find yourself forgiving the Okavango for its faults because you ended up falling in love with the overall sheer musicality of this set.
In the END I would say if you can overlook some of the Okavango’s flaws and you decide to pick up this set you will go a an magical musical journey with a IEM that will immerse yourself into the music and let you forget about the worries of life and all the small things that don’t really matter. You will listening to the music and bopping your head to lush jams and riveting riffs.
FINAL OBSERVATIONS:
I have now listened to many IEM’s , and as much as I can appreciate different turnings. I like you, have my sound preferences of what I enjoy over others. That being said my impression of Hisenior Mega 5p was also very favourable but the highest thing on my wish list was more high frequency extension. The Okavango fixed what I thought the MEGA5P was missing. The YanYin Canon OG is also one of my favourite IEM’s with its very organic bass and the Okavango definitely gave me flashbacks of that sounding set as well, but here again better top end implementation with the dual KNOWLES BA for the highs in the Okavango. The Sound Rhyme SR7 also have some quality overtones and traits that I find desirable for my particular tastes and I enjoyed that IEM as well, but found something still missing.
One Final thought that I was left with: Hisenior having used the pricier SONION BA for the mids and Knowles BA for the highs the OKAVANGO shows they are not afraid to put quality drivers in their gear showing that they can tune them well. I would recommend the Okavango over the Canon, The SR7, The Mega5P because you are getting the best of each incorporated within the Okavango. Is it a perfect IEM? No of course not! Not even close but what special sauce did Hisenior put into the Okavango will make you want to crave it fortnightly when you’re in the mood for something musical and relaxing.
Thank you for taking the time to read my review.
My Video review is here: TO BE DONE LATER
My Spotify Playlist: I use DSD and FLAC files on my player but have copied the tracks I use on a Spotify Playlist to give you a reference on my tastes.
My SQUIG:
https://tonedeafmonk.squig.link/
My YouTube Chan:
https://www.youtube.com/@tonedeafmonk
My Discord:
My HiseniorAudio Okavango video is uploading be available later tonight.
