Here you go: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/fiio-fd5.24858/reviews#item-review-25005
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Thieaudio Legacy 4 is highly recommended. The 5 is warmer, has a beefier low end and might sound as if the bass bleeds into the mix. I love the 5 and Mangird Tea personally, but the Legacy 4 is the easiest recommendation.
Hereās a pic of mine.
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Holy guacamole, this is a beauty no doubt. Love the blue and gold.
I think I will narrow down to the Legacy 4 and the LZ A7. Aesthetics, price and 2pin is in favor the L4. The A7 have the multiple options of sound on itās side though, so my thinker side tingles with the possibilities. If it wasnāt mmcx I think I wouldāve jumped on it already.
I will think this throughout the weekend and do some math on the budget side. Thanks for all the inputs guys!
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Ya Iām really on the fence on what to get as well, I really liked the FH5 for the wide and bass signature. But now Iām not sure on rebuying the FH5 or get the L4 or L5. I seen some reviews comparing the L4 to the Monarch. But now that @Resolution is hyping the L5 with the bass Iām not sure what one to go with.
lol, not āhypingā anything. Iām doing my best to describe how these IEMs sound.
Legacy 5 is pretty too. It has its own shell design. Itās larger than the Legacy 4 & 3 which have what appears to be the same shell and smaller than the Clairvoyance.
I have a Fiio FH5. The FH5 and all the Fiio hybrids have a crispier sound than the Thieaudio IEMs.
Whoops my bad this whole time I kept saying Fh5 I ment FH3. You have any experience with the FH3?
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Yes I do. I prefer the FH3 to the FH5. The FH3 has a beryllium dynamic driver. Again, the Fiio hybrids are crispier than the Thieaudio stuff, but people have had issues with Fiio QC. The FH3 is only 130 vs the L5 250-300 if you get the est cable. The FH3 is a total steal at that price. The FH3 excels at metal & technically demanding material. It may sound a bit harsh if you prefer other genres where the Legacy IEMs may excel. Maybe Get the FH3 first, and try a Legacy 4 later would be my suggestion. L5 or L3 if you prefer warm signatures. The L3 is more fun and the L5 is more balanced.
Ya I really liked my FH3 and I donāt know why I really returned them. I just didnāt know if the L5 was I big enough upgrade then the Fh3 for twice the price. I am more of a basshead and listen to bassier music and game. But then it almost seems like the new L4 is possibly above both.
One more to consider might be the JVC HA-FDX1. They are on Drop again at the moment. I know they are MMCX but man I really like them. Nice balanced sound with lots of energy and some low end punch.
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Will take note of them, thanks! The problem with drop stuff is importing it costs a little more since I need to forward them from US, as opposed to directly buy from Aliexpress/Linsoul/Shenzhen. Perks of living in Brazil.
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The L4 would not be for you then, itās balanced, not a bass head IEM. I donāt think you would prefer the Legacy 5 either. The Legacy 3 has a considerable amount more bass than the Legacy 5. If you can swing it, Iād go for the FD5 with your library.
RikudouGoku just put his review up for it today.
It has dynamic slam for days and extremely fast bass/mids with no weird balanced armature tonality. Itās well worth the asking price. For me, itās the most enjoyable single DD Iāve heard. Again, the FH3 is great, especially for bass and the price canāt be beat.
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After some days of thinking and weighing things, I decided to go with the L4. The $100 increase has too much of an impact on my plans for moving beginning next year. That said, the LZ A7, FD5, and HA-FDX1 are on my watch list now, and after things settled down in my new home I might give these a try.
Thanks again to @Resolution, @Rikudou_Goku, and @Mr_Makua for the inputs.
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np, hope you enjoy the L4.
my question as well? Since the FD5 is getting hype. Is their cheap Be single DD any good ?
I have the FD1 & FD5. Yes, the FD1 is extremely good for its price. For 60 bucks itās a no brainer. There might be some unit variation though. It is more comfortable than the FD5. It weighs almost nothing.
what does a balanced armature sound likeā¦ is there any good way to testā¦ i am not buying a new IEM for another month but I wanna make sure of whether to go with a BA and DD hybrid or just DD with the starfields
BAs donāt move much air. They donāt have impact. BA IEMs do not need to be vented because of this fact. BA drivers are known to have timbre that is not as natural sounding as other driver types. BAs can sound detailed, sometimes to a fault.
Hybrid IEMs attempt to take the best parts of all the different driver types and meld them into the ultimate IEM, but this creates a host of issues to overcome for engineers especially when it come to frequency crossover networks and overall tuning.
Dynamic drivers are the most tried and true of earphone technologies. They are usually larger than BAs and therefore move much more air than BAs. This can create the illusion of dynamic slam. But in an air tight enclosure, this can create suction. The air needs to move/escape somehow. Even closed back headphones need some form of venting. In a DD driver, because all the sound is coming from one source, the timbre usually is more natural vs BA drivers.
I personally have found the more drivers that make up the sound source, usually improve the imaging/layering separation and sometimes soundstage size of an IEM.
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iām just trying to figure out whether to get the starfields or the FH3 to replace my final audio E3000 (i like them but a little short on the trebel so it doesnāt feel as lively)