Excellent metal set IMO. They slam and they are fast enough to keep up. Plus the rolled off highs keep some stuff from becoming too fatiguing if they are really crashing those cymbals.
Yep. Build overall is excellent and the cables and connectors just feel right.
That was the way I received them so I wanted to give the same experience to the next owner. They are such a nice unboxing experience so I’m glad you got to experience it the way it was intended.
Forgot to mention. I think my favorite tips with them were the Symbio Peel. Wide bore with a good length and they gave me a good seal.
It is…but it sounds like the BA timbre in the treble is affecting my perception of the mids. It isnt really that coherent due to its timbre being noticeably different in different areas.
The LZ A7 for example, is quite a lot more natural sounding than the FH5S (yes, the A7 has some piezo timbre in the upper-treble, but I take it over BA timbre…).
The issue with the FH3 timbre is that the mids and the treble are a lot more unnatural sounding than the bass (which is also making it incoherent), you can identify the BA in them that way.
I think a lot of people are mixing timbre and tonality with each other though and they are definitely 2 different aspects. With tonality, it is very subjective on what good/bad tonality is, like for hip-hop, you would want a warmer and thicker tonality rather than a brighter/thinner tonality. So an iem that is warmer/thicker, will have better tonality for that particular library.
Meanwhile, for someone else that listens to say, classical, they would need a brighter/thinner sound, so that warmer/thicker iem would actually have bad tonality for that particular library.
Timbre on the other hand, can only be natural or unnatural, genre doesnt really affect it much. It is the aspect on whether a violin playing the E string will sound like a violin playing the E string and not a guitar that does it.
I believe that most people that dont have real life instrument experience will have a hard time identifying a natural vs unnatural timbre though…
This can also be applied to vocals. For example, a male singer can sing a certain note and a female singer can sing the same note. They’re indeed singing at the same note, but they don’t sound exactly the same.
Yes, indeed. But vocal timbre should be easier for most people to identify.
I am definitely no expert, but if I notice a timbre, it is usually when things sound too metallic…usually classical instruments
Just watching a youtube video or listening to a podcast can tell a lot… just a talking voice can sound different
Some people like to use the term “metallic” or “plastic” for unnatural timbre, I dont really like those terms though.
Personally, BA´s are probably my least favorite drivers when it comes to their timbre. It is extremely unnatural for me. Planars are pretty close though.
Piezo, magnetostats and EST´s are also not as natural as DD´s but at least they sound “unique” to me rather than just unnatural lol.
yeah, “metallic”, I mean…hmm maybe unnatural is a better word, but it can sometimes just sound a little weird and “machine-like” …maybe?
I guess what also helps is having something with really good and something with reallly bad timbre. I don’t know if I have anything with better timbre than the FH3, but I do recognize some sounds to sound a bit unnatural, though mostly higher notes on string instruments, voices not so much I think.
IEMs I currently own are: FH3, Final E1000C, Blon BL-03, FiiO FA1, Sony MDR-XB50AP
I use to own the T2 (broken right earpiece) and the Starfields (sold), I want to say the T2 has better timbre than the FH3 though I’m not sure (and I can’t compare anymore).
I do also have headphones (DT-880, HE400i 2020 and MH752) but I find it quite hard to compare full-size headphones to IEMs tbh.
In that list for the ones I got, in order of best to worse timbre:
Bl-03 > E1000 >>> FH3
That’s what I feel as well, or at least the Bl-03 and FH3 since I haven’t used the E1000 much, but they are so different that I’m not sure whether what I hear is actually the timbre or just a completely different sound signature. Like how a boosted lower treble makes it seem like an earphone is more detailed even though that doesn’t actually have to be the case.
(On a side note, ordered the Yincrow X6, very curious since my only buds right now are the Shiro Yuki)
hi, do you plan on writing a head-fi review or is it in the process of making?
I dont wanna be rude, I would just like to read about it from you…
Yes, this is what makes some people and even reviewers mistake the tonality for the timbre.
and yes, some iems do boost the treble to increase perceived details. Its what some people call “fake details”.
YES, EMBRACE THE DARK SIDE! 
RW-2000 will be reviewed when I got time. I will review the FH5S first and then the Moondrop Chaconne, then the RW-2000. (not fixed order yet, but the FH5S is definitely first.)
Oh, I see…
all of those are interesting and it is of course up to you
THX for info
Yeah, both the RW-2000 and the Chaconne are great.
FH5S is first in line because its a review unit though. The other 2 buds are normal units bought at regular prices. (I did get my regular discount for the Chaconne since I bought it from Hifigo though, but not a review unit.)
That last video is very good. It also brings up a point few people discuss. Material timbre. In my memory it feels like people talked about it more before, but it has sort of drifted out of discussions. Around when the Denon D2000-5000-7000 line was the shit and people were ordering custom cups from the likes of Lawton Audio.
Granted it’s been about 10 years since, but I’m not sure what caused the drift. It’s gotten a bit of a resurgence as of late, mostly in talks with IEM’s. Maybe it’s just selective memory on my end or being at the wrong forum at the wrong time, hah. But it’s nice that it’s come up for discussion again as I feel it’s quite an important topic (if not the most) when it comes to enjoying a headphone, IEM or speakers. Although for the latter it’s more about room accoustics, but it still plays a part.
To try to help those with what timbre is and how to understand what good or bad timbre is…
You need to start with a reference.
I don’t believe anyone can have a perfect reference for the perfect timbre but you should have a few good sources for what you believe have good timbre.
The best reference would probably be being at a live concert and hearing the music live and knowing what everything should sound like with your own ears. This really shouldn’t be a cranked up smoky bar with everything miced up and cranked to 10. Preferably a live acoustic performance.
Then if you had a recording of that live performance, you would then listen to that recording critically on everything you could find and compare the recording to how you remember it sounding live. Whatever can re-create the sound most accurately for all the different instruments should have the most realistic timbre.
It’s not something that’s easily explained. It’s something that comes from experience listening to the same source on lots of different gear and understanding the differences in how the music is portrayed. Different drivers produce music differently. All the different technologies have advantages and disadvantages and will always effect timbre in some way, for better or worse.
Personally, I have pro studio gear with multiple pro JBL studio monitors (I’m a JBL fanboi) which I trust for accuracy, so I feel I have a pretty good grasp of how timbre should sound on my favorite recordings. A cheaper point of access is a Sennheiser 6XX. It’s a headphone that doesn’t have the greatest extension but has exceptional timbre and is not that expensive.
To understand and be able to judge timbre qualities, you need to first understand what your music should sound like. If all you know is your music on a source with poor timbre, you’ll never be able to recognize what good or poor timbre is. Hope this is helpful.
Very well formulated. It is as you said, it takes experience and a good reference to tell bad from good timbre.
Although I would say that even using live concert as the reference is not really ideal. Since our auditory memory lasts a very short duration and it isnt reliable to look back and remember something that happened a long time ago (same reason why comparing a new iem to something you had in the past isnt reliable).
I would say that the best reference is to simply play the instrument yourself or have someone close to you do it.