Hidizs MS5's Review - Bold Move!
General Info/Comfort/Packaging/Build
Hidizs is no stranger to the Chi-Fi community, they have a wide range of products ranging from DAP, Dongle Dac/Amp and IEMs. Their IEMs however are not receiving a lot of attention, their DAP and Dongles on the other hand offer excellent price performance ratio. Let us take a look at MS5 today to see if it’s able to compete with other offerings from other brands.
Daily driving the MS5 for several hours a day, i did not find any discomfort, the stock cable is thick and soft, it doesn’t get tangled up easily. The shell is made out of aluminium whereas the faceplate is resin. The build quality is very solid overall.
The packaging looks very premium as with every other Hidizs product that I've unboxed before. The box consists of the IEM itself, a hard carrying case, several types of eartips, 6N single crystal copper silver plated mix 6N single crystal copper cable in 3.5mm termination.
Gears used for this review
Earmen Angel Dac/Amp
Earmen ST-AMP
Xduoo XP-2Bal
Xduoo XA-10
iFi Gryphon
Hidizs S9 Pro Copper Edition
Hidizs MS5 with stock eartips and stock cable
Foreword
*Depending on your source if it’s having high output impedance or not, MS5 may or may not hiss, it doesn’t hiss with iFi’s Gryphon with IEMatch turned on, slight hiss on the Earmen Angel, no hiss on the S9 Pro Copper either, and also Macbook Air M2’s 3.5mm out has no hiss as well. The hiss on XA-10 is very audible.
My review is solely based on what I hear via my equipment and I never consider my reviews to be objective in any way rather a subjective approach. Do take into consideration that everyone’s ear anatomy is not the same, so the psychoacoustics perception might be different as well, but i believe it will not stray too far
Sound Impression (Balanced Nozzle)
The tonality of MS5 is tilting towards the slight bright scale but not overly harsh nor sibilant. The highs are energetic and lively, adequate sparkles and air, bass has good texture and speed to it. There is a slight hint of BA timbre if you pay close attention to it. It has pretty good synergy with warm source in my opinion, sounds good with XA-10 and iFi’s Gryphon. Will talk more about source after the breakdown below:
Bass
The bass is full with good body
Good punch and slams
Very good speed as well
Sub bass rumble is there when the track calls for it, but not nearing basshead’s territory which is totally fine because it complements with the tuning overall
Mids
Forward mids
Vocal is forward, borderline in your face (nothing good or bad about this, more of a personal preference), it is as if the artist is performing in front of you
Female vocal sounds extremely good and lively here (Teresa Teng - 我只在乎你), good texture and body to the vocal, not shouty at all
Treble
Treble is energetic and lively,
On average listening volume, it is alright but when i start to turn up the volume, the treble can get a little hot (i’m normally not that sensitive to treble, but on the MS5, it can get a little hot after you turn up the volume)
Detail retrieval is good here as micro details can be picked up easily
Treble has good amount of air and sparkles
Soundstage/Imaging
Soundstage has good width and depth (not overly wide, just slightly out of your head), the overall presentation can be intimate
Imaging is excellent as instruments can be pinpointed easily even in complex track
Sound Impression on other two nozzles
Bass Nozzle
Sub bass rumble more and mid bass is slightly more punchy
Mids slightly being pushed back a little, vocal not as forward as the balanced nozzle, just slightly, for the context, perhaps 10% slightly pushed back
Treble loses some air and sparkles, less energetic, hence resulting in a very 2D presentation/soundstage
Imaging is still excellent
Treble Nozzle
This nozzle really surprised me, i expected a boost on the highs which will possibly ventured into the offensive and harsh kind, but to my surprise, they do nothing like that, the reason why i said what i said is because on balanced nozzle, when i crank the volume up, the treble does get hot a little, MS5 on treble nozzle does nothing like that
Bass is somewhat tighter to my ears, still speedy and punchy
The performance of the mids are somewhat similar to balanced nozzle
Treble seems to have air and presence here, the overall presentation that i get is very 3D ish, i actually preferred this over the balanced and bass nozzle.
Driveability/Pairing with Hidzs’s Dongle/Cable Roll
Now this is the tricky part of MS5, the impedance is fairly low, so what does this translate to? It will hiss when you plug into certain dac/amp or dap
Most dac/amp out there should have no problem driving it as the sensitivity is rather high
It does scale with source in terms of coloration from the source itself, it doesn’t really need a lot of power to perform at its best as MS5 is quite efficient
In terms of source pairing, i find the MS5 to synergise well with Hidizs’s S9 Pro Copper, note weights are slightly thicker with this pairing (i am not sure if this has got something to do with the S9 Pro that i’m having that is housed in a copper chasis), slightly better imaging and soundstage (a little wider)
With the Hidizs XO, it tends to add quite a bit of warmth to it, the bass is slightly emphasised and note weight is also thicker, treble somehow sounded a little subdued due to the added warmth, but this pairing also made cranking up the volume on balance nozzle possible as it tamed the highs a little
With the S9 Pro Copper Edition, i find this has pretty good synergy with MS5 on bass nozzle, MS5 sounds very dynamic and the highs has slightly better extension and doesn’t sound that harsh while retaining the dynamics
MS5 also respond very well to cable rolling (stop here if you’re not a cable believer), i personally find the 5N Single Crystal Copper plated with silver has good synergy with the MS5, tames the highs a little if you’re very sensitive to treble, pairing it with Astral Acoustics’s Pulse cable, MS5 became very musical, very 3D-ish soundstage, smoother highs, and thicker note on the low end, very enjoyable
Final Thoughts
Having tested the MS5 for quite some time, MS5 is indeed an IEM that’s versatile which allows you to find tune the tuning to your preference via interchangeable nozzle, if you are an adventurous person, Moondrop KATO’s nozzle works with MS5 as well, the same goes to Simgot’s EA500, this opened up more possible tweaking/customisation in terms of the tuning that suits your preference. Hidizs has their own “house sound” which some may or may not like as this is very subjective, that's where the interchangeable nozzle comes into play. At the time of writing, the official price will be 399$ which i believe is fair due to the drivers used. Recommended!
*Hidizs MS5 is being sent over for the purpose of this review. I thank Hidizs for the opportunity. I am not influenced in any way to produce this review nor do I receive any monetary compensation.
Head over to the following link if you are interested in getting a pair! At the time of writing, it is currently on a launching sale price at 379$ instead of 499$, don’t missed out on this opportunity!
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