Sound Impressions
I’ve used a Cayin N6III with C201 motherboard in hi-gain mode to test the H20s. Here is the Tidal playlist I use to evaluate audio gear.
The H20s contain one BA driver & one 13mm DD driver, tonally they’re extremely dark, thick & bassy.
Bass
The first thing you notice about the H20s is how elevated bass is, with midbass in particular being overwhelmingly present – often dominating the presentation at true basshead levels.
Any pretence towards neutrality is abandoned, instead we’re given extraordinarily tight & defined bass yet decay’s still slow enough to be satisfying. For such a modestly-priced IEM this is as good as bass gets.
Of course the midrange will be overshadowed by the bass a lot of the time without any attempt to hide it, which can be something of a guilty pleasure in bass-driven genres like EDM.
Midrange
H20 mids are super warm, thick & weighty, and there’s tremendous coherence with just two drivers used.
Despite bass being overwhelming enough to overshadow the midrange I find vocals are surprisingly articulate, yes there is some congestion so you won’t be getting remarkable clarity – but they do make vocals of most other IEMs sound thin by comparison and they’re also quite forward.
My main complaint is vocals at times struggle to maintain prominence behind a wall of bass, and tiny midrange nuances don’t jump out at you so easily as they do with multi-BA IEMs. Tonally though, the very prominent lower midrange gives instruments a satisfying feeling of heft I find very addictive.
Treble
The H20s are one of the darkest IEMs I’ve heard in recent years, so those yearning for minute treble details will need to look elsewhere.
Treble is certainly there, but is extremely smoothed-off and somewhat simplified so details can be somewhat grainy when they do gain prominence.
Instead treble firmly takes a back seat, only very rarely calling attention to itself. Treble notes simply blend into the background, allowing bass & midrange to take centre stage in a very natural fashion.
Technical Performance
The H20s were not designed, nor tuned, with technical performance in mind. Yet the tuning masterfully de-emphasises the importance of technical chops – I’m usually enjoying the music too much to care.
Staging is fairly narrow but surprisingly deep. Reminiscent of a single-DD’s sense of intimacy yet it can be surprisingly tall, and I certainly never expected this much stage depth for under $100.
Note weight is outstanding which may partly be a product of the tuning, dynamics are quite good – above average for under $100 yet easily bettered by many IEMs under $500 and above.
Resolution is fairly poor due to the lower driver count & overwhelmingly bassy tuning. A simplified rendering of the frequency spectrum is presented, offset by outstanding cohesion & musicality. Imaging is fairly vague & ill-defined, not helped by the narrower stage & dark treble.
Page 1 – Introduction, Packaging & Ergonomics
Page 2 – Sound Impressions & Technical Performance
Page 3 – IEM Comparisons
Page 4 – Conclusion
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