Now it’s time to review FiiO FH1s. As everyone knows FiiO is one of assertive companies of Far East. They mastered in headphones, audio players and amplifier manufacturings. Now we are reviewing F series’ entry level FiiO FH1s. It’s in hybrid configuration.
Box, Unboxing, Earphone And Cable
Box is FiiO’s traditional plain black box. On front there’s FH1s picture, Hi-Res logo on top right corner and bottm left there’s model name. There’s magnetic cover bonded to main box. And the back of the box there’s few informations about FH1 and barcode. Box is designed professionally. In the box there’s FH1s, cable, 2 sets of 3-sized silicone tips that varied in bore size, 1 pair of foampads, waterproof transparent case and handbook with black cover.
FH1s have 2 color variations and these are Purple or Black. And the outer plate looks like unique blurred water. Besides it’s color, it have ciem inspired design. It’s also comfortable. And the nozzle is threaded/screwed into resin body for repairability and better eartip grip. First of all 13,6mm Dynamic Driver draws attention then Knowles BA. Cable is FiiO’s classic: 120 core, single crystal copper. It’s soft and braided tightly. There’s no QC problems in plastic parts on the cable.
Dual Driver Hybrid setup, One Knowles 33518 Balanced Armature Driver and One 13.6mm graphene Dynamic Driver unit. Impedance: 26ohms. Sensitivity: 106dB. Frequency response range: 5Hz-40kHz. 120-Core high-purity monocrystalline copper cable. 2-Pin 0.78mm connectors.
FiiO FH1s – Sound
Sound is forward while being lean. This track does summarizes abut the sound of FH1s. There’s no harshness but rarely rough treble. Have little sibilance, stage is not that wide, stage kinda does have depth. Since it’s entry level iem i can ignore this. According to my ears there’s emphasis in bass range, and goes flatly through the treble range and gives overall flat characteristic but this situation does not sounds hoarse and gives balance to the sound, also does not gives pain to ear despite 8k peak. Everything in place as it should be, doesn’t have dark background like E1000 but sounds musical decent enough. I would rate imaging 7/10 considering it’s closed in ear. Don’t expect open-back headphone imaging level.
Bass, Mid, Treble
FiiO took his lesson in lower ranges, it’s not like older FiiO headphoes. There’s really reputable bass especially in FH1s. But this comes with a cost: Bass doesn’t shakes stomach in dubstep. Beside that, bass may bleed into mids and cause midbass hump.
There’s no problem in midrange, FH1s does preserves the same reputation. Another positive result of flat graph. In the same time you can hear the revealing charasteristics. A classic “Fikrimin Ince Gulu” sounds claustrophobic by a technical mistake, but after that if you play a Zappa song you will probably exhalate. Good at stage locating, all of the percussives at right, behind Zappa. In Zimmer’s Live in Prague record mids and lower mids does not sounds sharp.
Treble is between in sufficient and bit much. Let’s acknowledge that it may extend much more than SLER/PLER ratios. There’s treble harshness in several moments in Zimmer’s 96-tracked Orchestral Record as well as exhausting treble that wrecks definition.
FiiO FH1s – Conclusion
If you are not listening to live stadium records or dubstep isn’t the only genre that you listen, FH1s is a decent choice. It’s gentle atmosphere, easily driveability, wide but shallow stage and with juicy bass FH1s is a good pick for starters.