FiiO EM5 Review

Sound quality

Ahead of reviewing EM5 I tried to imagine what a pair of $299 earbuds would sound like, not having had a higher-end point of comparison before in the earbud world. ‘Bass-light’ was my first instinct, being positive that the EM5’s Beryllium-coated driver wouldn’t be able to focus enough low-end energy into my ear. ‘Flat and airy’ were my next thoughts, anticipating a monitor-like reproduction with a fairly intimate experience. 

I spent the sum total of perhaps 90 seconds listening before I hit pause then jumped onto the Headfonia WhatsApp group. ‘Ok, so they’re actually very, very good’, I reported happily to the rest of the review team. The EM5 delivered a lot more than I expected it to in every single category. Bass. Soundstage. Imaging. Resolution. And most importantly, tone. While you feel like you’re wearing a pair of in-ears with the EM5, the sonic presentation is much, much closer to a pair of open-back headphones – and a rather good pair, at that. 

The EM5 has an extremely smooth, natural, and even-handed tone. Its stand-out feature is an extremely vivid and wonderfully textured mid-range that is forward without being shouty, and which puts vocals and instruments front-and-centre. The EM5’s tone makes it great-sounding, but what makes it special-sounding is its incredible sense of space and imaging. Fleet Fox’s newly-released Shore record is an absolute treat on the FiiO EM5 – the superbly-produced arrangements make for a genuine out-of-head experience. The decay on the reverb on track #2, ‘Sunblind’ is just so unbelievably believable – the EM5 loves nothing more than taking big, grand, and ethereal sound-scapes and pulling them apart and dialing them up to ‘11’. 

The EM5’s bass is impressive considering its open-air topology, but there’s no getting around physics. You aren’t going to find the levels of bass that you might be accustomed to in a well-sealed pair of IEMs, but it’s actually considerable in terms of both extension, and texture. Kelly Lee Owens’ excellent minimal Radiohead cover ‘Arpeggi’ shows-off the EM5’s ability to create some genuine bass-heft when called-upon, and because of the way that flat-head style earbuds are designed, the level of bass can be increased by twisted them inwards and pointing the drivers directly into your ears. Tinariwen’s ‘Sasstanaquam’ is tasty and rollicking downstairs, but it’s not head-rattling – it’s just a very nice reproduction of bass guitar texture. 

As I mentioned earlier, the mid-range is very much the star of the show here. I’m not exaggerating when I say that the EM5 gave the most chillingly realistic and natural rendition of Bob Reynold’s amazingly-recorded live track ‘Down South’ from his live record Guitar Band that I’ve ever heard. And I’m not just talking for an in-ear, I’m talking ever. The way the EM5 dissects the instrumental parts and places them impossibly around you in an intimate jazz club is astonishing. 

I’m a bit of a treble-head and I like a bright, detailed upper-octave that doesn’t shy away from revealing top-end information. The EM5 doesn’t disappoint in this regard and provides a clear, transparent, and snappy top-end. The EM5 easily dispatches the fast, over-the-top, busy passages in Guns ‘N Roses’ ‘Better’ without ever breaking into sibilance nor harshness. 

The 3 x tiers of foam tips provide an interesting way to tune the EM5 to your sonic preference. The ‘Bass’ foam filters give a more mid-bass forward presentation for an overall warmer tone, tempering the highest octave, somewhat. The ‘Crisp’ filter isn’t so much of a filter as it is a rim to provide ‘grip’ to hold the driver in your ear, and let the EM5’s 14.2mm driver deliver unimpeded treble information right into your ear, which it does so at the expense of some bass weight. ‘Balanced’ is (unsurprisingly) a ‘Goldilocks’-like mix of the two, and it’s the filter I generally preferred. 

Overall, the EM5 is an overachiever in terms of sound quality and performance – even at the $300 mark. However, it’s certainly not a genre-master. The EM5’s talents are best suited to acoustic, instrumental, and vocal music – genres that show off its lovely textures and incredible imaging and spatial abilities. It’ll acquit itself ‘ok’ in more low-end-heavy types of music like EDM and hip-hop, but real bass heads may find themselves wanting more. 

FiiO EM5

EM5 versus VE Monk+

One earbud that Headfonia readers might be familiar with is the venerable (maybe even ‘notorious’?) Monk+ from Venture Electronics. Famous for being sold for $5 a pop, the Monk+ famously introduced many personal audio fans to the earbud format, and it provides an enormous amount of bang-for-buck. Back-to-back, the Monk+ creates a far more one-dimensional soundscape compared to the EM5, and does so with a more brittle, lean tone that lacks the weight, body, and musicality of the EM5, which also handily bests the Monk+ for bass extension. Comfort-wise they’re pretty much on par with one another, but the Monk+ does stay in place a little better. 

EM5 versus Audeze iSine10

A dynamic earbud versus an in-ear planar? Bear with me. These are both pretty interesting rivals when it comes to finding a portable, open-sounding in-ear that offers an ‘out-of-head’ sense of staging. Without DSP, the iSine10 has a somewhat troublesome default tuning and simply can’t match the natural voicing of the EM5 when it comes to creating a coherent and likable sound. The iSine10, however, has extremely fast, snappy attack and decay, and can deal with the technicalities of a busy track with more aplomb than the EM5 – particularly in the bass, where the iSine10 has a surefooted grip and renders low notes without distortion nor roll-off compared to the EM5’s more rounded, muted efforts. Bass, speed, and detail fans will be better suited with the diminutive Audeze planars, while those preferring to sacrifice some technicalities for a simply enjoyable tone and an immersive musical experience won’t be disappointed with the EM5. 

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