Review: M-Fidelity SA-50 – Transparency

SYNERGY – Cables

In terms of cables, I prefer to use this CIEM with the Effect Audio Leonidas. Leonidas has good body and an overall rounded & concerted approach with great musicality. It also gives you great mids with nice timbre, therefore listening the SA-50 paired with the Leonidas is an absolute joy. Also it’s more enjoyable for me in terms of bass, since Leo gives it more oomph than the stock cable.

The Effect Audio Eros II (4-wires) is also one of my favorites, but that will depend on your taste. With the Eros II there’s more treble quantity compared to Leonidas, so that might not be the best pair for the SA-50. It still plays beautiful with lots of detail and treble extension, together with a very good bass quality. Eros II is a great IEM cable and I’ll share my review of the 4-wire version very soon.

The stock cable also plays really nice, reflecting the CIEMs pure approach. But you might want to add something here and there, like I did with the Leonidas to get a little warmth and body. That’s the point of aftermarket cables, right?

SYNERGY – Sources

Source-wise I tried many with this one and the HiBy R6 is one of them. From the 2.5mm output with the Leonidas cable, the duo sounds really nice with a good amount of mid bass body, good stage and good tonality. I think the R6 is a very good match since it can give you the warmth and bass body that you like.

M-Fidelity SA-50

If you want a little more wide and neutral sound, you can go for the WM1A Walkman with the 4.4mm BAL output. This is a great match indeed and especially the staging & imaging performance is absolutely good. You might not find the desired bass quantity with the 1A, but you’ll certainly hear loads of detail, great separation and great realism.

The Sony ZX2 is like the R6 but with an even wider stage (one of ZX2’s strong suits). The warmth and body are similar to the R6’s, but the ZX2 has better note size in my opinion. It’s still a great DAP and actually I mostly use that one for my daily listening, so that should tell something.

With the world class Lotoo Paw Gold, you get an amazing imaging, and the transparency is off the charts. But that setup is a little bit aggressive as you can guess, but it feels perfect when you set it to a moderate volume. There’s also the SP1000cu which is one of my favorite DAPs ever. You get the body, the warmth, the transparency, the staging and everything else you can imagine. It’s just amazing.

And that’s why I think you should use this CIEM with a really high level DAP for two reasons. The first one is that it’s an unforgiving IEM. So having mediocre sources will give you an unpleasant sound performance. Number two is that it can reveal a source’s qualities instantly with its technical performance, so you’ll appreciate your source even more.

As a whole, I wouldn’t recommend sterile, cold and edgy DAPs or other sources for this CIEM, instead I would say get a warm, highly controlled and easy sounding one.

M-Fidelity SA-50

COMPARISONS

vs. PEARS SH-3: The SH-3 is one of my all time favorite CIEMs already and it has a more complete & more all-round sound than the SA-50. The SA-50 has more transparency and better extending treble, and a slightly larger sound stage. The SH-3 is more controlled and overall a more balanced CIEM.

vs. InEarz Nirvana: Much bassier and darker compared to the SA-50, the Nirvana falls behind in terms of technical abilities and transparency. But it has a more punchy bass together with a very nice warm approach to the music.

vs. Spiral Ear SE-5 Reference: The SE-5 is still one of the best IEMs ever, and despite its warmer and more organic approach, it plays on the same level with the SA-50 for resolution and detail retrieval. But it has a smaller stage, relatively more congested. The SA-50 has a wider stage with more space between the instruments.

vs. Oriolus MKII: Oriolus has a much bigger bass and punch, while lacking in the mid range department because of the colored approach. Therefore the tonality on the SA-50 is much more realistic. The SA-50 is technically the truer CIEM by quite some margin. The Oriolus is still impressive though, with its big stage and separation.

vs. Warbler Prelude: The Prelude is one of the most musical sounding IEMs out there, with great timbre and control over the spectrum. The SA-50 is a much brighter CIEM when compared, with a better extension on treble and it has a wider sound stage. The Prelude excels in mids, while the SA-50 sounds more sterile and dry there. Bass levels are similar with the SA-50 having a more ideal mid bass performance. The Prelude has very romantic mids though, hard to overlook that.

M-Fidelity SA-50

CONCLUSION

The M-Fidelity SA-50 is one of the most technical sounding CIEMs I’ve ever tried. It doesn’t have many rivals out there in terms of pure transparency, and it’s certainly impressive in that regard. The SA-50 also has an impressive width on the sound stage department, together with a reference tonality with an unforgiving approach. You need to have a great source here, otherwise you’ll brand this CIEM as “harsh and aggressive” but that’s not the whole story.

Not to mention the amazing isolation performance (when you get used to the different fit), good craftsmanship and most importantly, a very nice price bracket compared to other flagship monitors. I also must remind you the thoughtful filter solution for the nozzles regarding long term reliability. This is a CIEM that I can comfortably recommend if you’re after a highly technical, more clinical sound like some studio speakers. If that’s what you want, I’m sure you would be impressed.

It turns out there are really good CIEMs out there in the North. Keep doing what you’re doing guys, congrats.