So I received my pair of Hexa’s today (on sale for $67.99 on Amazon) and gotta say, I am quite blown away by the liveliness, detail, sub-bass texture and extension, treble extension, soundstage, imaging/instrument separation, build/fit/comfort, and more.
For reference, I own quite a few other IEMs (Final E5000, Honeydew, Fiio FD3, QKZ x Hbb Khan, Blon Bl-03, Truthear Hola, KBear Rosefinch, Dumpling and Little Q [extremely underrated btw, I own three pairs since they’re $10 and are truly amazing for the price, but that’s for another post]). As you may notice, those are all warm and/or V-shaped, and single dynamic driver IEMs (with the exception being double DD Khan). I wanted a hybrid IEM that would provide with more detail/airiness than what I have already, thinking that I would be sacrificing bass in exchange. And as someone who owns Honeydew’s and loves them for certain music, then you know I love my bass.
I listen to everything from post-punk/art punk, synth pop/dream pop, new wave, neo-psychedelia/classic psychedelic music, ambient, folk (including free folk, avant-folk), experimental rock and other experimental music like Musique Concrete, all kinds of electronic (excluding EDM), jazz, classic rock/prog, trip hop, new age, minimalism, classical, etc. The Hexas can DO IT ALL. In particular, I have been extremely in love with Asia Menor’s new album Enola Gay which I listened to twice with the Hexas and noticed a lot of new details I hadn’t before.
To my great surprise, the bass is still there on the Hexa’s, but they do basically everything else better than the rest of my IEMs. Note I am using the included foam tips because I found the others uncomfortable and difficult to get a good seal, but with the foam tips they seal perfectly and I have been wearing them for 8 hours without fatigue or discomfort, most of the time forgetting they’re on my head. I don’t feel that the foam tips sacrifice much detail since they have a large hole. Isolation is also comparable to ANC.
Take note I am using a +3db low frequency shelf at 220hz for some added midbass/thump through my Qudelix 5k, although the bass boost is really not necessary for everything, mostly just electronic and some rock, and I can pretty confidently say these are my new favorite IEMs and daily drivers. It usually takes me some time to get used to/appreciate IEMs, so I can only deduce that these will continue to sound better and better for me. It is really incredible what you can get in low price ranges these days (Little Q and Rosefinch and Hola for $10, $13, and $16 respectively, the QKZ Khans for around $35 as a sort of modern upgrade on the Bl03 which i still enjoy for it’s timbre, and for less than $80 the FD3 and now, HEXA’s, as well as stuff like the Aria which I owned once but returned even though they were decent).
I may write up a full review once I have spent some more time with them, but I thought I’d contribute another post praising the Hexas. As someone who has stayed away from bright/neutral tuning, I was afraid they would be shouty/fatiguing and/or have anemic bass, but instead they are extremely smooth, musical, with great sound all across the frequency spectrum and finally, more detail that I was looking for, to hear the finer intricacies of a lot of the music I listen to.
Can’t recommend the enough, especially at the discounted price right now. They actually remind me a lot of my HD6xx’s, my all time favorite headphone, even more so than my LCD-2c. The only IEMs really left on my bucket list are the Sony XBA-N3 and Letshouer s12 pro, but I’ll wann sell my E5000 before that because they keep sounding worse and worse to me (extremely dull and way too dark) even though I really liked them at first.
There are lots of people who tend to disagree with you. I have final e5000 through a Schiit stack and I think the Hexas sound better, so I’m going to sell the former. Until then I don’t have the money to splurge on anything crazy right now and I definitely think diminishing returns is a real thing after the $50-100 price bracket, not to mention 200-300 which is the most I would ever spend on IEMs, and I just don’t believe there’s anything out there that’s really worth $233 more in sound quality than these $67 Hexas, they really sound near perfect to me, all I ever wanted from IEMs as I use headphones more often anyway and love my Hd6xx, feel free to give your suggestions though.