附上一篇外國人寫的REVIEW
Treble
9 (of 10)
Soft and natural without a trace of sibilance and nice decay. They do not sound bright but still seem to have treble extension.
Midrange
8
Recessed but good clarity and flat. Unloads energy equally throughout the spectrum. Sounds more like full size headphones than an IEM with air around female vocals and, also rare for an IEM, soundstage. There is an initial hint of grain that is the price paid for this level of definition out of an IEM. This grain subsides over extended burn in. I wonder if this similar to the burn in advantage many experience with dynamic drivers of full size headphones and speakers.
Bass
9
A strength and reference at this level. The bass on the M5’s is strong and goes deep but flat with good pitch definition. The bass does not overwhelm the midrange, which is where most of the music resides. No bass overhang here.
Imaging
7
The designers of Sennheiser’s full size headphones do not need to stay awake at night worrying about being beaten in the soundstage department, but I think imaging is a strength of the MG5pro drivers compared with other IEM’s that have a constricted image closed inside your head. Conversely, I have found the image of many armature based IEM’s is a weakness.
Dynamic range
8
Another strength of this design with proper amplification. Dynamic contrasts come through without sounding truncated. Good micro, and better macro dynamics.
Definition
8
Not hyper detailed, but natural attack and decay. Sounds more like a full size Sennheiser’s sound signature than Grado’s. Sounds musical, not analytical.
Build quality
6
A low point. Not the most robust build and not what we are used to for our mid level earphones such as the Shure SE310. Wires look way too frail to last and are not user replaceable/detachable. However, they are very comfortable and lightweight with no trace of microphonics so perhaps there is a method to madness. Supplied tips are not the best I have seen, but the good new Shure foam black Comply’s fit and work well.
Now I know what the Yuan PK-1 users feel like.
Ease of fit
9
Easy to put in no matter what tips I used. I like that the M5’s are easy to put in as earbuds with the wire hanging down, or the wire wrapped up around your ear. Foam tips had the best bass (with slightly reduced output) and best soundstage for me. They were very soft and much better than the old Shure yellow foamies. New Shure black “Comply” tips work well, but not as soft as the supplied Future Sonics foamies.
Flat frequency response
8
After listening to the M5s I am relieved that the frequency response is fairly neutral tending towards the Sennheiser 650 side of bass fullness. Subjectively, it sounds like the bass is +3 dB up from 30-80 Hz, flat to -2 dB through the midrange and –2 through the treble. Why are there no published plus or minus specs for frequency response?
Sensitivity/Efficiency
8
The M5’s are not as efficient as the Shure E500 or UE Super.fi 5 Pro that are 119 db/1mw, but few are. However, they are more efficient than the Ety’s and similar to the Shure E4C. The M5’s are rated at 112 db/1mw. They can be driven by a portable, but will scale up with better amplification quite well.
SOUND QUALITY
The M5 sounded good out of the box but smoothed out after 100-hour burn in and stayed about the same after 50-hour burn in. With the Shure E4C, UE Super.fi 5 Pro and Altec/Ety in this price range I always thought something was missing compared to the higher level IEM’s. With the M5 the overall detail is close, but not as good as the Shure E500. However the presentation is open compared to other IEM’s and definition is so natural and relaxed it seems closer to the Sennheiser 650 than an IEM. The spoken word is clear and can be striking with female and male voice. With a good amp DVD’s and DVD-A’s sound spectacular with dynamic range that reminds me of a subwoofer based system, a tough trick to pull off with an IEM.
What I don’t I like
You will not get Grado detail out the M5. The Ety’s or Stax are what you want for hyper detailed sound with the disadvantage of being ruthlessly revealing.
The M5 is still an IEM, which means a closed image that is “in your head” when compared to an open headphone such as the Senn 650. However, the M5 is one of the better IEM’s in the regard.
The deepest bass impact is not as good as the better full size headphones like the Beyer 990 or Senn 650.
What I like
Balanced sound with good bass definition.
Good air around the midrange with female vocals. Try Love Scenes with Diana Krall track 7, and track 1 for acoustic bass. This is a reference red book CD, but the SACD is even better. Treble is shelved down but very natural decay with cymbals.
COMPARISONS
I would place the M5’s better than the UE Super.fi 5 Pro’s in terms of neutrality as the M5’s have bass that just sounds right. They are closer to the Shure E500/SE530 in terms of balance.
One of the things I like about the Super.fi 5 Pro’s is they are very dynamic. They sound good with low powered portables. They also have good micro dynamics even at low listening levels, which is a hard characteristic to design. Many IEM’s do not sound their best at low volumes. The M5’s are not as good as the Super.fi 5 Pro’s in this regard, but they come very close and sound similar to the Shure E500 at low listening levels. I do not feel the need to turn up volume in order for the M5’s to sound good, but they benefit from amplification.
I compared the Altec Lansing IM716’s which have a single driver made by Etymotic and are said to have a similar driver to the Ety ER 4. In the “S” mode I find the Altec’s very neutral for an IEM but they need an amp to sound their best. The bass impact and definition was better on the M5 as expected. However, the Etymotic drivers are known for their midrange and treble clarity and the M5 compared very well. Midrange air and soundstage was a bit better on the M5 while treble clarity and extension was better on Altecs.
I liked Shure E4C as being a good neutral headphone between the bass tipped Super.fi 5 Pro’s and bass challenged Altec/Ety’s. I cannot get around that the Shure E4C is still a bit lacking in bass although it can go deep with the right amplifier and the new black comply foam tips. The M5’s produce bass effortlessly, have better bass pitch definition and have a decent soundstage. Ultimately, I would prefer the sound of the M5’s to the Shure E4C’s.
Compared to other dynamic driver IEM’s, the Audio Technica CK7 was too bright for me and lacked the bass of the M5. The Panasonic HJE-70 sounded more balanced with better bass, but could also sound harsh and lacked the refinement found with the M5’s.
COMPANY BACKGROUND
Future Sonics is a low profile (read minimal marketing/advertising) company in service to pro musicians for 20 years. They claim to be one of the first to offer custom in ear monitors to musicians. In my experience, companies such as Westone and Ultimate ear who transition from the serious business of pro audio to consumer audio understand the importance of customer service. If you do not think customer service and technical support is important, you will when you try to get help from mainstream audio companies like Sony when you have a problem with one of their products.
Buried in the website I found a partnership between Future Sonics and Sennheiser. Sennheiser bundles Future Sonics IEM’s with their pro stage monitoring gear. I find this interesting because Sennheiser could choose from any number of much larger and better known IEM companies to cater to their pro users and they chose Future Sonics.
http://www.futuresonics.com/whatsthe...nce/index.htmlFuture Sonics now offers consumer level IEM’s to serve the current stampede of portable audio. If this path sounds familiar, it is similar to the mission of companies such as Westone and Ultimate Ears.
I am afraid we Headfiers are being led down a marketing path that:
a) Armatures are in the more expensive IEM’s and therefore must be better than dynamic drivers that are usually relegated to the less expensive IEM’s.
b) The more drivers the better. 1 in the less expensive models. 2 in the midrange models. 3 and 4 in the top models.
This is a tired tactic used (over the 25 years I have been following) by audio marketers to steer the sheep into an upgrade path. They take a “new” feature and tell you more is better. Two-channel stereo sound was not good enough. Then there was Quadraphonic. Now we have 5.1 sound requiring 6 amplifiers and 6 speakers. Yipes!
If this path leads to better sound, I am interested. But many times the extra complexity causes us to stray from my ideal of “straight wire with gain” via a simple reproduction path. More armatures that must be squeezed into a small IEM and hang in your ear are a design challenge. Now add to this some type of crossover system that also must fit inside your ear.
If you search the archives you will see many prefer the overall sound of the single armature IEM’s such as the ETY ER4S to the multi armature models that can cost twice as much. A common complaint of the single armature IEM’s is that they are a bit bass light compared to the multi armature counterparts. Bass light is not a problem with the dynamic driver of the M5.
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
The M5 is a single dynamic driver unit that claims natural, deep bass response - not "enhanced" or "boosted". This model also bucks the trend by choosing a proprietary dynamic driver not an armature.
I preferred the medium soft foam sleeves that came with the M5s to the dual flange sleeves. They were soft and much more comfy than the old yellow foam sleeves that came with the Shure E4c that felt abrasive. I also tried the new Shure black foam comply sleeves which fit and worked well.
One interesting feature is the ability upgrade to custom ear molds for the M5 via what Future Sonics calls “SoftWear” sleeves. You can upgrade your universal fit M5 to customs sleeves for $135 plus the cost of impressions/shipping.
BUILD QUALITY
Nothing special from the outside. The case is plastic and does not have the solid look or feel of the well made Shure E4C. I also consider the Panasonic HJE-70 and Audio Technica CK7 (which are also single dynamic drivers) to be well made and machined out of solid metal alloy. However, they are heavy particularly the Panasonic HJE-70 whose mass also hung outside the ear. It appears a choice was made to make the M5’s lightweight and comfortable above marketing considerations to make them look something like the Vibes.
Cables on the M5 are thin compared to the new heavier Ultimate Ear clear cables. But bigger and thicker is not always better (although your girlfriends may not agree). You will read people looking to change the heavy cables of the UE Super.Fi’s with the lighter Westone custom cables. The thicker UE cables are not as fluid with movement and users complain the wires tug on the earphones as you move. The cables were not a problem with the M5 cables and they do help make the earphones lightweight and comfortable to wear. Microphonics were minimal to non-existent. Why can’t other IEM companies (like Etymotic) get this right?
TECHNICAL INFO
I do not believe that specs are of much use in determining sound quality with transducers. Measurements done with the EAW SMAART v.6 software should be standardized. But the results can still be manipulated by “adjusting” the coupling devices used to emulate the human ear canal when measuring things such as frequency response.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
None so far. However, I have noticed the pro audio based companies do not last this long if they do not have good customer support and a reliable product from the start.
OTHER HEADFI COMMENTS
There are many posts available on Headfi regarding the M5 if you search.
CONCLUSION
If you look at the Sennheiser reviews on this site, you will read a lot of negative comments: dark, veiled, bloated bass and lacking detail. Yet if you look at vendors in the headphone industry at the recent Headfi show, many had Sennheisers as a reference headphone on display to showcase their products such as headphone amplifiers.
Life with dynamic drivers is a series of tradeoffs and nothing is perfect. As with the Sennheisers, it is a matter of what tradeoffs offend you least and you can live with the easiest.
I think Sennheiser users will like the M5 presentation. The sound pulls (rather than pushes) you into the music.
原網頁:
http://www.head-fi.org/forums/f4/future-sonics-atrio-series-model-m5-review-237500/
由 qwerty123456789 發表於 週一 10月 20, 2008 6:05 pm 
