I received a new Fiio FT5 headphone yesterday and spent about four hours listening to a wide variety of music/genres from my collection. I don't have much in the way of articulated observations or impressions, just my initial thoughts. Here goes...
All of my listening so far has been with the velour earpads. I had found a resource providing PEQ filter settings for a wide selection of headphones (with any factory earpad options provided with the headphone), to be used as a Harman target curve for the given headphone. Knowing that I was going to order this headphone I had set up presets for the FT5 with each earpad set. I did the same for my beyerdynamic DT250 250Ω headphone, which I used as a reference for the Harman target. This is the first time I've had an example of this curve being set for a headphone with which I am intimately familiar (it's been my daily driver at my desktop for at least five years). During my listening last night I occasionally switched to the Harman target preset, then back, to keep a point of reference for the FT5's voicing.
I'm using MathAudio Headphone EQ as a Foobar2000 DSP component. My signal chain for what follows was: Foobar200 / Windows PC --> Schiit Bifrost 2/64 DAC --> Schiit Lokius EQ (bypassed, used only to take advantage of the BF2 XLR outputs) --> Schiit Saga preamp w/ a Sylvania 6SN7GT 'Bad Boy' valve --> Schiit Lyr 3 amp w/ a Philco 7N7 valve.
On the very first song (Ambrosia '
How much I feel') I was immediately drawn in by its warm presentation. This continued throughout the evening. I'd occasionally listened for a minute or two with the Harman curve EQ preset and then bypassed the EQ. In all but a few recordings where the mid bass emphasis was a bit heavy handed, I found that I enjoyed the FT5's voicing with pretty much all genres, with a preference for the Harman curve EQ preset only where the mid bass emphasis caused a specific recording to be perceived as a bit muddy. Even here, most of these recordings sounded appealing just the same. I really like what I'm hearing so far! At no time did I feel that the FT5 was a dark sounding headphone. Warm, yes, but not dark. I found nothing off-putting about its voicing. In fact, it encourages sitting back, closing eyes, and enjoying the music as presented. In this way I'm reminded of the Sennheiser HD650, a very good thing IMO!
The Harman curve EQ preset doesn't transform the FT5 into something it's not. It does make for a slightly more energetic presentation, but it still sounds like a Fiio FT5, also a very good thing IMO.
I took a few minutes to listen to the iBasso SR2 on the last few tracks I played while wearing the FT5. I can see where these two may be perceived as similar but on first comparison, I find them more different than similar. I can't say in what way, but it seemed clear that the the two aren't similar enough to pick just one and sell the other. My gut tells me that I'd regret such a decision. Perhaps this perception will change, but right now I can't see how. Time will tell. For the moment, though, I don't want to take the FT5 off of my ears. On that note my last thought is that after four hours they were no less comfortable than when I first put them on.
I'll get around to listening with the pleather pads, once I've become more familiar with how they sound with the velour pads.
I hope the above reads less scattered than it seemed when writing. That's it for now. I'm going to go listen to more music.
