Hidition Viento-Reference

First and foremost, I bought the Viento-B CIEM directly from Hidition.

The whole story is available here.
So I'll only put the TL;DR on this review.

All communication was done by email.
Paid for on September 11th, 2023
Received on November 27th, 2023
About 5 weeks lead time, standard.

I unboxed them when I got home, and they looked good at first glance.

Cable and accessories:
I put that silver cable, with 4.4mm termination, not gonna bother with the wimpy black cable they shipped it with.
That's the first minus point. Quite a standard issued cable for stage used, good length tho. About 140cm.
They come with that blue box, good when you need to ship them back as it's sturdy, I guess (see later).
There is also a small white microfiber and a cleaning tool, which is to be expected at this price point.
2/5, that's the bare minimum.

I put them in my ears to listen to them, because that's what matters most, right?
Tight fit at first, my CIEM Fearless Roland are way loser fit. I like it though, I can open my mouth wide and I don't lose the seal, unlike the Roland.
That's a 5/5 for fit and seal.

The sound:
Plugged into my DX160, I lowered the volume and disabled my pEQ used for the Roland.
Oh, that's good, I like it. it's bright, it's coherent.
4/5 to me.
Way better than the Roland that just sounds dark and muffled without EQ.
Could be a little hot in the 9k area on some genres, lacking a little in the 11k.
If I really want to be picky, I can do that pEQ to sound even better. (DX1600 doesn't do 0.1 dB increment, not even half one lol) Turning on/off the bass depending on what I'm listening to.


I'm not a professional reviewer, just a customer who paid full price for those.
If you want a detailed sound impression, just look at the other reviews.

The build quality:
When I unboxed them, I noticed something off with the left faceplate, but I was in a hurry to listen to them.
The right earpiece was mint, but the left faceplate was cracked on the edge and it looked like the coating was pealing off from the mother-of-pearl.
Here is one of the videos I sent to Hiditon as well as more pictures, you can find them all on the first link I shared.


Back they go to Hiditon in Korea, at my charge. Shipped November 1st, 2023.
(Unlike when I had to RMA something from Linsoul who sent me a return label, ah good time when companies do that.)
They came back to me on December 6th, 2023. That took a long time for one faceplate to repair.

Of course, I'm excited to be able to enjoy listening to them again. But upon opening the package, I saw right away that they re-did both earpieces. Odd
That's what they look like now. The mother-of-pearl doesn't have a white background anymore, you can almost see through it. Not a bad look in my opinion.

But, yes there is a but.
The right earpiece faceplate is showing some delamination and the clear coat on the shell is cracked all over. WHAT THE HELL?!
Now they won't honor their warranty!
That's a 0/5.

You can see all the pictures and the full story on the other thread.

I'll stop the review here, and I'm giving the Viento-B a 2/5.
Simply because it doesn't matter how good an IEM sounds if the quality is not there. And it's especially worse if the company that produces it doesn't honor the warranty on their product.
Perhaps I'll edit back with more sound-related part to this review, if I find someone to fix them. Which I'm going to look for now...

Note:
These are for the Viento B tuning specifically, but I think're generally applicable to the various tunings.

Preamble:
After seeing Crin's ranking and the updated impressions, the Viento has becoming one of those pot of gold at the end of the rainbow iems for me. Missed a couple on Headfi and CAM, and a D that was being passed around shipped to @Colors with a crack on the nozzle. I'm still on the hunt for actually, but once again @Colors delivers and snapped up one from a Quebec acquaintance who had ironically sold a u12t with QC issues to go to the Viento. So credit for my impressions where it is due!

Not much to say in term of expectations beyond Crin's ranking and tidbits here and there, I'm a Hidition virigin. Going through a retailer results in a higher price than it I got it myself or through a local contact so I've been dreaming about it (Kinda like u12t when I started out). I don't speak a lick of Korean to deal with them and the wife won't enable me.

Design + Testing and other things:
Starting with the shells, these (B)ientos were done in universal with custom shells. Good job there by Hidition.In terms of the shape though...... the shell looks really weird, giving a JH frankenbolts vibe though much more compact. Interesting that there's a vent on the faceplate, Hidition went with a vented all BA design.Nozzles were a bit on the thick side but went straight in to my ears with a snug fit which I liked and similar in feel to the ER4SR ear dildo fame (Note that I'll be mentioning the ER4SR later on). These are easier to drive and I had them on low gain at 45 on my 1A (Owing to the isolation and lower OI I guess)

I'm probably not going to say too much for each range of FR and focus on the signature in it's entirety because that's really where this shines rather than a part of the FR. Most of my comparisons will be against the Empire Spartan which is probably the only thing similar out there that I know of. And I loved the Spartans if that says anything,

Bass:
Subbass extension goes quite well for a 4 BA model, exceeding that of the Spartans. The more noticeable and prominent rumble brought a bigger crap eating grin to my face than the Spartan which is more midbass focused. The midbass is nice and controlled and has good slam and impact, less than that on the Spartan but nonetheless there. No bleed at all which scores huges point from me.

Mids:
Similary the mids are strikingly clean and clear, definitely a step up from the Spartan. They're not overly forward or recessed and owing to the presentation vocals are always clear in the mix, again invoking the Empire Athena in this regards. Are we really dealing with a 4 BA here? Hidtion does weird things with 4 drivers like the Phantom's 5 and Andromeda's 5 as well (Though they're kinda all over the map in the price range) and I always like magic.

Treble:
Moving on to the treble, very smooth for a 4 BA setup and definitely exceeds the Spartan in the area. I wonder how much the venting contributes to these improvements on top of the tuning. I really can't find anything to say about it.....

Conclusion:
So in case you skiped my statement: I don't have much to say about the individual ranges of the FR of the Viento. There's nothing ground breaking that causes me to say wow, this is done well or that needs to be improved. The Viento is a very safe tuning, it can literally do no wrong. To go even further the Viento wouold be the epitome of nice and polite. Nothings stands out and it'll give you a good all rounder response when you ask for it, but otherwise it doesn't go on a limb to please you. by now you're probably confused as hell: Does this KuroKitsu loon realize what he's saying? The safeness is literally the selling point of this, while it's tonal accuracy is much better than say the technical aspect, it tries to achieve something in the vein of the u12t but ends up leaning closer to a more refined ER4SR (I said I would come back to this wouldn't I?) with more bass thrown in.Whether by the limitation of a 4 driver model or the crossover or something else entirely, it functions well as a stage monitor or mixing but comes up boring for those wanting to enjoy their music and want some kind of musicality and ends up falling short of the u12t signature, its laid back enough to do late night listening, but outside of stage/studio application the Viento ends up being a wallflower during the day. It's worth trying but not worthy of an acquisition for my preferences and tastes, and really Hidtion did some black magic on the Viento for such a low driver count that I still put it in the 6-10 range of my ranking.

Small addendum to the original impressions: The Viento is a super source dependant iem and has a timbre to die for, but I just really don't like hearing a source as opposed to iems, so make of that what you will. Also noticed that the dynamics are great for tracks that had a studio feel, but the Viento doesn't really scale well as the venue for the recording increases in space. As such I would relegate the Viento to strictly studio duties for my tastes.