Late to the game but I have now had Hyla CE-5 and Oriolus Mk2 for a few weeks and really enjoying their signature. Probably nothing new for many here but I thought I pitch in my 3-way impression with Andromeda.
I primarily come from desktop rig where I mainly use Stax L700/Utopia/HD800. I generally favor a brighter tone but with good body/mids as I listen to a lot of acoustic instrumentals.
Andromeda was my top IEM but the fit always bothered me. A little bit too wide, a ridge near the nozzle presses on my ear, and the nozzle too wide/short for good seal unless I use a comply T500. The tone is tricky as it varies with the source (iPhone vs desktop) but I always felt that there is a unique "honk" to its sound.
I decided that CE-5 and Mk2 seemed like a good value (not ready to drop $2k on an IEM...) and a suitably used ones came up so I took the chance.
Below is a look at Andromeda, Mk2, and CE-5. I believe the Andromeda and Mk2 share a similar nozzle shape/size/depth. CE-5 is distinctively longer with a different profile.
Andromeda is the thinnest of the three, followed by CE-5, and then Mk2. So for me, the comfort ranking is CE-5 > Mk2 > Andromeda.
For the sound signature, CE-5 is V-shaped but it has the best bass of all. However, I have had the most "lost in music" experience with CE-5 so far. There's something really special about this one. Mk2 seems more balanced with very nice mids. Below is an eq setting that I came up with (it's only a ballpark, not scientifically tweaked) to make Mk2 sound like Andromeda. I believe this peak/trough contributes to the honkiness that I hear in Andromeda. Let me know if you try and agree/disagree
I played around with cables too and so far I prefer the EA Ares II 8 wire or Oidio Pellucid Plus SPC cable with Mk2. PW cable that came with Mk2 seems to bring the mids too forward to my taste. For some soft recordings, this might be good but I prefer the slightly relaxed and balanced sound of EA 8 wire and the cooler sound of Oidio with Mk2. ctaxxxx's comments seem to resonate for me.
In contrast, the CE-5 benefits from PW cable to make up for the V-shaped signature and bring a little more meat to the mids.
Let's see what else I find after I go through more of my music library. Bottom line, these are very nice and addicting IEMs
Anyone knows where i can fix this? I dropped it and broke... To a few pieces..
