This is a review, detailed measurements and listening test of 理性派HiFi X5 speaker. It was kindly purchased by a member in China and drop shipped to me. It costs CH Yuan 2280 (USD $327) for the finish in this sample, and 1980 ($284) without per pair.
The walnut finish is quite nice and I appreciated the rounded corners and overall feel of the unit. Back panel is unusual in what it doesn't show than what it does:
And that is, lack of port. Bookshelf speakers universally have ports to improve bass response and it is interesting to see this speaker do without. Binding posts are hard to see but they are quite beefy/premium.
Speaker is not sold outside of China so I don't have an English name for it. Company designer has a large and positive reputation in China.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Reference axis was that of the tweeter. The baffle is tilted back ever so slightly. I measured it as if this was not the case. Post measurements, I looked at -10 degree measurements and it is quite close to the 0 degree so I stayed with that.
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our anechoic spinorama measurements
Seems like there is a general attempt to get a flat on-axis response. That however is marred by about four resonant peaks. Near-field response shows the same almost 1 to 1:
Directivity is good resulting in the same wavy response off-axis:
Company recommends desktop/near-field use so our simulated in-room response doesn't quite apply:
Distortion is surprisingly low but with one sharp peak at 86 dBSPL:
Beamwidth is wider than normal which is a good thing in near-field meaning as you move left and right, tonality doesn't change a lot:
Same for directivity:
Vertical directivity is typical of 2-way speakers indicating that you should stay at its tweeter axis:
Impedance is higher than typical 4 ohm which makes it an easier load on the amplifier:
Waterfall is pretty clean other than the few resonances:
Finally, here is the step response:
理性派HiFi X5 Listening Tests
Company promotional video shows the speaker on desk flanking the monitor so I tried it there. But there was too much bass enhancement in my setup so I opted to listen to it in near-field but at the edge of the desk. That improved the boominess but more filtering was necessary:
Paradoxically, it wasn't too bad as is because the extra highs were countering the peak around 700 Hz. I was refining the EQ by stepping through my tracks until I got to the one you see above: Fading Sun from Teje Insugset. I use this track to test sub-bass response which the X5 handled with ease -- much better than many bookshelves. But as soon as some higher pitched impulses arrived, the speaker started to sing by itself! Clearly an internal resonance was triggered causing much elongated notes as if there was another instrument was playing along.
To verify it was not a setup issue, I swapped the X5 for Revel M105. The M105 fell apart on sub-bass, producing quite distorted sound there but did not at all suffer from that resonance. Next I switched the Hypex amp I was using for a Topping La90. It made no difference and the X5 proceeded to yet again clearly sing along. The distortion is quite convincing: if I had not listened to this track hundreds of times on countless speakers, I would have thought it was part of the music!
At this point I terminated the testing as this issue is a showstopper. Shame as the fidelity was quite good and speaker played quite clean and loud prior to this final failing.
Conclusions
As house inspectors say, there are clearly "good bones" in this speaker. I like the approach of not having a port as that can easily color mid-rang with its/cabinet resonances if not carefully designed. In desktop use, you are liable to get bass enhancement anyway so why not go with a sealed enclosure. The bass driver seems capable. The tweeter though has clearly resonances as evidenced by its wavy resonances.
I think the company is close to have a very good and innovative design here. I hope to take this data and refine it. Once there, I would love to re-test it.
As it is, I cannot recommend the 理性派HiFi X5 speaker.
EDIT: please see the teardown of 理性派HiFi X5 here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/理性派hifi-x5-speaker-review.42528/post-1506363
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
The walnut finish is quite nice and I appreciated the rounded corners and overall feel of the unit. Back panel is unusual in what it doesn't show than what it does:
And that is, lack of port. Bookshelf speakers universally have ports to improve bass response and it is interesting to see this speaker do without. Binding posts are hard to see but they are quite beefy/premium.
Speaker is not sold outside of China so I don't have an English name for it. Company designer has a large and positive reputation in China.
Measurements that you are about to see were performed using the Klippel Near-field Scanner (NFS). This is a robotic measurement system that analyzes the speaker all around and is able (using advanced mathematics and dual scan) to subtract room reflections (so where I measure it doesn't matter). It also measures the speaker at close distance ("near-field") which sharply reduces the impact of room noise. Both of these factors enable testing in ordinary rooms yet results that can be more accurate than an anechoic chamber. In a nutshell, the measurements show the actual sound coming out of the speaker independent of the room.
Reference axis was that of the tweeter. The baffle is tilted back ever so slightly. I measured it as if this was not the case. Post measurements, I looked at -10 degree measurements and it is quite close to the 0 degree so I stayed with that.
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Measurements
As usual, we start with our anechoic spinorama measurements
Seems like there is a general attempt to get a flat on-axis response. That however is marred by about four resonant peaks. Near-field response shows the same almost 1 to 1:
Directivity is good resulting in the same wavy response off-axis:
Company recommends desktop/near-field use so our simulated in-room response doesn't quite apply:
Distortion is surprisingly low but with one sharp peak at 86 dBSPL:
Beamwidth is wider than normal which is a good thing in near-field meaning as you move left and right, tonality doesn't change a lot:
Same for directivity:
Vertical directivity is typical of 2-way speakers indicating that you should stay at its tweeter axis:
Impedance is higher than typical 4 ohm which makes it an easier load on the amplifier:
Waterfall is pretty clean other than the few resonances:
Finally, here is the step response:
理性派HiFi X5 Listening Tests
Company promotional video shows the speaker on desk flanking the monitor so I tried it there. But there was too much bass enhancement in my setup so I opted to listen to it in near-field but at the edge of the desk. That improved the boominess but more filtering was necessary:
Paradoxically, it wasn't too bad as is because the extra highs were countering the peak around 700 Hz. I was refining the EQ by stepping through my tracks until I got to the one you see above: Fading Sun from Teje Insugset. I use this track to test sub-bass response which the X5 handled with ease -- much better than many bookshelves. But as soon as some higher pitched impulses arrived, the speaker started to sing by itself! Clearly an internal resonance was triggered causing much elongated notes as if there was another instrument was playing along.
To verify it was not a setup issue, I swapped the X5 for Revel M105. The M105 fell apart on sub-bass, producing quite distorted sound there but did not at all suffer from that resonance. Next I switched the Hypex amp I was using for a Topping La90. It made no difference and the X5 proceeded to yet again clearly sing along. The distortion is quite convincing: if I had not listened to this track hundreds of times on countless speakers, I would have thought it was part of the music!
At this point I terminated the testing as this issue is a showstopper. Shame as the fidelity was quite good and speaker played quite clean and loud prior to this final failing.
Conclusions
As house inspectors say, there are clearly "good bones" in this speaker. I like the approach of not having a port as that can easily color mid-rang with its/cabinet resonances if not carefully designed. In desktop use, you are liable to get bass enhancement anyway so why not go with a sealed enclosure. The bass driver seems capable. The tweeter though has clearly resonances as evidenced by its wavy resonances.
I think the company is close to have a very good and innovative design here. I hope to take this data and refine it. Once there, I would love to re-test it.
As it is, I cannot recommend the 理性派HiFi X5 speaker.
EDIT: please see the teardown of 理性派HiFi X5 here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/理性派hifi-x5-speaker-review.42528/post-1506363
-----------
As always, questions, comments, recommendations, etc. are welcome.
Any donations are much appreciated using: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/how-to-support-audio-science-review.8150/
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