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理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Review

Rate this speaker:

  • 1. Poor (headless panther)

    Votes: 53 25.0%
  • 2. Not terrible (postman panther)

    Votes: 132 62.3%
  • 3. Fine (happy panther

    Votes: 26 12.3%
  • 4. Great (golfing panther)

    Votes: 1 0.5%

  • Total voters
    212

amirm

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Location
Seattle Area
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.
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Review.jpg

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:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker back side Review.jpg

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

理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Frequency Response Measurements.png


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:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker near-field Frequency Response Measurements.png


Directivity is good resulting in the same wavy response off-axis:

理性派HiFi X5 Speaker early window Frequency Response Measurements.png


Company recommends desktop/near-field use so our simulated in-room response doesn't quite apply:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker predicted in-room Frequency Response Measurements.png


Distortion is surprisingly low but with one sharp peak at 86 dBSPL:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker THD Distortion Measurements.png


理性派HiFi X5 Speaker relative THD Distortion Measurements.png


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:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Horizontal beamwidth Measurements.png

Same for directivity:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Horizontal directivity Measurements.png


Vertical directivity is typical of 2-way speakers indicating that you should stay at its tweeter axis:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Vertical directivity Measurements.png


Impedance is higher than typical 4 ohm which makes it an easier load on the amplifier:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Impedance and phase Measurements.png


Waterfall is pretty clean other than the few resonances:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker CSD Waterfall Measurements.png

Finally, here is the step response:

理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Step Response Measurements.png


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:
理性派HiFi X5 Speaker Equalization EQ.png


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/
 

Attachments

  • 理性派Hifi H5 Frequency Response.zip
    60.8 KB · Views: 63
Last edited:

YSC

Major Contributor
Joined
Dec 31, 2019
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2,570
Gave it fine as the on axis is not bad on flatness and surprisingly good directivity on the design. Plus it’s price it don’t seems much should be demanded.

Ok I am surprised to see traditional Chinese characters in here too so take my opinion with grain of salt
 
OP
amirm

amirm

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Staff Member
CFO (Chief Fun Officer)
Joined
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Location
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That shrimp skin is a online selling platform in Taiwan

He’s just asking if they can sell it through that
Ah, I thought he was talking about speaker finish!
 

Entropy

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Nicely Finished small speakers, seems to be reasonable. Something like the JBL studio 530s do definitely blow them out of the water at this pricepoint, though, although without looking nearly as nice.
 

Maiky76

Senior Member
Joined
May 28, 2020
Messages
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Location
French, living in China
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.
View attachment 268631
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:
View attachment 268632
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

View attachment 268633

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:
View attachment 268634

Directivity is good resulting in the same wavy response off-axis:

View attachment 268635

Company recommends desktop/near-field use so our simulated in-room response doesn't quite apply:
View attachment 268636

Distortion is surprisingly low but with one sharp peak at 86 dBSPL:
View attachment 268637

View attachment 268638

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:
View attachment 268639
Same for directivity:
View attachment 268640

Vertical directivity is typical of 2-way speakers indicating that you should stay at its tweeter axis:
View attachment 268641

Impedance is higher than typical 4 ohm which makes it an easier load on the amplifier:
View attachment 268642

Waterfall is pretty clean other than the few resonances:
View attachment 268643
Finally, here is the step response:

View attachment 268644

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:
View attachment 268645

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.

-----------
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/

Here is my take on the EQ.

Please report your findings, positive or negative!

The following EQs are “anechoic” EQs to get the speaker right before room integration. If you able to implement these EQs you must add EQ at LF for room integration, that is usually not optional… see hints there: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...helf-speaker-review.11144/page-26#post-800725

The raw data with corrected ER and PIR:

Score no EQ: 3.6
With Sub: 6.6

Spinorama with no EQ:
  • Not horible
  • knock off scanspeak drivers
Hifi H5 No EQ Spinorama.png


Directivity:

Better stay at tweeter height or just above
Horizontally, better toe-in the speakers by 10/20deg and have the axis crossing in front of the listening location, might help dosing the upper range.
Hifi H5 LW Better data.png

Hifi H5 2D surface Directivity Contour Only Data.png

EQ design:
I have generated two EQs. The APO config files are attached.
  • The first one, labelled, LW is targeted at making the LW flat
  • The second, labelled Score, starts with the first one and adds the score as an optimization variable.
  • The EQs are designed in the context of regular stereo use i.e. domestic environment, no warranty is provided for a near field use in a studio environment although the LW might be better suited for this purpose.
Score EQ LW: 5.5
with sub: 7.9

Score EQ Score: 6.0
with sub: 8.4

Code:
Hifi H5 APO EQ LW 96000Hz
March022023-104657

Preamp: -3.6 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 59.42,    0.00,    1.50
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 165.34,    -2.85,    1.07
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 767.34,    -2.98,    2.76
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 4959.36,    -2.54,    2.91
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 9081.60,    -1.49,    3.75

Hifi H5 APO EQ Score 96000Hz
March022023-104657

Preamp: -3.4 dB

Filter 1: ON HPQ Fc 59.18,    0.00,    1.49
Filter 2: ON PK Fc 168.55,    -2.98,    0.94
Filter 3: ON PK Fc 804.50,    -3.14,    1.96
Filter 4: ON PK Fc 4875.67,    -3.59,    2.02
Filter 5: ON PK Fc 9342.88,    -2.61,    1.83

Hifi H5 EQ Design.png


Spinorama EQ LW
Hifi H5 LW EQ Spinorama.png


Spinorama EQ Score
Hifi H5Score EQ Spinorama.png


Zoom PIR-LW-ON
Hifi H5 Zoom.png


Regression - Tonal
Hifi H5 EQ Regression.png


Radar no EQ vs EQ score
Nice improvements
Hifi H5 Radar.png


The rest of the plots is attached.
 

Attachments

  • Hifi H5 Horizontal 3D Directivity data.png
    Hifi H5 Horizontal 3D Directivity data.png
    389.3 KB · Views: 59
  • Hifi H5 Normalized Directivity data.png
    Hifi H5 Normalized Directivity data.png
    287.1 KB · Views: 67
  • Hifi H5 Raw Directivity data.png
    Hifi H5 Raw Directivity data.png
    421.2 KB · Views: 69
  • Hifi H5 Reflexion data.png
    Hifi H5 Reflexion data.png
    132.7 KB · Views: 43
  • Hifi H5 LW data.png
    Hifi H5 LW data.png
    134.6 KB · Views: 62
  • Hifi H5 2D surface Directivity Contour Data.png
    Hifi H5 2D surface Directivity Contour Data.png
    286.2 KB · Views: 50
  • Hifi H5 3D surface Vertical Directivity Data.png
    Hifi H5 3D surface Vertical Directivity Data.png
    465.1 KB · Views: 56
  • Hifi H5 3D surface Horizontal Directivity Data.png
    Hifi H5 3D surface Horizontal Directivity Data.png
    433.7 KB · Views: 50
  • Hifi H5 Vertical 3D Directivity data.png
    Hifi H5 Vertical 3D Directivity data.png
    394.3 KB · Views: 60
  • Hifi H5 APO EQ Score 96000Hz.txt
    292 bytes · Views: 54
  • Hifi H5 APO EQ LW 96000Hz.txt
    289 bytes · Views: 49
Last edited:

Mario Sanchez

Active Member
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Jan 11, 2021
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276
Doesn't look too bad, all things considered. Throw in some extra filters and it should make a fine desktop setup for a reasonable price, though usability doesn't look great right out of the box, and the tweeter level seems a tad too hot.
The manufacturer did talk about how this model is "made for desktop use" too, so maybe that dip across upper bass is some form of pre-emptive desktop compensation filter baked into the response, still no justification for the funny resonance around the 400Hz mark.
 
Last edited:

ThomasXia

Member
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Mar 6, 2019
Messages
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96
An active speaker version based on this one with correct DSP integrated could be much more promising I think.

------

BTW, The designer of the speaker seems to have expressed his displeasure with this measurement indirectly on social media in China. (www.bilibili.com)

230302001.jpg


讲个业内有意思的八卦。
公司都有测试部门。但是现在越来越多的公司都要再单独花钱找专业的测试公司,原因是公司高层信不过自家测试部门。高管们虽然不懂技术,但是也不傻,这也太明显了。听说尤其是一些做tws耳机的手机公司,基本上都信不过自己人了。这是何苦呢,如果大家都讲点诚信,也没必要这样内耗吧。 当然,这里讲的测试公司是业内的专业公司和顾问,不是面向大众的所谓的测评自媒体,所谓的测评媒体,多半只是单纯的广告公司

Tell an interesting piece of industry gossip.
Even though manufacturing companies have testing departments, more and more have to pay for a professional testing company separately because the company executives have lost trust in their own testing department. Although the executives are unfamiliar with the technology, they can easily find the fishy tricks in their own measurement. I heard that, especially for some smartphone companies having TWS products, they don't trust their own people, which is the origin of the pain. If we all speak a little integrity, there is no need for such internal conflicts. Of course, the test company mentioned here is the industry's professional companies and consultants, not the so-called self-promoting media for the public, the so-called test media, most of them are simply advertising companies.
 
Last edited:

julian_hughes

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Ah, I thought he was talking about speaker finish!
Fabulous! I'll have faith in AI and algorithmic translation when it can deal with translating S.E Asian, Korean, Japanese and Chinese idioms into English. Until that point is reached we are better off not assuming we have any clue what the hell is going on.
 

maxxevv

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That shrimp skin is a online selling platform in Taiwan

He’s just asking if they can sell it through that
That should be referring to Shopee.com.tw . A popular online shopping platform in Southeast Asia as well as Taiwan.

" 理性派 " can be intepreted as " objective / rational party/sect " if taken literally.
 

GXAlan

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Are there any evidences which your comment is based on?

I think everyone is curious about the latest AVRs. We haven’t seen an A8A, a Cinema 50, or AVR-X4800H yet, let alone the AV10 which is in customer hands. We have Sony too.

For speakers, JBL 4305P, MoFi Sourcepoint, Klipsch Sevens and Nines, KEF R meta, etc.

For electronics, HiFiRose streamers, the new JBL Classic line, NAD C3050, etc.
 
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