Hidizs MP145 IEM Review

[herr.jemine]

I use the mp145 without EQ and I am happy, but you have to test it yourself, the user Talisman doesn't seem to be so convinced

 

[Karu]

I also bought the MP145 (~100 eur on Ali) mostly because of the praise here. They are nice but after EQ I am not sure I perceive all that is talked of vs. Zero 2 or the Reds. YMMV. What I can say is shell is too big for me to commute, so they are now my office IEM, and the red nozzles are way too much bass, back to the pink.

 

[Klonatans]

I purchased Letshuoer S12 in order to compare them to Hidizs MP145. A couple of quick impressions. After trying around 10 different sets of tips I finally got a proper seal with the vocal tips from Fiio FH7. As the frequency response suggests S12 and MP145 share similar sound signature however the notoriuos 8 kHz peak is more pronounced on S12 and an EQ intervention was necessary (- 6 dB) to tame the unbearably shrill treble in that particular region. Another notable difference was a much tighter subbass of S12 compared to MP145.

 

[Curupira]

EQ intervention was necessary (- 6 dB) to tame the unbearably shrill treble in that particular region.

You can do a simple mod using micropore tape (yeah, 3m micropore, medical tape) to cover half of the nozzle, as it substantially affects the 8khz peak without affecting the other frequencies. The more you cover the nozzle, the more tame it'll be. You could also use some foam tips to reduce the peak, but IME with my old unit it wasn't that useful.

 

[feconicu]

Certain experiences make us understand why snake oil still exists, when you spend large amounts of money (for an IEM) it really gnaws to hear that they don't sound better than 20 euro headphones, but this is the reality, I too would have liked them to sound wonderfully and magically. They don't.
My hearing works quite well, I hear 17,000hz at 40, I can hear distortion at -46db, headphones have been connected to my hidizs ap80pro and I have been listening to songs in flac.
If someone doesn't feel the same magic as you, it is childish and stupid to accuse them of being deaf.

Maybe he thought your were trying tell everyone your experience was fact and not personal experience.

 

[feconicu]

Uh, that exists. Fatfreq makes em, Nightjar Singularity, Symphonium Titan, even the Dunu DaVinci I heard is capable in that department.

Maybe you expected the presentation and visceral bass of headphones. No amount of money on an IEM will achieve that.

 

[Klonatans]

You can do a simple mod using micropore tape (yeah, 3m micropore, medical tape) to cover half of the nozzle, as it substantially affects the 8khz peak without affecting the other frequencies. The more you cover the nozzle, the more tame it'll be. You could also use some foam tips to reduce the peak, but IME with my old unit it wasn't that useful.

View attachment 376778

Thanks for the tip! Would be interesting to experiment. Never tried any mods on IEMs so far since EQ works pretty well. Unfortunately the 8K peak plagues a lot of otherwise good IEMs. As to foam tips, I'm not a big fan of them because they wear out much too fast, at least Comply tips I used years ago.

 

[sulfuriq]

Read somewhere that MP145 works well with Spinfit Omni, and yes they do sound better with OMNI.

 

[Klonatans]

After finally finding proper tips (stock ones from Trinity Audio) for my MP145 I take my words back: the bass is deep and at the same time well controled now. As with S12 the stock tips didn't work for me and I spent a good deal of time to find right tips (unlike my other IEMs that almost always worked well with Spiral Dots).
As to comparison with S12 they sound very very similar with EQ. Without EQ subbass hits harder on MP145 and the 8 kHz peak is less agressive (it still baffles me why the deviation from Harman target (around + 6 dB) does not appear in the measured frequency response here as it's clearly audible and should be eradicated).

 

[InfiniteJester]

After finally finding proper tips (stock ones from Trinity Audio) for my MP145 I take my words back: the bass is deep and at the same time well controled now. As with S12 the stock tips didn't work for me and I spent a good deal of time to find right tips (unlike my other IEMs that almost always worked well with Spiral Dots).
As to comparison with S12 they sound very very similar with EQ. Without EQ subbass hits harder on MP145 and the 8 kHz peak is less agressive (it still baffles me why the deviation from Harman target (around + 6 dB) does not appear in the measured frequency response here as it's clearly audible and should be eradicated).

The 8 KHz peak is a resonance. It is not what the IEM is "spitting out". Here, in amirm measurements, the resonance is higher because, apparently, the resonance peak in GRAS 45CA is around 13,5 to 14 KHz. Assuming that the resonance in your ear is also at 8 KHz, as far as I understand it, when you EQ that peak, you are eliminating the response of the IEM in that area, and you only get the resonance.

There is little that you can do about peaks, this user explained it better than I could do:

This resonance comes from the interaction of hear canal and IEM structure(tips and protector screens). The exact value depends on the distance between eardrum and those structures, usually around 2cm. In this situation stationary waves are formed where their nodes are at the structure and the eardrum. The fundamental frequency f0 (harmonic) can be calculated by the formula Vs=(lambda/2)*frequency (for 36°C: Vs=348m/s, lambda = 0.04m). Hence we get freq~8700kHz.

Oratory also talked about this many times:

That's a resonance of the measurement system, not a resonance of the earphone.
It's a 1/2-wavelength resonance of the tube which on one end is terminated by the microphone inside the coupler, and on the other end is terminated by the earphone (the eartip).
That's why if you insert the earphone deeper into the coupler, this tube effectively gets shorter, and the tube resonance shifts upwards.

With most eartips, this resonance tends to be roughly around 8 kHz when an IEC60318-4 coupler is used, because that's roughly how deep regular-sized eartips tend to be inserted into the coupler.

In human ears this resonance peak is at slightly different frequencies (our ear canals are not all the same size), and is also not as high (human ear canals have a higher damping at this resonance than the 318-4 coupler does).

The High-frequency/ Hi-res couplers from Gras (RA0402 and RA0404) add damping into the coupler's front tube in order to lower the height of that peak.

But again:

the 8 kHz resonance is a feature of the measurement system, it is not a feature of the earphone itself.

in human ears it is not usually at 8 kHz, but somewhere between 6 and 12 kHz, depending on the individual anatomy (and also on how far you like to insert the earphone)

I hope I didn't made any mistake in my explanation. Please, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[herr.jemine]

Read somewhere that MP145 works well with Spinfit Omni, and yes they do sound better with OMNI.

Spinfit Omni are too tight, the W1 fit perfectly and isolate my ear canal perfectly

 

[sulfuriq]

I really love this IEM MP145, they sound incredible, the details and separations especially listening to Dave Matthew Bands. Discomfort is non-existent as I can easily fall asleep wearing this even my ear squashed the IEM onto the pillow.
Tips : Spinfit OMNI (M)
Cable : Standard 4.4mm in box
Rigs :
1. Hiby R4 + Hip Dac 3 (Primary)
2. OnePlus 7T + Hip Dac
Yeah, I know I'm sucker to the Burr Brown chip. I do own Hifiman HE400SE which my fav Headphones, eyeing Ananda right now as they are on Sales.

 

[InfiniteJester]

I was listening to this the other day, and the experience with the MP145 was extraordinary:

No other IEM surrounds me so effortlessly with sound and, at the same time, has that deep bass, despite how busy the material is.

They are a masterpiece of a set. I'm even considering buying a second pair, for if they go out of sale.

 

[tjf]

I really love this IEM MP145, they sound incredible, the details and separations especially listening to Dave Matthew Bands. Discomfort is non-existent as I can easily fall asleep wearing this even my ear squashed the IEM onto the pillow.
Tips : Spinfit OMNI (M)
Cable : Standard 4.4mm in box
Rigs :
1. Hiby R4 + Hip Dac 3 (Primary)
2. OnePlus 7T + Hip Dac
Yeah, I know I'm sucker to the Burr Brown chip. I do own Hifiman HE400SE which my fav Headphones, eyeing Ananda right now as they are on Sales.

Count me in the MP145 club (and the HE400SE club too) --

In very limited IEM experience - after trying Fiio FD1s and Moondrop Starfields (yeah...the Starfield's "Carbon Nanotube" narrative suckered me in --they have a NASTY 5K to 8K resonance/peak/distortion that I can't eq out on my Qudelix 5K or T71 - or the Wiim PEQ) -- the MP145's have been - by far - the better "subjective" sounding IEMs...

So my best IEM experiences - albeit limited - are with the MP145's - using Crinacle's EQ profile - yet I always use a 30HZ HPF (-20db @ 2.5 Q) for all my IEM/Headphone EQ profiles, as I'm not a basshead and I'm assuming that the HPF helps the MP145 planar driver low frequency "headroom" aa well as the Qudelix's amplifier stage's headroom...
(don't need to waste amplifier power on extreme deep bass content I'm not interested in)

The tips for the MP145's are a tricky issue -- I've just ordered XL Spinfit Omni's, so I'll see how they do -- am using Dektoni Foam tips now with good results -- all of the supplied tips with the MP145 were useless to me.

And, since the various nozzles (Red, Silver, etc.) are super large in diameter -- I have to use "needle=nose" pliers to stretch out the tips to be able to fit them over the nozzles.

And I'm looking forward to the Wiim Ultra - should arrive in a few weeks -- hoping it's a step us from the Pro Plus or the Qudelix T71 + Topping NX7 amp...

I think there's something to the very low distortion capabilities of the Planar drivers on my MP145 and HE400SE -- but if I go any farther down this narrative path I'll get ASR posters upset with my subjective opinions since I've not done controlled/level matched/double blind testing...

...

 

[InfiniteJester]

Count me in the MP145 club (and the HE400SE club too) --

In very limited IEM experience - after trying Fiio FD1s and Moondrop Starfields (yeah...the Starfield's "Carbon Nanotube" narrative suckered me in --they have a NASTY 5K to 8K resonance/peak/distortion that I can't eq out on my Qudelix 5K or T71 - or the Wiim PEQ) -- the MP145's have been - by far - the better "subjective" sounding IEMs...

So my best IEM experiences - albeit limited - are with the MP145's - using Crinacle's EQ profile - yet I always use a 30HZ HPF (-20db @ 2.5 Q) for all my IEM/Headphone EQ profiles, as I'm not a basshead and I'm assuming that the HPF helps the MP145 planar driver low frequency "headroom" aa well as the Qudelix's amplifier stage's headroom...
(don't need to waste amplifier power on extreme deep bass content I'm not interested in)

The tips for the MP145's are a tricky issue -- I've just ordered XL Spinfit Omni's, so I'll see how they do -- am using Dektoni Foam tips now with good results -- all of the supplied tips with the MP145 were useless to me.

And, since the various nozzles (Red, Silver, etc.) are super large in diameter -- I have to use "needle=nose" pliers to stretch out the tips to be able to fit them over the nozzles.

And I'm looking forward to the Wiim Ultra - should arrive in a few weeks -- hoping it's a step us from the Pro Plus or the Qudelix T71 + Topping NX7 amp...

I think there's something to the very low distortion capabilities of the Planar drivers on my MP145 and HE400SE -- but if I go any farther down this narrative path I'll get ASR posters upset with my subjective opinions since I've not done controlled/level matched/double blind testing...

...

I agree, the HE400SE is an excellent headphone with impressive soundstage and a huge tolerance to EQ.

Planars are able to offer a lot for relatively cheap.

 

[suttondesign]

just got these. extremely happy with them. I added a 3db peak at 3750hz with a Q of 1, but that may be a tad too etchy. We’ll see.
My HD800’s gather dust.

 

[InfiniteJester]

just got these. extremely happy with them. I added a 3db peak at 3750hz with a Q of 1, but that may be a tad too etchy. We’ll see.
My HD800’s gather dust.

Did you try the silver noozle?

 

[Klonatans]

The 8 KHz peak is a resonance. It is not what the IEM is "spitting out". Here, in amirm measurements, the resonance is higher because, apparently, the resonance peak in GRAS 45CA is around 13,5 to 14 KHz. Assuming that the resonance in your ear is also at 8 KHz, as far as I understand it, when you EQ that peak, you are eliminating the response of the IEM in that area, and you only get the resonance.

To my ears the peak is indeed at around 8 kHz and can be eliminated with something like -7 dB Q 3.0-3.5 in this area without affecting much of the rest of the treble range. Without applying EQ the peak spoils my listening experience as I'm quite sensitive to treble excess. I can hardly believe Amir didn't hear that peak even it wasn't measured as it's quite prominent.

 

[Klonatans]

So my best IEM experiences - albeit limited - are with the MP145's - using Crinacle's EQ profile - yet I always use a 30HZ HPF (-20db @ 2.5 Q) for all my IEM/Headphone EQ profiles, as I'm not a basshead and I'm assuming that the HPF helps the MP145 planar driver low frequency "headroom" aa well as the Qudelix's amplifier stage's headroom...
(don't need to waste amplifier power on extreme deep bass content I'm not interested in)

-20 db Q 2.5 at 30 Hz?! That mighty planar bass goodness is one of the main selling points of MP145 and planar IEMs in general! Ok, maybe for bass heavy electronic music adepts like me.

 

[InfiniteJester]

To my ears the peak is indeed at around 8 kHz and can be eliminated with something like -7 dB Q 3.0-3.5 in this area without affecting much of the rest of the treble range. Without applying EQ the peak spoils my listening experience as I'm quite sensitive to treble excess. I can hardly believe Amir didn't hear that peak even it wasn't measured as it's quite prominent.

I tried EQ'ing the peaks and it sounded terrible for me. I talked about it in this thread in the past, if I'm not misremembering.

I'm using the red nozzles these days, because I seem to prefer no ear-gain and when playing with DSPs like the ones I described earlier, the sound gets a little brighter anyways.