Fiio is back with another affordable pair of IEMs for gamers and music-lovers alike. The Fiio x Jade Audio JH5 pack five mighty drivers in each ear piece for an especially full sound that punches above its $79.99 class. These are definitely earphones you won’t want to miss for a budget-friendly upgrade to your listening, no matter what or where that may be.
Specifications
- Current Price: $79.99 (Amazon, AliExpress)
- Wearing Method: Around-the-ear in-ear monitors
- Drivers
- 10mm carbon based dynamic driver (x1)
- Custom medium and high frequency balanced armatures (x2)
- Custom ultra-high frequency balanced armatures (x2)
- Frequency Response: 20Hz - 40kHz
- Impedance: 13 Ohms @ 1kHz
- Sensitivity: 111dB/mW @ 1kHz
- Cable Material: 4 strands totaling 392 wires of silver-plated copper
- Cable Length: About 1.2m
- Weight: About 7.6g (excluding cable)
- Headphone Connector: 0.78 2-pin detachable cable
- Audio Plug: High-quality gold-plated copper 3.5mm
Fiio x Jade Audio JH5 - Design, First Impressions, and Fit
Fiio has once again come together with its sub-brand, Jade Audio to bring us another pair of affordable earphones with the JH5. Jade Audio’s purpose is to bring audio products to more affordable price points with smart scale backs and targeting a youthful audience with its designs. The JH5 encapsulates that mission in more ways than one and is, thus far, the most impressive product I’ve examined from the brand.
The JH5 is a hybrid pair of IEMs with a design that would usually cost upwards of $100 from all but the most budget-centric brands (which typically trade sound quality). It utilizes five drivers in each side, one dynamic driver and four balanced armatures, to craft its sonics.
These five drivers split the frequencies into three distinct parts: the lows, the highs and mids, and the ultra highs. The lows are handled by the dynamic driver, the mids and highs by two of the balanced armatures, and the ultra highs by the remaining two. In doing so, each driver (or pair) is able to specialize on the frequencies they are custom-tuned to deliver. This gives us a so-called hybrid design since we have two different types of drivers creating the listening experience, but with five separate drivers, we actually get much more intricate layering of sound here.
These aren’t your run of the mill, unremarkable drivers either. Each has been customized by Fiio/Jade Audio with the aim of enhancing the listening experience, whether you’re playing games, watching movies, or, of course, listening to music. The dynamic driver is taken from the “little conch” series, including the FH11 we reviewed here earlier this year. It uses a dual chamber design to control airflow and a carbon-based diaphragm. These two qualities allow it to move faster yet also have more control to improve the speed, texture, and precision of the bass.
The four balanced armatures, on the other hand, are custom creations based on the work Fiio had done previously with the FH9 and FH7, two much more expensive IEMs that were highly reviewed upon their release. These BAs were designed to have a resonance peak at 2.8kHz that aligns with the resonance of the human ear, masking the transition between the dynamic driver and balanced armatures for a smoother perceived frequency response.
The acoustic chamber these were built within is segmented into three different sections for each set of drivers. These sections then feed into the ear nozzle with custom tubes designed to remove sibilance and frequency spikes.
Like a number of Fiio’s earphones, the JH5 is crafted from medical-grade resin that’s glassy smooth. It’s 3D printed in a universal IEM form, which means it’s based on a wide collection of earmold data to ensure it will fit the widest array of users. It’s medium-sized in order to house all of those drivers but I found it to be quite comfortable. Fiio also includes two separate types of silicone tips to help you find your best fit.
The scale backs really are smart with this set. For example, there’s no fancy faceplate — but it still looks good. Instead of the painterly aesthetic adopted by much of its competition, or the fancier metal molds used on a number of Fiio’s more expensive IEMs, you have a simple zinc-alloy faceplate that’s polished to a mirror shine. It’s simple but looks good.
The cable is also rather nice, woven from 392 separate wires in a reasonably soft braid. It’s a big step up from most cables you’ll find packed in with brands like Sony or Skullcandy around this price, that’s for sure. It ends in a single 3.5mm termination, but it’s so sensitive, you don’t need balanced gear to run these well at all. It’s also detachable and uses a standard 0.78mm 2-pin connection to each earbud, so if you’d care to upgrade it over time, you easily can.
The earphones also come with a unique plastic case. It’s, well, LEGO. There are pegs and slots on the top and bottom to build on, and the storage container pulls out like a drawer. It’s nowhere near as fancy as even the zippered cases that come with other buds at this price and isn’t at all pocketable, but it will keep the buds safe on a desk.
So for scalebacks, we have: the case, the faceplate, the cable (which is fine but isn’t as nice as some others Fiio tends to include with its earphones). To secure a lower price and quality sound, however, I think all of these are very fair for what you’re paying here.
Fiio x Jade Audio JH5 - Listening Impressions
I have to say, the Fiio x Jade Audio JH5 surprised me. With the driver arrangement, I was immediately reminded of the Fiio FH7S, which uses a similar driver arrangement. That set costs more than 4x the price of the JH5, though. There was no way it could approach the FH7S.
And in a way, I was right about that, but the JH5 manage to sound quite good and punch well above their class. With the FH7S, you’re getting more of everything: more detail, more soundstage, more resolution, better bass, mids, and treble. But that’s what you would expect from a flagship IEM that costs so much more. With the JH5, you’re getting a full-sounding pair of earphones with a decent soundstage, adequate detail, a comfortable fit, and pricing that’s exceptionally competitive.
You can also run them on anything. With an impedance of 13 ohms and a sensitivity of 111dB/mW, they’re incredibly sensitive. A headphone jack, PC, laptop, Apple dongle… anything is going to run these fine. They’re one of the few recent IEMs that will pick-up background noise on powerful amps, like the HIFIMAN Serenade, I’m currently testing. While that amp is clearly overpowered for this set (dramatically so), very few of the other sensitive IEMs I tested had audible background noise while the JH5 did. Something to be aware of if you do happen to have a more powerful source.
On this set, the bass rules the roost. In the frequency graph above, the dotted red line is the Harman Target. This is a research-based frequency graph that generally aligns with mainstream tastes. Jade Audio took this target and added mid-bass on top. This lends sounds like drums, bass guitars, explosions, tank shots, and grenade launchers a plentiful amount of body and thump. There’s also a good amount of sub-bass extension so bass has tactility. It does bleed into the mids, somewhat and make vocals sound a bit thick, but this warmer character is definitely something a lot of people are going to like and works well for gaming. There’s also a surprising amount of texture detail in the low-end.
The mids are smooth with vocals that are a bit stepped forward but not overly so due to the heightened mid-bass. There’s a good amount of texture detail here but it’s not class-leading in resolution — another area where you get what you pay for. But it’s an enjoyable listen nonetheless and one that encourages you to relax and not hyperfocus on minute details. You’ll still be able to perceive details like footsteps and directionality, so have no fear there.
The high-end is pretty good. The custom BAs come forward to give music in particular an edge in the high-range that stops short of being sharp. Elements like hi-hats and cymbals come forward, as do the upper harmonics of instruments like guitars and organs. For gaming, gunshots have a defined crack. There’s less in the cacophony of an intense gaming to really focus on when compared to music, but you’ll find that there’s a good amount of air here that lends them a decent sense of directionality even when there’s a lot going on.
Soundstage and layering are only average. The extended mid-bass impacts the sense of space to the listening experience. There’s an average amount of width but not much in the way of depth and layering is similarly close together.
For this reason, I found that I enjoyed these headphones most with Dolby Atmos enabled — for both music and gaming. Dolby’s algorithm does a good job of stretching out the sound, moving the bass just a touch back, vocals and mids a bit forward, and providing more spaciousness overall. With Atmos, I think they’re a very passable pair of gaming earphones that are also a lot of fun for music.
Final Thoughts
The Fiio x Jade Audio JH5 is a great pair of all-arounders. The engineers have done a good job of creating a listening experience that’s full-bodied and rich but also very responsive to tweaks like Atmos when you want to balance it out and add a bit more space to the mix. Their comfort and versatility make them a very nice pick, especially at the price of $79.99. I would definitely recommend these to anyone shopping and are looking for a set that they can carry with them everywhere, use for just about anything, and not have to worry too much if anything should happen to them. The JH5 are a very good value at this price.
The product described in this article was provided by the manufacturer for evaluation purposes. Some articles may contain affiliate links and purchases made through this will result in a small commission for the site. Commissions are not directed to the author or related to compensation in any way.
