Going back in time to the point when this blog has just started — the very first IEMs for the review were K3HD and HLSX-808 from Magaosi brand. Thanks to that positive experience, my interest towards writing about IEMs didn’t fade away and grew into long journey with lots of other brands. Now, when another model from Magaosi reached me — it is like going back to those good old times of tube sound 

Anyway, current review model is K6 — way much more technically sophisticated and belongs to the upper price segment. It is based on 6BA units (2 of which are from Knowles and the rest are custom made) with 4 crossovers. Just for the note: there is another «Upgrade version» of K6 available at PenonAudio store which comes with extra Bluetooth wire and pink audio cable. But, technically, K6 and K6 Upgraded are similar. The only difference is that regular K6 have wooden plate under the layer of resin while upgraded version doesn’t have such luxury element.

Note: Magaosi K6 were provided to me by PenonAudio in exchange for the honest opinion and review

Magaosi K6 technical specifications:

• Drivers: 6BA (Knowles low frequency 22955 X 2 + custom medium and high frequency X 2 + custom high frequency X 2) + 4 crossovers
• Sensitivity: 110db SPL/mW
• Impedance: 40Ω
• Frequency response range: 10Hz — 40KHz
• Noise isolation: -25dB
• IEM connectors: MMCX
• Cable: MK Kimber Kable, 8-core braided
• Audio jack:  3.5mm, gold-plated
• Cable Length: 1.2m

Magaosi K6 IEMs are available at PenonAudio store

Packaging, design and materials:

What you cannot blame Asian brands for is their constant attempt to build high quality, attractive packaging. Magaosi K6 comes in a matt black box with extra cover and a window exposing IEMs. Lots of technical information printed on the cover while the box itself has a single element in form of brand name imprint.

Top box cover has folding design and also contains a pocket for user manual on the inner side. Inner box compartment is devided in two parts: top part with soft insert for IEMs and bottom part for accessories.

Box contents:

• Magaosi K6 IEMs
• Kimber audio cable
• 3 pairs of white soft silicone eartips
• 3 pairs of 2 flange eartips
• 2 pairs of silicone eartips
• 3 pairs of foamy eartips
• carrying case
• user manual

Eleven pairs of eartips should be totally enough to find the best fit for any ear  Carrying case is neat but not unique — this design of the case is commonly used by different brands.

K6 IEM shells are made of transparent resin with stabilized wood inserts. The whole structure has unibody injection-molded construction with no compensational openings since BA units don’t require to have such.

The only extra elements are aluminum output nozzles (with aluminum grills) and MMCX connectors. Both elements seem to be inserted during the process of molding — no glue spotted.

In overall, the build quality is perfect while the design is georgeous. Wood panels are beautifully painted with attractive vivid colors, Magaosi brand name golden logo is neatly placed there as well and protected by the layer of resin… Technical structure is also perfectly exposed by the transparent shell material. You can easily count all drivers and even see the marking on Knowles units. Love such IEMs where you can get some extra understanding how it is made in a combination with the exciting look.

Stock cable: first time I see such thick and telling audio cable straight from the box. Seems that it is the best what Magaosi might propose sound and build quality wise.  8-core twisted copper, with aluminum Y-splitter, MMCX connector and 3.5mm jack housings + transparent plastic limiter and transparent silicone braid. Audio jack housing also has the carbon fiber insert. Channel indication is provided by red and transparent plastic rings on MMCX connector housings… But the most impressing is still the thickness of the cable…

By the way, there is another cable by Magaosi which is called «upgrade cable» for K6. I don’t know what else to desire and what else to upgrade… The main difference is that upgraded cable has more cores, seems to be made of silver-plated copper and has some minor differences in the design of furniture. Soundwise, both cables are similarly good. This violet cable comes as a stock one with K6 Upgraded model (together with extra Bluetooth cable).

Fit:

Magaosi K6 shell design goes to the most comfortable one in terms of fit for all kinds of activities. I call it «pseudo» custom because it reminds of the shells of very expensive IEMs which were aquired after auricle casting process in customer based approach. All of the mass market IEMs from different brands with the same pseudo custom shape had the best fit so far. Under any circumstances. For example: Kinera Idun, HiFiBoy OSV3, Hidizs Mermaid MS1 and MS4. Therefore, you shouldn’t be worried about the fit of K6. The most comfortable and universal shape (for mass market IEMs) along with great choice of eartips and soft but curved earguides should do the trick for anyone. Very tight and secure fit.

Sound quality:

Tested with HiBy R6Pro DAP

Lows and midbass:

Bass side is always different with balanced armature drivers compared to dynamic units. Here is the same: bass is perfectly detailed, well-exposed and plays with lots of textures. But the reach and extension is not as deep as in case of dynamic IEMs in the same price range. It feels more controlled, fast and contoured rather than very deep and emphasized. Lows are always present in the sound picture of K6, moreover — always weighted, apparent and accurate. Although, it would not get that boomy and dimensional even with the most bass-oriented tracks. I would say that perfect performance of bass by a pair of Knolwes BA per channel in Magaosi K6 is suitable for the most of the music genres where the congregated interpretation with excellent layering is a must. Dance music, hip-hop or rap — not as good as soul, rock, orchestra or blues…

Midbass performance is similarly stellar — powerful, rich and tight sound of drums accompanied by the perfect dynamics and articulation. Treble does bring some influence here but not to the extent of making the sound of drums irritating. My favorite test tracks which would sound harsh on drums with some overly bright IEMs didn’t tend to show any inadequacy here.

Mids and vocals:

Although K6 have apparent V-shaped tuning, mids are quite full-bodied and naturally exposed. Main advantage is the mix of good thickness to all voices and instruments together with enormous amount of micro-details BA units are capable of. Resolution is very high, string, bow and wind instruments capture whole lot of attention. Moreover, each sound is perfectly distinguishable in the entire mix. Female vocals don’t seem to be shouting and distructing even with that much of the influence from the lower treble side.

Treble:

Guess what — yes, the strongest side of high-quality BA units again… Crisp, clear and icy-cold sound of extended treble. Some people might be more susceptible to high frequencies and would vote for less bright presentation… Some (as me) would say that such bright picturing would not let to relax and have a long listening experience. Yes, this is true…, but others would love this sound. What is definitely true is that anyone would be overwhelmed with the clarity and transparency of this range.

Soundstage:

Excellent instrument separation + perfect layering of the ranges = quite dimensional soundstage. The only thing that it lacks is the width which would regularly be defined by the extension and volume of lows… which is not perfect in case of most of the pure BA IEMs.

Sound in overall:

Magaosi K6 sound could be described as V-shaped and bright with high resolution throughout the ranges, excellent instrument separation, very good layering, textured lows, well exposed mids and transparent treble. Sound is perceived as being on the brighter side of the tonality, detailed and crisp, with good overall balance and some extra emphasis on treble.

Compared to LZ HIFI A6:

LZ A6 are hybrid IEMs, also based on 6 driver package with extra HF piezo unit and dynamic driver for lows. Plus the ability to tune sound to a great extent by using the stock set of different filters. Altoghether, this make A6 a better and more secure option to consider during such a costly purchase. The only thing that you would not be able to tune in A6 is the fit. Magaosi K6 have much better fit and similarly good sound which reminds of A6 with the least vivid filters (like purple one, for example). Of course, the extension of both ends in K6 would not be as good as dynamic and piezo drivers of LZ A6 would produce but the price is not the same either…

Compared to Hidizs Mermaid MS4:

MS4 is also a hybrid model with Knowles BA units and large dynamic driver for lows. Consequently, lows have more volume and extension but not as textured, fast and detailed as in K6. The rest of the sound characteristics are quite similar. As well as the shape and fit.

Conclusion:

Magaosi K6 IEMs go straight to the podium of my personal preferences. Whenever there is a desire to get some juicy, detailed and engaging performance — K6 would be a perefect contender for its combination of great fit and impressive sound quality. Build and design are also nothing more to be desired for the price given, even the cable is the most advanced one that ever came out straight of the box. Therefore, the conclusion is very definite and positive — great option to consider with the ultimate set of all pertaining features, packed in comfortable shape and presented in the attractive package…!

Magaosi K6 IEMs are available at PenonAudio store

Magaosi K6 IEMs with Bluetooth cable are available at PenonAudio store  

Some time passed since we’ve first tested and reviewed hybrid IEMs after decades of using dynamic headphones with short jumps to pure balanced armature models. Recent technologies allow many companies to step in to this battle and to experiment with different IEMs design and driver combinations.

Unfortunately, our first attempt to familiarize ourselves with hybrid driver combination wasn’t too promising — we’ve chosen KZ ED16 to start with and were very disappointed with its sound quality despite spending only $18 for a pair. You can read our KZ ED16 review here.

Today we are giving another try to low budget hybrid technology IEMs — MaGaosi HLSX-808. With a cost of less than $20, would this pair of IEMs outperform KZ ED16 rival and would it manage to bring back the hope? Let’s find out!

You can purchase MaGaosi HLSX-808 at PenonAudio store   

MaGaosi HLSX-808 technical specifications:

• Type: Balanced Armature + Dynamic Driver
• Impedance: 32Ω±15%
• Frequency Response: 20Hz-20KHz
• Sensitivity: 101±1db
• L&R Channel Balance Sensitivity: ≤2db
• Max Input Power: 10mW
• Wire length: 120cm±5cm
• Wire material: TPE
• Plug material: 3.5mm gold-plated
• Distortion: ≤1%
• Versions: gold with mic&remote | black with mic&remote | black without mic&remote

Unfortunately, seems that MaGaosi brand has not yet launched their website dedicated for IEMs and other Hi-Fi profucts. The only official page we’ve managed to find is on Facebook. Neither there is much of additional technical infromation about HLSX-808 in terms of audio quality tests, components used, etc. As PenonAudio shop states — it is 3rd anniversary of MaGaosi brand establishment and it is a right time to widely introduce themselves to public   Anyway, not much to worry about as long as the product is good.

Box contents:

MaGaosi HLSX-808 comes in a small black carton box with brand and tech.specs stickers on it. The box is totally ok and does the job of product protection, but hey — we hope that the future releases would be more eye catching in terms of packaging as we all have already used to despite the budget price. First impression always stays for a long…

No problems with the box contents, though:

• HLSX-808 IEMs
• Storage case
• 3.5mm jack protection cap
• 3 pairs of silicone eartips (S/M/L) with matt and rough finish
• 1 pair of silicone eartip (M-size) with slick and glossy finish

Having storage&carrying case as a part of standard shipment is very surprising in this price segment and does compensate some simple box design.

We strognly believe that storage case is a must for any IEMs to prevent excessive dirt and accidental damage. Well done, MaGaosi!

Design and materials:

Perfect! Nothing to complain about here. It seems that low cost of a product is not an obstacle for a company to create great design and provide adequate amount and quality of final crafting.

HLXS-808 are totally made of CNC-aluminum, with lots of tiny details, perfect finish and good weight balance. Patterned surface for a better grip, additional grooves on body and 3.5mm jack, labeling — everything shows that MaGaosi cares about aesthetics as well as comfort.

There are two compensation openings — one is right in the middle of rear side and another one is nearby sound output nozzle. Output filters/grills are not detachable, neither is the cable. Seems that this is the only disadvantage — we would prefer to be able to exchange the cable in case of damaging it. Moreover, the cable is straight (not twisted) and a bit prone to microphone effect especially when placed close to a smartphone radio module.

We haven’t found any problems with how do HLSX-808 fit. Selecting the right size of eartips is the initial and only thing to care about. As soon as the appropriate tip is found — those IEMs feel very comfortable and lightweight. Even during long listening sessions — 4 hours and more — there was no pain or headache caused by wearing it.

Just to compare — KZ ED16 are significantly larger in size and not so comfortable to wear due to overall dimensions.

Sound quality:

Our testing equipment: Hidizs AP80 HiRES DAP + Hidizs AP200 HiRES DAP.

We have approached this part with the idea in mind that hybrid technology is not yet developed enough to impress. Such prejudice was built upon our first experience with KZ ED16 IEMs… So, we took the same material — mostly FLAC and DSD files from special headphone testing albums, prepared a couple of pills to fight the expected headache and jumped into HLSX-808 audio tests…

Bass section:  

Indeed there is… Low bass is present thanks to the dynamic driver that does a good job and balances treble. It is not too deep, more like slightly touching lowest frequencies and mostly acting in midbass section. Texture, speed and articulation is on a good level. While not smeared, moderate amount of details are present. Dynamics is good and there is a pleasing tightness when drums step into play.

Mids section:

A bit laid back and seems more distant at first. Five minutes spent with HLSX-808 and balance came to a normal state. Vocals are rich, natural and detailed. Especially with male singer. Female vocals are mostly pleasing with a bit of sibilances but not distructing. Instruments and voices in mids have good amount of air and no signs of promiscuity.

Treble section:

Plenty of highs here. This is in nature of balanced armature driver — the ability to deliver crisp and clear treble with lots of details and tiny sounds. Although, should be carefully tuned to stay away from enourmous amount of sibilances, too bright delivery and extreme disbalance in regard to other frequencies.

MaGaosi did a great job here if to consider the price of HLSX-808 IEMs — detailing of highs and presence of sibilances are kept on very accepatabe level. There are no overhelming amount of hisses that would result into headache and overall sound picture doesn’t have extremely bright signature.

The only drawback is that sometimes treble would still tend to mix in so that there would be a slight audio disorder. This happens mostly to electronic music tracks. Another problem is the amount of noise — vinyl rips would suffer the most as the needle noise usually located in upper mids or treble seciton and would be amplified further by armature driver.

Sound in overall:

MaGaosi HLSX-808 IEMs have a bright sound signature and apparent V-shape with a tendency to overemphasize on highs. We wouldn’t capitalize «V» because middle section is not too distant and has an adequate presence. Highs still are the most obvious here, as well as the most detailed. Their extent is not extreme but might have been muted a bit more to create a perfect «v». The listening experience wasn’t painfull and there was no headache even after four hours of listening to different genres of music but some genres would definitely require a bit more warmth in overall tuning.

Channel separation and scene width are both excellent. As we believe, this would be true for many hybrid IEMs because of different types of drivers desynchronization — this creates a better feel of channel separation and more room which results in a wider stage. Let’s call it a technical bug that surely grows into feature.

By the way — we have tried to push the sound quality further by using Hidizs Sonata DH1000 external DAC&AMP but haven’t found any significant difference in sound quality. As have been stated many times — balanced armature drivers have a different nature and usually would not deliver better quality with more capable amplifiers. At the same time our test DAPs are both totally enough to drive 38Ohms HLSX-808 IEMs with such sensivity level.

Compared to KZ ED16:

Despite almost the same pricing and huge KZ ED16 amount of drivers advantage — MaGaosi HLSX-808 is a clear winner in this fight. KZ ED16 listening experience was very painfull… These IEMs require heavy tuning to get rid of all mess it produces on treble, extreme sibilances, extreme and very loud noise level and total imbalance between frequencies. MaGaosi are deprived of most of those shortcomings, much more balanced, much better tuned which results in pleasing and long listening sessions.

Conclusion: 

Much better now… HLSX-808 showed that hybrid technology is worthy to try and that such IEMs can deliver very good SQ if tuned in an appropriate way. MaGaosi has done a great job here and was able to deliver a product with impressive sound at very low cost. Moreover, they showed other brands that such price point is not a reason to avoid additional labor investments on crafting and tuning the product.

Now there is something that we can confidently recommend for those who would like to understand what is a hybrid technology while not spending much on such an experiment — MeGaosi HLSX-808.

You can purchase MaGaosi HLSX-808 at PenonAudio store