Hippo Ten Review

Got this baybeh last Tuesday, it's actually a replacement for my previous Shroom EB. Retail price of this baybeh is RM210.

Okay here we go, the specifications:
Single dynamic driver, 10mm
Frequency range: 20Hz – 23KHz
Impedance: 16Ohm
Sensitivity:110dB/mW


Build Quality and Design
Build quality was great, it uses the connector just like what Westone earphone used. Cable are great as well, the cables are covered with a semi-transparent rubber, plastic kind of material. Making it dangle free. It comes with a clip as well.

There is something that's irritate me abit, the design of the driver enclosure, it is somewhat a combination of IEM and the usual out ear earbuds. Somehow, this kind of design giving me abit of discomfort at first, but after awhile, I managed to find a suitable position to place it in my ears. The enclosure is made up of metal and plastic.


Sound Quality
Before reviewing, I had burn-in this earphones for 100 hours
Source: Macbook 2.0Ghz 5,1
Tracks are in Apple Lossless format
These are the songs I used for this review:


Santana - While My Guitar Gently Weeps

• This earphones doesn't produce very punchy bass, when the Bass Drum comes in, it goes Bumm, instead of Dunn or Dumm
• I was like :0 wow, when Santana's guitar comes in, it feels warm, but not as warm as those woodies.
• This pair of earphones really performed very well for Santana's guitar in almost all of his tracks
• Vocals are not harsh, quite sweet. Maybe because the vocalist is India Arie?

Santana - The Calling

• I can feel that the soundstage was quite big and expansive just from the beginning and suddenly there was a people softly shout "wow". And that point, I got a shock and was like: Where it comes from? 
• I could actually feel where is what and how far it is, for this song, the vocals and the instruments are almost at the same row. But the guitars are abit forward.

Nickelback - Gotta be Somebody

• The cymbals doesn't stands out unlike the electric guitars. But it felts just right.
• Separation was great, I could actually clearly count how many instruments are there and what are them.
• Details are there but still not very clear

I had tried some trance, but they does not sounds really good on this pair of earphones like there is no power. But Jazz like Norah Jones's December could actually make you really relax and eventually feel like going to sleep. Overall, this earphones are more to mids and lows, great on soft rock and jazz. It does not mess up the instruments, outside sound isolation just average, when I'm in LRT, I still could listen to the alarm when the door is about to close. Well, there is actually nothing much to complain about it for this price.

For a RM210 earphones, this baybeh doesn't fails me.