Hippo Shroom EB Earphones Review

There is been a very long delay for this review to come out as there is some problems with the first Shroom EB that I got, luckily, Jaben Malaysia is willing to exchange one on one for me but that time there is limited stock with them, so I got to wait till recently, I exchanged and here is it, the review.

*Please be noted that before I start this review, I had:

• Burn-ed in for at least 200 hours.
• iTunes with PCM2704 USB DAC and Nokia 5800 as my source
• No amplifier used in this review

For packaging information, you guys can read it from my first post of this earphones at Hippo Shroom EB Earphones First Impression.

Specifications:

• Single dynamic driver, 6mm
• Frequency range: 10Hz – 20KHz
• Impedance: 16Ohm
• Sensitivity: 95dB/mW

Retail price: RM190

Alright, lets go into the design. The build quality I will not rate it as very good, one of the reasons is their cable for left earplugs and right earplugs can be not even, the first one the right cable is longer than left cable by 2cm. While the current one the left is slightly longer than the right by few mm. It's actually not a big deal it does not affect the quality of the musics, but you guys can check the unit at Jaben Malaysia store before buying them. It's using the 'L' shaped 3.5mm gold plated plug, I'm sure you guys already know they advantages of using the 'L' shaped plug than the straight ones.

Comfort

This earphones had a special design. Normally earphones' driver are placed outside of our ears. but this Shroom EB, it actually place it's driver inside out canal, that will explain why this earphones had a slightly small driver compared to others. The comfort level of this earphones I would rate it as normal, there are friends of mine who tried and they complained that it will hurt their ears as the earphones end is quite big. But for me, it's ok.

Noise isolation

One of the reason people would buy an In Ear Monitor (IEM) earphones is because they are good in isolation outside noise. For this pair of earphones, it's not really good in isolating outside sounds, well, it also depends on your ear's shape. In LRT, I could still listen to the announcement, but it totally isolates other's speaking voice when the music is turned on.

Sound Quality
After it is taken out fromt he box, it sounds very harsh, highs are very sharp, I couldn't stand it so I just let it burn with white noise for around 10hours. After 10 hours, it became better, and after 200 hours, I got impressed with this IEM, so far it was the most affordable high clarity IEM I ever used. It brings out all the details from a music no matter what genre it is. It is a bit bias to the high side, so bass will not be so obvious, but to me it's okay. Soundstage wise, it's considered as average, not wide not narrow. When I'm listening to Hotel California Live by The Eagles, I feel like I'm infront of the stage this probably caused by the design of this IEM, the drivers are very near to your eardrums so it will bring the stage nearer to you. After the 200 hours burn in, the highs are perfect, the cymbals in the musics just so nice, the bass is tight and for those bass lover, as I just mentioned that this IEM had lower level of bass, this is not the kind of IEM bass lover will buy.

Improvement?
This Shroom EB does pairs very well with Hippo Box+ amplifier, the amplifier that Hippo just released, it will cost around RM300, but it does brings out the mids in Hippo Shroom EB perfectly and when you turned on the bass boost on the amplifier, it makes the Shroom EB sounds more fun.