Truthear, a brand-new brand, become famous when they brought their first IEMs, ZERO, which collaborated with Crinacle. It offers impressive sound performance based on this price level. And this time, Truthear announced another good successful IEM, HEXA with quite unique tuning at a $79.99 tag.
HEXA is an in-ear headphone with one dynamic driver + three balanced armature drivers hybrid structure (1DD+3BA). The original intention of the design is to achieve the design goal via adopting a simple reasonable and efficient configuration and striving to bring users a mature hybrid earphone at an acceptable price.
A 10mm specialized dynamic driver is responsible for bass, and the mature internal magnetic circuit is equipped with flexible polyurethane suspension material and an LCP liquid crystal dome diaphragm, which is the same concept as Truthear ZERO. A unique weighted voice coil is for reducing its natural Resonance Frequency, and moderately increasing its impedance, thus it can produce the punchiest bass and meet the needs of accurate distribution.
A composite full-frequency balanced armature driver is responsible for the Mids, which can be accurately matched with the frequency band of the specialized dynamic driver, and the high-frequency band can also highly conform to the HRTF characteristics, close to the sound goal.
A custom balanced armature driver, which is similar to the WBFK series, is responsible for the Highs, which not only makes up the bandwidth but also brings HEXA a smooth clear high-frequency performance through fine processing.
As for the exterior housing, HEXA adopts DLP 3D printed cavity from HeyGears, which is equipped with its own medical-grade high-transparency resin, internal coloring, and delicate surface grinding process. It can realize complex delicate acoustic waveguide structures while ensuring printing accuracy and efficiency, at the same time, it brings the lightweight cavity to fit well while making sure the skin-friendly and reliable cavity materials.
HEXA offers a square but smooth ID design, which can compress the cavity volume as much as possible on the premise of ensuring the wearing reliability, to make sure that it can have a lighter weight while using CNC anodizing sandblasting metal faceplate, and reduce the auricle touch, so as to release the pain caused by long-term wearing.
SPECS
- Driver: 1DD+3BA
- The diaphragm of the dynamic driver: PU + LCP
- Impedance: 20.5Ω土15% @1kHz
- Sensitivity: 120dB/Vrms @1kHz
- THD: THD≤1% @1kHz (94dB)
- Frequency response: 8-40kHz (IEC61094, Free Field)
- Effective frequency response: 20-20kHz (IEC60318-4, -3dB)
I would like to thank Shenzenaudio for providing me with the review sample of HEXA (no affiliate link).
Price: $79.99
Sound
Please note that this is a budget IEM and all my comments about the sound quality are in consideration of this price range.
HEXA has appropriate bass gain and high-frequency amplitude response covering certain HRTF characteristics. Although the bass gain is less than that of ZERO, HEXA offers sufficient bass in my opinion.
The Truthear HEXA is a dynamic and engaging-sounding IEM with good brightness in treble and good extension and texture in the bass. The mid-range is musical and its tonality is enjoyable with good instrument timbre.
The new HEXA has good resolution and transparency, but it takes a different route compared to the first model ZERO in terms of presentation. It’s a leaner and thinner presentation, with good coherency and technicalities.
Lows
The HEXA has a moderate bass response. Well, the texture is there for sure, which is very good indeed, but the impact is lesser than what I expected. I think it’s perfectly fine for a reference sound perspective, but not so if you expect a fun type of bass.
It’s not too bass-deficient by any means, but it doesn’t have great punch and kick, although it has excellent decay and speed for an IEM of this caliber. Bass has good balance, enough presence for most music, and it’s very controlled.
So it has an easy-going bass that won’t upset people who listen to Classical, Rock Ballads, or something like Vocal-Jazz for instance. Yet, it wouldn’t be enough for bass heads. The bass is very well under control and it’s never overly done. So I think that the Truthear team has done a great job in terms of speed, and recovery of the bass, but a bit more quantity would’ve been better. The texture of the bass however is good.
Mids
Mids have good refinement and texture with a very nice timbre. The lower mids are a bit recessed while the upper mids are elevated. Certain instruments like high-sounding sax sound very dynamic and engaging, but lower vocals don’t give the same definition and excitement. The tonality of this IEM is very nice, and I simply can’t find any deficiency there. The instruments and vocals sound very natural and life-like, but the lower mids sound a bit distant.
Female vocals sound very exciting. A certain warmth and fullness of the mids are present here unlike the ZERO. With the ZERO the mids sound flowing, smooth and liquid. With the HEXA, the mids feel a bit forced to be bright and somewhat thin.
Now the positive side here is the level of resolution. For this price level, the resolution ability of the HEXA is very impressive and it has great transparency as well. Also, the instrument separation and layering are excellent, and I couldn’t find any particular weakness there. Mids have a good sense of space and positioning.
Highs
The treble of the HEXA follows the route of the upper midrange with great extension and overall spacious reproduction. There is no sharpness, no shrillness on both of the ranges. The treble feels open and shows good resolution and texture. What impressed me here is the sense of effortlessness.
No matter what genre you throw at it, including tracks with complex passages that include many instruments playing simultaneously, the HEXA handles them with finesse. The treble shows great control and has no trouble reaching the top octave without sounding sharp or discomforting.
Technical Performance
The Truthear HEXA has good spaciousness and air in its presentation. Add its wide and deep sound stage into that mix, and you have a great IEM when it comes to overall imaging and layering. So the HEXA has great quality in those aspects, making it a cut above the rest in its price range.
It has good coherency too, but not as much as the ZERO. The upper midrange and lower treble are thin and a bit elevated so this is not the perfect balance like the ZERO. The timbre is fairly realistic, but the same can’t be said about the lower midrange because of the recessed presentation.
The HEXA’s resolution is very impressive as well as its transparency. You can hear everything with great clarity but be aware that the mid-range is coming from behind at times. The sound overall is very open and clear. So as a whole the HEXA performs very well in terms of technicalities but it’s a bit hit-and-miss in terms of presentation, depending on the genre.
Sum-Up
Truthear has managed to come up with a solid set of monitors and the HEXA features a well-tuned sound for the budget audiophile under $100. The fact that it has a great technical foundation allows it to be a great all-rounder.