Hyla CE-5

Foreword: A interesting breath of fresh air in the IEM world. A hybrid design that uses a dynamic driver, balanced armatures and a ceramic piezoelectric tweeter (a la Radius?).

Frequency Response

• Something of a W-response going on here. Not a lot of midbass slam but a lot of subbass rumble.
• 10k spike is definitely present and brings quite a bit of definition to percussions.
  
• Not a lot of lower midrange presence which makes instruments sound a little thin.

Impulse

• Very, very clean impulse response. Sharp initial peak, zeroes out real fast with barely any linger.
• Not sure if it correlates, but the CE-5 does evoke a very "clean" feel to its notes.

CSD

• No coherency issues that pop up on CSD here. Hyla's implementation of three technologies seem to be working well.

THD

• Pretty much expected, the twin BAs working the midrange introduces third order distortion to that particular frequency band.
• Just like most other hybrids, bass remains low in THD. No farty BA woofers.

Impedance Reactivity

• I forgot to do this. Setting reminder.

Additional Notes

• Main glaring issue with the CE-5 seem to be timbre. Vocals don't have enough weight and sounds rather sterile and lifeless at times.
• Harshness can be experienced with plucked and strummed instruments in particular, possibly due to the huge 2-5k emphasis? It's a clean sound, but not something that I'd want to listen to for hours. Very in-your-face and overpowering.
• Bass is something that I absolutely adore on this IEM. The midbass hits are fast and clear while the subbass have a feeling of "pushing air" that satisfies the raging basshead in me. For me at least, a solid 10/10. I want this bass in all my IEMs.
• Foamies do help in alleviating the thinness and intensity issues that I've experienced in silicone tips. However, they do smear the bass a little, which is a compromise that I don't really want to take.