FiiO FH19 gave me a good first impression with its unique appearance and comfortable wearing experience. The spacious soundstage and sound performance made me very willing to use it as a daily earphones. The high playability makes them to be a strong applicability HiFi IEM earphones.
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$600 – Check latest price on AliExpress, Amazon US or other Amazon countries
Design & Workmanship & Accessories
FiiO FH19’s design still has a steampunk feel. The cavity design does not have much in common with FiiO FH9 – it can only be said that FH19 continues the titanium material and semi-open design of FH9. Since FH19 still continues the semi-open structure, the hollow filter on the panel still exists, and the inside of the earphone can be vaguely seen through the panel when there is sufficient light.
The shell of FH19 is made of 7000 series aviation aluminum + titanium metal material (middle frame). Thanks to the front-rear cavity balanced pressure relief technology, the open acoustic rear cavity design can improve the soundstage of the headphones, making the sound softer and more natural while further improving its wearing experience. FiiO FH19 belongs to the public mold cavity design, and the cavity looks thick, but it is actually stress-free to wear.
The earphones come with a lot of accessories. Provides 22 pairs of eartips of different types and sizes. These include HS18 eartips, SF eartips, and HS20 liquid silicone eartips, which further enhance the wearing experience.
FiiO FH19 supports replaceable nozzle filter design and comes with 3 pairs of replaceable audio filters. Different audio characteristics can be adjusted according to different internal damping and filter density. The three nozzle filters are designed for bass, treble and balance to fine-tune the sound, which further enhances their playability.
The 224-core 8-strand pure silver cable and replaceable 4.4mm/3.5mm plugs further enhance the applicability of FH19. The harmonious combination of the cable color and the headphone color enhances the overall aesthetics.
Acoustic Architecture and Sound Description: FiiO FH19 vs FiiO FH9
FiiO FH19 earphone adopts the acoustic architecture of 2 dynamic drivers + 6 armature drivers, and has one more dynamic driver compared to FiiO FH9. The low-frequency is handled by two 13.7mm PU gasket+DLC dome diaphragm dynamic drivers. The mid-frequency is handled by two customized Knowles composite armature drivers. The highs and ultra-high frequency use Knowles SWFK-31736 armature drivers.
The first impression that the FH19 gave me was excellent transparent, brightness and openness – which is better than the FH9. Unlike the FH9, this time the low-frequency quality is higher, the mid-frequency imaging is slightly larger and more stereoscopic, and the resolution and comprehensive quality of the tri-frequency have also been steadily improved.
The default treble filter is installed on FiiO FH19 – the overall hearing is transparent, open, bright, and without burrs. The speed of the low-frequency is still excellent, and even the mid-frequency vocals have almost no sibilance.
Soundstage and dynamics are still the strengths of FH19. The soundstage maintains the grand scale and weak edge sense of FH9, thus creating a sense of vastness in hearing – this is related to the semi-open structure. The dynamics are surging, and even large-scale symphonies can be handled calmly. The transient is slightly faster, but a certain soft overtone is maintained.
Overall, both the bass and treble of the vocals have excellent performance. The bass is deep and the quantity is excellent. The treble has a strong texture and is also penetrating. In my hearing, the voice performance of male and female voices is different.
The male voice has a strong density and a slightly hoarse voice, which makes the male voice’s bass deep and the treble textured and rich. The female voice tends to be smoother, which makes the bass calmer and the treble more gentle and pleasant.
From the perspective of sound, FiiO FH19 has a wide-range of adaptability, and can easily handle pop vocals, classical music, rock, jazz, OST, New Age and ACG. Compared with FiiO FH9, the FH19 has excellent sound expression on all three audio filters, which shows that the tuning is mature and complete enough. If you choose to change the nozzle filter, it will only bring about a change in style.
FiiO FH19 is not difficult to drive, the mini headphone amplifier can bring out the sound performance of FH19 very well. If driven by a computer, the low-frequency quantity will be a bit heavy, resulting in muddy sound. Their sensitivity is 109dB@1mW, and the impedance is only 16Ω@1kHz.
Comfort & Sound Insulation & Stethoscope Effect
Comfort: The earphones are ergonomically designed, and the cavity is large but relatively light, which makes them very comfortable to wear. I recommend the HS18 eartips, which are relatively comfortable to wear – I can listen to music for 3 hours without any discomfort. The latest HS20 eartips are made of liquid silicone and are also relatively comfortable to wear, but you can feel the friction between the eartips and the ear canal, and it will itch after wearing for about 2 hours.
Sound Insulation: The sound insulation is average, and it is not recommended to use in a noisy environment. The semi-open cavity design makes the sound insulation of FH19 belong to the average level among in-ear headphones. If you don’t play music, you can feel about 10dB of passive noise reduction, and you can hear people around you talking at normal volume.
Stethoscope Effect: There is a certain amount of friction between the cable and clothing, which can be ignored when playing music at normal volume. The friction between the cable and clothing can be clearly felt when no music is playing. The footsteps are relatively weak, and the stethoscope effect can be ignored if music is played at normal volume – FiiO FH19 is more suitable for quiet sports venues.
Conclusion & Specs
FiiO FH19 is a very “precise” upgrade of the FH series. With almost no pain points in FiiO FH9, the mid-frequency and low-frequency are further enhanced, making them more perfect, comprehensive and mature in sound quality and hearing.
FiiO FH19 specs and features:
- Semi-open cavity design
- 2 dynamic + 6 Knowles armature drivers
- Titanium + 7000 series aluminum construction
- High-purity monocrystalline sterling silver cable
- Comes with 22 sets of eartips, headphone cable, 3.5/4.4 plugs, audio filters, storage case, etc
- $600 – Check latest price on AliExpress, Amazon US or other Amazon countries