Xiaomi Mi (iF Special Edition) Stereo Earphone/IEM review

[dalethorn]

I got this earphone from an entity in Singapore, and not expecting much for $25 USD, I proceeded to have a go with it. Having had IEM's priced from $100 to $1500 USD (nearly the same in Sterling due to VAT), I imagined the physical quality and sound would reflect the price, but instead this earphone matches up well to the B&O H3 I purchased last year for $250 USD.

 

Xiaomi Mi (iF Special Edition) Stereo Earphone/IEM review

[flak]

Yes, Xiaomi is paying much more attention than usual to the sound quality of its products in order to differentiate them from the competition.

 

Not only Xiaomi adopted frequency and impulse response correction of their earphones in their top of the line Mi 3 smartphones through Dirac HD Sound: http://diracdocs.com/Dirac%20HD%20Sound.pdf

but they also just released a tablet (the Mi Pad 1) that uses an advanced sound field control technology that brings the sound outside of the listener's head with a faithful playback of surround sound through its earphones.

 

This has been tried before by using unnatural psychoacoustic sound effects but this new Dirac sound field control technology reproduces an actual sound field of a reference listening environment with a more natural sound and a more precise repositioning.

In my biased opinion this is an important development in headphones and earphones listening.

 

Ciao, Flavio