INTRODUCTION

   One of the things people either love or hate about the electronics industry is that regardless of what one gets there's always something better, either already available or further down the road. This is actually true about every single segment of the electronics market and this is also something that has always intrigued me since very often today's high-end product is tomorrows standard. That being said sometime last year some of you messaged me on social media asking which flagship IEM from FiiO to get and more specifically between the very good FA9 (review here) and the FH9 which at the time i had yet to test/review and thus was unable to comment about. Well, FiiO did send me the FH9 model shortly after and finally after spending 2 months of using it my review (and answer to some of you) is finally here.

   FiiO was established in 2007 and has experience in researching and developing countless portable music products of different types, and sell FiiO-branded products through sales agents worldwide. The brand name FiiO is composed of Fi(fidelity from HiFi) and iO(number 1&0), representing the real feeling and convenient life that digital brings to life. Meanwhile, the Chinese “飞傲” is the transliteration of FiiO, indicating the positive and innovative spirit as thriving as spring. FiiO is focused on product quality, adheres strictly to ISO9001 standards in quality management and works hard to attain the lowest repair-related product returns rate.

   For the FH9 IEM FiiO has used titanium alloy precisely made with five-axis CNC machining for the enclosures (according to FiiO this material helps minimize unwanted harmonics and resonances) inside which they've placed a total of 7 drivers (1 dynamic plus 6 BA - Balanced Armatures) together with a 2nd generation 13.6mm DLC (diamond-like carbon) diaphragm dynamic bass driver resulting in an impressive frequency response of 10Hz-40kHz (108dB sensitivity, 18 Ohm impedance). As expected from their other top of the line models the 6 BA drivers placed inside each of the 2 units are manufactured by Knowles and more specifically at least 2 in each unit are of the SWFK-31736 model which is in charge of highs. Both enclosures feature a semi-open design for minimal eardrum pressure (also helps deliver a more natural sound) along with an interchangeable filter design which allows the end user to tune the FH9 to a specific music genre (3 sets of filters are available - balanced/bass/treble). With the FH9 FiiO also bundles a high-purity monocrystalline pure silver cable that features 8 branches of 28 wires each (224 individually isolated wires in total) together with stainless steel angled MMCX connectors. The bundle is equally impressive but since seeing is believing let's move forward with today's review and see what makes the FH9 model by FiiO one of the most sought after IEMs in the market today.