HE 150 Pro Review: Bring the Bass
You can find the HE-150 Pro for sale, here, on Penon Audio, for $30.
Preference and Bias: Before reading a review, it is worth mentioning that there is no way for a reviewer to objectively pass judgment on the enjoy-ability of a product: such a thing is inherently subjective. Therefore, I find it necessary for you to read and understand what I take a natural liking to and how that might affect my rating of a product.
My ideal sound signature would be an extended sub-bass with a leveled, but textured, mid-bass. The mids should be slightly less pronounced than the treble, but still ahead of the bass. I prefer a more bright upper range.
Source: The HE 150 PRO was powered like so:
HTC U11 -> USB-C adapter -> earphones
or
Hidizs AP100 3.5mm out -> FiiO A5 3.5mm out -> earphones
or
HiFiMAN SuperMini -> earphones
or
PC optical out -> HiFiMe SPDIF 9018 Sabre DAC 3.5mm out -> earphones
All music was served as MP3 @320Kbps or as FLAC.
Sound Signature
Initial Impressions:
The HE 150 Pro is surprisingly warm and articulate. Instead of the usual bass-light reverse L-shaped sound signature that earbuds have, the HE 150 Pro demonstrates some proficiency in articulating the lower range without causing smudging and bleeding.
Treble: Songs used: In One Ear, Midnight City, Outlands, Satisfy
The HE 150 Pro’s treble is well-expressed and doesn’t sound cut off or muted. It provides a certain level of airiness to the presentation that is quite refreshing from an earbud. Furthermore, the tightness of the treble response makes the HE 150 Pro feel pretty precise and well textured.
Mids: Songs used: Flagpole Sitta, Jacked Up, I Am The Highway, Dreams
The mids are neutrally articulated with a small tilt towards “warm” in the lower mids and a mild boost to the vocals around the 1KHz to 2Khz range (by about 2dB).
Timbre and tonality are “accurate” and don’t sound colored in any non-negligible way. I found that the expression of drums and guitars is quite good and lively.
Vocal intelligibility is definitely above average, when compared to similarly priced earbuds. The HE 150 is not partial towards neither male nor female vocalists, instead articulation the two types equally well
Bass: Songs used: Moth, Gold Dust, In For The Kill (Skream Remix), War Pigs (Celldweller Remix)
The HE 150 Pro, by virtue of its earbud/open design does not have a strong bass response. That said, it is far from anemic and can actually be well bodied and punchy. Bass guitars are audible and distinguishable in tracks like Moth while bass drops in tracks like Gold Dust are reasonably filled out. I never got the impression that a song sounded too thin, though I did miss the rumble that I can get out of some of my dynamic-driver IEMs, though this is more a result of the form factor than any choices/limitations in tuning.
I, however, have been consistently impressed with the bass’s ability to avoid smudging/bottoming out. I’ve not yet come across an earbud with quite the capacity to produce high-quality bass, and I am very pleased with the 150 Pro’s performance.
Packaging / Unboxing
Build
Construction Quality
HE went all out on building the 150 PRO. It has a braided cable, metal filters and vents, and very sturdy housing. It makes stylish uses of metallic inlays at the edges of the housing.
The 150 Pro’s cable is braided and uses a neatly braided double-chain geometry. The cable itself is copper, and is coating in a well-behaved plastic. It doesn’t have any body, though it can get tangled if you aren’t too careful. That said it is quite durable, as the plastic is strong and the 3.5mm jack has very apt stress relief on it. It’d be cool to see an upgraded version of the HE that goes full metal!
Comfort
As always, your mileage will vary when it comes to comfort. I have fairly averagely sized ears, and I can wear the HE 150 Pro for about two hours with complete comfort, but my girlfriend, who’s ears are very small, can’t wear them at all. So listeners who have medium to large ears will be just fine with the HE 150 Pro.
Accessories
The HE 150 Pro comes with a number of foam driver coverings for you to use. There’s a bunch to choose from, and a handy round semi-hard case to store them, and your earbuds, in. No complaints here.
Summary
The HE 150 Pro is another high-value product coming from the Chi-Fi scene. I would never have expected its unsuspecting packaging and build to house such good audio performance. So if earbuds are your thing and you want to a warm, yet competent, earbuds, definitely give the HE-150 a listen.
