What would the future of personal audio look like? Yes, we all know true-wireless stereo earphones (TWS) are taking over, pushing wired IEMs further and further into a niche market. But how about the future of wired IEMs themselves? What would be the next step? Today, we look at HiBy Xeno to catch of glimpse of a possible future.
Forewords
- What I look for in an IEM is immersion. I want to feel the orchestra around my head, track individual instruments, and hear all of their textures and details. I’m not picky about tonality, as long as it does not make the orchestra, violin, cellos, and pianos sound wrong.
- I rate IEMs within with a consistent scale from 1 (Poor) to 3 (Good) to 5 (Outstanding). An overall ranking of 3/5 or above is considered positive.
- Ranking list and measurement database are on my IEM review blog.
- The terminology for subjective impressions in this review is based on the Audio Wheel for reproduced sound defined in the technical report ITU-R BS.2399-0
- This review is based on a preproduction unit from HiBy (Thank you!). I have no affiliation with or financial interest in HiBy.
- The retail price of Xeno is unknown by the time this review was writtein. Unaffiliated link: HiBy online store
General Information
Xeno is a budget-friendly IEM released under the “Digital” product line of HiBy. What makes it special is the fact that it is not just another budget-friendly IEM with a single dynamic driver (DD) and a competent (if not trendy) frequency response to pair with their own budget-friendly DAP M300. No, what makes Xeno special and interesting is the fact that it is also somewhat a testbed for some cutting edge engineering techniques and technologies regarding acoustic design, electronics, and digital signal processing.
Let’s breakdown the technologies behind Xeno. On the acoustic side, Xeno features a hybrid two-driver topology with one full-range DD and a MEMS tweeter. The DD is a custom-made unit containing a 10mm diaphragm made from graphene sheets. The design goal of this driver was to minimize the split vibration of the diaphragm in order to achieve a higher resolution (simply put, to reduce the “smearing” of musical notes). I think we have seen the promise of more resolving DD every single time a new single DD IEM is released, which brings a new “state of the art” diaphragm material from Beryllium to Titanium to Diamond-like Carbon to more exotic alloys like “purple gold”. Therefore, my enthusiam for the DD was … controlled.
