B&W C5 In-Ear Headphones Evaluation Report

Baohua Bowers & Wilkins [B&W] brand is not unfamiliar to everyone, this is a veteran traditional HiFi speaker brand, and is also a brand active in the popular peripheral audio products market. Soomal has evaluated B&W MM-1 speakers, P5 headphones, you will find it difficult to find them from the sound style and the sound style of B&W HiFi market speakers. But the price of B&W digital peripheral speakers is also not low, and the workmanship and design also show excitement, P5 headphones Compared with the same type of headphones, the MM-1 speaker still has an outstanding performance in terms of sound performance. What is the performance of this in-ear headphones C5 that is evaluated today?

The B&W C5 earphone is almost the same as the P series earphone. It was updated to last year in series2. It seems to be the meaning of the second generation. We evaluated this from the netizen to send the test. It is not visible from the outer packaging whether it is the second generation, but it can This is a special version of the C5 titanium surface. The traditional version has a blackish gray appearance.

The design of the B&W C5 is still very delicate. The design of the "fixed ring" is the crowning touch of the C5's appearance, because this design makes the whole earphone different. The C5 itself is a traditional in-ear earphone cylinder. Of course, Its outer casing is processed with a single piece of aluminum alloy material, which is very delicate when viewed carefully. The so-called "fixed ring" has already attracted you in appearance when you don't understand what it means. C5 is on the earphone casing. A groove is left to pass the earphone cord through the groove, and a plastic catheter for shaping is placed on the earphone cord. From the design point of view, there are some ear-worn designs like many in-ear headphones. But the role of "fixed circle" is not the case.

From the official picture, you can see the role of the "fixed ring". Its design is somewhat like the "ear wing" used in the earphones that have been popular in the past two years. You can see from the schematic [the official website has an animated schematic] headphones. After the wire is wound around the groove, the size of the part can be flexibly adjusted and then placed in the concave portion of the outer ear to achieve a better fixing effect. This is the same as the "ear wing". The ear wing is given The earphones are covered with a rubber attachment for the same fixing effect. From the actual use effect, the C5 fixing ring seems to be more comfortable and flexible.

The fixed circle design of B&W C5 should be counted as the double arrow in the previous arrow. Before you use it, you will attract your eyeball through the "weird" winding, and you will feel the wearing advantage after using it.

In addition to the characteristics of the fixed ring, the B&W C5 earphone also emphasizes the design of the "tungsten tube". It has been studied for a long time to understand its meaning. The tungsten tube refers to the in-ear part of the catheter that is led out from the front side of the earphone and is connected to the earphone cavity. The entire part is made of metal tungsten. The official explanation is difficult to understand, indicating that the stability of the headphones can be guaranteed even in a very bumpy environment.

What is the use of tungsten tubes? According to the official explanation, this seems to be more considering the stability of the wearing and the balance of the center of gravity. Most of the in-ear headphones with metal materials, due to the narrowing of the catheter in the ear [even using plastic materials], The weight of the metal casing and the earphone unit will make the earphones appear to be heavy when worn, and the wearing comfort and stability are not good. The tungsten tube has a good weight for the parts in the ear. Why? So, because the density of tungsten reaches 19.35 grams per cubic centimeter, and the density of copper [different content] is about 8-9 grams per cubic centimeter. In addition, the density of the "nozzle" part of the in-ear earphone is higher. Does the material help the stability of the sound? There should be more or less, especially the very strong taste of B&W.

In addition to the above two features, the B&W C5's earphones use a special material "micro-hole" design to adjust the airflow inside the earphone cavity. From the surface, this seems to be a good decorative plastic. Cover, but the official said that this material has very small holes. Of course, for small earplugs, such a design is very important, even if it is only a small hole that the naked eye can not see, it will The sound of the headphones brings a very big change. If you DIY too small earplugs, you should have some experience.

Returning to the C5 headphone core unit - the speaker, we did not find much information, the official said that this is a 9.2mm diameter unit, in the dynamic headphones, such a size is more common. We will look at it next How is the performance?

We took the B&W C5 headset for about 200 hours and tested using as many mobile and player resources as we have. Considering its positioning, we use iPhone 5s, iPod Classic and vivo Xplay3s as the main reference source. FIIO X5, Monitor 06 MX, etc. as auxiliary reference. There is no need to strictly compare the reference headphones. According to C5's distinctive style, we choose Vsonic VSD3 and BOSE QC20 in-ear headphones that just have users to send the test, but between them In fact, the market positioning is very different.

Overall impression : The sound style of B&W C5 should not be unfamiliar to those who have heard B&W MM-1, A series speakers, but making small earplugs like this makes us have some small accidents, after all, in P5 head When wearing a headset test, it was found to be a relatively balanced neutral headset. B&W pays special attention to low-frequency volume and hardness on digital speakerphones, which is far beyond the taste of BOSE. MM-1 and A series speakers are typical, P5 I am afraid that because of the slim shape, although there are traces of low-frequency enhancement, it is not particularly obvious. And C5 benefits from the in-ear design, its bass is more exaggerated, I am afraid to give MM-1 true pass. Of course, in addition to the sense of weight The low frequency, after being squeezed by the explosive dynamics, its high frequency is slightly darker, but the whole sound still shows good resolution and quality.

High-frequency performance : B&W C5's high frequency is slightly darker, but still has good resolution. It has a good sound level under large dynamics. The sound density is also clean and stable in the performance of string. Compared with VSD3 and even BOSE QC20. Its high frequency quality also has certain advantages. It is not affected by the low frequency part of "eat power" on mobile phones such as iPhone 5s or Xplay3s. The high frequency part is still stable and clean, and the density of medium and high frequency is also very good. The performance of the big dynamics is very good, and it belongs to the class of high-frequency performance in the dynamic headphones.

IF performance : B&W C5's mid-frequency collapses slightly, the vocal performance is mild and slightly slack, but in a slightly larger dynamic, the addition of low-frequency will make the resolution of the intermediate frequency significantly affected. The details of the intermediate frequency are greatly affected. The sound of the depression will be more serious, the intermediate frequency will appear more confused. Unfortunately, the control in this area is not to improve the sound source driving force can be improved. For FIIO X5, 06 MX and other players, Will make the whole sound dynamic, but the resolution is still poor. This is probably the style that B&W pursues. The performance of this intermediate frequency detail is actually far worse than BOSE QC20, but the sense of hearing is milder and softer, slightly closer to the middle and low frequency part of the sound. The resolving power is already very poor. This trend and style is comparable to the Beats... I am afraid it has reached a very similar level.

Low frequency performance : B&W C5's low frequency has obvious squeezing and enhanced feeling. If you use it to play some dance music or R&B with strong drums and BASS, it feels very enjoyable. In the small earplugs, it has a sense of volume. The low frequency of hardness is not the performance of VSD1 and VSD3. But this low frequency with obvious modification also makes it suitable only for this type of music. Compared with this style, the sound of BOSE is much more balanced. Compared with Beats, B&W's style is harder and the strength is obviously better, but the resolution is the same. In fact, this is really like the low frequency of MM-1 speakers.

Summary : Overall, B&W audio products have adhered to their American style of taste in the digital peripheral market. They do not have much resemblance to the British voice represented by their traditional image. Of course, B&W thinks that this is to bring the 8 series to the ground. The violent box of the box is brought to the small speaker and the small earphones. Compared with the good feelings left by the previous evaluation of the P5 headphones, the sound performance of the C5 in-ear earphones is too picky. It is probably only suitable for the needs of electronic music. The heavy sense of volume and the low frequency performance of the intensity, but for other types of music, such low frequency is not only low quality, but also significantly affects the intermediate frequency, making the whole sound a bit turbid. In the mid-to-high-end market, the earplugs so tweed may only be B&W. And Beats.B&W C5 is priced at 1688 yuan, from the appearance, design, materials and other aspects still represent the excellent side of the thousand-yuan headphones. Just this style of sound in the high-end headphones market in China, listening to the habits, perhaps Not mainstream.