EPZ Q5: Cosy and Sheen

"Music is life itself"

~~Louis Armstrong

The portable audio market is now populated with myriads of audio companies since its renaissance from the previous decade due to globalisation. And some of these products became more accessible to the people who wants a product that is cheap and affordable yet it could give a good performance for its asking price. The rise of Chinese audio companies shouldn't be ignore of their presence in audio/visual market segment as they became a force to be reckoned with.

About this audio company that produces this  set to be featured on this product review, EPZ became an independent company in 2019 and under their portfolio, they have an over a decade of extensive experience on research and development and manufacturing process as they were once part of OEM company that was a technology-based that produces and supply certain acoustic parts and some hardware components to other audio brands. They specialise on acoustic technology and 3D-printing processing that became staple factor and feature of their products.

This is EPZ Q5, its their latest model for the entry-level segment. It has single dynamic driver and it is of a fine quality as it has a circumference of 10mm with a diaphragm made of ceramic carbon nano that makes unusual to be implemented in a product in this price range segment. With this type of driver, it offers a better tensile strength and quite fairly light that it is able to deliver a more responsive sound vibrations with lower distortion for richer, more accurate, better resolution and coherent sound quality.

The drivers were encapsulated in a medical-grade, skin friendly resin shell housing which underwent via 3D-printed process that was meticulously design for better performance with its acoustic chamber that  will handle the resonance and able to dampened and releases some excessive air pressure from the sound waves generated from it. If we look upon its design cues, we will instantly notice that it takes some inspiration from other established audio brands like Meze, Westone and Shure. On its faceplate, it has a similar aesthetics with Meze Advar while on its cavity base, it takes some form factor from Westones and Shure IEMs albeit it has a thicker stem on its nozzle. EPZ uses a MMCX connector as its interlocking mechanism for better flexibility and proper ergonomic design on its shell chassis.

As for fitting and comfort, EPZ Q5 sits comfortably well in my lugholes that I don't experience any discomfort during my long listening session or even on my daily physical activity. It has a good passive noise isolation as it was able to block a substantial amount of noise coming from the outside surroundings. There is one thing that I should address on this, in a stock eartips with balanced bore, there's a slight driver flex on every insertion to my lugholes but when I change its stock ear tips to other types of stock ear tips which are smaller and with flatter profile, I don't experience it anymore.

Regarding its stock cable, it has a 2-core of mono crystalline silver-plated copper wiring that were insulated in a clear PVC coating with a gold-plated 3.5mm termination plug at its end. Upon ordering this product, you can choose a termination plug of your choice either a 3.5mm SE, 4.4mm balanced or 2.5mm balanced.

As for its product packaging and its unboxing presentation, it has a black-coloured square-shaped box with a copper hue on its print to give that elegant and minimalist design cues. The presentation itself on how we will open is quite unique as it has split-style opening although the execution of its functionality is pretty flawed due to lack of clearance of some of its proportion that causes some minor obstruction.

These are the following contents that we will find inside:

■ Pair of EPZ Q5 IEMs

■ Stock cable

■ Oval-shaped zippered IEM storage case

■ Three (3) pairs of flat ear tips in different standard sizes.

■ Two (2) pairs of balanced bore ear tips in different standard sizes.

■ Paperwork like Q.C. stub and instruction manual.

Power scaling-wise, this set is pretty easy to amplify that we only need a decent volume level from our multimedia portable device sources like smartphones, tablets and DAPs. A medium amplitude level in a normal gain mode will be enough to deliver a dynamic and a full-range sound that was quite satisfying to our hearing.

When it comes to its tonal aspect, EPZ Q5 has a U to V-shaped sound profile depends on the ear tips that I'm using as they have some noticeable variable sound output particularly on some emphasis of its bass presence and upper-mids. This tuning is quite uncommon nowadays and yet it is quite a pleasing sound that has a warmth on it and at the same, it has an energetic sound.

(This graph was provided by [USER=516219]@baskingshark[/USER] , thanks to his effort)

LOWS/BASS

As I mentioned about its warm and energetic tonality, some part of its warmth quality is in the low frequencies as it has a little emphasis on mid-bass part but it is still on the balanced side of tactility and on the punchy side. And this is not definitely a basshead's bass quantity as it doesn't have an enough slam, volume and depth to have that boomy sound.

It has a good sub-bass presence as I evidently felt those reverberations and rumbling sound from instruments like synthesisers, octabasses, low tone bass guitars and drum machines from the tracks of my favoured music genres like synth-pop. old school hip-hop, RnB and classic rock. Mid-bass has a substantial texture to give a  bit more body on bass guitars, bass kick drums, cellos and bass-baritone vocals.

Here are some of the sound characteristics of each instrument and vocal in regards to tonal colour.

Bass guitars - resonant, sombre and has a decent weight on every pluck of its strings.

Bass kick drum - sustaining, resonant and thudding sound. Capable of projecting a fast  double bass kick drums from extreme metal tracks.

Cellos - warm, rounded and lustrous sound. Its notation is usually range mainly on bass clef.

Bass-baritone vocals - simply espresso-like as it maintains a balanced sound but it seems that it has a less darker tone and not depth enough.

MIDRANGE:

No matter what I do some ear-tip rolling on this set, It still has a noticeable recessed presentation in this particular frequency part on how most instruments and vocals were presented in the mix. But at least, it doesn't sound too lean as it has some semblance of texture on them while maintaining a translucent, clean and crisp sound.

It is given that EPZ Q5 favours more on female vocals and instruments like strings, woodwinds and some percussives. Male voices sound fairly decent on this one as it has a enough note weight to give depth and density to their vocal qualities though a tad leaner in my liking.

Here are some of my observations of sound characteristics of each vocal types and instruments:

 Vocals:

Baritones - they have smooth and velvety sound which is more suitable to light and lyric baritones which have milder and sweet tone, while the more deeper ones like Kavalier baritone, Verdi, dramatic and noble baritones, they are quite a tad mellow, and less powered sounding in contrast of their natural timbre and tonality but it has a sufficient depth and volume.

Tenors - they have a dazzling and spiciness sound. Lyric tenors like Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras will have their distinctive warm, shimmering and graceful sound. Lightweight or Leggero tenors fare even better on this set. Spinto and dramatic tenors have those ringing and emotive sounds but their tones were less darker and a tad lighter.

Countertenors - they actually sounds great in this one has it has tender and coppery sound on this set as I enjoy to listen Andreas Scholl, Philippe Jaroussky, King Diamond of Mercyful Fate, Daron Malakian of System of a Down and Geddy Lee of Rush.

Contraltos - As they have these husky and smoky vocal qualities but I also noticed that they have somewhat lack of richness and lush vocal texture as it is borderline to be a lean sounding as I listen to Anggun, Annie Lennox and Toni Braxton.

Mezzo-Sopranos - They have a tender, fiery, light and glowing sound that makes them more captivating and comforting to listen.

Sopranos - Due to the energetic nature of this set. It gives a more expressive and brighter vocal quality of this particular voice type. Dramatic sopranos have powerful and more emotive with sufficient texture, lyric sopranos have some fullness with added brightness on them, soubrette sopranos have its tender and sweetness on their vocal characteristics and coloratura sopranos have a silvery and shimmering sound as they execute their agile vocal passage.

Instruments:

Guitars (acoustic/electric) - They have a crisp, bright and a more emphasis on presence tone.

Violins - Bright, metallic and shrilly sounding on every bow strokes.

Trumpets - Brilliant, vivid and penetrating sound characteristics.

Trombones -  Metallic and intense sounding.

Flutes - Penetrating, clear and bright sounding

Piccolos - Intense, brilliant and light sounding.

Field drums - Hard, sonorous and penetrating sound on every stroke.

Snare drums - Sharp, precise and dry sounding.

Kettle drums - Deep, resonant and mellow sound.

Pianos - they sound bright, clear and lively.

HIGHS/TREBLE:

EPZ Q5's treble response is on the brighter side as it has a noticeable upper-mids and presence range boost to give a sense of clarity and detail, sharper attacks of  percussion and rhythm instruments and better vocal lucidity but at expense of having an occasional shrilly and tad piercing at the vocal tails. Sibilance is somehow well-controlled and jarring was kept minimal.

For a single DD set, it has a good amount of air and is well-sparkled on its harmonics. Cymbals have a shimmering, metallic and sizzling sound while hi-hats has rather bright and buzzing sound. Glockenspiels have shrilly and penetrating sound and celestas have a glistening and glassy sound from them.

SOUNDSTAGE, IMAGING & OTHER TECHNICALITIES:

This is one of its strongest assets and it is quite uncommon to see a single DD set with good technical capabilities especially in the entry-level segment. it has an above-average size of its overall dimensions which give me a moderately spacious head stage as it has fairly natural wide span, a good height reach and satisfactory depth and distance between from and row.

As for imaging, it projects a concave, two-dimensional stereo presentation as I was able to panned out the placements of instruments and vocals in a sonic canvas. Separation is good for single DD as all the elements have a good spacing on each other and it also decent layering of frequencies and tones of each instrument and vocals in the mix that even some of the complex tracks are well-played and it doesn't sound congested and disorganised.

It has an excellent coherency of its driver performance as it was able deliver a fast transient response and a very crisp and clear sound output.

Resolution capabilities is quite remarkable as it has solid note texture along with sharp definition on retrieving some nuances and detail from an audio track.

PEER COMPARISONS:

QOA GIMLET

■ GIMLET has a 10mm LCP driver and it was encased in a metal alloy. Its shell design has a UIEM-style form factor and also has a classy look like the Q5 (even the colourway of both sets are similar). This uses a proven 0.78mm 2-pin connector as its interlocking mechanism.

■ As for tonality, GIMLET has a warmish, mild u-shape sound profile. It has more punchy and tactual bass response, less recessed and more warmer and lusher midrange, and then on treble part, it has more smoother and less brighter response and treble air is tad limited. As for technicalities, it has a good sound/speaker stage but imaging and layering isn't particularly impressive compare to Q5.

TINHIFI C3

■ Like the Q5, C3 is also a single DD albeit its dynamic driver is made of composite materials. It was encapsulated in an acrylic UIEM-style resin shell and it uses a 0.78mm 2-pin connector as its detachable mechanism.

■ TINHIFI C3 has a U-shaped sound signature which follows a Harman target curve with some slight modification particularly on the low frequency to make it a bit warm. It has good sub-bass presence while maintaining a substantially textured mid-bass. It has a tad recession on the midrange but still fairly balanced as it has an ample warmth while maintaining a crisp and glint quality.  It has a noticeable boost upper-mids while maintaining a smoother treble response although it has a meagre treble air compared to Q5. Technical capability-wise, If I compare both sets, Q5 is a bit more refined between them but C3 was able to perform pretty decently as it has a good sound/speaker staging and up to par separation and layering capabilities.

SIMGOT EA500

■ EA500 is a phenomenal set on its own right and it was considered as the "gold standard" of proper implementation of a good single DD set. Its shells chassis are entirely made of metal alloy and it has a detachable tuning nozzles for different sound profile to choose from.

■  As for tonality, EA500 offers two types of tuning, a more familiar typical Harman tuning and a SIMGOT "in-house" tuning that these sonic profiles align with a U-shaped sound.  On the Harman tuning mode, it has more emphasis on sub-bass and a less textured mid-bass, a leaner midrange which sounds less expressive and lack of emotive on vocals and less airy and a bit dull treble response. The SIMGOT tuning mode is a bit more texture, more dynamic and very vivid sound but at the expense of slight sibilance. On technicalities, both EA500 and Q5 are quite comparable in that matter as they can trade blows on one another especially in resolution capabilities. EA500 has a more solid macro-dynamics while Q5 has sharper definition on detail retrieval.

As I conclude my review on EPZ Q5, despite of soms controversies that thrown at this set due to its uncanny resemblance of a certain product from a more establishes brand, EPZ did a good job on this set on how they tuned this one to have engaging sound which is likeable enough for casual listeners who wants an engaging and fun sounding and a budding audio enthusiast who wants a clarity and details with capable technical capabilities for their listening leisures.

This set is definitely a good recommendation for listeners who want a more coloured tonality as it has an sufficient warmth while having a bright sound.

This product is now available in EPZ Official Store on ALIEXPRESS, there's an unaffiliated link down below.

Link :

https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805604304671.html?gatewayAdapt=glo2usa4itemAdapt

SPECIFICATION:

MODEL: EPZ Q5

IMPEDANCE: 26Ω

SENSITIVITY: 109dB

FREQUENCY RESPONSE: 20Hz – 20KHz

CABLE LENGTH: 1.2m

PIN TYPE: MMCX CONNECTOR

PLUG TYPE: 3.5mm, 2.5mm, 4.4mm

DRIVER UNIT(S):  (1) DYNAMIC DRIVER

PROS:

△ Quite solid and smooth shell chassis.

△ Good quality stock cable

△ Reasonable amount of inclusions.

△ That new type of ear tips, the ones which have flat surface seems very comfortable

△ A likeable sound signature for both casual and experienced audio enthusiast due to its fun and engaging factor

△ Sufficiently punchy, fast and clean bass response.

△ Crisp, bright and energetic midrange

△ Expressive and emotive female vocals

△ String instruments like guitars, violins and some lute-type instruments will sound very crisp, vibrant and vivid.

△ Bright, sparkling and evened treble response with decent amount of air and presence of sparkle.

△ Fairly competent on its technical performance for a single DD set.

 

CONS:

▽ It's bright tuning might be discomforting to some treble-sensitives.

▽ Unoriginal design on its faceplate.

▽ Wishing for more depth and volume on its midbass and lower midrange.

▽ Noticeable recessed midrange presentation.

▽ MMCX-connector maybe? (But I don't have particular issues with this kind of connector as I have some sets with the same type of connector.)

▽ The design of its packaging box is somewhat flawed.

Some Tracks Tested: ( * = 16-bit FLAC, ** = 24-bit FLAC, *'* = MQA, '*' = DSD, *'= .WAV)

Alison Krauss -When You Say Nothing At All *

Jade Wiedlin - Blue Kiss**

Led Zeppelin - When The Levee Breaks **

Mountain - Mississippi Queen *

Queen - Killer Queen **

Guns N' Roses - Patience *'*

Eric Clapton - Tears in Heaven '*'

Sergio Mendes- Never Gonna Let You Go '*'

Pearl Jam - Daughter **

Roselia - Hidamari Rhodonite *

Assassin - Fight (To Stop The Tyranny)*

Celtic Frost- Visual Aggression *

New Order - Blue Monday *

The Corrs- What Can I do (unplugged version) *

Jimi Hendrix Experience - Voodoo Child *

The Madness- Buggy Trousers *

Metallica - Motorbreath **

Mariah Carey- Always Be My Baby *

Destiny's Child - Say My Name *

Malice Mizer- Au Revoir *

Mozart - Lacrimosa *

New York Philharmonic Orchestra - Dvorak- Symphony 9 " From the New World." *

Eva Cassidy - Fields of Gold (Sting cover)*

Michael Jackson - Give In To Me *

Exciter - Violence and Force *

Diana Krall - Stop This World **

Debbie Gibson - Foolish Beat *'*

The Sisters of Mercy – Lucretia My Reflection**

Suzanne Vega – Luka **

Lauren Christy – Steep *

Ottoman Mehter - Hucum Marsi *

Diana Damrau - Mozart: Die Zauberflöte*

Type O Negative - Black No.1 *

Felix Ayo - Vivaldi: Presto **

Three Tenors - Nessum Dorma *

Mercyful Fate - Witches' Dance *

P.S.

I am not affiliated to EPZ nor receive monetary incentives and financial gains as they provide me a review unit for an exchange of factual and sincere feedback from yours truly.

Once again, I would like to send my gratitude to EPZ for providing this review unit. I truly appreciate their generosity and trust towards me and other reviewers.