Hiby Digital Yume IEMs Review – Musica Inspired By Waifus And Cyberpunk
Hiby Digital Yume is a $149 USD pair of IEM In-Ear Monitors with a strong Hatsune Miku Thematic, high promised transparency and with a 10mm dynamic driver at the core. Today we will review the Yume, keeping as strong accent on the pairing with Hiby Digital M500 as those two were made to be used together, and we will also explore how Yume sounds like with other sources and whether it is currently a good purchase.
Introduction
Hiby Digital was designed to be the affordable counterpart to Hiby’s main company, which are best known for developing most of the software for most DAPs that come out of China. Especially DAPs from smaller companies that don’t make their own software would often use Hiby services. Yume translate from Japanese as Dream, and it can be read in both the literal sense as well as figuratively, being used in the context of hope, dream or fantasy usually.
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Product Link
Official Link – https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-digital-yume
Build Quality – Design
Hiby Digital Yume is an interesting IEM with a rather simple but efficient internal design, relying on just one dynamic driver to produce sound. This dynamic driver has an Mg and Al alloy dome and a polymer diaphragm, with a dual magnetic core that has a 1.2T magnetic field strength.
Behind the driver we have an H. CCAW Coil and to produce a good comfort, Yume uses an LSW rear chamber and dual airflow control. You can set how open the air valve is with a wide range of settings, and with a CNC’ed shell, you know that comfort will be top.
Hiby Digital Yume comes with a coaxial balanced cable, that uses high purity OCC as a material with Litz type4 wire, and a 4Pin Lock adapter, also coming with multiple jack connectors for you to plug them in. Theoretically, the graphs show them as L-Shaped, with a lot of bass, a small peak in the lower midrange, then progressively falling off and rolling off until they reach a terminal velocity in the treble.
I complained in my Hiby Digital M 500 review that I could not find the specifications but this was solely because the page for those two products has a strong cyberpunk theme that makes it a bit harder to read, but now I learned and I can share that Yume has a theoretical impedance of 24 OHMs, a SPL of 95dB at 1kHz, and a max input power of 100mW. Cale length ios 1.25 meters, and the THD is 0.1% at 94 dB SPL.
Subjective Usage
Hiby Digital Yume is rather comfortable, and has a clean wearing experience. If anything, due to me lately having to sit farther away from my computer, it feels like the cable is a bit short, but overall they are comfortable and fun to wear. Cable quality is good, it is a bit kinky and has a bit of memory effect, but it is not tangle prone and it does not conduct a lot of microphonic noise.
On the even better end of things, Yume does not have void or driver flex and just generally feels ergonomic and comfortable. It is a nice wearing experience and they feel adequate for long-term usage. Passive noise isolation is around 20 dB, or lower, depending on the frequency range.
The most interesting things that you will 100% notice are the color scheme of both the IEMs and the transport case, and the modular jack which is a nice touch, super useful for me as a reviewer and as I have a ton of sources. Wearing style is medium – shallow and Yume is great for all ears, and with a medium shell size, they will be perfect for basically everyone.
Sound Quality
Pairings – Although I have access to Hiby Digital M500 and it is the main source intended to drive the Yume, I have also paired them with many other sources including FiiO K17, Audioengine HXL, Shanling Onix Beta XI2, Surfans F35 Music Player DAP, Shanling M7T, iBasso D17 Atheris, Burson Playmate 3, Rose Technics RT-5000, and Luxsin X9
Yume is extremely easy to drive, gets loud really easily and sounds brilliant regardless of what source you’re using. It is rather sensitive to source noise and hissing, which indicates a low impedance, and likely the driver away inside is set to react more to signal to make Yume a good pair for ultra portable setups.
Overall Signature – Yume has a generally balanced, slightly V-Shaped tuning that works really well for EDM, Pop, Modern music and is a pleasure to listen to with most styles. It manages to deliver a crisp impact without sounding harsh or bright, delivering a beautiful overall tone for both male and female voices. If anything, yume sounds a bit like what you’d expect from a modern sound, fast, sharp, but a bit musical with a touch of extra warmth. It is brilliant in the real sense of the word if you want a safe tuning.
Bass – Bottom end of the Yume starts around 25 Hz, with a deep and voluptuous bass, a somewhat slow decay and fun enough presentation that you keep on playing song after song just to hear it. Yume has a delicious bass, clean, but warm, deep enough to be fun, but not forced. It is fun especially for modern rap, edm, pop and modern music in general. Bass is a bit on the slow side for rock and especially aggressive metal, but it can work for those styles too if you want a bloomier sound.
Voicing And Midrange – Generally, the voicing of the Yume works equally well for male and female voices, but in actual listening I lean towards listening to more music with a male lead vocal than female. It seems to capture the tonality and raw emotion a bit better for male voices, the lower midrange has a bit of extra volume and presence to it, while upper midrange is still present, but a bit thinner and less forward than the lower end. This being said, it will work for both, but you might feel yourself increasing the volume a bit more for female led songs.
Treble – Top end extends up to about 15 kHz, with a peaking range between 11 kHz and 13 kHz, and an extra, smaller peak around 9 kHz. This creates a combo of crispness and air that works really well for modern music, pop and EDM, but can be a bit unnatural for rock and metal, as it forces a somewhat colored treble. All in all, I like it a lot, especially in the context of listening to EDM and Pop.
Dynamics And Textures – Yume has a natural, voluptuous sound and you can hear this with most tracks, where it delivers a slightly bloomy, full sound, with a natural-slow decay. It is resolute enough to reveal micro textures and details, but it does not exaggerate anything, the overall sound being perfect for well, edm and modern music. Classical can work, but it does not have an extra rich or extra dynamically wide sound. In fact, the dynamic range of the Yume is natural, not compressed but they don’t scatter the dynamics either.
Loudness Saturation Gradient – Yume gets loud easily, and has good control over tHD and distortion, but it also is sensitive to background noise. I tend to prefer listening to them at medium and loud volumes where the sound is punchier, more dynamic and more vivid. At lower volumes, they sound more mid centric, and lack the distinct impact and raw emotion that they can deliver loud and extremely loud.
Soundstage – Yume has a natural and rounded soundstage, it can extend laterally and in depth, to what would be a natural size around your head. It is perfect for all styles and the soundstage is quite universal. Instrument separation is natural towards highly separated.
Value – Conclusion
You can expect one of the highest price / performance ratios from Yume, it comes with its own DAC, can be used with smartphones, and although it does not come with an inline remote, it does come with both 4.4mm balanced and 3.5mm single ended jack adaptors. This makes it versatile, but the color theme, high quality transport case and everything else that goes into the delivery makes Yume a top choice for a beginner.
Hiby Digital made Yume with a Hatsune Miku theme, but the tuning has almost nothing to do with the vocaloid themed idol, and rather it is a pair of earphones that shines with modern, traditional music, like EDM, pop, Katy Perry, and modern songs that you typically enjoy on youtube rather than ACG in particular.
PROs
- Beautiful and interesting theme
- Actually ergonomic and comfortable to wear
- Medium – shallow style will work well with most ears
- Universal, balanced, modern, it is great for most music styles
- Clean and crisp sound
- Natural soundstage and strong detail / resolution
- Ergonomic cable that is modular
- High-quality construction that is fairly universal
- Price performance ratio makes it an instant favorite for a beginner iem
- Matches well with Hiby Digital M500, for a DAP + IEM themed combo
Cons
- Quite sensitive to source noise
- Very easy to drive means low control with powerful sources
Product Link
Official Link – https://store.hiby.com/products/hiby-digital-yume
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Full Playlist used for this review
We listened to more songs than those named in this playlist, but those are excellent for identifying a sonic signature. I recommend trying most of the songs from this playlist, especially if you’re searching for new music! The playlists are different for Spotify, Tidal and Youtube, and based on the songs I enjoy and are available on each!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_cjBXGmwSHSdGcwuc_bKbBDGHL4QvYBu
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5J3oloz8Riy9LxEGenOjQ0?si=979ba4f082414be7
https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/330fd544-8e5b-4839-bd35-676b2edbb3d5
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