FiiO FH19 review: wired earbuds that push the boat out so far, it's basically lost at sea

FiiO FH19: Two-minute review

Another day, another pair of FiiO headphones, and this time it’s the FiiO FH19, a pair of wired in-ear monitors. The FH19 are, by FiiO standards, a fairly expensive proposition and so it follows that the company, as is its established practice, has thrown the kitchen sink at them where specification and design are concerned. If FiiO has overlooked anything here, I’m not at all sure what it might be.

As is appropriate for a product with such a big specification – a couple of dynamic drivers plus half a dozen balanced armatures per earbud, enhancement technology for most parts of the frequency range, high purity sterling silver cable, you name it – the FiiO FH19 are quite physically large, too. The provision for 22 pairs (count ‘em!) of various ear tips helps to get the best fit, but at 12g a side these are chunky earbuds despite the liberal use of aluminium and titanium in their construction. And despite their carefully ergonomic shape, plenty of FH19 will protrude from all but the most generously sized ear-hole.

A contender for best wired earbuds ? Perhaps – they have plenty to them, after all – but may fall down on that top-end sound. It's a close-run thing.

FiiO FH19 review: Price and release date

• $599; £549; AU$999
• Launched in July 2024

The FiiO FH19 wired in-ear monitors are on sale now, and as you can see from the asking price in various territories, the company is not afraid of lining up against some of the biggest names in all of IEM-land. From the eccentricity of the Campfire Audio Cascara to the dead-eyed pro credentials of Sennheiser IE 600 and Shure SE535 , you’re not short of choice if you’ve big money to spend…

FiiO FH19 review: Specs

Fiio FH19 review: Features

• Hybrid dynamic driver/balanced armature arrangement
• Midrange notch filter and ‘S.Turbo’ bass enhancement
• High-purity sterling silver cable

The biggest news here as regards ‘features’ has to be the driver array FiiO has specified – each FH19 earbud features no fewer than eight drivers. A pair of 13.7mm dynamic drivers are arranged in a push/pull layout in an effort to maximize phase consistency and reduce the amount of power required to achieve optimum sound pressure level, and six Knowles balanced armature units deal with midrange and treble reproduction. FiiO has worked closely with Knowles, specifying acoustic vents at the rear cavity of the midrange drivers to maximize sound energy, and with Onkyo to ensure the cleanest possible sound from the dynamic driver arrangement.

And just in case this seems a bit tentative, the company has added a midrange notch filter to minimize the overlap between the sound produced by the midrange and high-frequency balanced armatures. There’s also the racy-sounding ‘S.Turbo’ technology that literally acts like a turbocharger by guiding low-frequency soundwaves through a turbine-like structure to deliver (according to FiiO) deep and vibrant low frequencies.

What else? Well, rather than resistor-based ceramic capacitors, the FH19 feature film capacitors for greater crossover accuracy. And a suspended voice coil reduces both the adhesive load and reduces the possibility of unnecessary contact – instead, there ought to be smooth, uniform diaphragm movement.

FiiO suggests the entire FH19 arrangement results in a pair of in-ear monitors with a frequency response of 8Hz - 40Khz, a sensitivity of 109dB and an impedance of 16 ohms. Which means the FH19 really ought to be delivering full-range sound from pretty much any source of music without too much difficulty.

Getting audio information into this almost performatively complex arrangement happens via 1.2m of high-purity sterling silver cable. It consists of eight braided strands, each carrying 28 wires for a total of 224 wires - each individual wire is enamelled, and the cable is twisted in Litz braids. It connects to each earbud using stainless steel MMCX connectors, and the connection to a music source can be made using either of the ‘twist/lock’ unbalanced 3.5mm or balanced 4.4mm jacks that are supplied.

• Features score: 5/5

Fiio FH19 review: Design

• Semi-open housing
• Swappable audio filters
• Titanium and aluminium construction

First things first: these are relatively large, relatively heavy in-ear monitors, and despite the fact that FiiO provides no fewer than 22(!) pairs of ear tips of various sizes and materials, if you’re on the smaller-eared side the FH19 are going to feel like quite an uncomfortable earful.

Let’s assume, then, that your ears are no smaller than ‘a bit smaller than average’. In this scenario, the FH19 are easy to fit securely and, thanks to the carefully ergonomic shape of the housing, comfortable too. Yes, they protrude from the ear in a slightly inelegant fashion, but that just allows bystanders to get a good look at the semi-open design with its aluminium shell and titanium midframe.

There are sound reasons why the FH19 feature a semi-open housing, of course – they’re mostly to do with the balance of internal air pressure and the prevention of pressure on the eardrum. Equally, FiiO has selected aluminium for the earbud shell because of its light weight, durability and willingness to be formed into relatively complex shapes, while titanium’s rigidity and resistance to corrosion make it a wise choice for the midframe. The fact that they combine to deliver a product that looks upmarket and even quite dramatic doesn’t do any harm, though.

Obviously, by allowing the wearer so much scope to get a comfortable fit, FiiO is hoping to maximize the audio performance of the FH19, but it’s also taken more direct steps. The FH19 are pre-installed with a ‘green’ audio filter which, according to the company, “delivers refined and detailed treble”. But it also supplies two alternative pairs that can be fitted by the wearer: ‘red’ (which “enhances low frequencies, providing powerful and impactful bass”) and ‘black’ (“offers balanced sound that is clear and transparent”). A little tool is supplied to make the changeover as simple as possible.

The tool itself arrives in a fairly large, hexagonal travel case that features some branding and also contains a magnetic cable-tie, a small brush to help keep your FH19 clean, and the alternative 3.5mm cable termination. It, like the earbuds themselves, looks and feels like a premium item.

• Design score: 4.5/5

FiiO FH19 review: Sound quality

• Spacious, well-defined sound
• Rapid, punchy and entertaining presentation
• Can be goaded into top-end unruliness

Like any pair of in-ear monitors, the FiiO FH19 will perform most agreeably when they fit correctly. Unlike most pairs of in-ear monitors, the FiiO offer you well over a dozen options where ear tips are concerned, so getting to the point of identifying the most appropriate pair takes a little longer than normal.

Similarly, the audio filter options need to be investigated in order for you to establish what your preference is – although, as I will discuss just a little later, the pre-fitted ‘green’ pair are likely to be the least commonly deployed. But once you have reached the point whereby you’re happy with both the physical fit and the audio filters fitted to the FH19, there’s an awful lot to like about the way they sound.

A 24bit/44,1kHz FLAC file of Bad Guy by Billie Eilish, for instance, sounds energetic, wide-open and rapid. There’s proper control of the attack of low-frequency sounds, so even when they’re coming thick and fast there’s proper definition and separation. Rhythmic expression is confident, and momentum is maintained at every turn. Similarly the midrange is detailed and packed with variation, so the close-mic’d vocal is expressive and information regarding technique, timbre, attitude and all the rest of it is available in spades.

The semi-open arrangement allows the FH19 to sound more spacious than the usual ‘directly into your ear’ sensation of monitors that are, to be fair, directly in your ear. There’s an airiness and openness to the soundstage they present, a sensation of the gap between specific elements of a recording and more than enough elbow-room for each of those elements to do their thing in something approaching isolation. But there’s no overall sense of isolation or remoteness to the sound the FH19 serves up: instead it’s quite tightly unified and unarguably ‘together’. The recording is presented as a performance, as individual elements acting with a common aim rather than simply doing their own thing while other things happen nearby.

Switch to a 24bit/96kHz FLAC file of Chick Corea’s Return to Forever and the FH19 continue to impress. They pay close attention to the harmonic variations in specific instruments and the wordless vocalizations, and dispatch the bigger dynamic shifts in volume or intensity with the sort of casual effortlessness that lets you know  there’s plenty more where that came from.

The tonality here is basically neutral, your choice of audio filter notwithstanding, and despite the numerousness of the drivers, the FH19 integrate the frequency range well. Where the audio filters come into play most obviously, though, is where treble response is concerned.

A 24bit/44.1kHz FLAC file of LesAplx by Floating Points has plenty of high-frequency activity, of many different tones and substances, to offer. There’s no two ways about it, with their default ‘green’ audio filters fitted, the FiiO FH19 are altogether too happy to get hard and edgy at the top of the frequency range. Even with one of the other filter options selected (my preference is for the ‘black’ option, FWIW), it doesn’t take a lot for the treble response here to get a bit overexcited. Dial in more volume and things just get shinier and, in extremis, abrasive.

Still, this is easily mitigated against. Leave the ‘green’ audio filters well alone, don’t listen at the sort of volumes you shouldn’t really be listening at anyway, and all will be well.

• Sound quality score: 4.5/5

FiiO FH19 review: Value

• Stack up well against the competition for price
• …But only if they fit

If you’ve read this far then I’m going to go ahead and assume you don’t think your ears are too small for FH19 ownership. So as long as they fit, there’s plenty to suggest the FiiO offer very acceptable value for money

The quality of materials used and the way they’re constructed, the engineering prowess that’s been brought to bear and, most of all, the open and engaging sound quality they’re capable of delivering in almost every circumstance see to that. Hear them against the best of their rivals and you’ll quickly realise what FiiO is offering here is not to be sneezed at.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the FiiO FH19?

Buy them if...

Balanced and open sound seems your sort of thing
The clever semi-open configuration allows the FiiO FH19 to sound more spacious than your average in-ear monitor.

Don't buy them if...

You’re especially sensitive to high-frequency sound
At bigger volumes, or when connected to unsympathetic sources of music, the FH19 can get quite carried away where the top of the frequency range is concerned.

FiiO FH19 review: Also consider

How I tested the FiiO FH19

• Connected to a FiiO M15S DAP
• Connected to an iFi iDSD Diablo 2 headphone amp
• With a big range of digital audio content of all types and file sizes

I won’t pretend it has been any kind of hardship, not really. Using the 4.4mm balanced connection I joined the FiiO FH19 to a FiiO M15S digital audio player and to an iFi iDSD Diablo 2 headphone amp – this way I was able to listen to digital audio files of all sizes (320kbps to 24bit/192kHz) and to music of all styles. I also connected them directly to the 3.5mm unbalanced headphone socket of an Apple MacBook Pro – not an experiment I’m in any kind of hurry to repeat.

Read more about how we test earbuds .

• First reviewed: October 2024
• Read TechRadar's Reviews Guarantee