Hidizs' new MD4 IEM is also a quad driver like its predecessor - the Mermaid MS4 - but the MD4 is an all BA (balanced armature) IEM with four balanced armature drivers per earphone and on-board EQ via a nifty 2-switch tuning filter mechanism!

Despite the lack of dynamic drivers, the Hidizs MD4 balanced armature drivers have been tuned to handle all the frequencies, including bass. Two of those balanced armature drivers handle bass, and the other two balanced armature drivers handle the midrange and treble respectively. To accomplish this, the Hidizs MD4 uses a 3-way audio cross over (just like most multi-driver IEMs and stereo speakers) to split and send the right frequency to the correct BA driver. A 3 way cross over is basically a filter circuitry with three filters (low-pass filter, band-pass filter and high-pass filter).

 

The Hidizs MD4 earphones have very low impedance (8 ohms) and high sensitivity (102 dB), which means you can get plenty of volume without the need of an external DAC Amp. As far as sound/audio quality, it is an interesting one because of the tuning modes. 

 

Despite the name, the "Warm" tuning mode is actually more balanced than the "Balanced" mode and the best all-rounder out of all 4 tuning modes. The bass is clean (not dynamic) and midbass focused; hence very little sub-bass thump/slam. The sound stage is very wide and frequency layering very good naturally separating vocals, instruments and treble, letting you retrieve details very easily.

The MD4 earphones weigh 7 grams each, while the cable weighs 15 grams bringing the total combined weight to 27 grams. The Hidizs MD4 body shell is made of smooth anodized CNC machined aluminum alloy and rose gold accents, while the glossy faceplate is made of celluloid (plastic) - same type of material most vintage snooker (billiard) balls are made of. 

 

Hidizs branding on the faceplate is embedded within the celluloid. The 2 pin socket connection has a plastic guard reinforcement, while the tips of the long nozzle body are guarded with metal mesh.

 

On the side of the MD4 body shell, there are the tuning filter switches (white switches with number 1 and 2 markings). The tuning filters give you a 4-band tone control to EQ the sound. It works by flicking the switches up or down in 4 combinations: 1 up/ 2 down = balanced, 1 up/2 up = bass and 1 down/2 up = warm and 1 down/ 2 down = treble.

The Hidizs MD4 IEM come with a detachable 1.2 meters long IEM cable with gold plated 2 pin (0.78mm) connectors (hard plastic enclosure), 3.5mm straight plug and mixed internal wiring (2-core high purity silver wiring and 2-core OFC wiring). Like most IEMs, the Hidizs MD4 audio cable wearing style is around the ears via pre-shaped ear hooks that you loop over the top of the ears. The square y-splitter is located 36cm down the cable.  

 

The included storage case is the same square case you get with the Hidizs Mermaid MS4. The storage case is very fancy (reminds of a cufflink box), has magnetic closing, it's padded on top and bottom and covered with distress leather material for a vintage look. The storage case lid can open clamshell via a fabric hinge and features a small internal netted pocket for storage. The dimensions of the MD4 case are 7cm long, 7cm wide and 3cm internal height. On top of the case lid, there is a lovely Hidizs branding laser engraved onto the leather. 

 

The included custom silicone ear tips (bowl shape) that you get with the MD4 IEM have a soft flange and thick bore, which maximizes in-ear isolation. The ear tips are made with smaller and wider bore, which slightly alters the sound. The MD4 IEM is part of the Mermaid Series earphones so, it has the same basic design style. 

 

Potential deal breakers facing the MD4 include the tuning filter switches which can be confusing to use. There are no foam tips included, the website branding (hidizs.com) printed on the earphones is unnecessary and cheapens the design. The 2 pin connectors extruded design means they stick out more than recessed 2 pins, which are better at preventing bending/breaking the pins. 

The pre-shaped earhooks have very thin silicone wrapping, which is nice as it makes them flexible but can potentially cause some discomfort during long use when rubbing against the top of the ear. The on-board EQ tuning switches are a neat design and work but they are essentially preset sound modes. They don't give you as much control as a proper digital graphic EQ like the ones you get built-in to some wireless earbuds mobile app. For bass lovers, the MD4 won't likely be as fun to listen. The MS2 IEM do a better job in that regard.

Selling points for the MD4 include superb passive noise isolation, quality quad core IEM audio cable with metal 3.5mm plug that matches the smooth anodized aluminum alloy of the earphones. The audio cable has a twist rope steampunk design that does not tangle easily and has a copper cinch inline for cable management. The included accessories are premium. 

 

The 2 pin connectors have red/blue dot markings, which help quickly identify the right and left earphone. You get an ear tip holder and gift box packaging presentation. The MD4 is available in different colorways and come with a total of 9 pairs of silicone tips, storage case (weighs 102 grams), cleaning brush and velcro strap for cable management. You can buy the MD4 IEM from Hidizs website. Check out the review of the Hidizs AP80 MP3 player and DH80S portable DAC Amp

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The Rose Technics Photon is a very capable, yet underrated IEM that sounds better than its price tag suggests! 

 

The Photon are bullet style wired earphones with metal shell, non-detachable thick rubber cable with straight 3.5mm connector (chrome plastic) and y-splitter barrel located 38cm down the cable.The total weight of Rose Technics Photon is 16 grams, which is about the same weight as the BLON Fat Girl wired earphones. The Photon are equipped with single 8mm dynamic drivers with low impedance (18 ohms) and high sensitivity (102dB), making the Rose Photon easy to drive from a smartphone at good volume and sound without needing a bluetooth headphone amp. 

A storage case (Rose Technics branded) is included to store and transport the Photon earphones. The case opens up upright via a strong metal hinge and has a rubbery rigid construction and suedette fabric liner. The storage case weighs 72 grams and measures 9.5cm long, 6cm deep and 3cm high.

 

The Rose Photon earphones have a narrow sound stage with W shaped sound signature - similar to the TANCHJIM Tanya earphones - so the midrange (vocals and instrument region) is equally elevated as the treble and bass. The Photon deliver a very detailed (and non-fatiguing) upper end with a dynamic bass extension, which is clean and impactful so, the mid bass and sub bass can be felt.

Potential deal breakers facing the Rose Technics Photon: cable tangles easily and can produce microphonics (cable noise), branding too prominent on earphones, the straight nozzle means earphones have tendency to come out/ fall out. The fit isn't as snug as angled earphones so, the Rose Photon aren't the best IEMs for noise isolation. The Rose Photon don't have pre-shaped ear hooks (like IEMs); hence the fit is not as secure. The non-detachable cable means the Photon are not as versatile 2 pin/MMCX detachable IEMs such as the CCA CA10, TRN TA1, BLON Mini.

 

Selling points for the Rose Photon: rubberized hard shell case - perfect for transportation/ travel, fun engaging sound with plenty of bass and decent detail retrieval, comfortable to wear (not fatiguing), available in different colorways, very thick rubber cable, metal mesh guard, compact form factor, made of aluminum alloy, lightweight, thick strain reliefs reinforcing cable joints, long audio cable longer than IEM cables which is usually 1.2 meters. The Photon are very affordable and sound better than its low price tag suggests.

Accessories included are standard bowl shaped silicone eartips (not the best), a croc clip and a storage case. You can buy the Rose Photon from Linsoul. 

 

The reason why robot vacuums are such a popular invention is because robot vacuums take a job you should be doing everyday (e.g. cleaning floors) and actually do it for you! 

The robot vacuum seen pictured is the Yeedi Vac Max (model DVX34), which has the classic design most robot vacuums have with a round circular shape, thick rubber thread tires, and spring loaded wheels. The Yeedi Vac Max comes with a detachable roller blade/brush, sweeper arm, caster wheel, dust bin container and navigational sensors to prevent the robot from falling off stairs, as well as detect and maneuver around obstacles/objects. 

 

Yeedi Vac Max dust container is lifted up from the top, whereas on most robot vacuums the dust container slides out from the bottom. The Yeedi Vac Max also has a mop function so, it is a equipped with a water tank (240ml) and water absorbent fabric cloth to clean floors.

 

Yeedi Vac Max is equipped with a rechargeable battery that takes 6.5 hours to charge and provides a battery life of up to 120 minutes in standard, 90 minutes in max mode and 45 minutes in max+ mode. Auto-Boost Suction mode runtime is ~45 minutes. Standard mode has a suction power of 600 Pa, max mode has suction power of 1500 Pa and Max+ mode has a suction power of 3000 Pa. Cleaning on carpet requires more power; hence battery life will be decreased. 

The Yeedi Vac Max robot vacuum is supported by the Yeedi mobile app, which is a really useful addition that lets you adjust settings such as the water flow to increase and reduce how much water the robot uses during mopping. From the app, you can also keep track of hourly cleaning time, when to replace brush/filter and the total area cleaned (in square meters). You can also adjust suction power, find robot, disable voice alert, enable "do not disturb" and more. The app works well without glitches but requires an account registration.

The Yeedi Vac Max mop attachment clips into place and weighs 87 grams. It is made of plastic and comes with a blue cloth pre-attached to it via velcro fasteners. The mop attachment has a D shape design and measures 25cm long, 10cm deep and 0.6cm high (thick). The Yeedi Vac Max charging dock weighs 288 grams and measures 16.5cm long, 13cm deep and 8.5cm high. The charging dock is made of plastic and has a thin anti-skid foam strip on the bottom to prevent scratches. 

 

On the rear of the charging dock, there is a female figure 8 power port and two plastic brackets for routing and reeling the cable around neatly. The cable does not stick out so, you can place the rear of the charging dock flush against a wall. On the front of the charging dock, there is the ramp with two spring loaded charging contacts, which are large, helping the Yeedi Vac Max robot easily make charging connection. The robot can travel on high pile carpet up to 2 cm high.

 The detachable arm sweeper weighs 5 grams and it is made of flexible rubber with long plastic bristles. The Yeedi Vac Max robot vacuum weighs 3.5 kg and measures 7cm high and 34cm in diameter. The top of the Yeedi Vac Max robot is flat and made of plastic. The top features a camera (for the VSLAM navigation system) and clicky physical button for controlling the robot (start/pause and power off). 

 

The top cover opens up like the boot of a car, revealing a master power switch, rubber grommet, dust container and small brush/cutting tool, which clips on and off. The rubber grommet conceals a 6-pin socket and micro USB port, which is an access interface used for diagnostics purposes.

The Yeedi Vac Max dust container has 420mL volume capacity and features 3-stage filtration: a paper woven filter and thin black foam filter (both detachable), as well as a plastic filter mesh, which is hinged to the dust container; hence not detachable.  

Potential deal breakers facing the Yeedi Vac Max robot vac: No lidar navigation, no self empty station, no rotating mop, only has one sweeper arm and it is fiddly to detach, no physical remote control, low accuracy obstacle sensors (robot can easily get stuck so, it needs more "baby-sitting"). 

 

Yeedi robot is better suited for uncluttered rooms. The mop attachment has to be removed otherwise, the robot cannot mount the dock for charging. The vSLAM camera sensor on top looks like a camera and may put off some buyers, specially since the camera has no privacy cover.  

The Yeedi Vac Max mop function has the same performance problem as most robot vacs with mop and that is the robot drags the mop; whereas a robot vacuum with rotating mop actually scrubs. That said, you can get the best out of the Yeedi Vac Max mop by pre-soaking the mop pad with detergent soapy water and/or adding vinegar to the water tank to help break away dirt in the floor during mopping. 

Selling points for the Yeedi Vac Max: mop function, washable mopping pad, supports virtual boundaries, washable filter, robot returns automatically to docking station for charging, mobile app support, roller squeegee blade/brush helps sweep and remove pet hairs), plastic top cover makes it less likely to break than a tempered glass-top cover. 

 

The Yeedi Vac Max mobile app works with both 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz, which is great because a lot of robot vacuum apps only work with 2.4Ghz Wifi only. Another great selling point is map creation and being able to see where the robot is in the map. Yeedi's vSLAM navigation works better than bounce navigation robots. Bounce navigation doesn't support mapping; hence the robot cannot tell where it has been and has no reference point for its location. Yeedi sells a self empty station.

 Accessories included are a 1.7 meters long 2.5A 250V power cable (weighs 102 grams), which is the same type used by many laptops. The power cable has a EU plug at one end and a right angled figure 8 connector 2.5A 250V. There is also the mop attachment with five replacement cloths (each weighs 8 grams) and arm sweeper. You can buy the Yeedi Vac Max robot vacuum from amazon. 

 

A win-win collab between Tomorrowland (fashion brand) and JBL who join forces for a special limited edition of JBL's original Charge 5 bluetooth speaker!

 

 The JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition enclosure is covered with thick fabric mesh and rubberized at the ends with thick protruding rubber to protect the passive radiators. The bottom of the Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition speaker is flat and features a rubber strip section (8cm long) which is glued onto the fabric mesh to help anchor the speaker and prevent it sliding off and rolling off of a desk. On top of the speaker, there are physical rubber buttons (also glued onto the fabric) for controlling play/pause, track skip to next, volume up and volume down.

The Charge 5 bluetooth speaker features JBL branding logo on the front of the speaker (above the battery status led) and Tomorrowland butterfly logo on the front of the passive radiators. The JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition speaker is weighty (972 grams) and pretty sizeable, measuring 24.5cm long and 8cm in diameter.

Inside the enclosure, there is a bluetooth 5.1 chip (supports SBC only), 7500 mAh rechargeable battery (takes 4 hrs to charge), large woofer driver (handles midrange and bass frequencies) and tweeter, which handles the higher frequencies. The bass driver and tweeter have a total output power of 30 watts RMS. The JBL Charge 5 is 10 watts more powerful than the JBL Charge 4. There is absolute bluetooth volume support so, you can control the volume of the speaker from the connected device - handy when the Charge 5 is connected to a smartphone.

 

The JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition has unique looks for sure with bold black/gold accents and an inverted bow style enclosure, which makes the bottom sides of the speaker rise above the centre of the speaker. The JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition speaker sound signature is V-shaped so, the midrange (vocals and instruments) fall behind the bass and treble which are more elevated. 

 

There is equalizer (EQ) support via the JBL Portable app for some additional tweaking and control the amount of bass too. The speaker produces good sound fidelity at lower volumes too (~60%). You can achieve up to 20 hours battery life without any EQ tweaking) and setting volume at 60%. Boosting the bass and volume decreases the battery life. The JBL Portable app works nice and has a clean interface.

 

Potential deal breakers facing the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition include no microphone for calls, no quick charge, requires 15W power adapter (not included) to achieve 4 hours charging time. No bluetooth multipoint, non-intuitive button controls, no skip to previous control, no band equalizer - only tone controls for small tweaks of bass, midrange and treble which doesn't give you as much control as a proper graphic EQ (e.g. 6-band or 9-band EQ). The JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition has no bluetooth AAC support and has a exposed USB-C port, which means lint and dirt can get trapped inside the USB-C port. It seems an odd design choice not having the USB-C port protected like the USB-A port.

The limited connection modes is the biggest deal breaker facing the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition. There is no wired mode and many bluetooth speakers come with a 3.5mm aux port and micro SD card slot for playing music off of a memory card, making the speaker more versatile. Selling points for the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition include brand conscious appeal, eye catchy packaging, can be used whilst charging, comes with mobile app equalizer (settings get saved automatically to the speaker). 

 

PartyBoost mode is also built-in to the speaker so, no need to use the app. Large battery capacity, supports absolute bluetooth volume, tactile buttons, rugged construction, USB-C connectivity, flat base, premium build (looks and feels quality), superb sound with plenty of bass, same hardware and performance as the original JBL Charge 5 and similarly priced too. 

The Black and gold colorway makes the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition stand out and IP67 dust and waterproof resistance makes the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition perfect for the outdoors. You can submerge it in water (up to 1 meter deep) for 30 minutes. You can take it to a swimming pool, sandy beach, shower and wild swimming in a river or lake. 

 

The AC charger functionality allows you to recharge external devices at 10 watts (5V/2A) just like you would with a powerbank. The JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition also supports JBL PartyBoost, which allows you to connect two Charge 5 speakers as a stereo pair or up to 100 speakers at the same time. 

 

What's neat about PartyBoost is that it is compatible with any JBL speaker that supports PartyBoost and that includes the Flip 5, Pulse 4, Boombox 2 and Xtreme 3. PartyBoost is newer than JBL Connect+ and not compatible, which means you cannot connect Connect+ speakers such as Flip 4, Boombox, Xtreme 2, Charge 4 and Pulse 3.

 

 If you are wondering whether to buy the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition or original JBL Charge 5, the only real difference is the colorway and limited edition, which means the Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition is only being sold for a limited time, making it a bit more special. In terms of accessories you only get a premium JBL branded 1.7 meter long USB cable. You can buy the JBL Charge 5 Tomorrowland Edition and other colorways from JBL and amazon.