Introduction

Truthear burst on to the personal audio scene out of nowhere with the impressive ZERO, a double dynamic driver set of in-ear monitors that also had the benefit of product awareness, courtesy a collaboration with IEM influencer Crinacle. I also speculated at the time that Truthear shared a few things in common with MOONDROP, a darling favorite of many in the IEM space, and indeed this hypothesis was only strengthened recently with tales of some personnel, including the chief audio engineer, having shared time at MOONDROP before. Truthear is clearly not just your typical new startup aiming to re-work OEM drivers and shells and choosing one of several stock face plates options thus, and I was certainly curious to see what's next from this upstart brand.


The Truthear ZERO used a rarely seen combination of two dynamic drivers tuned to the Harman in-ear target and provided with a stunning combination of accessories, build, and design considering it cost just $50. With the new Hexa, Truthear aims to follow up with an equally impressive feature set. This is a hybrid set with one dynamic driver and three balanced armature drivers, and the tagline of this review aims to be a pun on the tonality seemingly identical to the MOONDROP Blessing 2—another hybrid set with a similar driver configuration that costs far more than the Hexa does. People started speculating whether this was another smash hit in the making and I can't think of another set of IEMs that I have received as many review requests for! Thanks to SHENZHENAUDIO for providing a review sample to TechPowerUp and we will see how well the Hexa fares today, starting with a look at the product specifications in the table below.

Specifications

Packaging and Accessories

What a shocker that Truthear continues to use female artwork on the packaging. This is an increasingly popular—and divisive—trend with Chinese IEM brands in particular, although at least Truthear's version is not going to cause many complaints and the artwork itself is well designed and executed. The box has the Truthear logo on the front along with the product name in both English and Mandarin to go with a description of the driver configuration, also in Chinese characters. On the back we see a factory frequency response curve published, and this is a trend I can certainly get behind. Product specs and company contact info help complete the tour, as we see the use of a two-piece packaging with an outer white sleeve over an inner black box that has again the company logo and product name on it. The entire package came sealed in a plastic wrap to keep things tidy and prevent the inner box from sliding out accidentally on its way to you.


The inner box also goes for a two-piece construction with the lid lifting off to reveal a set of stacked contents inside. This begins with some paperwork inside a cardboard brochure that also has the same artwork on the other side, and we get a warranty card, an owner's manual going over the use of these IEMs, and a weird note/bookmark that simply says "Install Guide" but doesn't really have one on it. The IEMs are placed inside a hard stacked foam layer with compartments cut to snugly fit the individual shells and also have room to extract them out, with the other accessories found in the compartment below.


The carry/storage case that comes with the Truthear Hexa is made of faux leather—likely polyurethane—and uses an interesting pouch-style design that I have not seen before in the IEM world except with the Truthear ZERO, of course. It can be somewhat cumbersome to place things into and take them out owing to the smaller opening relative to the outer dimensions, but on the flip side it folds into a smaller wallet-style case that is easier to carry with you. The black exterior is stitched well and has two buttons to help secure it when closed, and we see it contains the IEM cable inside. Underneath the case is a thick cardboard sheet that has the various ear tips placed individually, and makes it easy for users to spot and remove the ones they want to use.


Truthear provides two types of silicone ear tips in sizes S/M/L each, and these differ primarily in the opening of the inner bore that can affect the presentation and soundstage slightly. I also noticed the wider bore tips were rounder and slightly more malleable owing to the thinner flange, and your mileage may vary as to which type gives you a better fit/seal even outside of the different sizes. In addition, we also get a single set of medium-density foam ear tips in size M.