HeadphoneOverreview

FiiO FT5

FiiO's warm, tank-built first planar — a rich, easy-going voice to most who hear it, a thick and oddly scooped one to the measurers who mind.

41 sourcesUpdated
$500Typical US price

Score aggregates reviewer opinions across topics.

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FiiO FT5

The short version

What to know.

An open-back, 90 mm planar (~$500 today) that FiiO tuned warm rather than neutral. Eight measurement rigs agree on the shape: extended bass with no Harman-style sub-bass boost, lower mids standing 1–2 dB proud, and a broad 1–3 kHz scoop that leaves it 4–6 dB shy of an HD 650 around 1 kHz. Reviewers broadly agree on the essentials around that: a premium, mostly-metal build with a generous kit, high sensitivity that makes it easy to drive, smooth non-fatiguing treble, and low distortion that takes EQ readily. The sound itself divides them. About 70 % by weight hear a rich, musical, planar-quick voice with generous textured bass; the rest — led by two measuring reviewers — hear it as thick, lower-mid-bloated and hollow, masking detail. Mids land dead even between 'velvety and present' and 'pushed back'; the stage is big to some and boxy or cramped to others; dynamics, detail and value split the same way. Comfort is good for most but heavy, with small oval pads and firm clamp. Which pads you wear shifts the sound a little — leather tighter and clearer to most, suede smoother and wider to some.

About this product

FiiO's first planar: an open-back over-ear with a 90 mm planar driver (36 Ω, 96 dB/mW, 456 g) in a magnesium-aluminum frame, shipped with suede and protein-leather pads and a cable with swappable 3.5 mm / 4.4 mm plugs. Not the dynamic FT3, the budget planar FT1 Pro, the closed FT1, the pricier FT7, or the FT15 that now sits at the same price.

The FT5 was FiiO's first planar-magnetic headphone: a 90 mm driver in a sculpted magnesium-aluminum open-back, launched in late 2023 at around $449–499 with a hard case, two sets of pads and a cable whose plugs unscrew to swap between 3.5 mm and 4.4 mm. It went straight at the mid-fi planar bracket owned by HIFIMAN's Sundara and Edition XS, Moondrop's Para and Venus and Audeze's cheaper models.

Its pitch was a sound, not a spec: instead of the bright, neutral-leaning tuning most planars at the price chase, FiiO voiced the FT5 warm — fuller lower mids over a scooped upper midrange — which reviewers compared to far pricier Meze planars. Nearly everyone praises how it's made and how easily it drives; whether that warm voice is a pleasure, a problem or simply a starting point for EQ is where they part ways. It now shares its price with its successor, the FT15.

A good fit for

  • Listeners who want a warm, rich, non-fatiguing planar rather than a bright or neutral one
  • Treble-sensitive listeners who still want extension without glare
  • People driving from a DAP, dongle or modest amp who want planar bass without a big amp
  • Buyers who value a premium build and a complete, travel-ready kit
  • EQ users happy to trim the lower mids — it responds cleanly

Think twice if

  • You want a neutral or Harman-leaning planar out of the box — the Edition XS or Sundara are closer
  • You prize forward, articulate vocals — the 1–3 kHz scoop pushes them back for half of listeners
  • You want the widest possible open-back stage — many hear the FT5 as intimate
  • You have large ears or dislike clamp and weight — the pads are small and it weighs 456 g
  • You need any isolation — it's open-back

The reviewer consensus

Agreement &
disagreement.

8 / 12topics divide opinion
isolationtrebleimagingbuildtonalitybassmidssoundstagedetaildynamicscomfortvalue
1 Strong agreement3 Mostly agree8 Divided opinions

Common ground6

  • Deliberately warm, not neutral — fuller lower mids over a scooped 1–3 kHz region, measured the same way on eight rigs.
  • Premium, mostly-metal build and an unusually complete kit: two pad sets, screw-on 3.5 / 4.4 mm plugs, 6.35 mm and XLR adapters and a hard case.
  • Easy to drive for a planar (96 dB/mW, 36 Ω) — loud from a phone or dongle, though impact improves on a desktop amp.

Points of contention9

  • Tonality: a rich, musical warm voice vs a thick, hollow, oddly coloured one that needs EQ.
  • Bass: generous, textured and planar-fast vs too much upper bass, woolly and bleeding into the mids.
  • Mids: velvety and present vs pushed back and short on articulation — a dead heat.

A closer listen.

12 topics · 8 divided
Left: criticalRight: positiveTighter lines: more agreement

Tonality

Leans positiveDivided opinions
Reviewer sentiment28 supporting sources
CriticalNeutralPositive

Band: opinion spread · Dot: weighted average

Sources split on a measured fact everyone shares: the FT5 is deliberately warm, with fuller lower mids over a scooped upper midrange. Most hear that as a rich, musical, easy-going voice — 'fractionally warm' to TechRadar, Meze-like to TechPowerUp, a 'genre master' to Soundnews. A minority, led by Resolve and unheardlab, hear it as thick, hollow and odd — muddy without EQ. Many on both sides note it EQs toward neutral easily.

Measured

Eight rigs agree: normalised at 500 Hz, 250–500 Hz sits +1 to +2 dB and 800–1500 Hz −2 to −5 dB, where an HD 6XX/650 on the same rig sits at 0 and +1 to +2 — a 4–6 dB scoop around 1 kHz, with 2–6 dB less 1.5–3.5 kHz ear gain than the HD 650 or Edition XS. Sub-bass is extended but flat (−0.2 to −1.9 dB at 20–40 Hz; Harman OE 2018 asks +4.8), so the warmth is the lower mids over the scoop, not a bass boost. Distortion is low at 105 dB (Resolve), which is why it EQs cleanly.

vs. listeners — The rigs show one shape; 'warm and musical' and 'thick and hollow' are that shape heard against different references. TechPowerUp himself calls it 'a more divisive set of headphones than I suspect most people think'.

Where it splits
A well-judged warm voice — rich, musical and non-fatiguing rather than neutral.70%

“The FT5 clearly has a warm tonality which reminded me of the far more expensive Meze Elite.”

TechPowerUp (VSG)
An odd, over-coloured tuning — thick lower mids against a hollow upper midrange; muddy until EQ'd.30%

“thick, hollow, yet peaky and harmonically imbalanced presentation overall”

Resolve (headphones.com forum)
Link to this topic

The hardware

Specifications.

Checked

Design

Type
Open-back over-ear
Drivers
1 × 90 mm planar magnetic (6μm PAR diaphragm, aluminum alloy coils, 20 neodymium magnets per driver)
Tuning
Pads · 2 options
Housing
magnesium aluminum alloy

Electrical

Impedance
36 Ω
Sensitivity
96 dB/mW≈ 110.4 dB/V
Frequency response
7 Hz – 40 kHz

Connection

Cable
Detachable, dual-entry, 1.5 m
Connector
3.5 mm
Plugs supplied
3.5 mm, 4.4 mm balanced, 6.35 mm, 4-pin XLRmodular

Physical

Weight
456 g

Manufacturer-published figures, not measurements · from fiio.com, bhphotovideo.com.

Follow the evidence

Sources 41

1–6 of 41 sources

Read with context

Limitations & method.

As of

What to keep in mind 7

  1. A read of where the reviews land as of October 2026. The FT5 launched in late 2023, and FiiO's own FT15 now sells at the same price — weigh this against newer options too.

  2. The two pad sets change the sound a little, and listeners disagree on which is better. FiiO lists the suede pads as fitted at the factory, but many units since early 2024 have arrived with the leather pads on, so check which you have before judging.

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