I have been evaluating the Mifo 05 TWS earbud. I received a review sample from Sherry at Yinyoo, Amazon.co.uk. Product link:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B082WTTP4S?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title
Here is my review:
Introduction
The Mifo 05 is a TWS (True Wireless Stereo) Bluetooth 5.0 earbud featuring a long play time (7.5 hours per charge and a total of 100 hours from the charging dock). The driver is a 6mm dynamic unit.
What’s in the box?
The Mifo 05 comes attractively packaged in a rectangular silver grey box with a colour image of the contents on the front. Inside you will find:
Mifo 05 earbuds
Charging case (2600 mAh)
7 further sets of eartips (1 set pre-fitted)
Micro USB charging cable
User guide
Promotional brochure
Description
The earbuds are well-constructed from metal alloy and robust plastic. They have a textured silver finish, a Mifo logo in the centre and a small button on each side. Underneath, the brass-coloured contacts for charging can be seen. The left bud has a blue border and the right bud has a red border. Each earbud contains a 60mAh battery, enough for a claimed 7.5 hours play time. The 2600 mAh charging case is also well made from metal and doubles as a storage case when the buds are not in use. A total of 15 charges is specified. The buds fitted snugly in my ears using the pre-fitted tips and remained secure. A good isolation was obtained.
Operation
Enable Bluetooth on your device. Remove the buds from the case and they go into pairing mode immediately. Select “mifo 05” as the paired device in Bluetooth settings and you’re good to go! I tested the buds with a Huawei smartphone, as well as Xduoo X20, Hifi Walker H2 and Sony A15 DAPs. Connection and re-connection was very efficient. Various combinations of button presses are used for volume control and track access. I managed around 6 hours on a charge but this was at a fairly high volume, so I would consider the claim of 7.5 hours per charge valid. The connection was solid and I managed a range of around 6 metres before the signal began to break up.
Sound quality
The Mifo 05 produced a warm and attractive sound profile. Running a frequency sweep revealed an elevated mid-bass, a rise in the lower treble followed by a more pronounced dip, and a peak in the upper treble which added some brightness.
The general impression was of a gentle V shape, with somewhat recessed lower mids and a slightly soft treble tuning with some added brightness in the extreme HF. The impressive soundstage was one of the best features, being wide and spacious. This made music relaxing and enjoyable with no harshness. I obtained adequate volume with my smartphone but had to increase the volume considerably on my Xduoo DAP. The buds did have enough resolution to highlight the difference in quality between this, the two other DAPs and my smartphone. I found the best results were achieved with the Sony DAP so used this for the testing.
Bass
The bass did deliver some good low end rumble and the focus was on the mid-bass which was prominent with a small amount of bass bleed. Kiraly and Crevier’s “Music from the Sky” is an electronic spacemusic piece with a powerful sub-bass element. This came over well but did lose a little in immediacy with the definition just a little softer than ideal. The lowest notes were discernible but sounded slightly distant and lacked some detail. This was also the case with classical music with the lower strings and brass in E. J. Moeran’s “Farrago” sounding a bit hazy and missing the requisite “bite”. However, this did make for a very relaxing and slightly romantic presentation, which was very pleasant.
Midrange
The lower midrange was at a lower level than the upper bass and was characterised by the broad staging which lent the sound atmosphere and gave a kind of “soft focus” effect. Detail was softened and separation was a bit vague but there was an attractive musical quality from the extra warmth in the lower mids deriving from the bass bleed, endowing this region with an attractive “bloom” which contributed to the wide staging. The midrange was somewhat recessed, with Al Stewart’s voice in “Time Passages” coming over just a little distant rather than being projected and sounding warmer than usual. The guitars and percussion were also slightly subdued. The upper mids were more prominent, with the lead synth in Isao Tomita’s “Ave Maria” dominating the presentation and leading to the delicate counterpoint being less easy to discern. However, the imaging was very good on this track with the electronic effects occupying every part of the stage.
Treble
The treble did lose a little energy and detail as evidenced in Andreas Vollenweider’s “Behind the Gardens” where the harp strings could have been a bit brighter and crisper in tone, and the transients were a little bit blunted. The staging, however, was very three-dimensional with sounds even coming from behind my head! The complex high frequency sequenced parts in “Delphi Dream” from David Wahler’s “Antiquus” had a touch less energy than usual, but the stereo imaging on this track was excellent with the movement very well portrayed. Overall the lower treble was quite lively but there seemed to be a dip in the mid-treble which gradually recovered as the frequency increased with the higher treble possessing some much-needed sparkle.
Summary
The Mifo 05 is a very good product and “does what it says on the tin”, delivering on its promises and scoring well in every department. It is well presented with good accessories, works efficiently and is simple to operate. It is well designed and made, has a good battery life and is also very comfortable to wear. Perhaps the only minor criticism would be in sonic terms where a little more detail and energy in the treble would have been appreciated.
The sound is relaxing, gentle and musical. It has an impressive 3-D soundstage and excellent imaging. It has a kind of “vintage” or “analogue” quality, and the nearest in sound to the Mifo 05 in wired earphones would be the Blon BL-03 or the new CCA CA16, with their warm presentation (which is praise indeed!) but the Mifo 05 just falls short in detail retrieval.
In ultimate terms, it does lack a little clarity and transient attack, but this is not surprising when listening to a compressed signal (Bluetooth) versus high-res files directly wired. This slight softness may also be the result of only having the A2DP codec. If the higher resolution apt-x codec had been available, I would have expected a more lively sound with more detail. The new mifo 05 plus does include apt-x and has a balanced armature driver so it should address these concerns.
The sound did improve after a reasonable period of burn-in and the choice of source did notably affect the presentation with my Sony A15 DAP delivering a more impactful sound which really suited the '05s. This was mainly due to a higher volume available via Bluetooth on this device, as I found the earbuds did perform better with a robust signal.
The Mifo 05 is a very good product. It has an enjoyable and relaxing sound quality and a very good soundstage and it is very well designed and made. The performance of the 6mm dynamic driver is praiseworthy and the minor issues with the treble are a fair trade-off for the convenience and freedom of wireless operation.
