Truthear Hexa review

If you’ve been enjoying the in-ear monitor (IEM) renaissance of the last few years, you’ve probably already accumulated a collection of the things on your desk — so what’s one more? IEM manufacturer Truthear has had a number of collabs hit shelves, but what about their own stable? We took an extended look at the Truthear Hexa, which boasts a very familiar tuning.

Editor’s note: this is the first version of the article. Updates will follow as the market changes.

What’s it like to use Truthear Hexa?

The Truthear Hexa are a pretty standard configuration of wired IEM, with a very angular housing, and over-the-ear hooked cable design. The earbuds come with foam ear tips, and two types of silicone ear tips, each with different sizes of bore. Both sets of silicone ear tips come in three sizes, so there shouldn’t be any difficulty getting the fit or results you’re looking for here.

Each earbud is extremely angular on the back side, but thankfully curved to fit actual human ears. The cables hook over your outer ear, distributing what little weight the earbuds themselves have over the ear tip, your concha, and the top of the outer ear. Though you won’t forget you’re wearing IEMs, you will most likely find these to be extremely comfortable.

As these are wired earbuds, you’ll have to use them with a source device that can handle a physical connection. For smartphones, this is increasingly rare — but you can find items like the Apple or Google dongles for about $10 that handle the task completely fine. You don’t need a fancy USB-C DAC or amplifier or anything.

You should also be aware that the Truthear Hexa is not waterproof, and does not come with an ingress protection rating. So keep it away from the shower or heavy rain and you should be fine.

How well do the Truthear Hexa block out noise?

With the foam tips installed, the Truthear Hexa have outstanding isolation. By physically blocking about 10dB of noise way into the lows, even sounds that typically make their way through to your ear won’t be as loud as they are with some other earbuds. And the higher-pitched your noise gets, the less it’s able to make it through. As you can see from the chart, the isolation tops out between a whopping 44-54dB above 5kHz. Foam tends to perform very well here, as there’s fewer opportunities for a poor fit gumming up the works.

How do the Truthear Hexa sound?

The Truthear Hexa are excellent-sounding IEMs that have a crowd-pleasing sound right out of the box.

Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Scores (MDAQS)

The chart below shows how the sound of the Truthear Hexa was assessed by the Multi-Dimensional Audio Quality Score (MDAQS) algorithm from HEAD acoustics.

With extremely high Timbre and Distortion scores, the Truthear Hexa nab a 4.8 overall mean opinion score (MOS). That means that our simulated panel of listeners would rate these IEMs 5/5 quite often, even if there are some who disagree. Though the Immersiveness score is “merely” in the middle of the rating scale, it’s not always a dealbreaker for many. Though the scores aren’t perfect, far more people will rate these earbuds positively than negatively, despite the weakness in Immersiveness score.

Reviewer’s notes

Editor’s note: this review uses a hover-enabled glossary to describe sound quality based on a consensus vocabulary. You can read about it here.

Objective Measurements

Aside from some excess energy in the highs (or less emphasis in the lows, depending on how you look at it), the Truthear Hexa’s frequency response looks… remarkably similar to our preference curve, and that’s something we really haven’t seen a lot of up until now. Consequently, the proposed EQ settings I’m going to offer in this review are pretty scant and less exacting.

If you were to leave the profile completely at the defaults, you’ll definitely want a little more bass, but overall, things should sound like they “should” more or less — not knock-your-socks-off good, but pretty normal. That provides a very easy platform to EQ to your liking, and given how sensitive the earphones are, you shouldn’t have to worry too much about how much headroom you have on most devices.

Can you use the Truthear Hexa for phone calls?

As the Truthear Hexa don’t have a microphone in-line, you cannot use these IEMs for phone calls unless you replace the cable with one that has a mic, or you use an external microphone with your phone or computer.

Should you buy the Truthear Hexa?

If you’re looking for a set of in-ear monitors that offers extreme bang-for-buck performance, there’s few options out there that I like more than the Truthear Hexa. This is a very credible set of earbuds, even if they may not be everyone’s cup of tea. I especially like these for editing vocals, and you may find these a capable mixing ally as well.

Of course, if you’re looking for workout in-ears or you have difficulty fitting earbuds: you’ll want something else. However, in the world of IEMs: the Truthear Hexa are an awesome gateway to the product type.

What should you get instead of the Truthear Hexa?

I hesitate to list too many products here because I really like the Truthear Hexa. However, budgets are often a constraint that we run up against, and among the IEMs I’ve reviewed, there’s a number of competitors that offer something different than the Truthear Hexa for similar amounts of cash.

If you want a bassier IEM, look no further than the Truthear x Crinacle Zero:RED ($54.99 at Amazon). This is a set of IEMs that offer a much more consumer-friendly response, and even has the option to bump the bass even more with a resistor accessory.

Treble-extension haters will probably like the Tangzu Wan’Er S.G. ($24.99 at Amazon) or Moondrop Chu II ($18.99 at Amazon) a bit more than the Truthear Hexa, as both of those roll off in the highs a bit lower. If you’re a younger listener, you’ll likely enjoy those models more for their lower price and less emphasis on the uppermost octaves.

Frequently asked questions