Smabat M2 Pro Review (2) – Do It Yourself!
Pros — Great haptic and build; good technicalities; great cable; highly customizable; value.
Cons — Needs TLC for some to meet their sonic preference.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Smabat M2 Pro is a very well built, highly customizable earbud that lets you choose your sonic preference signature. It comes with two different tuning modules. Upgrade drivers are available at extra cost.
INTRODUCTION
Smabat is a Chinese company that specializes in quality earbuds – but not only. Whatever they do, they put a lot of extra thought in it. For example, their new $50 Smabat X1 earphone has tuning switches. I have already reviewed the Smabat ST-10, an earbud with a very special fit. Earbuds are great for people who want to listen to music while not being completely detached from their surrounding environment, for example when awaiting a phone call. Earbuds may be comfortable as they are not pushed into the ear canal, however they typically lack on their low end. I would the Smabat ST-10 amazingly bassy – and the Smabat M2 Pro is reasaonbly good in this aspect, too.
50 years ago or so, there was the modular synthesizer: modules could be added to the core unit to make it a bigger, more versatile instrument. The Smabat M2 Pro is, strictly speaking, not a modular earbud as claimed – as nothing is added – but parts can be exchanged. In the case of the Smabat M2, the user has the choice of two included tuning modules. Co-blogger Baskingshark has examined and described the tuning possibilities in great detail. Please have a look at his review. I am focussing on the sound of the Smabat M2 Pro in this note. You find additional photos appended below.
SPECIFICATIONS
- Driver Unit: 15.4mm titanium plated diaphragm material
- Frequency Response: 10 Hz – 22kHz
- Impedance: 40 ohms
- Sensitivity: 110 dB/mW
- Cable type: MMCX
- Tested at $45.50 USD
- Product Page: Smabat M2 Pro
- Company Page: https://www.smabat.com
- Purchase Link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4001267044768.html
PHYSICAL THINGS AND USABILITY
You can read about the box’s content, build and comfort, as well as the tuning modules and process in Baskingshark’s review. Included are two different tuning modules, which are small disks that are easily inserted into the earpieces. You can alsoswap the whole driver out for higher-quality ones – but these are not included. Quick comments: great metal shells and cable. Top notch for a budget earbud.
TONALITY AND TECHNICALITIES
Follow these links for some background information:
My tonal preference and testing practice
Equipment used: iPhone 5S
First a warning: perceived tonality of earbuds may depend more on ear canal shape than of earphones or headphones. I pin this to the generally questionable orientation of earbuds in the ear, which is close to 90 degrees off relative to the ear canal. During my listening test for the Smabat ST-10 review, I perceived strong shoutiness (elevated upper midrange) whereas the graph did not show a substantial “pinna gain”. This misfit of graphing and sonic perception may stem from reverberations inside my ear. Therefore, please take my sonic description of the Smabat M2 Pro with a grain of salt. And I say it right away, I perceived the sound with both tuning modules, albeit different, as shouty and overly aggressive. A thicker third-party textile cover solved the problem. Listening with the included rubber covers emphasized the shoutiness, and without any cover, the sound was nasal, tinny, and unbearably bright. Here my description for both tuning modules using the included but rather thin textile covers. These covers also improved the hold in my ears.
T1 module (“mid and high pitches clearer”): bass and bass extension are rather good for an earbud, bass is tight and articulate, actually really good, however vocals are lean and overly nasal, sharp, harsh, and aggressive, way too shouty for my enjoyment. There is some sibilance. Treble has good extension and resolution. Stage is expansive with good spatial cues, wider than deep. Timbre would be great when subtracting the sharpness. The other technicalities such as separation and layering are also good.
Replacing the stock covers with thicker third-party textile covers, thickens the bass to thumpy, syrupy, and slow while the lean nature of the vocals remains intact to the most extent, unfortunately. This throws the low end and lower midrange out of balance: too thick and slow below vs. too thin and aggressive above. Treble remains unaffected. In summary, the ticker textile cover appears to mainly thicken my low-end perception whereas midrange remains too energetic.
T0 module (“high, medium, and bass frequencies are uniform”): this module essentially evens out the kinks of the upper midrange to some extent, but vocals remain too sharp, and too shouty for my ears. Adding the thicker third-party foams appear to finally work for me. Bass and vocals are thickened at the expensive of midrange clarity and spatial cues. Bass extension is perceived as improved and mid bass is borderline boomy, but it is not as thick as with the other module, and quite acceptable. Excess energy is being removed from the vocals which improves the note weight and makes the image darker. Depth is added to the stage but also some congestion. Vocals are richer and fuller bodied and the shoutiness has essentially been reduced to “borderline”. As with the other module, the thicker foams do not appear to affect the treble, which remains crisp and well resolving. In summary, there is a tradeoff: tonality improved at the expense of technicalities. I like the volume and body with this module/cover combination. It show who finicky these things are and how a small variation in cover thickness can make a big difference. And it may work differently for you.
In summary it may take a bit of fine-tuning to find the tonality that fits one’s preference.
CONCLUDING REMARKS
The Smabat M2 Pro is a very well built earbud that is sonically a good step up from the $10-30 fare. It has a natural (to slightly metallic) timbre and is highly customizable. They are a good option for people who want quality sound but don’t like using eartips or who need to be aware of their surroundings while listening to music.
Until next time…keep on listening!
DISCLAIMER
I would like to thank SMABAT for providing this review sample Get the M2 Pro from the SMABAT Store.
Our generic standard disclaimer.
You find an INDEX of our most relevant technical articles HERE.
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