Introduction
ZiiGaat is a relatively new iem brand in the Chifi world, first appearing in the end of 2023.
They maybe new, but before having a name of their own, they were actually a team of engineer, silently developing OEM and ODM audio products for a lot off consumers and professional brands, so they have a lot of tricks in their sleeves. And now, by working closely with Linsoul as their retailer, they wanted to share their work and products to the community without having as much corporate restrictions as before.
They have released a few iem from various price point, first with the Nuo – their budget single DD iem, then the Cinno – A 1DD+4DD hybrids for under 100$, all the way to their recent flagship and collabs with HBB: The Jupier – A tribrid with 1DD, 6BA and 4EST
And now, they have released another hybrid in a different price bracket, the Doscinco!
What is the Doscinco? Doscinco is a 5-drivers hybrid iem with 2 dynamics drivers and 3 balance armatures, so 5 drivers in total. The 2DD was arranged in an isobaric configuration to handle the bass; two Sonion BA was used for the midrange and a single Knowles super tweeter was used to handle the treble range.
Doscinco also means “two five” in Spanish, which sort of fitting for the iem.
Disclaimer: Linsoul has provided me with the unit of ZiiGaat Doscinco in exchange for an honest review and feedback. I did not receive any instruction on how to write this review, everything i said is my subjective opinion only. Thank you Linsoul for providing me this opportunity.
Now let's get started.
Packaging
The Doscinco arrived in a relatively simple boxing. The content of the box is also simple. They include the iem, a rectangular carrying case with a few pairs of tips and a cable inside of it. The case is made out of synthetic leathers and it gets the job done. The silicone tips seems to be a wider kind of bore and the foam tips is just your regular ones.
Overall a very bare bone amount of accessories for the price
Design/Build quality/Comfort
The Doscinco shells are made out of medical grade black resin. It feels very light yet sturdy in the hands.
The faceplate of the Doscinco looks very minimalistic, with a black background, really tiny blue glitter dust and many pieces of small confetti of different colors to highlight it. And of course in the middle of the faceplate is the ZiiGaat logo.
The shells are bigger than your average iem. It doesn’t have the usual rear wings like many other universally fit iem, so to me, the Doscinco does need a bit of wiggle action and play around will several tips to get a decent fit.
Cable wise, it’s very basic. It’s a 4 cores OFC with plastic hardwares and 3.5mm termination. The strands are only 2mm thick, so it’s not the thickest. The quality of the cable reminds me of some cheaper cable from Kbear or Xinhs. Although it gets the job done, i’d have prefered a thicker, higher quality cable so that it’s harder to tangled up.
Sound impression
Source: Poco F3+UAPP, Dell laptop + Foobar 2000
Dac/Amp: Chord Mojo, E1DA 9038D, EPZ TP50, Hiby FC6
Cable: Stock
Tips: Divinus Velvet, Softears UC
- Before diving into the sound impression, the Doscinco suffers being reverse polarity right out of the box. It’s not that the left and right side are out of phase with each other. It’s just that they're in reverse phase together. How do I know this? I have an iec711 coupler and when I measure it, it shows the phase response like this.
- Now measurement wise, that is actually how an iem with the correct phase should look like. However, I know my coupler was wired incorrectly(+ wire at - and - wire at +), which is usually a characteristic of a copied coupler. So any iem that measures correctly, it would actually be out of phase irl.
- Does it matter? Most of the time, no. As long as both sides have the same polarity, you probably won't recognize it. I personally did not recognize it until I measured it. I say this in case you’re someone who are picky about it (a.k.a me) and worrry it may affect the staging and such of the iem, can just rotate the 2 pin part 180 degree and the “problem” would be solved.
- If you’re wondering if it’s the cable’s fault, no it’s not. I’ve already checked the cable using the multimeter and the cable was wired correctly.
That is why during the review of this iem, I've rotated the cable and listened to the iem in the correct polarity. Since i didn’t bothered cutting the earhook off, i just use a lighter to soften the earhooks then bend it the other way.
Tonality: Fun U shaped / Balance L shape
Upon the first time listening, it’s very apparent that the bass is the most dominant factor in the Doscinco’s tonality. However, the uppermid range got sufficiently boosted to balance out the bass, so the tonality isn’t as dark, nor does the midrange sound too recessed. The channel imbalance is just spot on.
Bass:
With an isobaric 2DD configuration, the bass is big, bold and fun while still being technical. The subbass reachs deep, but the focus shifted more towards the midbass due to how hard slamming and punchy it is. Each bass notes are quite decently well seperated. It’s highly detailed with good texture and sense of reverb to it.
Using “Trentemoller” by Chameleon and “Why So Serious” as my bass testing tracks, the bass has great texture with a lot of air movement to it. They do not felt sluggish whatsoever. This rides the line of being the basshead’s dream due to how big, bold yet still being well controlled the bass region is.
Turning up to the bass instruments, using “The Rising Fighting Spirit” track from Naruto OST, the drums sound fast and cleanly separated. Even with so many other elements like the guitar rift, the flut, hihats, i can still easily perceive each hit of the drums. I’d have wish for the drum to be a bit boomier with more lingering decay, but this is just a nitpick on my part.
All in all, the bass of the Doscinco is very engaging and satisfying
Mid:
Even if there’s a big amount of bass, there’s a surprisingly low amount of bleed. The midrange still sound clean with decent warmth and coloration to it. Even with the bombastic bass shelf, vocals don’t get drown out much (either that or i’m too used to bass boosted signature). Male and female vocal doesn’t sound thin. They all sounds smooth with minimal BA timbre, which result in a very little metallic midrange.
Male vocal like Frank Sinatra still have that classic lush, dense signature to him. Female vocals like Adele and Celine Dion sounds natural with just enough energy up top and not to sound too shouty, although with some other vocals, they can sound a bit huskier. Soprano also sounds smooth and decently emphasized to the rest of the instruments in the orchestra tracks
Piano and violin also sounds natural with more than sufficient noteweight to it. The notes, the vibrancy of each bow strokes are beautifully captured with the Doscinco.
Treble:
The treble overall sounds smooth and relax. It's smooth, but also have sufficient bite to it. It’s well extended, just not the airiest or sparkliest, not dark nor bright. The treble serves more as a complimentary component to a highly boosted bass. There's also very little sense of sibilant in the treble region, so thumbs up for that.
Using “Caravan” by John Wasson as my test tracks, cymbal strikes and hi hats sound very smooth, has sufficient attack and decay to it without sounded too overbearing. Percussions instruments sound natural as a whole.
Technicalities:
Soundstage wise, i think the Doscinco has a wide sense of stage to it, but with around average width and height (this part is highly subjective depending on the person). It’s wide, but still very immersive due to the bass. On those songs that have spatial cues that rely on the bass itself to convey them like the first 20 sec of "Bubbles" by Yosi Horikawa, i can hear the songs going out of my head. Whereas on some others like some hiphop songs, the bass takes the front row more, which pushback and cramp in many other elements of the songs, which in turn makes it a very immersive experience.
When watching the ending scene of “The Lion King (1994)”, the background music with their instruments, the rain, the vocals, the
ROAR gives me goosebump. The bass also makes the sounds effects more dramatic, in a good way of course.
Or when i listen to Frieren’s OST “Frieren the Slayer”, the choir, the bass drum, the trumpets and other horn instruments was all given justice with the Doscinco. The layering may not be the most distinct, but the wide stage makes it up for it.
With Yosi Horikawa’s Bubbles and Swashers, the Doscinco shows quite good amount of macro dynamics, but not as good in terms of micro dynamics and micro details.
Source pairing:
Overall, the Doscinco is a very easy to drive iem. Even with a single ended 3.5mm termination cable, a dongle like E1DA 9038D or Hiby FC6, the Doscinco already sounded great with good dynamic rendering.
However, i also think the Doscinco is quite source sensitive (especially in the bass) and does scale up with better sources. The EPZ TP50 is the dongle that makes me realize how wide the Doscinco can be and the bass also sounds great. The Mojo on the other hand, although sounds a bit cramper, have better bass performance. The bass sounds like it has more reverb with better texture to it. The layering is also a bit improved too. The notes sounds sharper on the TP50 as opposed to being smoother on the Mojo.
So yeah. The Doscinco may not need much to sound good, but it sure sounds lovely when pairing with a great dac/amp.
Comparison:
1/ ISN Neo 5
An interesting showdown between Penon’s house brand iem and Linsoul’s housebrand iem
Both the Neo 5 and the Doscinco are hybrids, but the Neo 5 has a 1+4 configuration with 10mm driver for the bass and 4Bas for the mids and treble, as opposed to 2DD for bass and 3BA for mids and treble on the Doscinco
Let’s start with the bass. The Neo 5 has lower bass quantity, the bass texture is looser and feels slower than the Doscinco. However it actually sounds more organic, or natural than the Doscinco’s, partly due to the additional lushness that was introduced due to the slower, more lingering sense of bass. Drums and cello sounds a bit lusher and warmer. The bass of Doscinco on the other hand is bigger, punchier and overall more authoritative. It feels more well controlled, edgier, sharper to the attack of the bass notes. The bassline felt more distinct with the Doscinco.
As for the midrange, it’d be more difficult to compare. Both of these sounds very natural and warm. Both male and female vocal have that warmth coloration to it. The pinna is lower on the Neo 5, but because the bass is lower too so it all balance out. If i have to nitpick, some female vocals are creamier on the Neo 5 whereas the Doscinco has brighter and more energetic high notes but are more prone to sibilance, not that it have much sibilance to begin with. Instruments like piano and violin sounds natural on both.
Lastly, the treble. Both of these have what i would consider smooth treble, as in not much peaky The treble on the Doscinco is sparklier, crunchier and snappier to it, where as the Neo 5’s treble have this darker edge to it, more rounded like the decaying of cymbals and hihats sound more polite with it. More analog i’d say. Both of the treble sounds good by the way, but the Neo 5 would be more suitable for those with treble sensitive than the Doscinco.
Technicalities wise, both are surprisingly similar in terms of dimension of the stage, but the layering is not as sharp and distinct on the Neo 5, similar happen for the imaging. So for technical performance, the Doscinco wins.
2/ Simgot EA1000
I deliberately pick the EA1000 due to how similar the midrange was on the graph. Upon listening in real life, both of these iem sounds very different.
The Doscinco has a way more fun, U shape-ish tonality, as oppose to a more neutral bright approach of the EA1000.
Bass wise, the bass of the Doscinco is way stronger, more prominent, punchier and more forward than the EA1000’s. The bass on the EA1000 is leaner more towards neutral, feels faster and arguably sounds more technical, more 3D sense to it even with the lower bass quantity as well as more well controlled due to the passive radiator tech. So one is leaning more towards bombastic fun, one leaning more towards being technical. Pick your poison i guess
Midrange wise, the EA1000 sounds more open, transparent and more energetic. Female vocals take more of a frontal stage with the EA1000, as opposed to being more recessed on the Doscinco. Male vocal doesn’t have that huskiness feeling to it either. The Doscinco however has a smoother midrange to it with less metallic feeling and also less shouty.
As for the treble, i’d pick the treble on the Doscinco any day. It sounds smoother and less peaky. Cymbals and hihats dont sound as harsh on the Doscinco, especially at higher volume.
Technicalities wise, the Doscinco has a wider sense of stage to my ears, although the EA1000 sounds like it has better layering even with a smaller headstage. Detail retrieval wise, the EA1000 takes the cake.
If i’m looking for a more neutral, more “monitoring” iem, i’d choose the EA1000, whereas if i want to have a fun, bassy and chill listening session, i’d pick the Doscinco.
Conclusion
If it’s not evident enough to you, i’m very much satisfied with this iem. The ZiiGaat Doscinco is an overall very fun yet technical iem. The package maybe minimal, but the sound performance does make it up for it.
If you’re looking for an iem with a great, big bass performance, smooth uppermids and relaxing treble, with a grand stage to boot for under 300$, i’d highly recommend this iem. And vice versa, if you’re looking for a more neutral sounding iem for monitoring purposes, or iem with more midcentric, prioritized on vocal performance with airier treble, please look the other way.
Music library wise, i’d say the Doscinco is suitable for the Rock, Hiphop and EDM genre.
That’s it for my review and thank you for reading.