Ollo Audio S5X

Build and ownership experience to beat for the price!

PROS: Very good build quality with a boutique meets industrial design language, balanced signature with a fairly close to accurate reference tuning, linear sub-bass extension till 20Hz, clean lower-midrange, shout free upper-midrange, fairly well balanced treble – which edges very slightly on the warm side, 5 year warranty and self serviceability.

CONS: Ear pads are still a bit small for over-ear design as they don’t engulf the whole ear completely, lesser ear gain of 6dB takes away from absolute accurate reference tonality and instrument definition. Nitpicking – Parts of lower as well as upper-treble can use a tiny bit more gain IMO.

About Ollo Audio.

Ollo Audio is a small and young boutique headphone brand from Slovenia. It was started by Rok Gulic’ and Mitja Sajovic. Rok, the CEO of the company is an educated audio engineer and his passion of wanting to make headphones started when he was mixing his band’s record and was tired of working late nights on studio monitors in his home studio, with it being highly disturbing for his family sleeping in the next bedroom. He tried mixing on headphones but wasn’t very happy with the headphones at the time. One thing lead to another and they finally started developing proper headphones for professionals, tuning them as close to reference as they could through their research. Rok and Ollo run a very nice blog on their website called OLLO LIFE as well as a YouTube channel. They have a knack for creating interesting videos, which are full of behind the scenes insight into the world of Ollo Audio.

Links – Ollo Audio Website | Ollo Life Blog | Ollo Audio YouTube Channel

Technical Specifications.

Magnet type – Neodymium
Transducer type – Dynamic
Coil – 2 layered
Membrane material – PET 25u
Matched speakers – Handpicked pairs
Frequency response – 15 Hz – 22 kHz
SPL/sensitivity – 108 dBSPL @ 1kHz
Impedance – 50 Ohm
Ear cups dimensions – Outer diameter: 95 mm
Ear cups material – American walnut
Headband – Stainless steel and artificial leather.
Earpads size – Outer diameter: 95 mm | Inner diameter: 57.5mm | Depth: 20mm
Earpads material – Acoustic foam, extra elasticity poly leather and velour
Cable – 2m OFC cable with 2.5mm headphone connectors and 3.5mm jack
Weight – 414g
Warranty – 5-year limited warranty

SPEAKER.

Hand picked and left / right matched transducers delivering accuracy and instrument separation. (+/-1dB SPL tolerance, pink noise, range 100Hz-10kHz in free field*)
50 mm, PET 25u membrane, 2 layered coil, 50 ohms,
Dynamic Neodymium speaker with 108dBSPL @ 0 dBu RMS 1KHz 30ohm output that makes them work with smart devices too.
Replaceable using home tools.

ACOUSTICS.

Replaceable earpads with outer diameter of 95 mm(3.75inch), inner diameter of 57.5mm(2.25inch) and depth of 20mm(0.8inch), +/-2.55mm.
Perforated hybrid artificial leather and velour earpads to control flow resistance around the earpads seal resulting in smoother response through all frequency bands and improved heat dispersion.
1kHz @ 85dBSPL sweep THD < 0.074%, Variation in frequency response in band from 20Hz to 20kHz ~12 dB SPL* pink noise.
Front to back air pressure equalization controlled with Saati flow resistor 3.2Ohms(²)/1cm²
Ex-centric and angled speaker in a conical radiation chassis with optimal sound stage for the spatialization of objects in binaural renderer
Frequency response tuned for translation of immersive mix between binaural and speaker setup

HEADBAND.

Artificial leather strap
Clamping force set for target frequency response on industry standard bitragional diameter of 14.3cm (KEMAR)
Stainless spring steel with powder coating
360 earcups rotation with sliders for head size adjustements
Strap and steel headband are replaceable using home tools

CABLE.

Detachable braided silicone cable employing OFC core to ensure minimal signal distortion.
Color labeled L and R jacks (Left is Black)
Ball-locking mechanics on the embedded 2.5mm jack plugs
Screw on adapter from 3.5mm to 6.3mm jacks (1/8 to 1/4 inch)

WARRANTY.
Unparalled 5 years limited warranty (Earpads and cable are excluded due to the nature of exposure)

Included in the box.

S4X Headphone
Carry pouch
2.5mm connector cable with 3.5mm jack
3.5mm to ¼” adapter
Graph measurement
Warranty card
Ollo Industry Tag
Manual

Build Quality.

S5X, like the S4X are designed with sustainability and upgradability in mind. You can see that S5X, like the S4X oozes of boutique brand build quality right away. The American Walnut wood cups look premium and are cut, sanded and polished very well. They only use a tiny bit of wood sealer on them and aren’t lacquered because you can feel the wood grains quite nicely. The downside to not lacquering the cups is that the wood can chip and dent if one drops the headphones. The outer metal grill looks much more attractive than S4X’s now. S4X had its own charm but this is definitely a step up in design.

Earpads – The ear pads are hybrids, made of acoustic foam, extra elasticity poly leather and velour. They feel and look quite good for a headphone in this segment.

Headband and headpad – The ear cups have two vertical adjusters mounted in them. The stainless-steel headband is mounts on those adjusters and that makes for the headband adjustment mechanism. It’s completely different from the previous S4X and gives you the ability to make manual adjustments as per comfort. The headpad is made of leather and looks quite nice compared to S4X’s headpad.

Cable – S5X’s stock cable feels better and sturdier than S4X’s. It’s thicker and significantly better quality!

Case – S4X come with a nice carry pouch which fits the headphones and cable easily and is much better than the previous edition’s leather carry pouch, which seems much cheaper in comparison. Ollo also sell a nice hard case for the S5X for €29 extra.

Fit and Comfort.

S5X looks much more premium and makes for a more comfortable wearing experience than the previous S4X. The earpads still don’t engulf the ears completely but these are a bit more towards over the ear pads than on the ear pads of the S4X. The headband tensioners are quite firm and don’t move with head movement. I quite prefer this style of headband adjustment than the auto adjustment of S4X. The leather head pad is quite nice too and exerts minimal pressure on the top of your head once you’ve set the metal headband to your liking. All in all, it’s not the most comfortable headphone in this price segment but is still quite comfortable and a noticeable improvement over the S4X.