What a weird little set of in-ear monitors this is! When Custom Art first teased its first tribrid in the form of the FIBAE 5, I was not expecting to see it use this particular combination of DD/BA/planar drivers. This already made it stand apart from the increasingly crowded tribrid IEM market using DD/BA/EST drivers to varying degrees of success—some earlier implementations were terrible and only now are we seeing decent treble extension with those Sonion EST drivers. This is not something you will have to worry about with the FIBAE 5! There is plenty of treble energy here—possibly overly so—but the planar magnetic drivers used here make for a softer presentation to where I thought it was far more amenable and even pleasing to my ears compared to using BA tweeters or electrets. Your mileage may vary, but everyone who's listened to the FIBAE 5 will agree it has a sound all its own.

There are IEMs such as the ThieAudio Prestige, the Symphonium Audio Meteor, and even some full-range planar magnetic sets that try to give you an exciting bass and treble response without going all V-shaped. I have yet to hear the Meteor but the FIBAE 5 executes this better than the Prestige in my books. The bass shelf, by default, is deliberately tuned to help balance things out and the treble tuning in particular is masterfully done to not be fatiguing while still being detailed and sparkly. The mids do feel somewhat left out of the party though, so even tonally you need to decide if this is to your liking as it's not a set I can recommended as an all-rounder or even to someone who is less sure about their specific music desires. At the same time, technically there are some minor challenges too but not to the point where the imaging and soundstage issue mentioned above is a big deal. The bass notes, on the other hand, could do with more weight behind them I felt. Overall the FIBAE 5 manages to do something different and executes it well enough to be more than just intriguing. The good basics surrounding the sound—decent size and comfort, nice fit and seal, high quality accessories, excellent customer support—further sway things towards a conditional recommendation of try before buy.