In-ear headphones Ambient Acoustics AM5 LAM: hear your personality!

When I was younger the trees were a bit greener and the girls a bit slimmer… Back in those olden days these guys were doing what we now call armature tube monitors. Their experience is oh-so-good! And about seven years ago the Kiev brand Ambient Acoustics put into production professional monitors according to individual ear molds. I’ve listened to some models of this brand before: AM2, AM4 and AM6. A fleeting acquaintance left a lot of emotion in the memory! And now after several years I decided to repeat the pleasure and ordered a custom version of AM5 LAM in the laboratory of Ambient Acoustics for my beloved. I do not regret it one bit!

In-Canal Monitors AM5 LAM

Specifications

Balanced Armature in-ear type transducers	5
Sounders	2
Passive crossover	3-way
Frequency range:	10 Hz – 17 kHz
Sensitivity 50Hz :	110dB/mW,116dB/mW,120dB/mW and 124dB/mW
Impedance 50Hz :	12 ohms
Locking the drivers and crossover	Inside the housings without air cavities

So, what does it take to order the custom version of the headphones? The first thing to do is to go to the manufacturer’s website, pick a model, select its design and place your order. Then you need to go to a hearing center to make an impression in the form of an exact copy of your ears. To work on your headphones you need to send the mold to AA Laboratory. It is possible, of course, to produce the coveted product in a universal case, then you won’t need impressions and there is no running around. But in this case you get the lottery with a comfortable fit and soundproofing. Well, things can be different..

Appearance, kits and ergonomics

Let me start by saying that AM5 LAM stands for Live Acoustic Mod. This model is not for everyone, really, I think it will be appreciated by true audiophiles and audiophiles.

The headphones came to me in a nice black paper bag-bag with the Ambient Acoustics logo and the inscription “Hear your personality!”As they wrote, so they did, well done!

Inside we find a cool hard case, wrapped in a detailed manual. Next to it is an individual warranty card. The case is made of black plastic, it is reliable protection of your headphones from moisture and dust. On top of the case is a sticker with the name of the happy owner. There’s a rattling metal carabiner on the right side that sort of hints, “hook it and don’t let go”.

In the case were the headphones themselves with a nice braided cable and some accessories: a tablet for dehumidification, brush to clean the sound tube and a mini spatula made of plastic, with its help switch a couple of toggle switches, which set low frequencies.

Headphone case for headphones AM5 LAM

The shell of my headphones is made of black transparent acrylic. The right earphone has “Ambient Acoustics” printed in silver, the left one has the brand logo. Exactly this design I ordered myself, but you can express yourself in any other way.

Inside each earphone five armature receivers and a three-band crossover. You can change the bass power by switching the same pair of toggle switches, for which the spatula is attached. Tumblers are on the inside of the shelf. They can vary the amount of bass from 0, +6, +10 and up to +14dB. You get four sounds in one! ¶ well, let’s take a snap ¶!

In the end, I settled on the position of “FLAT”, that is 0 dB. Zero bass seemed the most natural to me. Although in some songs you can add +6. If you want to kick it up a notch, it’s no problem. You can make all the bassheads run away..

By the way, I want to mention another moment: the toggle switches from the outside of the headphone moved to the inside, to open a new window of possibilities for the design fantasy of faceplate type.

I’m looking at the acrylic shell and can’t get enough of it! The case is made flawlessly. Glamorous, elegant, mesmerizing – everything is as “doctor’s prescribed” – I mean, made exactly after the mold. And inside the shell, the veins of the five armature receivers gleam, and it takes your breath away!

The cable is twisted, made of silver-plated copper, on one side – 3,5 mm angular jack, on the other – proprietary threaded connectors, similar to those of MMCX, but more thoughtful and reliable. The usual MMCX twists and turns and quickly loosens, losing contact. And the AA connector is clearly fixed with a threaded twist. An interesting development, proprietary to Ambient Acoustics.

Well, now the main thing – listening to music!

Sound

Listening was made with MyST DAC 1866OCU V.2, Lotoo paw Gold, iBasso DX200, and QLS QA-360. All sources were played with the headphones at the appropriate level.

In general, the ears are great friends with all sources, but best of all they turned out with stationary MyST DAC 1866OCU V.2 and Lotoo paw gold. I can’t have any complaints in connection with iBasso DX200, QLS QA-360. No disrespect, LAMs sound quite decent even from my Samsung Galaxy s7 edge smartphone.

Taking into consideration the fact that the bass settings are still in “FLAT” mode, the sound is quite dense, smooth, with a slight uplift in the low frequencies. From the first notes AM5 LAM amaze with its massive delivery, with excellent texture mapping. The ears produce a very deep, dense picture with good detail rendition, with a darkened background due to the deep bass. The middle is juicy, very musical, and the high frequencies are quite clear and accurate.

The AM5 LAM has multiple levels of pitch. The virtual scene is not as wide as it is deep. This is the case when you want to listen to music and catch an extraordinary buzz, but not to disassemble the composition into small components. The detail of these ears does not distract the listener from the main thing, the picture as a whole is drawn more clearly, with “more pixels”, the balance between micro and macro creates real musical magic.

I like the dry, analytical monitor sound, too. But the dense, graceful and musical mass can’t help but hook: it enchants and intoxicates, creating a hookah effect. The musicality of AM5 LAM is not because of distortion, but because of inner harmony and beauty, which envelops and does not let go of melodic captivity. I like this condition just as much.

I don’t know why I thought of comparing Sennheiser HD 600 and HD 650 over-the-ear headphones. In its time, the HD 600 was developed in the form of a slightly tuned HD 650. And although I like the first one to this day with smooth and detailed pitch, the new one gained more volume, deeper bass, a little softened high frequencies, some warmth and pleasant musicality in the middle. Due to this the ears got more “fan” and melodic sound. As a result both models remained in the Sennheiser lineup and each of them found its own admirer. And I like both models, each one is good in its own way.

So, AM5 LAM with some unique features of their character reminded me of the tuning musicality of the HD 650. I will not say their sound is identical, but the similar charm, so ingratiating to many people, is present in the “LAM” in all its glory.

They cope with genres without any problems either. No matter what you put under it: rock, electronics, jazz or any hard metal – they will play it all with soul and a minimum of problems. Everything sounds soulful, charming and very musical. I used to listen to them all the time: it’s time to take them out of my ears and go about my business, but I’m hesitating: “come on, come on, one more song…”.

True, there are some moments in very rich compositions, where everything is on the verge of breakdown, murmur and collapse. The bass may hum and the readability of what is going on may become foggy. No big deal, not critical. Such faults are rather conditional, because few in-ear headphones can cope with such an iron stream…

Off the top of my head I can think of only two models of IEM, which did not pass the test, for example the curve “chinese burn”. These are the Etymotic ER4S and the StereoPravda SPearphone SB-7. But these headphones ergonomics, to put it mildly, are not for everyone and the price tag of SB-7 is three times higher. And in general, the sound is different: these headphones catch something in their own ears, while the others do it in a completely different way. I won’t even say nothing about comfort, looks and special charm of AM5 LAM sound. Unique headphones!

By the way, AM5 LAM still know how to breathe new life into “waning candle” filling it with live fire. There are such compositions, originally recorded very poorly and “skinny”, you just can’t listen to them with other ears. And in the AM5 LAM “semi-erased” things sound great!

Here is a concrete example, the other day I was listening to my favorite “Young Americans” by David Bowie. On home desktop this album plays with the same power and content as AM5 LAM. In favorite “motiks” ER4S the same composition sounds too schematic and primitive, though informative in this case is more than enough…

Bottom line

The woofers are massive, three-dimensional, with good elaboration of space depth. The bass envelops with its power giving the whole picture a darkened background. It doesn’t go for the mid and high frequencies, on the contrary, it interacts with them clearly. It is so comfortable and rolls around your body that you feel it with every fiber of your being. Just a little bit lack of speed here and there. When you’re fully immersed in the music, you just don’t notice it.

The mids are “juicy”, melodic, smooth, without peaks, dips and distortions. The midrange is very musical, with good detail and definition of the plans. The melodies are smooth, very musical and without any annoying factors. Your vocals sound very expressive with great emotional range.

The tweeters are smooth, there are not many of them, but they are good in quality. It’s precise, smooth and detailed, just the way I like it.

In general AM5 LAM dispose to long-lasting listening to musical material. Not only are they not boring, but on the contrary, you just don’t want to take them off. The key words in the sound characteristics of these ears are musicality, depth and beauty.

Conclusions

Very good headphones. Without a doubt, I recommend this model for purchase. In view of its genre versatility, you can probably take it even without listening. On the website of Ambient Acoustics AM5 LAM costs $850-900, depending on the “frills” and cable length. In our money it is 51-54 thousand Dollars for the custom version. The universes cost $750, which is about 48,765 Dollars. I think this price tag is quite adequate.

Sound, ergonomics, appearance, kit, price.

Price not for everyone