LOL Korea's watchdog agency finds 31% of stuff sold on Aliexpress and Temu fails to meet the country's safety standards, containing chrome, tar and lead. LOL I wonder if the beryllium driver IEMs from Ali are leaking out beryllium dust...

Yes I use a similar soundcard in the 3rd tab, that is quite neutral without emphasizing too much bass for example. My coupler looks quite different though, but I got mine off Taobao. So the seller has an individual calibration file for each IEC711 coupler (you need to know the serial number on...

Ah i misread your first post, thought it was mentioned the old HD650 sounds different from the new one. Burn in of drivers is possible but yeah there will always be 2 camps of believers and detractors. FWIW, there was this headfier that measured some burn in for the single DD iBasso IT00...

Other than driver burn-in, there's also a question of the old pads versus new pads break in, which can be measured.

Agree with @Hypops . It depends on the implementation. If a single-ended is implemented well, it can sound as good as a balanced output. The issue is in a lot of sources with both single-ended and balanced, the manufacturer puts the single-ended in as an afterthought, or deliberately...

The JA11 is released on Aliexpress. Normal pricing seems to be $14.99 USD, but they are having some promo at $9.89 USD. https://www.aliexpress.us/item/1005007168009481.html These are the specs:

If you need a more powerful dongle with PEQ, maybe check out the Fiio KA17. Has 650 mW on desktop mode, which trumps all other dongles and most other DAPs. The PEQ is a gamechanger if you do EQ, but it only works for Android devices unfortunately.

The Juzear 61T is a 1DD + 6BA hybrid. It is also known as the "BUTTERFLY" and from the beautiful shells, one can easily see how that namesake arose. It fits well, with each earpiece weighing 6.6 g. Easily driven off weaker phones. 8 kHz is a coupler artefact. Sound-wise, the BUTTERFLY has...

Here's a review of the Penon Turbo: https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/penon-turbo.26608/reviews#review-34254 Pros: Very generously accessorized Comfortable fitting Easy to drive Good passive isolation Versatility - 4 tuning switches to confer various tonalities Bass switch is one for...

Moondrop has been on a series of flops or mediocre sidegrade releases since the Stellaris. Riding on nostalgia by using sequels of previous crowd favourites - eg CHU II, Aria II, Solis II, Starfield II didn't help much. Spamming Waifus and sticking stubbornly to the VSDF curve didn't help much...

EA1000 is more bright and technical/resolving than EA500LM yes. But you are hitting massive diminishing returns going from budget (EA500LM) -> midFI (EA1000). Don't be expecting 2 - 3x improvement but more of something incremental. That's the name of the hobby as you go further down the rabbit...

Apparently, this is the Oriveti Dynabird An upcoming 9.2 mm beryllium coated DD https://hifigo.com/col.../upcoming/products/oriveti-dynabird

There's a new piece of SCHIIT incoming. And at $999 USD, it costs a pretty penny. The Schiit Kraken. Class A/B Amp SPECS: Power Output: 2 channels, 8 Ohms: 30W RMS per channel 2 channels, 4 Ohms: 50W RMS per channel 5 channels, 8 ohms: 20W RMS per channel 5 channels, 4 ohms: 30W RMS per...

I still keep my OG Smabat ST10 after all these years. Massive sub-bass for a earbud due to the special labyrinth acoustic tubing which boosts sub-bass more than traditional earbuds. A bit of metallic timbre, but that was quite a gamechanging earbud back when it first released!

Noise floor is contributed mostly by high sensitivity (not so much impedance), and only in sources with a poorly implemented noise floor control. In transducers with a variable impedance curve and a low inherent impedance (like in this Pilgrim), a very high output impedance source might skew...

Yep due to its low 9 Ω sensitivity, the Pilgrim may pose an issue for sources with > 1.125 Ω output impedance (based on the rules of eights), as higher OI sources may skew the sound signature.

The problem is the B&K5128 costs $40ish thousand USD to procure and configure and setup. So it is used by only a few rich whale big names, and maybe the bigger manufacturers. Even smaller companies can't afford it. No doubt the 5128 may show more "correct" graphs compared to an IEC711 coupler...

DUNU just calls them the "Balanced" tips in their marketing materials. As per their namesake, it is quite balanced tonally. I quite like these tips too.

The Summer sales are coming up in the next week or so! What audio gear are you looking to get your paws on??

Final A8000 is a very bright and technical IEM. Indeed, it is probably the most resolving single DD I've tried in my audio journey, perhaps rivaling some multi drivers in technicalities. However, it has a huge spike around the 5 - 6 kHz region, so it is not for the treble-sensitive. Haven't...

Haha best part is CFA uses Chinese made Bellsings but still charges kilobuck prices. But that's another story for another time.

Yep there was a 4DD Penon Quattro. And a new upcoming 4DD Binary Audio Dynaquattro, I tested this at Singapore Can Jam. This IEM is quite hard to drive, not sure of the sensitivity and impedance specs, but I was almost maxed out on a Sony WM1A DAP. Sounds warm neutralish, safe tuning, no...