[saldsald]

Yeah the Rime modular cable

No, Rime is the upgrade cable for Winter so there will be another one for Wind.

 

[rawrj]

I live in hot and humid tropical country, I put all my IEMs/earbuds in a box that is equiped with silicone seal, plus I throw in some silica gels in it. I have a Mangird tea OG that has some kind of corode on the nozzle, 3 year old and going strong, one of my fave iem.

Hot and humid barely does the Georgia summers justice lol

 

[Pylaczynski]

ever since, if someone ask me a recommendation for $100~$200 iems/headphone. i would firstly ask what source did the have. If they didn't have proper source, i would ask for them to spend $50~$100 for a source first before buying what basically a mid-fi iem.
Right now in the sameprice with DFB you could get dual-dac with dual-amp whose balanced out will emphasize difference between standard phone/budget laptop output with dongle out.

I respect the difference in opinion, but for me it would be one of the most controversial advices you can give especially if someone has 100$ to spend.

Assuming 2 scenarios where you just buy 1st hand (which is not the best deal if you ask me, but it is easier to present):

a) you have 100$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 50$ to spend on an IEM - Cadenza/EW200 would be probably best options + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best. Well that is not that bad of a deal as I originally tought
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani for 10$. You are left with 90$ - you can buy EA500/Olina SE/Truthear Hexa and still have money left for some nice looking 3.5mm cable for 10%.
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 90$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EW200+ Z300 or Khan + Heart Mirror Zero would cover your options very widely

b) you have 200$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 150$ to spend on an IEM - Fan2, S12, P1 Max, Legato + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best.
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani instead of Apple dongle for 10$. You are left with 190$ - you can buy Fan2 + cable, Yume, Hana, Timeless - all of them may be endgames for a lot of people already
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 190$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EA500 + TruthEar Hexa or VE SIE + Dunu Titan S + nice looking cable and you have your options covered very well. Alternatively you can buy 3 IEMs like EA500 + Hexa + Cadenza or some of the new DSP ones which is
  
  

I would say variant #3 is the most desirable choice overall, especially in the beginning of the road as you learn what you like.
If you know what you like - especially in 100$ bucks range - in my opinion you would be having much better experience with IEM in 70-80$ range than with those cheaper ones on top of a good source.
In 100-200$ range the IEMs are so good already that it is more of a matter of taste, but still you can either explore couple of options and get to know your needs much better or choose one in higher price range and leave it like that. Or just spend less money.

On the other hand having a good source in the beginning would just prevent having too extensive temptation of buying something later on to see how it affects the perceived sound But hmm - if I would say that you would have at least 90-95% experience with those IEMs with CX31993 dongles as with something like Dawn Pro

 

[Vonbuddy]

Not a new item, but you can get the HiFiMan Ananda Stealth from Amazon for 399. The Ananda Nano is likely the reason for this price drop.

 

[carrots99]

Not exactly a discovery, as it is about a year old by now, but still, my review of Hiby FC4 is published here:

Review: Hiby FC4 – Smooth Operator​

Have you ever tried to update its firmware? Using the FDU tool it fails at around 10% if I try to update it to any version (1.09, 1.10, 1.12): if using the FlashTool, theoretically it goes through until 100% and it says successful, but the device's version is always the same (1.09)...

 

[PROblemdetected]

I respect the difference in opinion, but for me it would be one of the most controversial advices you can give especially if someone has 100$ to spend.

Assuming 2 scenarios where you just buy 1st hand (which is not the best deal if you ask me, but it is easier to present):

a) you have 100$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 50$ to spend on an IEM - Cadenza/EW200 would be probably best options + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best. Well that is not that bad of a deal as I originally tought
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani for 10$. You are left with 90$ - you can buy EA500/Olina SE/Truthear Hexa and still have money left for some nice looking 3.5mm cable for 10%.
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 90$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EW200+ Z300 or Khan + Heart Mirror Zero would cover your options very widely

b) you have 200$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 150$ to spend on an IEM - Fan2, S12, P1 Max, Legato + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best.
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani instead of Apple dongle for 10$. You are left with 190$ - you can buy Fan2 + cable, Yume, Hana, Timeless - all of them may be endgames for a lot of people already
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 190$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EA500 + TruthEar Hexa or VE SIE + Dunu Titan S + nice looking cable and you have your options covered very well. Alternatively you can buy 3 IEMs like EA500 + Hexa + Cadenza or some of the new DSP ones which is
  
  

I would say variant #3 is the most desirable choice overall, especially in the beginning of the road as you learn what you like.
If you know what you like - especially in 100$ bucks range - in my opinion you would be having much better experience with IEM in 70-80$ range than with those cheaper ones on top of a good source.
In 100-200$ range the IEMs are so good already that it is more of a matter of taste, but still you can either explore couple of options and get to know your needs much better or choose one in higher price range and leave it like that. Or just spend less money.

On the other hand having a good source in the beginning would just prevent having too extensive temptation of buying something later on to see how it affects the perceived sound But hmm - if I would say that you would have at least 90-95% experience with those IEMs with CX31993 dongles as with something like Dawn Pro

Nice recommendations.

I would change some earphones:

- Cadenza is horrible for the price, you can save money getting something from KZ.
- Penon fan2 sucks on build and you can get plenty of then on classified because the tuning is not for everyone.
- SIMGOT is nice, but they dont have the best option on every price bracket line you sugest on the first variant.

People tends to jump on new hype, and forgot some really nice DD that have been sold on the past. For example NA2, wich can be bought for around 75€.

Btw, dongle madness recommend ibasso dc (03 or 04) over any other one. I would get any recommended by him.

Just my two cents.

 

[PROblemdetected]

Not a new item, but you can get the HiFiMan Ananda Stealth from Amazon for 399. The Ananda Nano is likely the reason for this price drop.

From an ANANDA NANO owner.

The reason is totally acurrate. Its one of the best "budget" planar on the market. The only issue is the fit, too much clamp force

 

[4ceratops]

I respect the difference in opinion, but for me it would be one of the most controversial advices you can give especially if someone has 100$ to spend.

Assuming 2 scenarios where you just buy 1st hand (which is not the best deal if you ask me, but it is easier to present):

a) you have 100$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 50$ to spend on an IEM - Cadenza/EW200 would be probably best options + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best. Well that is not that bad of a deal as I originally tought
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani for 10$. You are left with 90$ - you can buy EA500/Olina SE/Truthear Hexa and still have money left for some nice looking 3.5mm cable for 10%.
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 90$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EW200+ Z300 or Khan + Heart Mirror Zero would cover your options very widely

b) you have 200$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 150$ to spend on an IEM - Fan2, S12, P1 Max, Legato + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best.
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani instead of Apple dongle for 10$. You are left with 190$ - you can buy Fan2 + cable, Yume, Hana, Timeless - all of them may be endgames for a lot of people already
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 190$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EA500 + TruthEar Hexa or VE SIE + Dunu Titan S + nice looking cable and you have your options covered very well. Alternatively you can buy 3 IEMs like EA500 + Hexa + Cadenza or some of the new DSP ones which is
  
  

I would say variant #3 is the most desirable choice overall, especially in the beginning of the road as you learn what you like.
If you know what you like - especially in 100$ bucks range - in my opinion you would be having much better experience with IEM in 70-80$ range than with those cheaper ones on top of a good source.
In 100-200$ range the IEMs are so good already that it is more of a matter of taste, but still you can either explore couple of options and get to know your needs much better or choose one in higher price range and leave it like that. Or just spend less money.

On the other hand having a good source in the beginning would just prevent having too extensive temptation of buying something later on to see how it affects the perceived sound But hmm - if I would say that you would have at least 90-95% experience with those IEMs with CX31993 dongles as with something like Dawn Pro

Great thinking , great alternatives, great choice of hardware. Your recommendation is so well thought out and comprehensive, I guess it's hard to add anything...

 

[Pylaczynski]

Nice recommendations.

I would change some earphones:

- Cadenza is horrible for the price, you can save money getting something from KZ.
- Penon fan2 sucks on build and you can get plenty of then on classified because the tuning is not for everyone.
- SIMGOT is nice, but they dont have the best option on every price bracket line you sugest on the first variant.

People tends to jump on new hype, and forgot some really nice DD that have been sold on the past. For example NA2, wich can be bought for around 75€.

Btw, dongle madness recommend ibasso dc (03 or 04) over any other one. I would get any recommended by him.

Just my two cents.

I actually forgot about probably dozens of very good IEMs in the price ranges like Truthear Zero Red, Juzear 41T etc, but I just wanted to make a point.
In regards to Cadenza I tried it and liked it a lot, but YMMV.
And as you said - when you look at 2nd hand market there are much better options of 1-2 year back mid tier kings, but you need to have a lot of patience sometimes to get a very good deal, so I skipped that
And actually dongle madness (and actually many other hype trains like for M15) was the reason I tried dozen of sources already. Andy tends to overemphasise how distinctly each of those dongles sounds as compared to another to the level you'd expect that there is a night and day difference made by sources. But well - for me there is never anything even close to that :shrugging:

 

[4ceratops]

Nice recommendations.

I would change some earphones:

- Cadenza is horrible for the price, you can save money getting something from KZ.
- Penon fan2 sucks on build and you can get plenty of then on classified because the tuning is not for everyone.
- SIMGOT is nice, but they dont have the best option on every price bracket line you sugest on the first variant.

People tends to jump on new hype, and forgot some really nice DD that have been sold on the past. For example NA2, wich can be bought for around 75€.

Btw, dongle madness recommend ibasso dc (03 or 04) over any other one. I would get any recommended by him.

Just my two cents.

I know it's totally subjective, but I would lay my life in battle for the Simgot EW200 in the under 50€ price range (only in a computer game of course).

 

[FranQL]

I respect the difference in opinion, but for me it would be one of the most controversial advices you can give especially if someone has 100$ to spend.

Assuming 2 scenarios where you just buy 1st hand (which is not the best deal if you ask me, but it is easier to present):

a) you have 100$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 50$ to spend on an IEM - Cadenza/EW200 would be probably best options + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best. Well that is not that bad of a deal as I originally tought
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani for 10$. You are left with 90$ - you can buy EA500/Olina SE/Truthear Hexa and still have money left for some nice looking 3.5mm cable for 10%.
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 90$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EW200+ Z300 or Khan + Heart Mirror Zero would cover your options very widely

b) you have 200$ to spend

• variant #1 - you buy 50$ source - lets say Moondrop Dawn Pro, as it seem like best bang for the buck. You are left with 150$ to spend on an IEM - Fan2, S12, P1 Max, Legato + probably a cable 4,4mm for 10$ to benefit from balanced source the best.
• variant #2 - you buy 10$ dongle - to avoid memers I would say VE abigail or VE avani instead of Apple dongle for 10$. You are left with 190$ - you can buy Fan2 + cable, Yume, Hana, Timeless - all of them may be endgames for a lot of people already
• variant #3 - you buy 10$ dongle - as above Abigail/Avani. With 190$ left you are buying 2 IEMs to see what fits you better sound wise. EA500 + TruthEar Hexa or VE SIE + Dunu Titan S + nice looking cable and you have your options covered very well. Alternatively you can buy 3 IEMs like EA500 + Hexa + Cadenza or some of the new DSP ones which is
  
  

I would say variant #3 is the most desirable choice overall, especially in the beginning of the road as you learn what you like.
If you know what you like - especially in 100$ bucks range - in my opinion you would be having much better experience with IEM in 70-80$ range than with those cheaper ones on top of a good source.
In 100-200$ range the IEMs are so good already that it is more of a matter of taste, but still you can either explore couple of options and get to know your needs much better or choose one in higher price range and leave it like that. Or just spend less money.

On the other hand having a good source in the beginning would just prevent having too extensive temptation of buying something later on to see how it affects the perceived sound But hmm - if I would say that you would have at least 90-95% experience with those IEMs with CX31993 dongles as with something like Dawn Pro

Rapgo bridge (switches: High gain on, treble boost off, gold filter) + spinfit cp145 + xinhs silver cable 4,4 + Shanling m0 pro.....

I could live with this if it weren't for I'm crazy and the fact that buttons are my transducer of choice every day of the year.

 

[Zerstorer_GOhren]

No, Rime is the upgrade cable for Winter so there will be another one for Wind.

I see, I thought that it is Rime cable..

 

[Redcarmoose]

New Kiwi ears Melody
12mm Planar
Not out yet, but on the way!
https://www.linsoul.com/products/kiwi-ears-melody

 

[Redcarmoose]

https://www.linsoul.com/products/kiwi-ears-forteza
New Kiwi ears Fortesa
2XDD 1BA (6mm DD and 10mm DD)
Out soon!

 

[Leonarfd]

New DAP arrived, HIBY R6 Pro 2. What a solid DAP in both design and sound, going trough different IEMs.
Right now with Sound Rhyme DTE900 and Effect Audio Ares S 8W cable.