Yes, I did read all of it, just as I did for all the previous controversies. I stand by what I said. There is no demonstrable evidence that the additional drivers are having any impact on the sound, only hear-say. The talk about how the inaudible drivers have subtle effects on the timbre and...

Is this you? On one hand you dismiss cables as being definitive upgrades that you need to "believe in" and try to understand how good they are, and I actually agree with you on this, I think that the impact of cables on sound quality is greatly exaggerated, but that's not relevant for this...

I wasn't expecting to snort coffee at my computer monitor this evening but here we are.

Let me just nip this one in the bud: The issue with drivers not working is more than just poor QC. Their products are often simply poorly engineered. For example, in the CRN-KZ IEM, the only sound reaching the users ears was the dynamic driver because of using too strong of a resistor for the...

Let me make a simple analogy that perhaps you'll understand. If you are selling a bag of 6 bananas, you are advertising it as a "6 banana bag" and two of those bananas are covered in hard-glue and are completely inedible, you are not selling a bag of 6 bananas. This is what KZ has done with...

Reviewers are under no obligation to cover every audio company, but if there's a company that has a reported history of shady practices, misleading marketing (inflated driver numbers that don't contribute anything to the sound, glue covering driver output, out of phase drivers, etc, scummy or...

Full disclaimer: I've made it no secret that I do not like KZ as a company. I have not liked them for a long time because when I first got into the hobby KZ seemed, to me, like an exciting opportunity to purchase increasingly better sounding audio products at very low prices. After purchasing a...

Stock.

Increased price does not always correlate to better sound quality, specially in the multiple-kilobuck market.

S tier - Sony IER-M9 A tier - Sony EX800ST, Acoustune 1650CU B+ tier - VSonic GR07 Classic, Samsung Buds 2 B tier - Sony XBA-N3, ATH-IM02, Vivo XE800, Fiio F3, Samsung Buds+, Sony WF-1000XM3, Airpods Pro 1st Gen C+ - VSONIC VSD3S, Fiio F9, iPod In-Ear Headphones, Moondrop Quarks C - KZ ATE (5th...

Either Apple Dongle or SMSL iDEA for my desktop. I really like the SMSL iDEA's output. Very clean signal with hardly any coloration. Surprisingly, my Fostex T50RP Mk3 sound better from the SMSL iDEA than my Audio-GD NFB12.

Koss PortaPro. The first one's band snapped. Ended up gifting the second one. No regrets, might buy a third one at some point.

For that price, I would rather get something like the Samsung Buds 2 or Pro 2 which are under or over that price but are, on a technical level, much better sounding and performing in my opinion. I have not tried the Google Buds Pro but having owned the Buds A, I was quite disappointed with...

You are correct, I edited my post to reflect this. I thought they were all BA units.

I'm not sure if the same is true for the XM4 but the Sony XM3 were notable, at the time of their release, for being one of the easiest earphones to replace the battery in. You just had to search for the Varta Battery replacement number and replacing them was about 20 to 30 minutes work. Not...