First of all, I'd like to thank @gadgetgod and Hiby for organising this review tour in India, and giving me this opportunity. I have used my Fir Audio Radon6 and Noble Audio Viking Ragnar IEMs to test the DAP, along with PW Audio First Times cable with Shielding.



Let's get on with the bit on how I found this device in terms of operability.

Device

The device has a no nonsense packaging with a simple cable, the device, its purple case. The screen is almost phone like, with pretty decent color reproduction for a DAP. Can't really complain at this price range for a better setup. And with its curves, the Dap looked quite stylish and different to me. UI is also pretty smooth, a bit laggy sometimes, but nothing much to complain abou given the price.




Battery

In short, below average, is how I'd rate the battery performance, it lasted only about 6-6.5 hours for me, and with Android operations (using streaming services), the battery fell by about 27-28% in just an hour, which alarmed me quite a bit. Because, the sound was quite engaging (which I'll talk about in the next section), but the battery performance was an absolute bummer for me, totally unacceptable by any standards.



Let's talk about the sound quality in detail now!



Staging, Layering, separation, resolution and Dynamics :-



Wide, tall, still lacking in depth. The stage extends really well both on the X and Y axes. Especially the height, simply stunning for the price at which this device is being offered. But the depth wasn't great at all, very mediocre actually, horizontal instrument placement on "Chesky's Ultimate demonstration disk" album was quite weak on tracks like "If I could sing your blues". All in all, a mixed bag when it comes to staging.

Layering, imaging and separation, all come together very well to give a very well defined and spacious sounding presentation. Dynamics are pretty decent as well, slightly on the softer side for me, as the kicks felt a bit rounded, but the sudden instrument and vocal shifts and octave changes were all rendered quite well, and nothing felt out of place to me. Tone and timbre, while pairing with my Radon6, sounded quite lifelike, but with Ragnar (which in itself, takes a lot to sound natural, namely Wm1z M2+FTS+a100tb), that wasn't the case, and it did sound a bit unnatural as it mostly does. But it did retain the resolution of both Ragnar and Radon6, as they should be, and it aided the overall presentation to have an excellent definition and space.



The R6 pro2 didn't make my life difficult at all when I picked it up, in spite of the fact that I was coming from Wm1z M2 and DX320. It's a pretty decent technical performer, to sum it up, but, sans staging depth.



Mids, Bass and Treble :-



All are great, thank you!



Alright, no need to get disappointed, I'll explain it one by one



Mids :- It did sound quite melodious, rich and emotional, while maintaining an amazing sense of clarity and details. I was totally taken aback by the level of finesse shown by R6 pro II, considering the price. I couldn't help but feel that it was comparable to some multi kilobuck DAPs that I have heard previously. Surprising performance, coming dangerously close to my beloved gold brick, which is commendable for the price it is being offered at.



Bass :- Slamming and pounding bass, I absolutely loved the dexterity and the gentle handling to showcase the viscerality of the sub-bass and mid bass regions. In spite of that, it retained the monstrosity of Radon6's bass impact and sheer power. Again, I was baffled by what I was listening to, on some of Ritviz and Nucleya tracks. How can a DAP, ridicule some bigwigs, not in terms of relative performance, but in absolute terms as well. Incredible job Hiby.



Treble :- Smooth, velvety and dripping with honey, yet retaining it's sparkle, R6 pro II again took me by surprise. No idea how the Hiby engineers managed to do it, but whatever they were high on while designing a sub-1k DAP, please have more of such substances, while designing the rest of your lineup. Cymbal crashes don't sound as harsh and/or smeared with Ragnar, which has tendency to expose a bad pairing so blatantly. Radon6 had an extra dose of sparkle, which balanced out it's slightly darker nature, by lending a bit more air in the upper treble reaches. In short, treble is without any trouble on the R6 pro II.



Conclusion :- I would've bought the DAP in a heartbeat, hadn't it been for the almost absent staging depth and the poor battery performance. If you can live with that, then I can confidently say that I haven't come across a DAP that can perform so well under the 1k mark. My friend tells me that both these departments have improved after a few more charging cycles and burn in. I hope I'm proven wrong and I end up picking this gorgeous DAP for myself.

DUNU TALOS - The absolute budget Planar STAR!!

The current wave of budget planars has gotten me super excited as they do a lot more than what I have experienced with traditional BA and DD based iems that I have tried so far. Latest in this assembly line of amazing iems is Dunu Talos, an iem that looks the way it sounds, which is beautiful.



Before going ahead with my impressions, I would like to thank Hifigo for including me in this review tour. You can read the technical details about this iem by visiting the below mentioned link.

https://hifigo.com/products/dunu-talos



You can purchase Talos from the link above or from Amazon using the link provided below :-

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BFF8P26W/dunu+talos/



My Testing was done using Astell & Kern Kann Max and with the switch off on Talos. Let’s dive straight into the impressions now.

Bass – The bass is pretty tight, decently extended and well articulated for the price. I would have preferred a bit more in terms of both extension as well as the quality but at the price point that this IEM retails for, I really have no complaints. It is not a bassy IEM per se but it shows up as and when required in the song and it doesn’t sound lean or anemic.



Mids – overall the mids are on the warmer side, they sound clear, has a decent amount of body and also does convey the emotional aspects of the vocals very well for the price. The Mids are neither too forward nor to resist, I found them to be at a perfect level that is suitable for all kind of recordings/tracks. The strings have a decent amount of bite that kept me interested throughout and the upper mids didn’t have any fatigue or harshness to them, thereby letting me enjoy the electric guitars too without them overwhelming me at any point of time.



Treble – Decent treble extensions add to the experience along with a not so exaggerated presence, which gives an overall sweeter/darker tone to the iems, without really compromising on the details. The is no harshness that I felt cymbal crashes and the upper treble region had adequate air to keep me interested.



Tonality, Dynamics, Separation and layering – Overall, tonally these IEMs lean slightly towards the darker side for me, especially when comparing to the other IEMs that I have heard like the 7HzTimeless and Shuoer S12. They aren’t muddy and sound pretty clean and crisp. The tonal weight is pretty decent as well, slightly thicker than S12 imo. Dynamics are pretty decent on this one, slightly muted when compared to S12 imo. But it was still enough to keep me interested. Separation and layering are excellent as well, at par with others in the stable of the modern planar iems.





Stage and Imaging – Soundstage and imaging on this iem falls somewhere between S12 and tin hifi P1 max for me, where P1 Max << Talos << S12. It is quite wide and has very tall images which I have noticed across the board more or less with this latest crop of budget planars. Positional cues are fairly accurate, enough to identify the instruments fairly easily in the mix. The depth is probably the only aspect of staging where I find this iem to lack a bit. But again, no real complaints considering the price tag of Talos.



Conclusion – This nicely warmish pair of iems are right up my alley, having a warm laidback presentation for long, fatigue free session. I’ll mostly buy one for myself, now that I have gotten a chance to listen to the Talos, courtesy Hifigo. Thanks a tonne to them!!

Letshuoer Z12 - The smooth Criminal!

Gears used - Ifi Gryphon, Astell & Kern Kann Max, Vorzuge Pure 2 plus, Kingsound M03 (with iematch and SE and Ultra)
Albums used for testing - After Hours by the Weeknd and Inception by Hans Zimmer.

A big shoutout to hifigo who sent me this highly capable planar iem for my impressions, as part of a review tour.
Z12 can be bought from hifigo using the link provided below :-
https://hifigo.com/products/letshuoer-z12-zeos-edition-on-s12
Also, please check the above link for the iem specs.



I just received the black iem box along with the included set of stock tips and terminations, and of course the iem and the cable. I must say that both S12 and Z12 have excellent cables included as a part of this package. I didn't find them to have any major microphonics, also the IEMs fitted me like a glove, and actually had great passive noise cancellation abilities which surprised me. Reminded of my kse1200, which used to give me a similar experience.
Build quality of this iem is quite premium, just like what it was on the S12, and the addition of black and gold colour scheme does make it look very different and appealing to me.



Let's delve straight into how it sounded to me :-

1. Sub-Bass - Sub-Bass has more lift than S12, making it more suitable than S12 for genres like EDM, Pop etc, esp tracks like Blinding Lights from After Hours shine more on the Z12.

2. Mid-Bass - Bass guitars and Kicks have tighter bass decay on S12 than on Z12 making the Z12 sounding a bit more rounded and slower comparatively, esp on tracks like Mombasa from Inception.
3. Lower Mids to Middle Mids (for my lack of vocabulary for the correct term - From lower mids until it reaches the upper mids, Z12 has smoother, slightly less transparent tone compared to s12. It doesn't mean that it lacks clarity, but just that it has lesser bite that makes it sound mellower on tracks that employ more of arrangements like Guitars, Sitars, Violins, Pianos etc, and Male Vocals. This iem is very suitable for tracks with relatively softer male vocals like Hardest To Love from After Hours.

4. Upper Mids - Z12 again is somewhat defanged compared to S12, giving it a much more smoother appearance, and making it sound more suitable and less fatiguing than S12. As a trade off, female vocals seem to have a bit less energy, and higher ocatve violins may also sound lacking that bite to some extent. But it all depends on user preferences and listening moods, as to what one is really looking for. So people looking for a softer presentation will surely be in for a treat. As for myself, I pick up IEMs depending on my mood for the day, so I can see both the S12 and Z12 existing side by side as complements, so far.

5. Upper treble - The Z12 sounds effortless and smooth without depicting any peaks as such. Again, for tracks like Hardest to Love, it sounds just about right on Z12 more than S12. Also, Z12 has pretty decent, albeit slightly lesser amount of air, when compared to S12. This will be very useful, again, to have a fatigue free experience and to have longer listening sessions compared to S12.

6. Dynamics - Z12 is just a trifle softer on dynamics compared to the S12, but nothing that will really bother one a lot, depending on what you're looking for.

7. Staging - The stage depth seems to be a bit better on the Z12, possibly by the virtue of its bass lift. Width and Height remaining more or less the same, with S12 maybe nudging ahead by a fraction. On the whole, they aren't really far away from each other. The sound appears to be wee bit more open on S12 due to overall higher energy on the mids and treble than Z12. Overall, the presentation is a bit more relaxed on the Z12.


Overall Conclusions - I am mighty impressed with the Z12 for what it can do at its price point, becoming one of the most vfm IEMs that I've had a chance to listen to. Both this and the S12 can surely find a way into your collection for different purposes, but overall, an amazingly happy listening session from both can be achieved. The provided modular cable to the z12 is a definite plus, and given the fact that it scales pretty decently when amped, also adds to the experience for people who love to add an amp to their stack.

First of all, thanks to hifigo.com who gave me the P1 max as a part of their review tour, and also to a friend of mine, Triveni for lending me his personal S12 unit for comparison.


Let me get to the point straightaway, I talk about a gear being value for money, when it is trying to do it's best to reach and touch the higher leagues, but still falls a bit short. These 2 Planar babies, however, aren't vfm, and that's a complement. Why? Because they managed to trounce many iems in the 500-1000usd range, that I've heard in the past, in various departments. So these 2 basically sound to me like they should be priced at 600-700usd but are actually being offered at a ridiculous discount at their current MRPs under 200usd. And yes, I own 2 good TOTL iems, but these 2 have managed to capture my attention for more than a week now, and I didn't miss listening to the EVO and Kse 1200 a lot. BOTH THESE IEMS ARE INCREDIBLE. They do have some flaws imo, but even the poshest cars don't give their owners everything under the sun.

In short, imo, these are basically Toyota Fortuner cars being offered at the prices of Tata Altroz!

Getting to the review after creating the buzz now. All these impressions are on the stock tuning without EQ. Both have a degree of V-shaped signatures. But didn't seem like a sharp V to me, P1max felt slightly more V than the S12 to me.

After trying different permutations and combinations, I found that S12 pairs well with my Astell & Kern Sp2000 CU (akm chips, relatively warmer dap) and P1 max with Kann Alpha (Sabre chips and relatively neutral to slightly bright profile). And my god do these iems scale well.






So here's what I think about these 2 IEMS!!

Build Quality and stock cables - The build on both is quite solid. The Shuoer does feel more premium though, with its silver colored metal shells and a thicker cable which also looks gorgeous with its silver and grey intertwining design. The P1 max seems to have the usual resin shells with what looks like a copper colored cable, not exactly sure about the material though.

Bass - Both P1 Max and S12 have excellent bass that digs quite deep, while subs rumble a bit more on the s12, it is the mid bass that stars on the P1 max for me. Excellent texture was observed on both, but the S12 has a bit more of it, making up for a more exciting and richer experience. P1 max feels surely warmer and a tad slower and boomier in comparison. The bass feels more linear on S12 to me, but ymmv.

Mids - The mids seem a bit clearer to me on the S12 compared to P1 max. But both have very engaging vocals, and again excellent textures. On some of Rahman sir's vocals only tracks, P1 max felt a bit more emotional, maybe due to it's denser sound signature and the fact that the mid bass does lend a bit of warmth to the vocals as well. But on regular Bollywood tracks, S12 seemed to balance the strings and the vocals slightly better for me. While the vocals and strings sound a bit thicker on the P1 max, the S12 sounds snappier. Both sound amazing, but on different tracks, as hinted above. On an average though, both do a great job with the mids.

Treble - S12 has slightly pronounced upper mids, and treble air, due to which, or maybe some other synergy related issues, I found its pairing with the Alpha to be a bit shouty, but those issues were overcome to a large extent with sp2k cu, which made the treble sound much sweeter and more to my liking.

P1 max has relatively muted upper mids (2k - 4k hz range) and it seems to have heightened 6k presence that adds a good amount of air to the signature. That Synergizes well with Alpha, which, from my past experience, in its itself, makes iems with heightened upper mids sound very shouty. So if your dap is different, them you may want to EQ it to increase the upper mid presence, but for me, it is perfect. Both the iems exhibit excellent texture, but the P1 max does sound a bit more sibilant in comparison, but not beyond my tolerance levels. But again, I do have a higher tolerance for upper treble and lower tolerance for upper mids, compared to many of my friends and peers in this hobby, so ymmv again.





Staging - staging on the P1 max seems to be slightly on the intimate side compared to S12, but both iems have great depth and super tall images (to which I took an instant liking, and that makes these iems sound very premium), and these aspects are bigger compared to some entry level high end iems that I've had the fortune to listen to. The width on both the iems is decent and slightly smaller than likes of some entry level high end iems like Andro, M9 etc.

Imaging - The left right panning and placement of instruments is decently sharp. The incredible things is the images are super tall, similar to what I hear on the EVO and my kse1200.

Transient, Layering, Separation and Dynamics - While both of these iems do feel quite quick by the virtue of their well tuned planar drivers (P1 max feels a smidgen slower than S12), their only Achilles heel is their layering and separation on very complex tracks like Kamli and Malang from Dhoom 3 (both have very complex intro and interludes and are fairly complex arrangements throughout the track as well). But I can confidently say that both these iems flatten their competitors (that I've heard under 500 uss like Kato, Blessing, spring, summer their chi-fi brethren from few other brands) and simply obliterate them in these departments. Also, both of them didn't feel flat at all, and had great dynamics to reproduce every instrument and vocal layer almost accurately and at their quietest and loudest, also S12 felt slightly ahead of P1 max in this department.




I am making these compete with entry level high end IEMS which are priced at 600+ usd. That already places these in a league much higher than what these are priced at. Btw, I am getting both of these, Tin Hifi P1 max for my Alpha and Shuoer S12 for my Sp2k cu.

Detailing - Both these iems do the macro detailing and contrasts quite effortlessly, and S12 seemed to be relatively better at digging for micro details, but, while P1 max was able to dig into those pieces of info, it couldn't produce them as well as S12. I felt that it was there on the P1 max, but you had to put some more effort to find them due to the lack of adequate contrast.

Tonality and Timbre - Both are overall V-shaped IEMS, although I couldn't sense a huge mid recession, maybe because Most of the iems I have owned and loved have had a v-shaped character, right from Z1R earlier to Kse1200 and the EVO (I have EQed it to reduce the upper mids and mid bass region to get to my desires tuning). I can sense that mids sit slightly behind in the mix, but not by much. While overall the S12 appears to be slightly brighter due to its lower mid bass presence and heightened upper mids region and upper treble, the P1 max appears to be bit darker in comparisons for almost opposite tuning in the above mentioned regions of the spectrum, barting the upper treble. Plus, S12 is slightly leaner than the P1 max. Imo, S12 might pair better with the likes of N6II, or SP2k Cu as a source, which have a thicker sound. While P1 max will do well with relatively neutral sources like say a dx160 or Kann Alpha/Se100 etc. A big plus for me is that both these iems do not have that prominent plasticky timbre that I have experienced with other planar IEMS. These sound more like a faster, refined, and a thicker BA setup, however, that plasticky timbre does appear few times on both, bit more on the S12 than the P1 max. But it is very much within my tolerance limit, which makes me very happy, as I have been able to enjoy a planar on non-cipher mode after a long long time. The tone is very well textured and feels relatively richer, which helps in the overall presentation.

To sum it up, I'm getting both of these iems, coz they're that good. Can't wait to get the S12 and P1 max to from Hifigo.

Edit - Forgot to mention about the power requirements. Both iems required a good amount of power to sound full and loud enough. For both S12 and P1 max, it required about 70-75/150 on Alpha to sound right. So a dap with a good amount of power should work well.

I've also added bits about the dynamics and timbre as well above now.

I was provided this with unit by hifigo in exchange of my honest review. I won't be getting into the product specs as the same can be found at the below given link :-

https://hifigo.com/products/kinera-urd-1

Source - DAPs - Astell and Kern Alpha Balanced 4.4. and Sp2000 cu Single Ended
AMP - Vorzuge Pure 2 plus


Let's get straight to the sound

Bass - "Doobey" and "Beqaboo" both from Gehraiyaan OST - the URD diplayed excellent bass lines, excellent depth and the bass rumbles pretty decently with good definition. It seems to be a bit controlled considering 2 DD are being used as bass cannons, but I guess the balance that this is asking for could've been disturbed if those 2 were allowed to rip things apart. Compared to say an Andro, the sub bass is better (in extension, rumble and linearity too), but andro scores in terms of definition. It seems to me that there isn't much bloat either in its pairing, especially with Alpha, which again helps the vocals to sound much clearer, when transitioning into the mids.



Mids - "Ae ajnabi" from Dil se and "Agar tum saath ho" from Tamaasha - pretty good tonal weight, the notes overall sound clear. The male vocals sound decently emotive and meaty, but they do lack the depth/baritone slightly, compared to say an M9, but still good enough to hold on to my attention. Female vocals are poised perfectly for my taste, with pretty good texture and intensity/energy. My preference has largely been inclined towards slightly v-shaped signature which goes well with the kind of music I hear. One may find this to be slightly recessed in the mids, but I find it to be perfectly balanced, which is why my opinion has to be taken with a grain of salt, due to my above mentioned preference.

Treble - "Ghoomar" from Padmaavat - a bit disappointed with the treble I must say, this is exactly the URD falls slightly short of scoring an absolute winner in their arsenal. The energy that is carried throughout the bass and the midrange seems lost to me once it passes above the upper mids. The sparkle and the air is a bit paler, and it just lacks energy in the upper treble reaches, and the texture too lacks a bit which overall gives me a feeling that the driver performing the treble duties is probably looking for more juice but the lack of it is forcing it to behave in certain way, which isn't pleasant. The resolution is there, it's just the presence that seems to be lacking in the far upper reaches. The situation does improve a bit when I added my Pure 2 plus amp, and made it sound overall bigger, better separated and airier. But then when one is looking to drive it through the portable devices without stacking, they should probably be mindful of this.

Technicalities - "Jitthu Theme" from PETTA OST- The stage seemed fairly spread out in all the directions, hence ensuring a good holographic presentation. The detailing, resolution, separation, layering and imaging together combine very well to give that perception of great clarity where you can pin point every instrument in the mix and place them precisely. I won't comment on the coherence of the hybrids overall as barring the Z1R, which is probably the only hybrid iem that I've found to be decently coherent, every other hybrid iem that I've tried, seem to suffer from incoherence in presentation/timbre/balance. But that honestly doesn't stop from making them sound fun and engaging, which is what this Kinera URD is too.

Conclusion - I'd still pick this over the Andro as I prefer the sub bass and the upper mids presentation on these over the Andros. The stage on the Andros is still superior, but this iem, for the price it is offered at, does an good job in terms of value for money, giving some other entry level high end iems, namely Andros, Sony ier M9 and AAW ASH, a run for their money, when it comes to areas like resolution, detailing and, BASS. If I were looking at budget hybrid, I guess I wouldn't be hesitant to pick this one up. Pretty good iem and great value for the price that is being charged, is what I'd like to conclude with.

Cayin E01 Dacamp module for N6ii - Impressions

I would like to mention in the beginning itself, that this is my own E01 module, which was purchased from

https://hifigo.com/products/cayin-e01-motherboard-dac-amp-modulefor-n6ii-digital-audio-player-dap

It's been more than a month since I got it, and I have really been enjoying the E01 module with my iems. It forms a brilliant synergy with the u12t through Labkable Takumi 2 cables! Couldn't have asked for more really! Will get on to my impressions of this impressive beast now.

I have been a A01 user and it's synergy with Solaris (with Pico power as an amp and iemtach) is something that has really curbed my itch to try different DAPs. Those mids are literally to die for imo. And its slam on the bass and impact on kicks was good enough to keep me interested. So when the E01 was announced, I was quite excited since the A01 didn't pair well with my warmer sounding u12t. So once the E01 was paired with the u12t, I just almost immediately fell in love with the chain through Takumi 2 cable (I really don't like the stock cable that comes in with u12t, it's really limiting the potential of u12t by making it sound closed and crappy).

The rest of the review is using u12t through Takumi 2 in class AB mode of the amp in E01. I am unable to use my VE BIE iem since it isn't with me so solaris (using class A mode) and u12t are the only iems that I have been able to try with this module for now.

Sensitivity

I have used E01 on high gain on class A mode with Solaris without iematch and it didn't hiss at all. So I don't think noise/hissing will be problem when pairing with sensitive iems.

Staging, Imaging, Separation and Overall tonality

Expansive, precise are probably the words to perfectly define it. The stage is huge, which really expands the powers of u12t and Solaris to another level. Holography as well as depth is excellent along with precise imaging and separation, helping me with identifying and pinpointing the instruments quite easily even in complex passages. In spite of all these achievements, it does sound cohesive and nothing really sounds out of place. Overall the A/B mode sounds quite neutral while the A mode sounds a touch warmer. The timbre on the chain is beautiful, natural and the overall sound is quite engaging.

Bass

The bass texture on both Solaris and u12t is taken to another level really. The slam is very much present along with great extension in the low ends. Especially with solaris, it does feel like it really goes very low. It produces just insane level of texture on both u12t and Solaris, esp u12t. E01 manages to maintain a fine balance between both quantity and quality and is a clear winner for me. Compared to A01, the bass does sound a little leaner but never does it sound unnatural, so transitioning from A01 to E01 wasn't an issue at all.

Mids

Ah, richly textured, detailed. Couldn't have asked for more. Vocals just sound lively on this module. A01 definitely felt richer when paired with Solaris, but seemed to lack details ever so slightly compared to E01. I prefer E01 for the beautiful balance it strikes between detailing and tonal richness. An amazing job done here again by Cayin.

Treble

Now this is the only region which gets a little tricky for me. While there is absolutely no sibilance with u12t, there is some with Solaris, esp on bad recordings, which wasn't much of an issue for me with the A01 module, which was quite forgiving that way. Hence my deduction that sibilant iems may not pair well on these. The sibilance appears to be pronounced when used in class AB mode on E01, so switching to A mode helps. But strangely, sibilance doesn't seem to be a major issue on well recorded tracks to me. Overall,the extensions are great, neatly presented without the typical badly implemented Sabre glare that I am used to. The pairing of u12t with E01 is absolutely stunning in the treble region, crisp, clear with lots of air and details. Neither too wet sounding nor too thin or glassy. Sounds perfect to me!

Differences b/w class A and class A/B mode

The class A, I presume, should be a great pairing for infusing some musicality in the chain, which was quite evident from its pairing with Solaris, while it made the u12t sound somewhat thicker, which I didn't prefer really. It sounds slightly warmer, tonally slightly thicker than A/B mode. But the A/B is simply brilliant for warmer iems, has more air and sounds slightly expansive to me compared to class A, and is an absolutely brilliant pairing for u12t (guess I have written it so many times now). Dynamics are great on this module, and the level of micro detailing is also terrific on both the modes. In short, neutral sounding to slightly brighter iems may sound better on class A mode while warmer ones may pair well on the A/B mode.
Finally, they power both my iems pretty well and it sounds squeaky clean, but I am yet to try these with hungrier headphones and can comment on that later in an edit to this write-up.

Differences between A01 and E01 class A mode with solaris

E01 sounds quite relaxed compared to A01 which was somewhat at your face. A01 sounded warmer or richer/lusher, but with somewhat smaller stage, while E01 appears to be vast and airy in comparison. Details and micro details seem to coming out better in E01 and end to end extension seemed slightly better as well. Also A01 lasts about 13-14 hours for me in high gain mode, while the E01 lasts about 7-8 hours on class A mode and between 9-10 hours on A/B mode.

Overall, this is a brilliant dacamp module which will satisfy a variety of iems imo. An absolute winner from Cayin, this one just increases my faith in this company. I just hope Cayin comes with better and better stuff to cure my itch!

Cheers,
Vishy

TOTL Earbuds Impressions Time :-

Moonbuds Nightshade (mx500 shells - 15.4mm driver -500 ohms) vs Moonbuds Heron (yuin shells - 14.8mm driver - 32 ohms)
The Green Tea coloured bud in the pics is Heron while the Red, White and Blue cabled buds is the Nightshade.

Gears used :- v20, cayin c5, topping nx4 dsd dacamp and zishan z1 (surprised by the sound they produce compared to their cost).

Note :- I am not technically sound and your opinion may vary. This is my first ever impression/ mini review. Also, I am here to learn so let me know ways in which I can improve it for similar future posts and learn more as well. I have purchased these 2 earbuds and have no monetary gain in doing this review/ impression.

I have been eyeing these Moonbuds for quite sometime now..... Most of my audio buddies know how big of a fan I am of these Moonbuds after hearing his entry level crescents, and listening to my friends Bunting!!.... They offer amazing sound for the money charged.....!!

I have discovered the world of earbuds quite late, that too due to the insistence of friend of mine within the Indian Audiophile community a d then decided to get the emx500 after I was amazed by monks for their price to performance ratio. My earbuds journey started from there and hasn't stopped ever since!!

Glad I got to know Moon Harvester and his craft. How is it?? Exceptional in one word!!

Coming to these 2 TOTL Moonbuds..... These are 2 gems from the Moonbuds stable, each of which is very capable in its own right. While Heron shines with lesser power, nightshade requires serious amount of juice to power it. I think the sensitivity of Heron is much higher than Nightshade which makes it easier to drive. Also Heron has smaller Yuin shells which would fit most of the people, while god blessed me with big elephant ears and the mx500 shells fit me very well.

Coming to the sound straightaway......

Bass :- While Nightshade has better depth in mid bass and sub bass, maybe very slightly boomy for some, I loved it totally since it had a different flavour, while Heron has tighter bass. Definition is slightly better in Heron..... I can clearly hear the lower bass notes on bass guitar on many tracks which went unnoticed earlier, and that was a revelation! Overall the Nightshade is definitely bassier of the two.

Mids :- While Heron has delicious and mostly linear mids which are quite detailed, mids on nightshade has a slight peak on upper mids (some sections of the strings and claps come out with slight aggression), still not losing out on details..... !!

Treble :- Here I feel the winner is Heron since it has slightly better sparkle, and both are non-fatiguing (read as no sharp/piercing treble). I felt that the extension is better on Heron.

Soundstage :- My definition of soundstage of the instruments is the spread around my head that gives you a greater 3d feel (please correct me if I am wrong here, since I am not technically sound and this is my first review )
So, nightshade has brilliant soundstage both in height and width.... While Heron's soundstage was also quite good, it lost to Nightshade by a very small margin. As in I feel nighshade has a better reproduction of a concert hall than Heron (confirmed this by hearing a South Indian classical piece by the great Violinist T. N. Krishnan)

Tonality - while Heron is completely neutral imo, Nightshade is a bit warmer relatively. Also I found the sound of nightshade to be leaning slightly towards a v-shaped signature compared to heron. Both offer a very clean sound, with Heron sounding a trifle bit more cleaner than Nightshade.

Imaging :- I understand imaging as a well defined/better separation of left and right panning of arrangements. Here I feel that Heron beats Nightshade by a score of 10 to 8.5.

Separation and detailing :- Both offer amazing separation and detailed presentation as I could figure out few more layers of arrangement in both, which I had missed earlier. Again, heron is marginally better in this aspect compared to nightshade.

Both are quite good earbuds imho, but I rate Heron as 9.5/10, while nightshade gets a 9/10 for me (purely due to its massive soundstage and overall engaging sound) when amped properly ( since it has an impedance of 500ohm plus I felt it is less sensitive than Heron).

I have a few more Moonbuds, Airman and Heavenly Sounds buds en route and a few others which need more listening time after which I will post my impressions on them too. Hope this helps all those intending to get into TOTL buds.

Hope this was helpful.
Cheers,
Vishy.