DynamicEars
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Jan 5, 2019
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My Spring 2 spent a week at a shipping facility in Nevada, but arrived yesterday. Been listening almost non stop, and left it burning overnight, so it's probably got about 18 hours of burn in. I almost left a slightly underwhelmed initial feedback post this morning, but some tinkering has left me with a much stronger impression.
First, a cable swap made a massive difference in sound and comfort. Mids were pinched and imaging was hazy with the stock cable. Also the ear guides are screwy and stick out perpendicular from the direction that they should really go. This pushes them up against the back of your ears, which is uncomfortable, and makes it difficult to keep the nozzles inserted at a consistent depth. I swapped out for the upgrade Tanchjim Oxygen cable and the mids came to life.
Second big discovery was that these do better with deep insertion rather than shallow insertion. Imaging was a bit wonky with Sedna Earfits and Final Type E tips both, I'd hear things like a drum kit where the snare is dead in the middle of my head and a high hat was way off to the side, so it didn't sound like the imaging of an actual performance of a drummer at a kit.
I've got pretty big ears, so medium Symbio W hybrids work for very deep insertion for me. Those give a very vivid, vocal-forward experience, but seemed to be missing some air and separation, despite all of the treble details presented. Comfort was ok but not great. Soundstage had ok height but almost no depth. The real winner though turned out to be Tennmak Whirlwind tips with the deepest nozzle insertion I can manage. That is far more comfortable, and enhances separation. Whirlwinds also make the sound stage have more depth, helping eliminate the sensation that the sound stage is left to right from ear to ear. Not sure I'd go so far as to call it consistently "3d" or "holographic", and it's not really an outside-of-your-head experience, but I do find myself being nicely pleased by the sound stage with the right tips.
Tuning is good, and fun. Feels kind of like a W shape, but with the mid bass and sub bass fairly linear to each other. It's surprisingly warm, although not excessively so. I just was expecting something cool and treble focused because of the piezo and looking at Spring 1 graphs, but that's not the case. This definitely has the best piezo timbre I've heard so far, I never get the "zing/ring" tonality like occurs on (especially) NiceHCK NX7 or LZ A6 mini. Treble isn't harsh and there isn't sibilance, despite the emphasis and sparkle. I enjoy treble detail, but am also not a fan of shouty upper mids/lower treble, and this finds a nice sweet spot there.
The biggest tuning difference compared to most chi fi sets in the same price range (or below) is that vocals are given plenty of emphasis, even male vocals. That's where the "w-shape" description is coming from -- not sure if it looks like a w on a graph, but you get a nice mix of bass presence, vocal emphasis, and treble sparkle. I think this is a set more suited to rock or hip hop rather than classical or jazz, but I think timbre for things like saxophones and strings sound pretty proper in the context of rock arrangements.
Still feeling my way around some of my "reference albums" and will tinker some more with tips and sources, but my day 2 reaction for Spring 2 is a thumbs up. Not trying to say that this is flawless, but my initial thought is that the Spring 2 is better than many other IEMs in the same price range that I currently own (thinking Ikko OH10, Moondrop KPE, and ISN D10). It's missing the effortless coherence of my best single driver sets though.
Nice impressions! And seems like your preference is similar with mine, i also not a fan of upper mids boost tuning. My best preference is pinna gain at around 8db increment from 1khz, be it on 2khz or 4khz but definitely must have 3khz dip.
Spring 1 is great, especially after grill mods that fix a lot things, and I told BQEYZ about this grill mod, turned out that inital Spring 1 tune is actually based on 'grill mod version' even the marketing FR actually is similar to grill mod version. I think the final production messed up with that cloth mesh damper under the grill that changed the sound too much making artificial soundstage, smoothen out textured and bloated bass.
And finally BQEYZ agree with my opinions. They ditch the cloth mesh for the Spring 2. Not only gimmicky removes the cloth mesh alone but they said they retune the Spring, and add 2 additional layers of piezo from 7 to 9.
Still with grill mods, the problem is laying on bass tuned. Mid and upper bass is too big, their speed is fast for 13mm DD. Just the tune. And about 8khz yes, they are boosted but not harsh, but made soft tizziness as i emphasized on my Spring1 review. The piezo itself sounded natural even not as natural as good DD or good BAs but definitely much more extension and details compared to DDs and BAs.
I agree that the piezo on Spring1 is better than on NX7 Pro and LZ A6. Nx7 pro required cotton mod to avoid glaring and zinging issues.
I hope Spring 2 give much different experience especially on bass segment. If the sub bass bigger than mid bass. So mid and upper bass aren't too much, they will be great. Mids are their strengths. Forwarded, details, and yet smooth. Remind me of my sony M7, or Tri i3 but without that 3khz pinna gain peak.
Do you think the bass is great / better than Spring1 (if you have listen to)?
My Spring 2 still in the ocean currently and expect long time delivery at this moment. I really can't wait