[AmericanSpirit]

Most of the other planars seem to focus even more on details and speed at the cost of note weight. Zetian Wu is probably the best behaved planar in that respect.

Be grateful you didn't start with Moondrop Stellaris or Muse Hifi.

facepalm I paid my hard earned money for Stellaris a blind buy. Moondrop never disappointed me before that but Stellaris was the first one.

Then the hunger from Stellaris pulled me back to IEM rabbit hole

 

[mandarancza]

Does anybody have a direct comparison of er2xr with moondrop chu's?

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

I ordered both mate, will have an input vs same CA43198x2’s L&P W2

Yea Truthear, is really making difference in every segment.

HEXA for med-fi killer
ZERO for new LCP 2DD segment and I have to admit it sounds better than Aria.

HOLA as Aria killer (they got almost same tuning)

SHIO as new budget USB dongle benchmarking

wow, that would be a very revealing comparison....if it can match up the W2 it would represent insane sound value! unfortunately i cant get my hands on this dongle since its exclusive to Shenzhenaudio but as soon as i get some money to spend, perhaps i will not be able to hold myself. Hola too is intriguing, as a big fan of Aria i need to compare those 2...again, if its any as good it would be insane. Truthear is sure a company to keep an eye on!

cant wait to read you impressions!
who know what dongle magic 2023 will bring! for now, Moondrop Dawn 4.4, Questyle M15 and Xduoo Link2 Bal are my go to dongles. i have the Xduoo Poke 2 which use dual CS43198....and cost near 400$ lol...i dont like its tonality tough, cold neutral, very clean and detailed....but lean dynamic tend to bore me alot.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Does anybody have a direct comparison of er2xr with moondrop chu's?

I have ER2SE and Chu. They have close technical performance Tuning wise they are targeting different audience, so you may check if you like Moondrop’s 3khz peak style or Ety’s 2.5khz gain peak style.

They both have thinner note weight and tonal balance, Chu has wider diffusion field .

Resolving cap is about the same, maybe slightly ER2 got better one.

Timbre wise Chu has more natural decay when compared to rather quicker decaying on ER2 especially for 10khz.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

wow, that would be a very revealing comparison....if it can match up the W2 it would represent insane sound value! unfortunately i cant get my hands on this dongle since its exclusive to Shenzhenaudio but as soon as i get some money to spend, perhaps i will not be able to hold myself. Hola too is intriguing, as a big fan of Aria i need to compare those 2...again, if its any as good it would be insane. Truthear is sure a company to keep an eye on!

cant wait to read you impressions!
who know what dongle magic 2023 will bring! for now, Moondrop Dawn 4.4, Questyle M15 and Xduoo Link2 Bal are my go to dongles. i have the Xduoo Poke 2 which use dual CS43198....and cost near 400$ lol...i dont like its tonality tough, cold neutral, very clean and detailed....but lean dynamic tend to bore me alot.

haha yea iBasso DX300 uses CS43198x4 and costs $1500.

Yea my impression on CS43198’s tonality is very similar to yours. Cold neutral, very clean and detailed, however L&P W2’s power unit somehow squeezed a very good punch for bass, that’s proper DAP class punch for a dongle. As from the spec I see SHIO has 60% power of W2, but W2 is capable of driving fullsize headphones, let’s see how much SHIO is capable in driving IEMs

 

[mandarancza]

I have ER2SE and Chu. They have close technical performance Tuning wise they are targeting different audience, so you may check if you like Moondrop’s 3khz peak style or Ety’s 2.5khz gain peak style.

They both have thinner note weight and tonal balance, Chu has wider diffusion field .

Resolving cap is about the same, maybe slightly ER2 got better one.

Timbre wise Chu has more natural decay when compared to rather quicker decaying on ER2 especially for 10khz.

Well, they are like 20$ so might as well try them. I'm looking for smaller iems in general and chu's look pretty small, right? Etymotic's are a definition of small, but the deep insertion makes my ears hurt after 1+ hours of listening.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Well, they are like 20$ so might as well try them. I'm looking for smaller iems in general and chu's look pretty small, right? Etymotic's are a definition of small, but the deep insertion makes my ears hurt after 1+ hours of listening.

You may also considering HOLA 18.99 as an alternative option, I have one Incoming and have a hunch it will be more potent than Chu if size isn’t your concern.

For small shell, yes both Chu and ER2s are small enough even good for female with small ears

 

[mandarancza]

You may also considering HOLA 18.99 as an alternative option, I have one Incoming and have a hunch it will be more potent than Chu if size isn’t your concern.

For small shell, yes both Chu and ER2s are small enough even good for female with small ears

Well, the size is my concern because my left ear is super picky when it comes to iems, although the money is not. I'm just asking in this thread because all of the more expensive iems are obscenely large.

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

Today ive decide to open back my old NBBA: NO BS BUDGET AUDIOPHILE group which was on pause for more than a year...
Since Chifi Love community is begining to achieve what NBBA couldn't (chill open minded chifi community), I decide to change the community goal.
Its now all about BASSHEAD joy and gems. If your one of those (which doesnt mean your binary basshead, but can enjoy fun bass V, U or even W shape), your welcome to join this 1 day old community.
You can join NO BS BASSHEAD AUDIOPHILES here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2356925341002367

Cheers!

 

[baskingshark]

Blast from the past.

I decided to clean my drawers today and chanced upon the 4th CHIFI IEM that I bought in 2019: the Toneking Ninetails. IIRC it was about $100 USD when I got it.

Back in those heady days, CHIFI were just picking up steam and were still wrestling with boutique/western brands for supremacy in the budget IEM segment. Time really flies, and nowadays, most CHIFI give much better price to performance ratio to some of these boutique brands at the budget/midFI segment. Never thought I would see the day that planar IEMs retail at sub $100 USD, which seems to be the norm nowadays!


The Ninetails is named after an Asian Fox Spirit, which has nine tails: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fox_spirit. This spirit can metamorphize to various forms and mimic humans also. They can be benevolent or naughty.

So anyways, the Toneking Ninetails lives up to its namesake, it indeed has 9 tuning signatures, via 2 tuning nozzles per IEM housing - 1 on the rear, and 1 on the front.

Took about 30 minutes to graph what the various filters do, and the various permutations:

Graph of the various filters with the Toneking Ninetails, via IEC 711 coupler. 8 khz area is a coupler artefact peak.

So the Ninetails IEM can give a spectrum of tunings from V-shaped to neutral, to basshead. Very versatile little beast as such. Trebleheads to bassheads to mid lovers all will find something suitable for them. Even the basshead setting is no misomer (unlike some other IEMs with "bass" switches eg TRI Starsea that have anemic bass) - the Toneking Ninetail's basshead config can really rattle the jaw and cause a headache!

The Ninetails has an organic timbre, as per its DD roots, huge holographic soundstage due to its open backed design. This is a double edged sword though, as the isolation is poor. Technically, the Ninetails shows its age, and perhaps isn't as good in micro-detailing, imaging and instrument separation as some modern day single DDs at the $100 bracket.

The housings look weird, it is some gourd shaped design. Took me a few minutes to figure out how to wear them, but once angled at 45 degrees anteriorly with the gourd base at the bottom, the Ninetails is actually pretty comfortable.

Too bad it is no longer available for purchase, but nowadays we are inundated with clone sidegrade Harman or waifu or collab budget sets, and stuff like the Toneking Ninetails are a very special breed. K they will be in my rotation for this year!

 

[hongky]

Too bad it is no longer available for purchase, but nowadays we are inundated with clone sidegrade Harman or waifu or collab budget sets, and stuff like the Toneking Ninetails are a very special breed. K they will be in my rotation for this year!

Still love my Gumiho

 

[dharmasteve]

The IEM poll is still open until the 21st Jan. Voting helps all who pass through head-fi. Music heals as we live on this small planet speeding on it's journey through space. Your input with your favourite IEM's is meaningful.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-head-fi-members-poll-for-iems-2022.966386/

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

My Tangzu Heyday is now live on Headfi.
Smooth operator indeed.
Very refined, more maturely tuned and neutral than first Zetian Wu.
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/tangzu-zetian-wu-heyday-edition.26261/reviews#review-30036

 

[Leonarfd]

Tempotec Sonata HD II
Need to praise this small dongle, I have been on a hunt for a while to get silent output from my Pixel 6 phone. I have tried more expensive dongles also, all of them has picked up clicks and pops from the phone. This is the first dongle I have tried that's completely silent. Before this only some battery driven DAC/AMPs where able to remove the noise.

It also has a clear and powerful sound considering the price point and the size.

 

[291079]

facepalm I paid my hard earned money for Stellaris a blind buy. Moondrop never disappointed me before that but Stellaris was the first one.

Yeah my first moondrop disappointment too.