MetalLaserSteel
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 7, 2013
- Posts
- 52
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- 15
Warmth is pretty much a personal experience for IEM, it constitutes: two factors:
1: Overtone reproduction, the harmonics of the original tones, as BA drivers tend to produce less second and third harmonics, it makes sound "cooler", dynamic drivers produces more resonance, but sometimes that could result in a trade-off of tonal distortion.
2: Quantity and the overall tonal balance, if the tonal balance on frequency response is 10dB above the neutral line for 200hz to like 2khz, and the rest of the spectrum stays on or below the neutral line, of which Crinacle's IEF Neutral (gray line) pretty much draws the line, I bet many would claim it warm.
If you have reference point of IKKO OH1 here is the chart,
Aria is a tad smoother of the two, I see OH1 will be the brighter and more toward U-Shaped.
I recently come to realize, many companies are avoiding 3k pinna gain peak(they either offset 3k or shift peak to 2.5-2.8k or 4k), or just boost whole 2.5k-4k all flat) , and a very selected few commit to challenge 3k pinna gain range. Of which many of IEMs are renowned as top-notch among many head-fiers, so you may dig into and look for some single dynamic drivers that hit like the Hiditon Viento-B, or Softears RSV, if the listener's sweet spot is at 3k, it's surely will produce a very life-like and natural sound. It's 3khz pinna gain hitter.
Here are some examples: Hiditon Viento-B and Vision Ears VE8, I will set Viento-B as benchmark
Softwars RSV:
Moondrop Blessing2 Dusk:
See Audio Yume
Thieaudio Legacy 4 (with 02 switch)
SONY MH750
QOA Adonis
Apple AirPods Pro
And lastly Moondrop Aria, Aria's pinna gain is 2.5k though, if it fits your sweetspot, then you may know your likes and dislikes. I see your Dad's favorite IKKO OH1 has 2.7k ish peak, you can compare to se which mid range peak you would prefer and then later decide your own "target tuning"
Thanks again! A lot of good fun food for thought. I'm a layman with the equalizer and chart stuff, it does seem like a cool tool though. I think I saw some of the reviews mention the Ikko OH01 had maybe too prominent high-mids, and on my old Samsung S7 default equalizer I only have 7 settings to adjust, 1K, 3K, and 8K for example. So I tried lowering the 3K by 1db out of 10 and that sounds maybe a little better, but tough to say. Good stuff to look into.
I'll say, the Ikko OH01 does sound impressive, and there is a lot to like, synth riffs like Children of Bodom's Platitudes and Barren Words sounds so beautiful it brings a tear to the eye. Fire Tiger and any 80s synth stuff sounds pretty cool too. Listened to a few hours of music on it today.
Overall though, not quite my preferred sound for daily use though I think. One thing I don't like is cymbals and hi hats seem to dominate, and sometimes guitars are less prominent than the perscussion section in general. A little bit of sibilant sort of sound and I guess just a bit too crisp for me. And I do think I'd prefer something a little more warm sounding, I guess for me by warm I mean a bit like a tube amp sort of thing. Warm and soft a bit I guess.
I'll say overall, with it's shortcomings, I do prefer Soundmagic E10 over the Ikko OH01. So maybe I'll try to find something in the middle between those two. Also, I find the smaller bullet style ones feel more comfortable for me, at least going by the Ikko OH01 which I had some trouble with there. But I'll keep trying stuff.
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