dhruvmeena96
Headphoneus Supremus
Sorry this took time as I was sick this past week but well, here is the comparison a lot of people asked me for.
Craft Ears SIX vs 64 Audio U12t
Right off the bat, these two have a lot in common. Overall, both follow a similar tuning philosophy but loosely, U12t is a slightly warmer reference style IEM with a nice bass boost and smidgen lesser upper treble lift compared to CE6.
U12t has more sub-bass as well as mid-bass quantity compared to CE6. U12t’s bass can sometimes seem more upfront than required in songs but generally occupies good defined space in the mix while keeping everything clean and controlled than bass-head levels of bass. It is highly enjoyable and fun as the bass character highlights excellent bass playing really well. CE6’s bass on the other hand is a bit more towards neutral relatively, slightly more technical but still a lot of fun. With CE6’s upper treble character’s support, bass sounds more life-like with better precision, quicker transients and a bit more dynamism and energy. CE6 has good quality rumble too but U12t sounds fuller with more weight but in the end doesn't have the snappy precision that the CE6 has. Which bass one would enjoy more completely depends on one’s preference and liking. I personally like both for how well they work for their respective sound signatures and I keep swaying between them depending on the song’s mix but I’d probably choose CE6’s bass presentation more for my liking and preferences.
U12t has a warmer and slightly fuller lower-midrange relatively and as a result instruments have a bit more body. CE6’s lower-midrange sounds slightly thinner in comparison. Both have a similar forward upper-midrange presentation with very good pinna gain and don’t sound shouty to me but U12t has smidgen less forwardness in the 3kHz area. They both have very good instrument tonality and timbre, where U12t sounds a bit more organic and natural, and CE6 sounds a little more lively and exciting.
U12t has more neutral and even sounding treble range. U12t and CE6 have a similar upper treble lift but U12t's is slightly lesser in amplitude. As a result, CE6 sounds a little more aggressive relatively because of more prominent upper treble and lesser fullness in the lower midrange but in return also sounds more lively, spacious and clean with neutral to warm sounding mixes in comparison. U12t’s nice Tia driver upper treble peak is definitely prominent but is better balanced and also sounds a bit more forgiving of bad mixes and masters and as a result, helps U12t sound a little more versatile. But then, CE6 has a great talent of infusing the required liveliness and excitement in warmer songs which don’t sound as fun or in fact probably even boring with other IEMs.
Both have good wide holographic soundstages but U12t sounds slightly fuller and richer whereas CE6 sounds cleaner with more air between instruments. U12t has better imaging qualities. Both have very good detail retrieval where U12t does have the lead but not by much. Overall, both are high enjoyable for me personally but CE6 is a more energetic listen. U12t isn't a relaxed listen by any means but is slightly warmer of the two and better balanced overall, especially in the treble region which also makes it a bit more versatile.
At the end of the day, CE6 presents very good value for money at its price and probably can even work as one of the endgame IEM options for people who believe in the theory of diminishing returns and want to limit their options to the $1-1.5k range, but it also faces some good competition in this segment from IEMs like Custom Art Fibae7, BGVP EST12, etc too, comparisons of which I've covered in my main review. On the other hand, U12t shows that a nice high-end TOTL quality IEM can be had for $2000 and you don’t have to look any further than that, unless of course you really want an IEM offering something extremely unique at a higher price tag.
Hope this was an interesting read. Also, here is a quick phone photo just to go with the text.
@MatusSVK
As @Animagus comprehensive review and graphs, you can see it for yourself
they are close
now about the Clairvoyance
you can see the EST weakness.
the issue is, weakness of EST and tuning approach
if, from my experience(i make iem on homemade iem thread)
a dip of 6kHz, when combined with last octave boost, gives a diffusive property, while also having the focus caused by pinna
not having a dip at 6kHz and following a relative conservative approach, the true harman or harman-isque sound is too focused(2017 was shouty AF, 2019 is focused but control).
there are two way of approaching the pinna and treble balance. either, the pinna whole range is reduced or some dip are created here an there to give it a specific property
well it follow 200Hz to 1kHz flat like those totl iem
and cost a lot less
1/2 of U12T
1/3 of U18S
for pretty much the same sort of tuning DNA and last octave or upper treble
and you pay premium of BA bass speed but also dynamics of woofer over ThieAudio DD woofer
i have heard U12T and Clairvoyance
itsfit vs C6
i have heard itsfit and its good, but gets weird here and there, some time female vocal lacking, sometime it soars, but the issue is, its dark. the 6khz dip with no last octave robs the air from stage. it has depth but if it had followed flat mids and bass shelf rule, this would have been those who crave for dark space. for me, its slightly weird sounding on some track otherwise good iem
i have yet to recieve a C6 review unit(COVID sucks) but from what i know
its hands down amazing
plus craft ears came from a guy who was the part of one of the oldest thread on headfi(home made iem) and he is very open to suggestion and cool dude.
@Animagus review pretty much sums it up
i just wrote a short summary what i think
plus, i asked some peeps who have C6, and they say that the bass tech and tonal are end game
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Taken from their facebook page
FOUR too but it sounds even more exciting on the SIX.
