[crinacle]

VSonic VS7 Review: Unfulfilled
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[Raketen]

I had the Polaris 2 for a while and happily returned them due to the boomy, overbearing bass that bleeds into the lower mids etc. But it was the treble that annoyed me the most. I found it to be splashy, seemed to have a peak around 8khz and was just overall not enjoyable .
The Bravado has more output in the subbass region whereas the Polaris 2 lifts its game around the 60hz mark. A few db boost at 16khz makes the Bravado something special with lots of beautiful, un-spoilt treble and musical bass perfect for the bass lover.

Didn't listen for too long but on first blush Polaris 2 seemed a kind of like IO+Bass... I listened to them back to back and at least it seemed like it had that odd pinched quality (though graphs look completely different, maybe I'm just terrible listener). Didn't care for it, but possibly not so eccentric it's would be out of 'brain burn in' range for my ears. IMO they should be selling Atlas at that price, would be much more recommendable.

 

[crinacle]

Massdrop x Empire Ears Zeus (+ OG Zeus XIV): Unboxing
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[rendyG]

Do you plan to do a review of an Audiosense T800? It seems like a huge hit from another new company, but may require changing damper for treble sensitive people..
I like it more that my IT04, which is already a pretty good iem, but much more expensive compared to $300 for T800
Its 8x Knowles on each side and its tuned close to Harman.

 

[crinacle]

Here's an IEM that I never thought I'd get to try so early:

Campfire Andromeda Special Edition Gold: Unboxing
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[nort ycagel]

any toughts on the new Oriveti lineup?

 

[Gabriel Sontag]

Are you going to review the obravo cupids?

 

[chungoooo]

Are you going to review the obravo cupids?

++++1

 

[ChrisIsAwesome]

Hi guys, what are peoples thoughts on Kse 1200 vs U12T

I previously owned the andromeda and enjoyed it. Maybe it's worth getting again?

I quickly listened to 1200 but dont think the fit was right, it sounded very thin, but the resolution blew my mind.

Thanks everyone.
Great thread Crinacle, awsome job.

 

[frankqxq]

Is there any new iem that is considered an all-around upgrade of ve8? Considering whether I should purchase something new.

 

[BananaOoyoo]

Is there any new iem that is considered an all-around upgrade of ve8? Considering whether I should purchase something new.

Keep the VE8.

 

[udntcme]

VSonic VS7 Review: Unfulfilled
​

Thanks

 

[NickleCo]

I have a question about IEMs. Why is it that the best ones are so expensive? How is the Campfire Andromeda or another high end IEM physically different from a chinese $50 5-BA IEM like the AS10 from Knowlege Zenith? Are they using better balanced armatures? Is it just the implementation?

There are a lot of factors. QC, RnD, Targetted audience, Raw Materials, Design (still falls under RnD), Amount of man hours invested on a single monitor, etc.

KZ and campfire from looks alone are night and day. You may say that some KZ are made from metal but just by holding them you can clearly distinguish that the kz feels hollow and without substance. On the other hand campfire, even when you step on it it wont even budge.

 

[baskingshark]

I have a question about IEMs. Why is it that the best ones are so expensive? How is the Campfire Andromeda or another high end IEM physically different from a chinese $50 5-BA IEM like the AS10 from Knowlege Zenith? Are they using better balanced armatures? Is it just the implementation?

There are a lot of factors. QC, RnD, Targetted audience, Raw Materials, Design (still falls under RnD), Amount of man hours invested on a single monitor, etc.

KZ and campfire from looks alone are night and day. You may say that some KZ are made from metal but just by holding them you can clearly distinguish that the kz feels hollow and without substance. On the other hand campfire, even when you step on it it wont even budge.

This is just my two cents worth input, these western brand TOTL gear generally cost more cause they spend quite a lot on R&D, marketing and maybe their QC and design implementation is better. And generally labour and raw material costs are cheaper in the CHIFI gear.
The KZ ZS6 looks like the campfire andromeda outwardky, but the sound quality is very different. Occasionally we get complaints that CHIFI companies reverse engineer or copy designs of western stuff. Such as there is some ongoing lawsuit in USA where knowles is trying to ban bellsing drivers from being used there, cause they allege bellsing copied the knowles designs (BTW apparently the campfire solaris and some other TOTL brands use bellsing drivers too but that's another story for another time).

I used to buy a lot of western gear from 15 years back when I first came into this hobby. Just two years back I realized the CHIFI IEMs aren't too far away soundwise from some western budget to midfi stuff. For example my KZ ZS10 pro can subjectively hit about 80 - 90% sound quality of my westone W30 which costs 10x more. The TOTL market is still mostly western brand dominated though. I do think there is a difference in sound quality between budget to midfi CHIFI gear to TOTL gear. But the higher up u go the law of diminishing returns and marginal improvements show up. So how much we wanna spend on gear is very subjective.

 

[NickleCo]

This is just my two cents worth input, these western brand TOTL gear generally cost more cause they spend quite a lot on R&D, marketing and maybe their QC and design implementation is better. And generally labour and raw material costs are cheaper in the CHIFI gear.
The KZ ZS6 looks like the campfire andromeda outwardky, but the sound quality is very different. Occasionally we get complaints that CHIFI companies reverse engineer or copy designs of western stuff. Such as there is some ongoing lawsuit in USA where knowles is trying to ban bellsing drivers from being used there, cause they allege bellsing copied the knowles designs (BTW apparently the campfire solaris and some other TOTL brands use bellsing drivers too but that's another story for another time).

I used to buy a lot of western gear from 15 years back when I first came into this hobby. Just two years back I realized the CHIFI IEMs aren't too far away soundwise from some western budget to midfi stuff. For example my KZ ZS10 pro can subjectively hit about 80 - 90% sound quality of my westone W30 which costs 10x more. The TOTL market is still mostly western brand dominated though. I do think there is a difference in sound quality between budget to midfi CHIFI gear to TOTL gear. But the higher up u go the law of diminishing returns and marginal improvements show up. So how much we wanna spend on gear is very subjective.

Exactly! And yes in terms of budget-mid fi western gears chi-fi can be a good alternative but when its TOTL gears chi-fi still has a long way to go.