[skysoul]

Correction...45% more its the Gold edition and 30% more is the normal Black edition.
 
Cable the same, unless the trrs 2.5mm plug is made out of special material or coating or whatever marketing reasons they could think of to justify the huge difference.
I believe (MOHO) and by looking,  the normal 3.5mm plug cost more than the trss 2.5mm plug. The trss 2.5mm is a L shape black OM plug...looks like normal cheap earpiece plug to me.

 

[warrior1975]

That's really a damn shame... What's the justification behind it? I understand we all need to make money, but that is really just straight up abuse to consumers. Yes, I know, capitalism, market, and blah blah blah... Sadly, I'm sure it will sell... I'd probably even be one of the idiots to waste more money on it too...

 

[audionewbi]

I love Dita for sure but I think they are trying to get closer to AK (who isn't) and in order to get ahead of the competition you are required to attract attention and certainly pricing does that.

I know it will sound good, and I know I will never for sure know the cost price, marketing price and etc but it is a shame with improving technology instead of seen improvement in sound and reduction in pricing we see the opposite. Maybe the sound science field is still much too young to work the same way as the silicon chip field. 

 

[proedros]

meanwhile Hifiman sells its flagship RE-600 for 199$ and no waves are made around here

sad.

 

[Sauntere]

  meanwhile Hifiman sells its flagship RE-600 for 199$ and no waves are made around here

sad.

 
Relevance ???

 

[warrior1975]

meanwhile Hifiman sells its flagship RE-600 for 199$ and no waves are made around here


sad.

I'm not sure I understand your point.

 

[proedros]

  I love Dita for sure but I think they are trying to get closer to AK (who isn't) and in order to get ahead of the competition you are required to attract attention and certainly pricing does that.

I know it will sound good, and I know I will never for sure know the cost price, marketing price and etc but it is a shame with improving technology instead of seen improvement in sound and reduction in pricing we see the opposite. Maybe the sound science field is still much too young to work the same way as the silicon chip field. 

 
i forgot to put the quote

 

 

[twister6]

   
i forgot to put the quote

 

 
We are talking about $400 aging IEM that didn't hold it's value too well and now on "clearance" for $199   Perhaps the relevance here is figuring out the "cost" since in a lot of the cases clearance price reflects that...

 

[efftee]

Fwiw, the balanced Truth does come with an additional short cable adaptor made of the same Truth cable. But if you think that the 30% premium is a lot, then I doubt the adaptor cable will convince you otherwise.

Just something to consider, in small production runs where there's not much, if any, economy of scale to enjoy, the unit cost of something that's relatively simple or seemingly inexpensive to do, such as a balanced termination, could end up costing more than you'd imagine. Additionally, I've seen the quality of material and workmanship that goes into the Answer and I have been impressed; even the humble little adaptor cable that comes with the Truth balanced is a no-expense-spared design to make the connection perfect in order to preserve the sound quality when you need the 3.5 plug.

So in the end, what's 30%? $300? For a niche product aimed squarely at the AK240 owners who want an already good IEM to sound even better, seriously, I don't think the Dita boys are expecting a big pay day with the Truth balanced. If anything, they'd probably be hoping to sell enough just to recoup this exercise!

 

[warrior1975]

Perhaps you are correct. Never thought of it from that angle. I'm definitely interested in it, regardless. I was looking for a used Dita, regular termination, but with this available I'd have to get the balanced one just because.

 

[twister6]

  I love Dita for sure but I think they are trying to get closer to AK (who isn't) and in order to get ahead of the competition you are required to attract attention and certainly pricing does that.

I know it will sound good, and I know I will never for sure know the cost price, marketing price and etc but it is a shame with improving technology instead of seen improvement in sound and reduction in pricing we see the opposite. Maybe the sound science field is still much too young to work the same way as the silicon chip field. 

 
Some companies are trying to get closer to AK by means of a fancy exterior design and saturated pricing, but not necessary a quality of content to justify it.  What I absolutely love about DITA is they have a quality sound to back it up!
 
I know you guys are concerned about 2.5mm TRRS/balanced wiring and premium price, but at the same time many of you had no problem paying extra $350 for an upgraded The Truth cable.  With AK, you are in a premium price category starting with their lowest model.  Now, look at The Answer.  For $650 it makes a premium sound affordable and gives an option for those who were eyeballing $1k+ IEMs.  If you want absolute perfection, move up to $350 cable upgrade but something tells me we are starting to get into a territory of diminishing returns for those who are on a budget.  $300-$400 more for balanced wiring and now you can connect it to your $2.5k AK240 for a cool ~ $4k audio setup.
 
On a contrary, for $1k plus change you can have this "ultimate" budget hi-fi setup with X5/E12A/L16 + The Answer.
 

 
If you want to step up to a higher res sound, wait for Cayin N6 or FiiO X7 daps (for a total of about ~ $1.4k with either one instead of X5).  All this with a common denominator of The Answer.
 
My point is that I know a lot of people are subscribed/reading this thread, and I don't want them to get discouraged thinking they have to get a second mortgage to afford an audiophile quality sound.  Btw, by no mean am I considering myself to be a seasoned audiophile, but I have reviewed a lot of headphones in sub $500 category, and The Answer was the first one that gave me this WOW factor which is not fading away.
 
Another point I would like to make with regard to comments people making about The Truth dependency on a paired up amp.  Can't judge The Truth (ain't that a truth ), but based on my testing of The Answer I was amazed how well it paired up with all of my sources down to Galaxy Note 4.  Yes, you will loose a degree of details, but like I mentioned in my review - it was not night'n'day difference like I have experienced with some other IEMs ($500 W40 is an example) where sound is dull out of smartphone or HO of lo-/mid-fi daps and only comes to live when paired up with external higher quality amp.  Just want to bring this up so people wouldn't think you need another $1k+ amp investment for The Answer to show it's full potential.

 

[skysoul]

Your justification for them on the 30%, i.e. 300 dollars premium for an additional short adaptor made with an unknown cable is pretty amazing.
 
Hope you enjoy the premium balanced Dita.

 

[Skyeriding]

To be fair (correct me if wrong..), it is not merely just a jack change. With TRRS you now have four running wires instead of three from the jack to the Y-split (TRRS balanced vs TRS unbalanced), so you pay more for the extra material of that extra 4th wire made of silver/mix/whatever. Then again, you do cut down on that fancy carbon-fibre and metal milled 3.5mm jack for that standard-looking 2.5mm TRRS...
 
At the end of the day however, the consumer will not care about such technicalities and just want it the product to "sound good". So I'd personally say that 30-40% markup is quite a huge jump "just for a cable+jack change" (even more so, if you compare the standard Answer with this TRRS)

 

[efftee]

I'm not trying to justify anything, I was just hoping to provide a different perspective to things that may not be so apparent. Friends, there are more costs other than raw material that meets the eye. If you think Dita, like many other small brands in this industry, is minting money selling their IEMs, think again. Meanwhile, I'm sure I'll enjoy my Truth balanced, just as I enjoy most things in life by not getting eaten up by the notion that people are out to rip me off a few bucks.

 

[skysoul]

  To be fair (correct me if wrong..), it is not merely just a jack change. With TRRS you now have four running wires instead of three from the jack to the Y-split (TRRS balanced vs TRS unbalanced), so you pay more for the extra material of that extra 4th wire made of silver/mix/whatever. Then again, you do cut down on that fancy carbon-fibre and metal milled 3.5mm jack for that standard-looking 2.5mm TRRS...
 
At the end of the day however, the consumer will not care about such technicalities and just want it the product to "sound good". So I'd personally say that 30-40% markup is quite a huge jump "just for a cable+jack change" (even more so, if you compare the standard Answer with this TRRS)

Theres no change in the number of wires in the cable...still 4 wires.. just at the end of the cable the wires are soldered individually on the trrs plug.