[Sam L]

Great camera! Here's a few macro shots I took centuries ago with the D50:

https://pbase.com/wayne_n/d50_flowers_and_macros

Wow, nice pics! I can you're a big fan of bokeh and you pulled it off really well in every shot. I have that sigma 17-70 lens as well. All those flowers are in your area?

 

[waynes world]

Wow, nice pics! I can you're a big fan of bokeh and you pulled it off really well in every shot. I have that sigma 17-70 lens as well. All those flowers are in your area?

Thanks! Cool that you also have the Sigma.

They were taken when I lived in Vancouver. In fact, most from the rest of the gallery were from when I was situated there:
https://pbase.com/wayne_n/root

I've been on Vancouver Island now for the last 10 years though, and have been bad about getting photos into my pbase gallery. I still manage to create some google photo albums though. Here's a sampling from Vancouver Island (mostly with my Samsung phone):
https://photos.app.goo.gl/gYondUDBzjyJdHCY8

After the D50, I switched over to the Nikon V1 due to it's smaller size, but even that is too bulky for me nowadays! So I've been using my Samsung phone quite a bit. I find it takes surprisingly good photos (I'm a sucker for HDR, and I can also shoot RAW if I want to!)), and it's always with me, which is the most important thing lol.

 

[Sam L]

Ok, here we go. This may sound a little exaggerated, but it's perfectly normal when you happen to feel goosebumps on the first listening
Do you know what you did? You have surpassed yourself. You brought the dead sounding earbuds back to life. BOOM!!!
I can't describe in words how bad they sounded before the correction. Like total garbage. I just don’t know how people praised them.
When they apply this correction they will know what I am talking about. When you turn up the volume, you start to feel pain, a distorted sound was unbearable.
I bought these earbuds last year as soon as they came out, they went through the burn-in process (> 40h) without any improvement,
and I didn’t listen to them for even 1 day in total. It is no longer worth talking about bad things so let's talk about good things.

First of all, you need to call the FAAEAL and let them know what you have achieved. Send them a file to hear how should sound flagship earbuds.
Man, seriously, no matter how they sound now, I’m not an expert at judging true sound quality, but I can honestly say the difference is HUGE.
Let's be honest, with this look and build quality they are definitely worth over $30 and with this sound quality (after correction) worth 3 times more.
It can rank easily with earphones in the price range of $100.
BTW...You made a much better correction here than with HE150Pro, maybe because HE150Pro already sounds good and not need too much correction.
If by any chance you have changed the target curve, try again with HE150 (female vocals are a bit thin).
Anyway...I used these PEQ files with Peace. For me personally, no compression is required, only preamp = -6dB.
In fact, I think it's better not to touch anything because compressing only restores the original bad sound.
I didn't notice any difference between the "neutral" and "bass" version. You can leave these "neutral" adjustments.
I was right when I said that this driver has great potential. The aluminum they used as a coating proved to be really good.
If I'm not mistaken, Meze Rai Solo used pure aluminum for the driver's diaphragm, but the technology itself is much more perfect.
They stated the following benefits of aluminum, which can be noticed on the Datura Pro model:
- Low total harmonic distortion
- Clear mid-range
- Outstanding reproduction of low frequencies
I hope that based on my description you can make a purchase decision.
I don't know if it's up to me, but it still feels like the vocals are a little thin. I guess it’s because I don’t use compression. My bad
That's all for now. I am really grateful for all the effort and help around “reviving” the natural sound of earbuds.

Thanks for taking the time to listen and write up all this information. I appreciate it.

What you're describing is what a few of us have come to realize about a handful of earbuds - that near end game sound is possible for a fraction of the price.

The transformation you're describing doesn't happen with every bud (not even a majority of them) but a few deserve to be highlighted. I'm thinking eventually we should make a top 10 list of compensated earbuds.

So far that list includes monk lite 120, nameless, datura pro.

 

[furyossa]

What you're describing is what a few of us have come to realize about a handful of earbuds - that near end game sound is possible for a fraction of the price.

Exactly. This one is a really critical case. I have a lot of different types of DD in my collection and by that, I mean different types of diaphragm materials.
Aluminum coated drivers are a rare "gem". Precision and clarity of the sound are on an above-average level. Of course, the metal shell also contributes to that,
which neutralizes the resonance.
Bass is not bloated and speed is just right. Also ratio between quality and quantity is great. The bass touches slightly lower mids just enough to give them a little warmth. It can be corrected, but I like it this way. Mids are not recessed and there is a very good separation between the instruments and the vocals. I can't define the treble exactly, I would say it's on the border, it's not rolled off and it's not too bright. It is also neither sharp nor sibilant. I'm not a treble-head but I can say that this is probably the best treble presentation which I heard on the earbuds. It's better than titanium, and beryllium coated DIY drivers for sure. It's something in between DLC and graphene. I'm also very surprised by the soundstage, considering that the shell is rather without backports.(closed-back). 3D space is very well presented especially in this song (Dire Straits - You And Your Friend)

The transformation you're describing doesn't happen with every bud (not even a majority of them) but a few deserve to be highlighted. I'm thinking eventually we should make a top 10 list of compensated earbuds.

I would say, this is the " Cinderella " transformation, from poor girls into a princess. Such changes depend on the capabilities of the driver, which was shown with Datura Pro.
Here, the full potential of the driver itself was obviously not used, while in others it was used, but the possibilities are limited by the use of cheap materials.
On the other hand, there are many models that do not need additional correction.

So far that list includes monk lite 120, nameless, datura pro.

That's why I suggested S.E.N.F.E.R KP120. Maybe this Protein driver has some potential, who knows. BGVP DX5 (DLC driver with bad tuning)
Here I will mention the list of the following models that have really affordable price, good tuning, and have been present on the earbud scene for a long time
* K's 300ohm and K's Bell-LB (2018 and 2020 edition),
* Tingo TC200, TC300, TG-38s lineup
* RY4S ; RY4S UE (300ohm) ; RY4S Plus
I marked the models that "stand out" in red

 

[Sam L]

I can't describe in words how bad they sounded before the correction. Like total garbage.

Ironically, the FR graph reminds me of the em5 a tad, but obviously the em5 sounds great with stock tuning (though I prefer my wavelet file for the em5).

Let's be honest, with this look and build quality they are definitely worth over $30 and with this sound quality (after correction) worth 3 times more.
It can rank easily with earphones in the price range of $100.

I believe it. The Monk Lite 120, corrected, sound like a $75 bud. The Nameless after correction sound like a $50-60 earbud, easily.

Anyway...I used these PEQ files with Peace. For me personally, no compression is required, only preamp = -6dB.

It's actually very rare for an earbud to not require any compression, usually there will be lower or upper end distortion. The em5 can handle no compression but it sounds so drastically different I'm not used to the sound. So you are absolutely correct that this driver is of high quality.

I don't know if it's up to me, but it still feels like the vocals are a little thin. I guess it’s because I don’t use compression. My bad
That's all for now. I am really grateful for all the effort and help around “reviving” the natural sound of earbuds.

A couple things on the vocals sounding a little thin.

1. I hear this mostly on peace/apo. For some reason it isn't as pronounced on wavelet and I'm not sure why.
2. You can try manually resetting post 10khz values to 0dB. I noticed that buds with significant treble roll-off, autoeq struggles with maintaining proper treble tonality. I'm not too concerned with correcting this via autoeq because I anticipate that each user will tweak things further to their taste. I see my compensation files as a means to correcting 90% of the flaws in stock tuning. The rest can be either tolerated or further managed by the user.
3. I still have yet to figure out how to limit autoeq to generating values within a range, say 20hz to 10k. I thought I had a solution and posted the rw-9 correction but I was wrong. Autoeq will insert default values even when I limit input frequencies up to 10k. It may be as simple as just deleting values post 10khz after processing, but I think the algorithm compensates things differently based on the entire graph. I need to do more trial and error measurements to nail this one down.

 

[Sam L]

I'm also very surprised by the soundstage, considering that the shell is rather without backports.(closed-back). 3D space is very well presented especially in this song (Dire Straits - You And Your Friend)

Ah, I forgot to mention that... Sometimes the soundstage is dramatically affected (for the better), but it doesn't happen with every correction.

That's why I suggested S.E.N.F.E.R KP120. Maybe this Protein driver has some potential, who knows. BGVP DX5 (DLC driver with bad tuning)
Here I will mention the list of the following models that have really affordable price, good tuning, and have been present on the earbud scene for a long time
* K's 300ohm and K's Bell-LB (2018 and 2020 edition),
* Tingo TC200, TC300, TG-38s lineup
* RY4S ; RY4S UE (300ohm) ; RY4S Plus
I marked the models that "stand out" in red

Thanks for this list. I'll eventually get them all eventually *fingers crossed*

I'm wondering if that protein driver is bio-cellulose?

 

[furyossa]

Ironically, the FR graph reminds me of the em5 a tad, but obviously the em5 sounds great with stock tuning (though I prefer my wavelet file for the em5).

Yesterday I tried to tune manually in Peace "DIY 64ohm N55 magnet" driver
@assassin10000 provided the graph. This is the post
On the graph, you can see very similar curves for 64ohm and 120ohn beryllium. Both drivers sound totally different.
Another example 600ohm Beryllium coated and 500ohm graphene-coated drivers. Same story, similar graphs but a totally different sound.
From this, we can conclude that the difference in the material of the diaphragm is the biggest cause of the different sounds, which is logical.

I'm wondering if that protein driver is bio-cellulose?

That's what I thought I think it's a composite (bio-cellulose + ???)
??? stance for s.e.n.f.e.r magic

 

[Sam L]

@furyossa, guess what I'm working on...



The mask didn't graph the plots accurately. I'm cleaning it up now.

 

[Sam L]

and here it is cleaned up.

 

[Sam L]

here's the frequency response file

 

[Sam L]

and here's the compensation file!

@furyossa, your n55 64ohm peq correction files normalized to my version 1.5 target.

 

[furyossa]

and here it is cleaned up.

That looks great.
BTW ... 06:36AM in my country and I can't sleep from the excitement
I ordered a few days ago Sennheizer HD25 Light (2020 edition) which uses the same driver (70ohm) as HD25.
The sound signature is almost excellent, and I took them because they are very easy to disassemble and I can play with modding.
At the same time, you provided Datura Pro correction and this day could not look any better
Wow ... man. That's it. The day will go even better. I'll let you know when I test these files for 64ohm N55
Thanks!!!

 

[Sam L]

That looks great.
BTW ... 06:36AM in my country and I can't sleep from the excitement
I ordered a few days ago Sennheizer HD25 Light (2020 edition) which uses the same driver (70ohm) as HD25.
The sound signature is almost excellent, and I took them because they are very easy to disassemble and I can play with modding.
At the same time, you provided Datura Pro correction and this day could not look any better
Wow ... man. That's it. The day will go even better. I'll let you know when I test these files for 64ohm N55
Thanks!!!

get some sleep!

By the way, @assassin10000's setup with his custom couplers are pretty accurate 20hz to 10khz and matches my and cenizas' measurements. Post 10k, the main difference is a 13k resonance point that we measure and some additional 13k to 20k information our couplers pick up (which likely aren't accurate anyways on our end.)

 

[furyossa]

get some sleep!

By the way, @assassin10000's setup with his custom couplers are pretty accurate 20hz to 10khz and matches my and cenizas' measurements. Post 10k, the main difference is a 13k resonance point that we measure and some additional 13k to 20k information our couplers pick up (which likely aren't accurate anyways on our end.)

Yes. We talk about that. These DIY drivers that we use for modding are not bad at all especially high impedance (PK1 150ohm "red film", 400ohm and 500ohm graphene, 600ohm Bery ..)
But the big problem is that each of us uses different tuning methods and different shells so in 99% of cases
these earbuds sound different although they use the same driver. So it's not worth it to do PEQ files for each one individually.
The only solution would be:
- to use basic tuning (only with "horseshoe" black foam on the shell ports)
- to put all 15.4mm drivers in MX500 shells
- to put all 14.8mm drivers in DOCOMO or PK shells
- make compensation files for each
- do additional tuning by modding and test with different shells

 

[assassin10000]

@furyossa, guess what I'm working on...



The mask didn't graph the plots accurately. I'm cleaning it up now.

I could have sent you the .mdat files if I knew you wanted them or could use them.

get some sleep!

By the way, @assassin10000's setup with his custom couplers are pretty accurate 20hz to 10khz and matches my and cenizas' measurements. Post 10k, the main difference is a 13k resonance point that we measure and some additional 13k to 20k information our couplers pick up (which likely aren't accurate anyways on our end.)

Good to know. I haven't compared them directly to others graphs/measurements yet.

For a $25 mic and $5-10 to make the couplers I'm happy.