[rprodrigues]

anyone know who runs this site?

https://hiendportable.com/

Curious if he/she is on headfi. I want to get more info on the measurement rig used for their graph of the Smabat s-10s silver

@cqtek

 

[Sam L]

@cqtek

Thank you!

 

[cqtek]

@cqtek

Thank you!

Don't pay much attention to the following graphic, because I don't have a suitable coupler for the new micro I use now (before I used the miniDSP UMIK-1 Calibrated Microphone with a vinyl coupler...) But you can see that the drop at 9kHz is similar.

 

[The3DCie]

How to check if the Toneking shell suits you. Buy a pack of Mentos Mint Candy and put in the ear. If they don’t fall out within 60s then that’s a good sign

Ha ha, I couldn't do that, I love my earbuds but I wouldn't lose any food to see if they match or not!
I guess I'll still have to buy the ones I'd like to see if they fit or not...

I find it strange that quite a number of modern TOTL earbuds still come with non detachable cables even in 2020. It's not only a potential point of failure down the line, but some of us may wanna use aftermarket balanced cables, BT dongles or even just other aftermarket cables for haptic or asthetics or even sonic upgrades. For budget sets to have non detachable cables is par for the course, but in the big scheme of things, to add a MMCX connector in for a TOTL set doesn't add too much to the price, shouldn't it?

I for one like the fact that some earbuds have non detachable cables, that makes them so tiny and comfortable in my ears, e.g. Yincrow RW-777 or K' LBW.
But I'm also probably saying this because I've never had any failure at the cable level with any of my gears as of yet, hope this trend will continue.

On the Fiio thread, I actually asked the rep about this. He kept harping that the non detachable cable has a modular system to switch to balanced or unbalanced options. Fair enough, but I asked him that considering this is TOTL pricing, what if the cable dies at the non detachable part near the insertion to the earbud housing (which is a potential point of failure with frequent flexing), he didn't reply. I am quite fearful to buy any IEM or earbud more than $50 with non detachable cables as I had a few midfi Westones that died on me in the past (non detachable) at the cable.

Yeah, having the possibility to change the cable on very expensive gears is quite a given actually, especially when you see that almost any IEM comes with a detachable cable now! It makes for sure for greater lasting life, in addition to improved aesthetic or comfort.
(I'm not talking about sound quality as I'm not a cable believer)
But it seems earbuds world is still quite far from this, probably due to the fact that the market here is still mostly in the $2 to $10 range?

Normally have 4-6 buds in my backpack. Today it's just these two:



Both of them used to be the most dramatically improved by my compensation files until the Datura Pro came along.

I have been lurking ISN Rambo II since they came out, but if you're finding that Datura Pro EQ'd are better all along I might skip them!

I want to know how it compares to the equalized datura pro.

I think @baskingshark replied exactly to you request if you read his post carefully!

 

[RikudouGoku]

Yeah, having the possibility to change the cable on very expensive gears is quite a given actually, especially when you see that almost any IEM comes with a detachable cable now! It makes for sure for greater lasting life, in addition to improved aesthetic or comfort.
(I'm not talking about sound quality as I'm not a cable believer)
But it seems earbuds world is still quite far from this, probably due to the fact that the market here is still mostly in the $2 to $10 range?

Ironically, buds usually needs more power than iems. Where a replaceable cable to get access to a balanced cable would be very beneficial lol.

 

[The3DCie]

Ironically, buds usually needs more power than iems. Where a replaceable cable to get access to a balanced cable would be very beneficial lol.

Yeah you're right!

Though you can still have amps with good power while just single-ended.
But balanced output will always gives more power, no doubt.

 

[furyossa]

Ha ha, I couldn't do that, I love my earbuds but I wouldn't lose any food to see if they match or not!
I guess I'll still have to buy the ones I'd like to see if they fit or not...

Why not? Only 60s test. BTW ... just be careful not to start sweating because of the menthol coat on the "shells" .

 

[RikudouGoku]

Yeah you're right!

Though you can still have amps with good power while just single-ended.
But balanced output will always gives more power, no doubt.

Desktop amps will definitely have good power with SE.

Looking at my Asgard 3 with:

But in terms of balanced output always giving more power..while the results is true, that you do get more power from the balanced output. It is because if an amp has both SE and balanced, the developer will put more effort into the balanced output itself. So the implementation of it is better than the one for SE, because...well people buy balanced amps to use the balanced output, so at that point the SE output is more of a "bonus" lol.

 

[Sam L]

Ok, I finally finished my comparison between the Smabat s-10s silver, the Faaeal Datura Pro, and the Fiio EM5.

It's a long one and you can find it here.

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbud-target-curve-tests.944006/page-17#post-16120062

 

[Sam L]

on a separate note, I have a KBear Stellar w/ mic inbound. I'll review it when I get it and of course measure and build compensation files for it, if needed.

 

[furyossa]

on a separate note, I have a KBear Stellar w/ mic inbound. I'll review it when I get it and of course measure and build compensation files for it, if needed.

Wow! This model has 1475 customer reviews on Ali. It reached great popularity in a short time. Interesting Congrats!

 

[rprodrigues]

Moved...
wrong thread... sorry

 

[RikudouGoku]

Wow! This model has 1475 customer reviews on Ali. It reached great popularity in a short time. Interesting Congrats!

one factor for that is probably because kbear is known for their iems and also some of their cables. So I guess that a lot of those orders come from people adding the bud along with the rest of the orders or that it is simply due to kbear´s reputation for those other stuff they make.

 

[Sam L]

Wow! This model has 1475 customer reviews on Ali. It reached great popularity in a short time. Interesting Congrats!

Yeah, I don't know where this model came from. It's like it appeared overnight for me. The mic version is the new one, apparently the non-mic version has been around a bit longer.

 

[furyossa]

one factor for that is probably because kbear is known for their iems and also some of their cables. So I guess that a lot of those orders come from people adding the bud along with the rest of the orders or that it is simply due to kbear´s reputation for those other stuff they make.

Yup. We share the same opinion.
Correct me if I'm wrong, they have 2 pairs of earbuds for now, Knight and Stellar right?