[JAnonymous5150]

TRN EMA early impressions: Surprisingly detailed for an $8 pair of earbuds. The midrange, especially upper mids, gives nice vocal reproduction with female voices a la Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse sounding particularly vibrant. Nothing much to note good or bad on the low end or highs. Bass is decent, but nothing special and the highs are maybe a touch thin, but overall pretty good. These are well worth the $8-$9 they go for and I could easily see them becoming a well loved pair for a budget collection looking for a pair with a sweet, but not overly warm midrange.


I will do some more listening with them later when I'm not so tired so I can see what my impressions are like then. Up next: Shozy BK!

 

[samandhi]

TRN EMA early impressions: Surprisingly detailed for an $8 pair of earbuds. The midrange, especially upper mids, gives nice vocal reproduction with female voices a la Norah Jones and Amy Winehouse sounding particularly vibrant. Nothing much to note good or bad on the low end or highs. Bass is decent, but nothing special and the highs are maybe a touch thin, but overall pretty good. These are well worth the $8-$9 they go for and I could easily see them becoming a well loved pair for a budget collection looking for a pair with a sweet, but not overly warm midrange.


I will do some more listening with them later when I'm not so tired so I can see what my impressions are like then. Up next: Shozy BK!

Nice!

 

[mt877]

You say "increase the bass" like it's a bad thing . For the highs you can do a donut with a full foam.

For me one full thick foam is enough to bring out nice bass without excessive roll off on the high end. If you like more foams, then that's great it works for you. There's no right or wrong, just questioning if there was too much bass causing the high end to roll off with double stacked foams.

 

[mt877]

Thank you for sharing that is now two or three very good reviews I have read about it on this thread. May have to give it a listen soon!

You might try the AD827SQ... the MUSES02 is a good opamp (and an exceptionally good one from certain manufacturers) but I found the Analog Devices AD827SQ to be much better for earbuds across the board in a few different devices that I have rolled them through. Something to consider and/or try if you get the itch to.

Spoiler: Pic of Analog Devices AD827SQ

Yep, read some nice reviews about the AD amps. Just wanted to clarify that the Kaei Tap-1s does not have Nu-tubes on board, was just saying it is hybrid like some DAPs that sport the Nu-tubes. There's speculation that the Tap-1s is using miniature Raytheon tubes. I've opened up my amp but the markings on the tubes were not visible.

 

[samandhi]

For me one full thick foam is enough to bring out nice bass without excessive roll off on the high end. If you like more foams, then that's great it works for you. There's no right or wrong, just questioning if there was too much bass causing the high end to roll off with double stacked foams.

Of course, I have never felt the need for more than a single foam either. Normally I don't want rolloff on the high end anyhow. Most buds that have a boosted pina gain are actually a bit dark if you EQ that down, and want for more treble IMO..

 

[samandhi]

Yep, read some nice reviews about the AD amps. Just wanted to clarify that the Kaei Tap-1s does not have Nu-tubes on board, was just saying it is hybrid like some DAPs that sport the Nu-tubes. There's speculation that the Tap-1s is using miniature Raytheon tubes. I've opened up my amp but the markings on the tubes were not visible.

I wasn't sure I would like an amp with Nutubes, but the 6P1 is actually really good implemented in my amp IMO. Shame it doesn't have SS mode, it is full tube or nothing.

 

[FranQL]

SMABAT has a really nice Ti driver as well. One of my favorites is the 150Ohm.

Oh yes, I need a second pair..... and a third pair

 

[AsciiJC]

Nope, not a nut at all... the lowly, mistreated LCP actually can be astoundingly wonderful sounding if tuned correctly and does in fact offer a very unique presentation (again if tuned properly). This is something that our DIY Masters @FranQL @Ronion @RikudouGoku @jeejack @tgx78 @ValSuki @furyossa @irv003 will all quickly attest!

I do plan on developing an LCP bud very soon, with a unique acoustic housing some of yall seem to have seen already!
Im doing many protos with it first, but expect some results soon when my shells have finished!

 

[silverszi]

Good for you. I've just seen and succumbed to some hype in this thread -- with Ali orders following -- and have not been impressed, to put it mildly. Yincrow X6? Qian39? Pathetic and unlistenable. I may just give them away in Classifieds because they are so disappointing.

I bought the Qian39 too and only yesterday did I realise literally anything with pinna gain is unlistenable to my ears.
I can't stop thinking about it and how common it is in literally every portable audio device
it makes me think "are my ears weird" or is everyone else just not used to anything different.
Did you try and eq down the 3khz area at all?

 

[silverszi]

It keeps pissing me off because I could have searched for something better the first time if I had known.

 

[ian91]

It keeps pissing me off because I could have searched for something better the first time if I had known.

I note you have the ER2SE which itself has a reasonable pinna gain as per the Ety research curve. Do you EQ it or does that not bother you?

 

[silverszi]

I note you have the ER2SE which itself has a reasonable pinna gain as per the Ety research curve. Do you EQ it or does that not bother you?

I eq it but it's still not great
it doesn't fit well in my ear at all and the sound quality isn't that good either.

Best thing I own is koss ksc75 eq'd to as flat as it can go

 

[FranQL]

Good for you. I've just seen and succumbed to some hype in this thread -- with Ali orders following -- and have not been impressed, to put it mildly. Yincrow X6? Qian39? Pathetic and unlistenable. I may just give them away in Classifieds because they are so disappointing.

I haven't heard pre-made qian, but one thing I do know, and that is that the driver used in it is really good if you appreciate the mid-high focused sound, and it sounds perfectly good for the price, so you might not like it. Whether they are tight, or they arent your cup of tea, which is a different thing. A €3 VIDO is also quite good (talking about its X6 yincrow) but I haven't detected any Pinna gain on it, maybe I missed it or I'm wrong, a great expert on this topic is @captione .

Sometimes the prejudices of more expensive is better influence us in our criteria, sometimes we pay €180 for a bud that has exactly the same driver (and adjustment sometimes) that we find in a bud between €10 and €20, and the evaluations are so different that it makes me think about how much subjectivity there is in this hobby.

 

[silverszi]

Is there anything that has a near flatline frequency response so I can find what my target response is easily with filters.

 

[ttorbic]

This is related to some of the recent posts on sources for earbuds:
I got myself an IKKO ITX-01 for work: https://www.ikkoaudio.com/products/itx01-docking-station. Boy this thing is loud, even though the specs state a fairly modest power output (64mW @ 32 Ohms). It also has a high noise floor. I have to set my laptop volume to the lowest, set Spotify/Apple Music to 50%, and I can then listen to my Rikubuds Alter Rider 1. Any idea what's behind this? Compare this to to my other source, ifi Zen DAC: I can comfortably have laptop & music player volumes at 100%, then adjust volume with the analog pot at 8-9 o'clock, even though the Zen DAC's output in SE is more than twice than that of ITX-01. I'm not saying it sounds great, more than I'm confused why it's seemingly so loud compared to other sources?

P.S. I'm also driving the Serratus at 20% laptop, 100% Spotify volume, and it's at my normal listening volume already??