[o0genesis0o]

Do it, maybe try a pair or 2 haha, it is fun. i crafted some of my earbuds from scratch and i asked several of my friends to try. If they like it they can keep it, i even give some of my mid end build with the 600 ohm beryllium and 130 ohm berylium. I just like seeing their happy face when they using my crafted buds

My pride moment is when my wife listens to my buds and say “wow, they are really good”, and then stole the buds for the whole evening. (She still went back to her over ears Sony XM4 after the novelty was gone though).

That 130ohm Be sounds appealing. Not too difficult to drive, and because of Fiio, I always think of Be drivers as something special.

My problem now is that I have too many great builds. It’s a good problem to have I suppose, but I’ve started gifting them to friends who are into music. I get so many “thank you! I had the best time fishing listening to these buds.“ Or: “They are incredible! Every song that came on, they sound so spot on! It’s like I’m hearing everything, etc...” It brings me joy every week knowing that something I did is appreciated to such a degree by others. I actually ordered drivers last night just to build for other people. So many people I know want my buds now. My measurement rig did cost me $30, but the time it took to build it….. not many people are going to do that. That requires an intense fascination with sound and audio and a lack of confidence in the intellects designing audio equipment. My library of books on acoustics and psychoacoustics is where the real cost came in, not to mention the time spent reading them—even though they are real page turners LOL! Nowadays China makes rubbery ears that you could build a rig from. Dayton audio builds a mic that can be plugged into your computer or phone… Things are much, much easier. Still, no one does it. But they will spend a lot of money on gear That takes a lot of time to earn. People like to collect pottery, and some of them decide to become potters, but those are probably the minority.

It took a lot of convincing for me to buy the IEC711 coupler as well. Though if I have the financial means like some folks who can add 5k IEM, 2k cable, and 3k DAP to their collection, I would

This graphic is a fact. I buy new gear no matter what. I just spend a lot less on it now and it’s better sounding than ever. So much commercial gear is badly mistuned and a lot of time this malalignment is often touted or hyped as some sort of magic by reviewers (not necessarily pro ones by they are also guilty of this), then a week later you can’t listen to them anymore. That NEVER happens now.

Aren’t pro ones (like the ones from big review websites) the one who rarely rate anything low?

 

[fooltoque]

Do it, maybe try a pair or 2 haha, it is fun. i crafted some of my earbuds from scratch and i asked several of my friends to try. If they like it they can keep it, i even give some of my mid end build with the 600 ohm beryllium and 130 ohm berylium. I just like seeing their happy face when they using my crafted buds

I think I will at some point. It does sound really fun, and my experience with coffee leads me to believe that tuning it exactly to your own taste instead of accepting something that is made to appeal to some majority (plus whatever cost cutting measures they can throw in) is really worth it in the end.

 

[Into The Light5]

My pride moment is when my wife listens to my buds and say “wow, they are really good”, and then stole the buds for the whole evening. (She still went back to her over ears Sony XM4 after the novelty was gone though).

That 130ohm Be sounds appealing. Not too difficult to drive, and because of Fiio, I always think of Be drivers as something special.


It took a lot of convincing for me to buy the IEC711 coupler as well. Though if I have the financial means like some folks who can add 5k IEM, 2k cable, and 3k DAP to their collection, I would



Aren’t pro ones (like the ones from big review websites) the one who rarely rate anything low?

Yup the 130 ohm Be is known good for majority, it is a well regarded driver, check out DIY earbud thread, oh also i think there is rary driver list with its review in there. 500 Be and 600 Be is also another beast, the 600 ohm be is used in toneking to600 if im not wrong

 

[samandhi]

Yup the 130 ohm Be is known good for majority, it is a well regarded driver, check out DIY earbud thread, oh also i think there is rary driver list with its review in there. 500 Be and 600 Be is also another beast, the 600 ohm be is used in toneking to600 if im not wrong

I wonder if it isn't also used in the Yinman 2.0 600?! If you are saying it is a "beast" then it wouldn't surprise me, because this driver is a really good driver (that happens to also be tuned very well).

 

[povidlo]

Personally, I never really liked either the PT2022 or the PT2021, in any impedance, due to fatiguing "hot" treble.

Regarding a comparison between the PT2022 and PT2021... sound wise the only difference I had discerned was that the PT2022 had been tuned for slightly more bass but other than that had kept the "house sound" across the board. I don't recall a decrease in resolution, detail, or imaging between the two but I only had the PT2022 for a couple weeks. Perhaps a cable connectivity and/or QA/QC issue perhaps? Did you swap around the cables and inspect the connectors? What is your source (chain) if I may ask? Or... it may very well be that you are a better listener than I and my aging ears missed this entirely !

That all said, I had listed the PT2021 (high impedance models only) on my now defuncted god-tier list as it did a lot of things very well with incredible staging and timbre. The PT2021 is an ultra-detailed earbud with excellent resolution on nearly the same level as the Rose Maria II and ever so slightly less detailed than the NiceHCK EBX21 (another earbud I think well of but are even more treble unfriendly for me unfortunately). All three are excellent reference option for critical listening... that is if you can handle their bright, cold analytical nature which is way too fatiguing for my ears and gave me horrendous head/earaches. Out of the three the PT2021/PT2022 is far less offensive in these regards but still a "no-go" due to my sensitive ears.

I think your ears are alright, most of your assessments make good sense to me. Naturally I've tried it with different sources etc. I mostly listened to PT2022 through D90SE/THX AAA 789 desktop combo which is best match I've found for PT2021. Maybe I got a lemon, this brand has poor reputation so wouldn't be an astonishment. In terms of tangible differences, price was halved for PT2022. Shell is smaller. It's also missing the large round vent present on PT2021. But turns out the vent is just a cosmetic decoration, there's no change to sound upon covering it.

 

[Into The Light5]

I wonder if it isn't also used in the Yinman 2.0 600?! If you are saying it is a "beast" then it wouldn't surprise me, because this driver is a really good driver (that happens to also be tuned very well).

Probably haha, never heard any yinman before. also the to300 using this lcp driver with the 300 ohm variant. Ohh i remember someone mention that the ff3 and trn emx probably use the same driver, i mean checkout the driver spec, very similiar, it is 45 ohm, 14.2mm and BE plated, except for the sensitivity haha

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Probably haha, never heard any yinman before. also the to300 using this lcp driver with the 300 ohm variant. Ohh i remember someone mention that the ff3 and trn emx probably use the same driver, i mean checkout the driver spec, very similiar, it is 45 ohm, 14.2mm and BE plated, except for the sensitivity haha

I own both and if the EMA uses the same driver as the FF3 then the folks at TRN should close down their earbud production and stick to cables! The EMA is a neat budget offering, but if the driver in it is capable of sounding similar to the FF3 then TRN is incompetent on an incomprehensible level!

 

[drewbadour]

I have a new favourite TGXEar earbud.. the Alpha.
We had a recent mini-meet with 4 headfi’ers including @tgx78 and he brought over an Alpha for me to try out. It was too loud at the meet up to listen but when I got home it wasn’t but a ,after of minutes before I pm’ed “sold”.

I‘ve been away from iems for a few months now listening to my headphones but mostly the Serratus and Tantalus…. At the meet I was surprised to discover that I don’t really like iems as much anymore. Timbre is the most important element to me, having instruments sound realistic. I’ve been playing instruments all my life as has @tgx78 so I think his tuning matches my ear perfectly.
I got to hear again some totl iems including the Jewel, XE6, EXT, Supermoon, among others.. some did some amazing things, better technically than my earbuds but on the whole even the $5k Jewel did not sound as natural. Maybe it’s due to isolation, or the lack of it in earbuds.. Also very much due to my preferences as the Supermoon had the tightest cleanest bass I’ve heard but with more impact than any BA bass. All other bass sounded wooly and slow.. But the rest of the freqs. didn’t sound as natural as my earbuds.

Anyway, onto the Alpha. To my ears it’s a warmish iem with an underlying sparkle or treble definition that keeps it clean sounding. It has more depth of stage than the Serratus which is in part to what I hear as a maybe more recessed midrange.

On a song like this, it’s a tough call which I prefer as each seems to have a different focus. The Serratus is a bit cleaner, maybe quicker with more emphasis on the attack of the tones.

On this song though is where the Alpha pulls ahead. There is more air around the violin that gives a full sense of the instrument. Piano overtones don’t ring as sharply and hang in the air a bit longer.

This more “hardened“ character of the Serratus translates across the board for me with a cleaner bass and mid bass, a sharper treble and more forward mids. The Alpha is a bit softer but has amazing air and staging along with a more realistic timbre.
I think music library choices would dictate preference. For solo instruments that I listen to, like piano and lute and baroque music where I like to hear the instruments, I’d reach for the Alpha every time. The Serratus though sounds great with more electronic, ambient music and some of my classical crossover.

Overall, two extremely capable earbuds. Looking forward to the next models.

Mine should be coming this week! Even more excited now!

I wonder if it isn't also used in the Yinman 2.0 600?! If you are saying it is a "beast" then it wouldn't surprise me, because this driver is a really good driver (that happens to also be tuned very well).

Speaking of 600Be, the alpha uses this too!

 

[samandhi]

Probably haha, never heard any yinman before. also the to300 using this lcp driver with the 300 ohm variant. Ohh i remember someone mention that the ff3 and trn emx probably use the same driver, i mean checkout the driver spec, very similiar, it is 45 ohm, 14.2mm and BE plated, except for the sensitivity haha

Well, it sort of dawned on me when I made that comment that on the seller's AE page, it mentions "Toneking" as the maker (as the eagle-eye @baskingshark spotted). So, I wonder if it is not in fact a typo?!

I own both and if the EMA uses the same driver as the FF3 then the folks at TRN should close down their earbud production and stick to cables! The EMA is a neat budget offering, but if the driver in it is capable of sounding similar to the FF3 then TRN is incompetent on an incomprehensible level!

That is a very interesting! I wonder if the shell makes THAT much of a difference for the FF3? I mean, we know that they tuned it well, but to my ears, the driver is a really good one, and you can't tune that into a set.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Well, it sort of dawned on me when I made that comment that on the seller's AE page, it mentions "Toneking" as the maker (as the eagle-eye @baskingshark spotted). So, I wonder if it is not in fact a typo?!

That is a very interesting! I wonder if the shell makes THAT much of a difference for the FF3? I mean, we know that they tuned it well, but to my ears, the driver is a really good one, and you can't tune that into a set.

That's what I'm sayin'! If the EMA uses the same driver its almost as if they would have had to intentionally handicap it for the buds to sound so completely different. I really don't think they use the same driver.

 

[samandhi]

That was bad enough to get mentioned in the Wikipedia entry on loudness war.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war#2000s
Look at the amount of clipping:

BTW, if you are interested in hearing the difference on this album, you can go here to hear the (consumer) remastered version. It appears the 24/96 links are dead, but you can still listen to the Redbook version.

 

[christianfps]

Hi guys quite an off topic question.
Can you guys tell the difference between Spotify (Very High) Streaming vs Tidal's Master streaming quality?

 

[baskingshark]

Well, it sort of dawned on me when I made that comment that on the seller's AE page, it mentions "Toneking" as the maker (as the eagle-eye @baskingshark spotted). So, I wonder if it is not in fact a typo?!

It really wouldn't surprise me if Toneking is related to Yinman in some way, the CHIFI industry is really very small and there are lots of symbiosis, OEM and stuff going on. Many source parts from the same factory and are related in some form.

Anyways Toneking is pretty niche even among CHIFI IEMs and earbuds, as they don't really advertise heavily on western forums, and they don't give out review units too. Most of their IEMs are kind of cult classics, with only a small number of reviews (or some IEMs even have ZERO reviews). Their earbuds are pretty good, but IEMs wise, they are kind of hit or miss.

 

[drewbadour]

Is it confirmed that the longyao yinman 2.0 600 is the 600be driver?

 

[samandhi]

Is it confirmed that the longyao yinman 2.0 600 is the 600be driver?

No, just conjecture at this point.