I bought FAAEAL Snow-Lotus 1.0 and NiceHCK EB2S. I hope there is no difference for FAAEAL since I actually wanted Snow-Lotus 1.0+ version. Let's see... I will reply this in the future!
-Why I don't want to pay too much for earbuds?
+First of all, I am Turkish. We were buying earbuds in bazaar in 90s, early 2000s. This was cheap solution for the music lovers who listens music on cassette players/portable radios. I know how much capacity they can get in the normal situation so I don't want to pay too much because it is called Hi-Fi or whatever. I saw too many example or comments which cheap earbuds compared to expensive/brand ones.
NiceHCK EB2S has arrived. Too
unhappy.
First of all, the things I will say is completely personal. The thing I don't like can be your favorite, who knows?! But sound-wise all the things are true. This is done in first day without burn-in so take it with grain a salt.
Bass: Sub-bass is definately there and it does not get blend with kicks or mid-bass. Mid bass is not emphasized, sounds flat, even can be recessed. So all the body of the sound feels like coming from sub-bass somehow. Upper-bass is definately recessed.
Mid: Recessed as ***! There is no mid at all... No...
Treble: Treble is definately there. All the human voices coming from treble-side and upper-mid. You know that some producers like to brigthen female singers to make it more dynamic, airy, sexy and girl-ish... Now think about it... Even Rick Astley's voice sound like Britney Spears right now. This is terrible... Upper side of treble is fully opened. It feels like somebody turned up 16kHz fully up. Due to emphasized upper treble, you hear reverbs, echos so clear and it kills the whole point of being "echo" thing. You hear them as the same level of vocals. All the effects of, can be vocal, or instrumental, synthesizer, can be heard transparently. Hi-hats, cymbals sound metallic, very sparkly, very much unnatural and disturbing.
Soundstage: If you think about recessed mid's you can imagine that there is no air in any recordings, there is no spacious-ness or room/hall like feelings in the recordings. (Imagine jazz or classique music, even any 80's songs) Too much clear sound resulted as narrow and blended soup soundstage. I know this sounds opposite of clarity. How can I say... Yes, I hear effects so clearly from right or left, yes but too much trebles at higher volumes starts to cause soup like sound. If you are going to listen at very low levels, like critical listening, then you will very like the soundstage and will find it
wide.
Depth: There is no depth at all. Everything is so close to your face that you can't feel the layers. There is no mid, there is no depth except emphasized echos. This means there is no darkness.
Instrument seperation: Thanks to the upper of treble and recessed mids, every instrument is heard clearly but this is not mean that you can choose it. Trebles are causing something; In industries, machines would beep in very high pitch, it is because our ears responds more to the higher sounds.
This is very tiring and you start to cannot choose anything after 5 minutes of listening. You start to listen hi-hats and cymbals and air whoosing effects as music.
First 30 seconds, I tried with one layer of cushions, then after hearing it's metallic cheap, 2010's chinese in-ear headphone sound-like treble's, I started to wear it with double cushions. It helped a little bit about mids and trebles but it was too small help about overall sound.
All the female vocals sound like mixmastered Britney Spears, Ariana Grande studio vocals. Autotuned female vocals including Britney Spears sounded like alien. There is no timbre of the vocal, just shhhhhhh sounds I am hearing... All the 80's songs sound metallic. All the male vocals sound like Britney Spears.
Also I have tried it with my laptops from around 2010's at the moment. They lack of treble from headphone output but they got amazing stereo crosstalk levels. There is no leaking and there is amazing depth etc. Even with them, they still sound bright but much much better than new technologies like smartphones and new laptops. Still, sound very fake.
Somebody told me, kind of reminds HD650 and boy, I own HD6XX and there is no any similarity. (unless you listen it at very low levels at night then it feels dark not warm and sounds like HD6XX little bit)
This just sounds like 2010-ish cheap Chinese, in-ears without mid-bass thump. My ears are ringing now. I cannot believe
how people suggested this to me.
I only could recommend this to who like to analyze echos, effects, vocal effects, female vocal layering (background double, triple etc.)
at low volume levels. It has a clarity that makes very very noticable of older recordings which got low repeating sounds in silent parts. Very good detailing and seperation but
only at low volume levels. I should remind it again, mids are recessed!
TC200 and TC300 was my first shot into earbuds from AliExpress and it was great shot thanks to ounwx's correct ears. Here, you can see his comment that changed my life:
https://www.head-fi.org/goto/post?id=15096032
Now, I am waiting for that FAAEAL Snow-Lotus 1.0 and just hoping that there is no difference with Snow-Lotus 1.0+ version. If I don't like it that too, I will try to buy that TC200 since TC300, my love is already discountinued.
