Earbuds Round-Up

[ian91]

The tonal unevenness that comes from non-in-ears is present and gives cymbals a bit of raspiness to them that just doesn't sit with me. I can definitely see someone going for them if they like bright-neutral though. Like I said, their resolution is superb, bass quality is pretty solid, and instrument separation is top-notch.

Interestingly, I feel DS has the most impressive cymbal realism of all the earbuds I've heard. I tried DAWN briefly with DS and I'm just not convinced there's enough power there for the 130ohm driver. I got volume but I didn't get much balance or control that I associate with DS from a DAP (e.g. DX300). Was the 'raspiness' present across sources?

 

[Touchowl]

Interestingly, I feel DS has the most impressive cymbal realism of all the earbuds I've heard. I tried DAWN briefly with DS and I'm just not convinced there's enough power there for the 130ohm driver. I got volume but I didn't get much balance or control that I associate with DS from a DAP (e.g. DX300). Was the 'raspiness' present across sources?

Honestly I don't have any other 4.4mm sources I'm not really the type that notices differences between sources beyond volume changes or deliberate distortion though

 

[ian91]

Honestly I don't have any other 4.4mm sources I'm not really the type that notices differences between sources beyond volume changes or deliberate distortion though

That's fair enough. I'm not sure you're giving yourself enough credit. I reckon you could!

 

[hongky]

Honestly I don't have any other 4.4mm sources I'm not really the type that notices differences between sources beyond volume changes or deliberate distortion though

For me the biggest gain you can get for earbud listening is to add dedicated amp in your chain

 

[sofastreamer]

just got 5 Kbear Stellar from Amazon for about 20 EUR. Are you kidding me? how can these be so good for a V shaped set?? Not for vocal lovers obviously but with a competent sub bass and overall pretty smooth. Soundstage would bring many iems to shame, but in the earbud realm its just okish.
Now i will start reading the links provided by woodylover some time ago, about how to tune earbuds. just out of curiosity i want to try to make them flatter sounding on both ends. we will see how both my left hands will work that out. maybe i will get some fancy drivers later on, who knows

 

[chavez]

just got 5 Kbear Stellar from Amazon for about 20 EUR. Are you kidding me? how can these be so good for a V shaped set?? Not for vocal lovers obviously but with a competent sub bass and overall pretty smooth. Soundstage would bring many iems to shame, but in the earbud realm its just okish.
Now i will start reading the links provided by woodylover some time ago, about how to tune earbuds. just out of curiosity i want to try to make them flatter sounding on both ends. we will see how both my left hands will work that out. maybe i will get some fancy drivers later on, who knows

Funny enough how this is the worst prebuilt pair ive heard. I used their shells for another build.

 

[hvalle]

Of all the thousand of headphones from the price segment from $2 to $150, the best in terms of sound for me personally remain Qian25 and Moondrop Nameless. Fortunately, I bought Qian25 with a margin, although there are already only 2 pairs left. But i have only one Moondrop and recently suddenly ordered to live long. Now, to my chagrin, I see that both models are not on the market and I don’t see an adequate replacement for them. Moondrops have the most neutral sound, without embellishment at a particular frequency. The Qian25 have a very slight low-end bias that only slightly embellishes the fast drums, while there is no booming humming bass.

 

[gylyf]

Listening to my FF5 and DX320 last night, I was reminded of how much I enjoy that pairing, which, paradoxically (curse this hobby!), led me to wonder what an upgrade to the FF5 would be. I really enjoy the tonality of the FF5 with the DX320, but wouldn’t mind an upgrade in terms of technicalities. I own the RW-3000 and found them a little fatiguing with the 320, which is too bad, because that seems like the obvious choice, but there’s no accounting for synergy (the 3000 are amazing out my Shanling H7, where the added hint of warmth really works for me, so at least that worked out well).

So, what would you guys recommend as a bud with similar tonality to the FF5, but with improved technicalities, ideally driveable by the Amp14 card on my 320? Bonus points if it has a PK shell!

 

[jeejack]

just got 5 Kbear Stellar from Amazon for about 20 EUR. Are you kidding me? how can these be so good for a V shaped set?? Not for vocal lovers obviously but with a competent sub bass and overall pretty smooth. Soundstage would bring many iems to shame, but in the earbud realm its just okish.
Now i will start reading the links provided by woodylover some time ago, about how to tune earbuds. just out of curiosity i want to try to make them flatter sounding on both ends. we will see how both my left hands will work that out. maybe i will get some fancy drivers later on, who knows

I threw away the drivers and kept the shell for another build.

 

[BCool]

DIY'd a pair for a friend:

130Ω Bery drivers are definitely my favourite, great bass, details and soundstage/imaging (which is useful as he'll likely be gaming with them).

 

[samandhi]

Listening to my FF5 and DX320 last night, I was reminded of how much I enjoy that pairing, which, paradoxically (curse this hobby!), led me to wonder what an upgrade to the FF5 would be. I really enjoy the tonality of the FF5 with the DX320, but wouldn’t mind an upgrade in terms of technicalities. I own the RW-3000 and found them a little fatiguing with the 320, which is too bad, because that seems like the obvious choice, but there’s no accounting for synergy (the 3000 are amazing out my Shanling H7, where the added hint of warmth really works for me, so at least that worked out well).

So, what would you guys recommend as a bud with similar tonality to the FF5, but with improved technicalities, ideally driveable by the Amp14 card on my 320? Bonus points if it has a PK shell!

I was going to suggest the RW3000 but as you said they can be a bit shouty with volume on some stuff. I also couldn't recommend the Yimans for that. The Amp 14 card doesn't make enough power. Have you tried the stock amp card or maybe even Amp12 with the FF5? The stock card is known to add some space, but is also less warm.

Or you could try the FF3 on an SS amp. If you used them on the Amp13, or 14 they might be a bit too warm.

Otherwise you may need to go DIY. I don't think there are too many out there with the tone/tuning of the FF5 but also with the technicalities of something like the Yinman or even more so the Moondrop Chaconne.

Have you tried the RW2000? They are a bit warmer, but also not as shouty as the RW3000 can be at volume. If you are sensitive to this area, there aren't a crap ton of recommendations (from me), because most sets are actually more shouty by a fair amount (IMHO).


Edit: It might be best to wait for the new lineup of Yinmans coming out fairly soon. A couple of those will be easily driven by your amp card.

 

[mt877]

Listening to my FF5 and DX320 last night, I was reminded of how much I enjoy that pairing, which, paradoxically (curse this hobby!), led me to wonder what an upgrade to the FF5 would be. I really enjoy the tonality of the FF5 with the DX320, but wouldn’t mind an upgrade in terms of technicalities. I own the RW-3000 and found them a little fatiguing with the 320, which is too bad, because that seems like the obvious choice, but there’s no accounting for synergy (the 3000 are amazing out my Shanling H7, where the added hint of warmth really works for me, so at least that worked out well).

So, what would you guys recommend as a bud with similar tonality to the FF5, but with improved technicalities, ideally driveable by the Amp14 card on my 320? Bonus points if it has a PK shell!

For PK shell go for the Shozy BK Stardust. I don't have a iBasso 320 w/ Amp14, but I've compared the FiiO FF5 to the Shozy BK (with FiiO Balanced foams on both sets of buds) sourced with Shanling M3X DAP w/ Little Bear B4X hybrid tube amp (upgraded with Burson V5i-D op-amps). The FF5 have deeper bass than the BK, which can hide some detail retrieval. The BK's aren't bass shy, but not the same extension as the FF5's, because of that they have better detail retrieval. Tonality between the FF5 and BK are somewhat similar, but I feel the BK are technically better than the FF5. The Shozy BK may not be talked about so much these days, but they are one set of buds that every PK shell lover shouldn't be without. Shozy BK available at the Penon Store.

 

[sofastreamer]

since mostly every headphone i ever owned was single ended, i would call me a single ended guy, that dont cares for balanced at all. i did some recablings to balanced but never felt worth it afterwards. But since listening almost exclusively to earbuds, i wonder if i could use an aftermarket balaced cable at least on my detachable buds. Sorry, but i dont know anything about physics, could this work or would i roun the buds, using a balaced cable and amp?

 

[Pylaczynski]

since mostly every headphone i ever owned was single ended, i would call me a single ended guy, that dont cares for balanced at all. i did some recablings to balanced but never felt worth it afterwards. But since listening almost exclusively to earbuds, i wonder if i could use an aftermarket balaced cable at least on my detachable buds. Sorry, but i dont know anything about physics, could this work or would i roun the buds, using a balaced cable and amp?

You could work with balanced cables with your MMCX buds without any risk. What you don't want to do is to buy adapter to your 3.5mm fixed cable buds to convert them to have 4.4/2.5mm male plug. It is very dangerous to most sources as you would be shorting the negative lines of L and R outputs of your amp into one, but for some reason there are plenty adapters like that in the market. Few amps can work like that, most known are from Ifi, but those are only a few

 

[WoodyLuvr]

since mostly every headphone i ever owned was single ended, i would call me a single ended guy, that dont cares for balanced at all. i did some recablings to balanced but never felt worth it afterwards. But since listening almost exclusively to earbuds, i wonder if i could use an aftermarket balaced cable at least on my detachable buds. Sorry, but i dont know anything about physics, could this work or would i roun the buds, using a balaced cable and amp?

No, it will not ruin your earbuds.

Re-cabling a fixed cable or replacing a mmcx/2-pin earphone cable to balanced will open a "power" doorway found on many of today's available audio source devices. The additional power offered by balanced earphone outputs (e.g. 4.4TRRRS, 2.5TRRS, 3.5TRRS) can give you better low-end performance, as well as improve dynamics with certain drivers especially if they are of higher impedance and/or of lower sensitivity.

Additionally, using a difficult to drive pair of earphones with a balanced, instead of the single-ended, output connection will in many cases reduce the volume and in-turn may lower the demand on the amplification circuit/section of your device. E.g. a close to max volume setting using single-ended output may be pushing your device too hard to 90% plus efficiency-capability demand levels... using the balanced output instead will lower the required volume and may significantly reduce the demand on the amplification circuit/section and in-turn increase the life-span of the said device.