[samandhi]

Hi! Looking at the positive opinions in the thread about the Lun Sheng Aeolian Bells, I ordered them with the bluetooth cable on Aliexpress but I was unlucky as the seller (LUNSON Brand Store) sent me only the cable with a broken plastic part too. He was very slow in responding and insisted that I ordered only the cable; I got a full refund only by opening a dispute as he was clearly wrong. This is just to tell you to be careful if you want to buy from this seller.

Before ordering them again, what do you think about the imaging capabilities of the A-Bells? I'm prioritizing imaging over everything else at the moment. Can you give me some advice about earbuds with best imaging in a price range from 20 to 100 EUR/USD? Thank you

That is a very good point, and I see that on that particular store, you have three choices; one with just buds, one with just BT cable, and one with both. I have not ordered from that site, but did notice it has a pretty good rating (the same as CKLewis Audio actually). I actually ordered mine from CKLewis Audio Store though (where they are actually a bit cheaper), and when I had an issue (first set one driver was blown), they sent me another without too much hassle. Just out of curiosity, how much did you pay for them?

Having said all of that, I would never order the BT adapter for those anyhow. I may be making a conclusion based on price alone, but I would bet "dollars to dozens" that an $18 BT adapter that has a built in DAC/amp will NOT sound very good with these (or anything else for that matter) but as always, YMMV! I could be totally surprised by this, but it is unlikely.

I think that for the money spent, these are excellent in their imaging (and overall sound as well); though I wouldn't say that they have pinpoint accuracy, but also not just a big wall of sound either. You get an idea of where the instruments are coming from, but not exactly where. Separation helps this too, also being above average. Don't get me wrong, they will not top any of the TOTL buds out there, but they are better than most (if not all) budget buds in this regard (IMHO). They are tuned overall similarly to the EB2S, but with better clarity, and less aggressive in the presence region and with better technicalities.

For a full rich sound but with very little in the way of technicalities, the FF1 is the current king to my ears, but I find the A-Bells are best for their technicalities, even with them both having totally opposite tuning. All this being my opinion only and you may find it to be totally different.

 

[samandhi]

In the meantime, I just got my Christmas Present from @FranQL today in the mail. I haven't had a ton of time on them yet (obviously) but I have to say that now having the full set of four buds, I need nothing else in the way of earbuds. These cover all the different sounds I might want to have, and whatever they don't the others I have fill those cracks.

These are simply high-end buds in every way. Along with his master class tuning, he has found the perfect combination of good quality drivers with the perfect shell for each model and the goal that was sought after. So, the list of unique and TOTL buds (though not exhaustive of all of his fantastic collection) are:

• Aquila
• Caelum
• Draco
• Blue Moon (Hydra was the original fourth, but was discontinued due to Fran not being completely satisfied with them)

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on any of these, you can trust me, for what their intention was in the sound, there are NO better (qualifier = that I have heard). There may/may not be better, but I am not willing to pay the exorbitant amount of money to experiment. In the simplest terms; these are end game buds, all four (IMHO).

Here are some photos of the latest (apologies for not being as good as others on here), Blue Moon and Draco:

Spoiler: Blue moon & Draco

 

[ProspektFi]

That is a very good point, and I see that on that particular store, you have three choices; one with just buds, one with just BT cable, and one with both. I have not ordered from that site, but did notice it has a pretty good rating (the same as CKLewis Audio actually). I actually ordered mine from CKLewis Audio Store though (where they are actually a bit cheaper), and when I had an issue (first set one driver was blown), they sent me another without too much hassle. Just out of curiosity, how much did you pay for them?

Having said all of that, I would never order the BT adapter for those anyhow. I may be making a conclusion based on price alone, but I would bet "dollars to dozens" that an $18 BT adapter that has a built in DAC/amp will NOT sound very good with these (or anything else for that matter) but as always, YMMV! I could be totally surprised by this, but it is unlikely.

I think that for the money spent, these are excellent in their imaging (and overall sound as well); though I wouldn't say that they have pinpoint accuracy, but also not just a big wall of sound either. You get an idea of where the instruments are coming from, but not exactly where. Separation helps this too, also being above average. Don't get me wrong, they will not top any of the TOTL buds out there, but they are better than most (if not all) budget buds in this regard (IMHO). They are tuned overall similarly to the EB2S, but with better clarity, and less aggressive in the presence region and with better technicalities.

For a full rich sound but with very little in the way of technicalities, the FF1 is the current king to my ears, but I find the A-Bells are best for their technicalities, even with them both having totally opposite tuning. All this being my opinion only and you may find it to be totally different.

I bought them during black friday discounts and there were two options at the time, "Earbuds No Cable" and "With Bluetooth Cable". They changed it to three options when the Aliexpress dispute went in my favor, so I think it's correlated.

I were not interested in the bluetooth cable but there was a $4 discount every $20 spent, and the cable was only about $2 more and made me reach the figure so I saved money this way paradoxically. Also, I placed the order through the "Coins" section in the android app which offers a significant additional discount on many items but you are forced to select "buy now" without adding other things in the cart, so I had no other option. Combining all this, the price dropped from $21 to 13$, but it was all useless in my case .

Anyway, your words are promising and keep me interested in these A-Bells. Now I take advantage of your helpfulness to ask you: of the earbuds you own, which of them do you think have pinpoint accuracy? Thanks in advance

P.S. right now I see in the Coins section of the Aliexpress app the A-Bells with a 30% discount sold by LUNSON Brand Store (from 20 to 14 dollars). Personally, I don't want to deal with this seller again after my bad experience with him, but if someone wants to take the risk...

 

[ttorbic]

In the meantime, I just got my Christmas Present from @FranQL today in the mail. I haven't had a ton of time on them yet (obviously) but I have to say that now having the full set of four buds, I need nothing else in the way of earbuds. These cover all the different sounds I might want to have, and whatever they don't the others I have fill those cracks.

These are simply high-end buds in every way. Along with his master class tuning, he has found the perfect combination of good quality drivers with the perfect shell for each model and the goal that was sought after. So, the list of unique and TOTL buds (though not exhaustive of all of his fantastic collection) are:

• Aquila
• Caelum
• Draco
• Blue Moon (Hydra was the original fourth, but was discontinued due to Fran not being completely satisfied with them)

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on any of these, you can trust me, for what their intention was in the sound, there are NO better (qualifier = that I have heard). There may/may not be better, but I am not willing to pay the exorbitant amount of money to experiment. In the simplest terms; these are end game buds, all four (IMHO).

Here are some photos of the latest (apologies for not being as good as others on here), Blue Moon and Draco:

Spoiler: Blue moon & Draco

Oh good sir, why you tease us so

 

[qua2k]

In the meantime, I just got my Christmas Present from @FranQL today in the mail. I haven't had a ton of time on them yet (obviously) but I have to say that now having the full set of four buds, I need nothing else in the way of earbuds. These cover all the different sounds I might want to have, and whatever they don't the others I have fill those cracks.

These are simply high-end buds in every way. Along with his master class tuning, he has found the perfect combination of good quality drivers with the perfect shell for each model and the goal that was sought after. So, the list of unique and TOTL buds (though not exhaustive of all of his fantastic collection) are:

• Aquila
• Caelum
• Draco
• Blue Moon (Hydra was the original fourth, but was discontinued due to Fran not being completely satisfied with them)

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on any of these, you can trust me, for what their intention was in the sound, there are NO better (qualifier = that I have heard). There may/may not be better, but I am not willing to pay the exorbitant amount of money to experiment. In the simplest terms; these are end game buds, all four (IMHO).

Here are some photos of the latest (apologies for not being as good as others on here), Blue Moon and Draco:

Spoiler: Blue moon & Draco

Lucky mofo, grats! I am beyond jelly

Happy Holidays all earbud lovers!

 

[samandhi]

I bought them during black friday discounts and there were two options at the time, "Earbuds No Cable" and "With Bluetooth Cable". They changed it to three options when the Aliexpress dispute went in my favor, so I think it's correlated.

I were not interested in the bluetooth cable but there was a $4 discount every $20 spent, and the cable was only about $2 more and made me reach the figure so I saved money this way paradoxically. Also, I placed the order through the "Coins" section in the android app which offers a significant additional discount on many items but you are forced to select "buy now" without adding other things in the cart, so I had no other option. Combining all this, the price dropped from $21 to 13$, but it was all useless in my case .

Anyway, your words are promising and keep me interested in these A-Bells. Now I take advantage of your helpfulness to ask you: of the earbuds you own, which of them do you think have pinpoint accuracy? Thanks in advance

P.S. right now I see in the Coins section of the Aliexpress app the A-Bells with a 30% discount sold by LUNSON Brand Store (from 20 to 14 dollars). Personally, I don't want to deal with this seller again after my bad experience with him, but if someone wants to take the risk...

AAAAh I see what you mean then. If it were me, I would just skip that store and go straight to CKLewis Audio. They not only have a 97.3% rating, but there are many on this thread (including me) that can vouch for their reputation. Plus, they are only $15 ATM through CKLewis, so the extra dollar you might pay is worth it to get after sales service (just in case) IMO.

If we are talking about store bought ones alone, I can say that the Moondrop Chaconne have the best imaging of them all (most if not all technicalities as well; staging being one of its biggest draws for me). These are pretty expensive for earbuds, but when you consider its immaculate tuning in the mids and treble, imaging, separation, layering, staging, timber, tone, etc... they are better even than a whole slew of other types of head gear as well (IEMs, headphones). There are a lot of people that don't like them though because the quantity of bass (or lack thereof) makes them "not so musical".

The Rose Technics Maria II are second to the Chaconne for imaging but are pretty tied on the rest of the technicalities. These are VERY niche to my ears because they have a very strong "diffuse" type of tuning and hurt my ears in the presence region.

There aren't any others that I have heard that I can say they have "pinpoint" imaging to my ears, even though I put something like the Yinman 2.0 600 above those other two for most of my listening preferences. There probably are some out there, but $400 is pretty much my limit for earbuds, and even then that only happens once in a great while. I have found that $80 - $400 is the sweet spot for earbuds, and anything more than that just isn't worth the diminishing returns for me.

As for the budget segment, there are many that sound really good, but I still would argue that the A-Bells have some of the best technicalities for being so cheap. In the mid segment, the (now discontinued) Smabat M2s Pro had some technicalities to rival some TOTL sets. Why they moved away from that for their new "crap" is beyond me?!

Oh good sir, why you tease us so

I'll answer your question with a question; wouldn't you show them off????

In seriousness though, apologies for teasing. I know that the Blue Moon were getting pretty well known on this thread, but the Draco and others might not be as well known to all.

 

[samandhi]

Lucky mofo, grats! I am beyond jelly

Happy Holidays all earbud lovers!

I would agree with you on that one.... And thank you very much!

Happy holidays to you as well (and everyone else also)!

P.S. Just to clarify, I am agreeing that I am guilty of being lucky, not a mofo (though I have been called that so much I might agree just from it being repeated so much)....

 

[ProspektFi]

AAAAh I see what you mean then. If it were me, I would just skip that store and go straight to CKLewis Audio. They not only have a 97.3% rating, but there are many on this thread (including me) that can vouch for their reputation. Plus, they are only $15 ATM through CKLewis, so the extra dollar you might pay is worth it to get after sales service (just in case) IMO.

If we are talking about store bought ones alone, I can say that the Moondrop Chaconne have the best imaging of them all (most if not all technicalities as well; staging being one of its biggest draws for me). These are pretty expensive for earbuds, but when you consider its immaculate tuning in the mids and treble, imaging, separation, layering, staging, timber, tone, etc... they are better even than a whole slew of other types of head gear as well (IEMs, headphones). There are a lot of people that don't like them though because the quantity of bass (or lack thereof) makes them "not so musical".

The Rose Technics Maria II are second to the Chaconne for imaging but are pretty tied on the rest of the technicalities. These are VERY niche to my ears because they have a very strong "diffuse" type of tuning and hurt my ears in the presence region.

There aren't any others that I have heard that I can say they have "pinpoint" imaging to my ears, even though I put something like the Yinman 2.0 600 above those other two for most of my listening preferences. There probably are some out there, but $400 is pretty much my limit for earbuds, and even then that only happens once in a great while. I have found that $80 - $400 is the sweet spot for earbuds, and anything more than that just isn't worth the diminishing returns for me.

As for the budget segment, there are many that sound really good, but I still would argue that the A-Bells have some of the best technicalities for being so cheap. In the mid segment, the (now discontinued) Smabat M2s Pro had some technicalities to rival some TOTL sets. Why they moved away from that for their new "crap" is beyond me?!

I just bought the A-Bells from CKLewis store! And I noticed that I already got a pair of EMX500 from them in 2017 and I hadn't bought earbuds in general for four years!

Thank you for all the helpful information you shared!

 

[ColdsnapBry]

What's a good starter earbud for walking around with them in?

 

[hiheaded]

What's a good starter earbud for walking around with them in?

I mean...just walking, I'd say any of them. Maybe excluding the yinman 600 which would require walking with some extra hardware. I'm no expert but might wanna get more specific for these guys to be able to help point you in the right direction.

 

[ColdsnapBry]

Well I usually use my KSC75 and absolutely love them, but they look a bit bulky and draw attention. Most of the time I use my Hiby R3 DAP. I don't like iems for walking due to the occlusion sound and wire noise.

 

[hiheaded]

Well I usually use my KSC75 and absolutely love them, but they look a bit bulky and draw attention. Most of the time I use my Hiby R3 DAP. I don't like iems for walking due to the occlusion sound and wire noise.

Yea those are classic. Maybe someone can give you an earbud option that has a similar sound profile. I haven't heard those in so long I wouldn't be able to give a fair comparison. I def relate to the walking around with iems...it's how I ended up here as well lol

 

[ColdsnapBry]

Yea those are classic. Maybe someone can give you an earbud option that has a similar sound profile. I haven't heard those in so long I wouldn't be able to give a fair comparison. I def relate to the walking around with iems...it's how I ended up here as well lol

Thanks, I am on the waitlist for Gen 3 Rikubud too. So I have that on the way but might take some time.

 

[hiheaded]

Thanks, I am on the waitlist for Gen 3 Rikubud too. So I have that on the way but might take some time.

Ooohh..thats what I was going to recommend so you're def on the right track. Saber 3 are my go to earbud. Maybe just order some cheap faaeal iris or something in the meantime...but honestly he gets to ya pretty quickly...

 

[jogawag]

Thanks, I am on the waitlist for Gen 3 Rikubud too. So I have that on the way but might take some time.

I recommend to you the Qian39, which sits well in the ear and is the original of the Saber3 shell, the RG39 shell.