Earbuds Round-Up

[openscape]

You can always give the new yinman 150ohm a shot. That's what I'm looking towards personally. I believe that'll be a higher end option.

Or you can always go for the fioio ff3s or ff5. Dunu Almost Alpha 3. They're pretty highly regarded.

Thanks for mentioning these options!

Same here re: Yinman 150s. I am much more interested in the DIY/unknown makers out there. I feel like they are doing more interesting things than the 'top dawgs' out there.

Indeed, the Yinman 150 could be interesting.

If you find a Yinman 150Ω let us all know. I would sure like to get a set. Maybe there's a little confusion with the recent buying Yinman buds from AliExpress discussions.

Here's the breakdown. Both Yinman 600Ω and Yinman 32Ω are purchasable. If you buy from AVCCK store the 3 listings for the 150Ω are misleading. 2 of the 150Ω listings have pricing of ~$41.00. You will get Yinman 32Ω buds. The 3rd listing for 150Ω has pricing ~$118.00, you will be getting Yinman 600Ω.

@samandhi messaged the store and grilled them about whether they had the Yinman 150Ω available and they kept dancing around his questions by answering with suggestions to purchase either the 600Ω or 32Ω. The store would never comment if the 150Ω was in stock or not. Draw your own conclusions, if they had the 150Ω in stock there would be no reason for them to keep suggesting the other buds.

Thanks for sharing, looking for these, too. Maybe I will try the Serratus or Serratus Black Sand (180 ohm) first with my BTR15. Going down this road, I can already see I might end up looking for an amp just to drive earbuds .

 

[ttorbic]

It's frustrating because I only notice that sibilance when I'm listening to them through my Qudelix 5K, they're much more bearable when listening to music through my T480's built-in audio chip but still not completely fatigue free.

Ah, have you tried a different filter on the Qudelix? Otherwise you might be hearing the slight sharpness of ESS dac chip tuning...I occasionally heard this on my Qudelix and ended up selling it

 

[ttorbic]

Maybe I will try the Serratus or Serratus Black Sand (180 ohm) first with my BTR15.

Those are both very good options do you fit mx500 shells?

 

[mt877]

Here is Yinman 150 and TMusic EP3. Yinman is definitely a tree. If you knock the TMusic cases against each other, the sound of real plastic is heard.

When and how did you get your set of the Yinman 150Ω? Can you give an impression of how they sound? If you also have the Yinman 32 or 600, compared to either one of them if possible.

 

[justanut]

By the way, how about trying the Final type E earpiece to suppress the sibilant of the Sony mdr-EX1000?

Oh i shall have a try, thanks for the suggestion! Its really difficult to find tips that would allow them to stay in my ears too.

 

[droenald]

Yes, this is a big deal for me, that they are not offensive in any way. Yes, they are warmer, and smoother, but have all the clarity and resolution of a set that might be MUCH more aggressive sounding otherwise, all while remaining musical as well.

@samandhi the smoothness and inoffensiveness paired with great dynamics and technicalities that everyone is describing in the yinman 600 is exactly what makes me want to get them.
I do have 5 earbuds now - the yincrow calf, the rikubuds berserker1, red vido, green vido and faael Iris 2.0
Out of the box without eq the green vido is for me the most natural sounding. If I turn up the volume (and I sometimes want to!) This is where the problems start. All of those buds except for the Iris will get fatiquing very fast, and then we are not talking about loud volumes yet. This is a huge difference to my experience listening to loudspeakers. I guess my hrtf is just like that, it seems my personal hearing is not comparable to what the rest of the people in this world are thinking is a "natural" sound...
I am quite comfortable with using parametric EQ in the Bass range up to 300hz and above 7000hz, I can sculpt the Iris 2.0 with the qudelix to be tonally pretty much endgame for me, so I can listen and enjoy it at low and high volumes, and it will sound natural with all genres for me. Still I crave a little better transient response, details and imaging.
With the other earbuds I own, there is something off and/or peaky in certain areas of the mids and lower treble for ne and most of the eqing I tried has proven to be a waste of time sadly. First of all I do not manage to adress exactly the correct area of the frequency band, so while I manage to improve one area another might suffer.
Secondly, some of the drivers are simply more competent than others.
Notably the worst is the calf, it starts to notably distort and compress extremely soon, what a letdown. The vidos seem to use as expected also not very good drivers. Berserker and Iris 2.0 take EQ like a champ though.

 

[droenald]

So does anybody have recommendations for earbuds with great mids, technicalities and relaxed upper mids and lower treble for me?
I am not asking for great extension on the upper and lower end! (Some extension would be nice to have)

 

[droenald]

I completely understand not having enough free time to dedicate to your passions and hobbies, before I got sick I ran a business and at the end of the day even if you have free time you're so exhausted that you just want to sit and veg out to some TV show or video

This is exactly where I am at right now... Thanks for the warning! Psst... I have time right now, that's why I am posting, it already makes me feel a lot better to spend even half an hour with the nerdy hobby.

 

[droenald]

Ah, have you tried a different filter on the Qudelix? Otherwise you might be hearing the slight sharpness of ESS dac chip tuning...I occasionally heard this on my Qudelix and ended up selling it

+1 about the filters: try the minimum phase super slow roll off filter, it is the warmest sounding to my ears. I do not notice a real difference between all the others.
You can also try using the crossfeed. (Xfeed in the app) try values somewhere in between 20 and 30. Values above 30 you seem to lose width. Below 20 I do not notice it all that much.
What it does for me is it seems to give instruments some more body and warmth and also somehow solidifies the position of the instrument in the soundstage for me. It makes the sound a tad more natural. Again: for me...
Give it a shot - the app functionality is the big plus of the Qudelix!

 

[Survivor]

When and how did you get your set of the Yinman 150Ω? Can you give an impression of how they sound? If you also have the Yinman 32 or 600, compared to either one of them if possible.

I bought these earbuds in November 2019 at the AVCCK store. The best earbuds at that time I had were the HE150Pro, and the DAP iBasso DX80. I really liked the sound, the wide scene and the good bass. However, everything was ruined by the cable, which was hard and elastic. He twisted like a spring and pulled the earbuds out of my ears. That's why Yinman 150 has been in my drawer for several years now. I took them out to listen to them several times, but the sound didn't seem interesting to me.
When the model that is on sale now, with the Longyao logo, appeared on sale, I wrote the seller a question and he answered me that the speaker remained the same, only the shell and cable were changed.
I haven't heard of any other Yinman models.

 

[anli]

technicalities and relaxed upper mids

For me is sounds as contradiction. And I don't relate musical emotions with technicalities. Then why bother?

 

[jogawag]

So does anybody have recommendations for earbuds with great mids, technicalities and relaxed upper mids and lower treble for me?
I am not asking for great extension on the upper and lower end! (Some extension would be nice to have)

The Blox TM9 is by no means bright, and the treble sounds smooth and laid-back, but for some people it's a little too smooth and laid-back, and for metal and similar music, it doesn't have enough punch. But for me, the TM9 was perfect for more relaxing music like Bossa Nova and was my favorite earbud.

However, TM9 was lost in a natural disaster.
That's why I'm looking forward to the Blox TM11, which has been a hot topic lately, and will definitely buy it.

I think I can recommend Blox TM11 to you too.

 

[mt877]

I bought these earbuds in November 2019 at the AVCCK store. The best earbuds at that time I had were the HE150Pro, and the DAP iBasso DX80. I really liked the sound, the wide scene and the good bass. However, everything was ruined by the cable, which was hard and elastic. He twisted like a spring and pulled the earbuds out of my ears. That's why Yinman 150 has been in my drawer for several years now. I took them out to listen to them several times, but the sound didn't seem interesting to me.
When the model that is on sale now, with the Longyao logo, appeared on sale, I wrote the seller a question and he answered me that the speaker remained the same, only the shell and cable were changed.
I haven't heard of any other Yinman models.

Thank for your information. I was already thinking you must have gotten them some time ago. I guess it's a bit reassuring that the AVCCK store did have the 150's available at one time.

 

[mt877]

For me is sounds as contradiction. And I don't relate musical emotions with technicalities. Then why bother?

I don't think @droenald is talking about any musical emotions by saying "relaxed upper mids". They are referring to upper mids without peakiness or that "ice pick" tuning while having good technicalities. This is not impossible, the Yinman 600 exhibit such tuning.

 

[trevdawg94]

Ah, have you tried a different filter on the Qudelix? Otherwise you might be hearing the slight sharpness of ESS dac chip tuning...I occasionally heard this on my Qudelix and ended up selling it

Yes I did and it helped some but didn't solve the problem entirely. I'm going to spend some time digging into the settings again and see if there's something else I can change that will help. It might also be an issue with how the EQ is being applied, as someone mentioned that just enabling the EQ changes the sound even if no filters are applied. I'm not sure whether that's true or not but I'm going to at least play around and see whether that makes a difference or not. Are all ESS DACs known to have a sharpness to them or does that just apply to certain devices depending on how the chip is used?