Congrats on your new shiny(s)!Thank you for the link, it is awesome! The possibility to easily swipe back and forth on the frequency band will make it easy to find hot spots in the frequency response of any headgear. This will actually be a lot more accurate than applying eq according to a frequency graph somebody made of a headphone, as this approach using the slider will applies to ones personal hearing and the actual used headphone. I will definitely use this!
Apart from at work I don't have time to listen to music. There I am in a big office space with colleagues around me, so listening to music on big open back headphones with a desktop system is not an option. I found over time that the isolation and invasiveness of in ears are not really my cup of tea, hence the recently acquired obsession for earbuds. I won't need any software like neutron player, high quality downloads on spotify and the qudelix 5k are really all I need. I am super happy with the qudelix, it can do 20 bands of parametric eq: bandpass filters (this is useless), peak filters or Hi/Lo shelf filters. It also has crossfeed and choice of 8 different dac filters. LDac bluetooth streaming. Balanced or single ended out. Max 240mwatt output and 4V Rms.
Some of these options yield more subtle results than others, but all of the options clearly do something to the sound (obviously eq can do the most...) and if one takes some time with this little beast all of the options can be put to good use.
An added benefit of the qudelix vs an eq app like neutron player is that all the eq takes place in the qudelix itself and the eq settings are saved there. This avoids the problem with Android not allowing systemwide EQ. I tried wavelet once, it was at least able to apply eq to spotify. It had no effect on other apps like netflix or YouTube however. Also the 10 band graphic eq wavelet offers is not exactly a precision tool...
Did this sound like an advertisement for the qudelix? I have it now for nearly a year and am still completely in love with it. I only wish it hat a 3 or 4 times bigger battery, would gladly accept it if it was 3 or 4 times as big with bigger and better buttons.
It might actually be satisfying to use thethe yincrow calf . My first and worst earbud purchase.
Shell type does not matter I think. I wear the mx500 shells cable over ear and use silicone rings, otherwise I do not get a good fit. This approach should work with any shell I think.
Budget is a difficult question... I was ready to shell out the 150 for the yinman 600. I don't feel I am ready yet for spending 300 or more for TGXEar or RW3000 or 4000. Thank you for taking the time to do a little comparison of the RW2000 vs RW3000 by the way. This makes it clear to me that the RW3000 will never happen for me.
About what I consider great mids: this is what I have to find out really
Probably I can say what I don't like: I own the Truthear Zero Red. This one is diffuse field neutral. And I do not like it at all. I think the pinna gain is in the wrong place. The mids sound tinny. The pinna gain maxes out at around 2,5-3 khz. It starts to roll off from there. Harmann tuning the pinna gain maxes out at 3,5 to 4khz and then it rolls off. If one overlays diffuse field and harman, one will see that roughly from 1-3k diffuse field has 2db more energy than harman in that region, whereas harman has 2db more energy than diffuse field beyond 4khz. This makes for a quite different tonality and my experiments eqing the Truthear Zero more "Harmanish" have shown me, that I prefer that kind of tuning. That being said, for me there is too much ear gain in both of the target curves.
Probably I am wishing for a Harman tuning with slightly more warmth, so a less pronounced bass shelf then harmann, more a gentler slope to the mids, then less pinna gain than harmann but in turn some more shimmer in the mid and upper treble to make up for the lesser ear gain.
Right now I think this is what I want. But then again once I was thinking the "neutral" sound of the Truthear Zero would be what I want!
But I have learned something from it: "neutral" means it will likely be too bright and not natural for me...
By the way I received the Faaeal Rosemary and the Snow Lotus Yesterday. So far I can say I very much like the Rosemary. The Snow Lotus cannot compete at all...

You are very welcome, and I know that you (like me) will put it to good use.
Oh no! I wasn't trying to get you to get rid of the 5K. I have heard nothing but good things about it from its inception. I am glad you are happy with it. I was only making the suggestion because I didn't realize that the 5K had such a PEQ/EQ built in.
As for me, I use Neutron on my DX300 and PC. While the DX300 IS indeed android, there are no android limits (or rather they are bypassed by iBasso's implementation). And for Windows, Neutron has a WASAPI driver, which also bypasses the built in Windows and sound card driver's sound mixer, therefore the only limitation is in my external DAC. This is plenty for what I would ever need @PCM 24/768KHz or DSD512). I guess you could say the gear I
I almost bought the 5K once, but instead opted for the much smaller Shanling M0, which has a lot of those options as well but sadly is missing the balanced connection. It wasn't a total dud for me though, I really like it for what it is and does.

I can listen to pretty much any type of tuning, but I have never really been a fan of Harmon tuning, unless I plan on using that head gear to indulge my (once in a while) guilty pleasure of "bass cannons" because the bass is usually already boosted some (I just need to take it up a notch

Having said all of that, and speaking of EQ, I DO love the DSP in Neutron Player, but since I DO use Amazon for streaming HQ music as well, and their built in EQ SUX, I am going to be ordering something that most that aren't considered an "old timer" won't remember too well, other than from stories; a passive EQ. This will sit in my chain after the DAC, but before the amp which means it doesn't matter what source I feed it, the EQ will be "system wide".
It is getting really hard to find one of those nowadays (I used to have one with my sound system in my car when I was young) that aren't "rack" type systems made for mixing and mastering. Though I DID manage to find a couple desktop units. Here is one (more like a tone control than EQ) that looks interesting; though it is a bit big for my stack, but I don't want to use the smaller version of it, as it is only a 4 band so the Qs will be TOO wide for my tastes.
I know, I am a dying breed... Go ahead and jibe me for not using the "better" digital EQ... LOL
P.S. Technically speaking, the one I linked is not truly passive either, but I can't find ANY that are passive any more. Apparently they don't sound good anymore, and people don't want them.
