[darmanastartes]

With some assistance from @Nimweth I was able to get a pair of the Smabat ST-10S for review. First impressions are very positive.

 

[Nimweth]

With some assistance from @Nimweth I was able to get a pair of the Smabat ST-10S for review. First impressions are very positive.

Looking forward to your review!

 

[baskingshark]

With some assistance from @Nimweth I was able to get a pair of the Smabat ST-10S for review. First impressions are very positive.

Did u get the black gold or black silver one? (Apparently there's a newer revised tuning for the black silver one too).

Look forward to your reviews, and possibly any comparisons with the original SMABAT ST10!

 

[darmanastartes]

Did u get the black gold or black silver one? (Apparently there's a newer revised tuning for the black silver one too).

Look forward to your reviews, and possibly any comparisons with the original SMABAT ST10!

Black Silver, and I will definitely compare with the OG ST-10.

 

[1clearhead]

My update:
Here are some final comparisons between four(4) earbuds I recently purchased; the Snow-Lotus 1.0, Snow-Lotus plus Blue, Yincrow X6, and my latest MEMT R7 earbud.
Okay, after spending some time during the weekend with the R7 earbuds, I have several comments on the outcome and how they fare with four others from my small collection. They have a smooth and wide soundstage and reminds me of the Snow-Lotus 1.0, but with a more pronounced mid-bass hump and thicker lower MID's providing an interesting texture in this area with good imaging and separation. So, it's a toss-up between the Snow-Lotus 1.0 and the R7 earbuds if you ask me. But, then here comes the Yincrow X6 with a more forward and pronounced midrange and good execution of lower bass. The Snow-Lotus plus Blue provides surprisingly good treble and clarity, but for what it's worth, the earbuds I have by far have its advantages and disadvantages.

Here's what I personally think is best sounding to my ears by sounding mostly natural, coherent, and fun from 1) to 4)...

1) Yincrow X6
PROS: Excellent balance and clarity throughout most of the range
CONS: Lower MID vocals can get shouty at times according to the genre selected

2) Snow-Lotus 1.0 (original)
PROS: Excellent soundstage and clarity
CONS: Lower sub-bass can sound slightly lite according to genre selected

3) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
PROS: Excellent soundstage and clarity
CONS: Treble and overall clarity can sound a little harsh according to genre selected

4) MEMET R7 earbuds
PROS: Nice mid-bass and lower midrange texture with good imaging and separation
CONS: Lower sub-bass can sound slightly lite according to genre selected

Other:
Best overall "built quality with good sound versus price"...
1) MEMT R7 earbuds
2) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
3) Snow-Lotus 1.0
4) Yincrow X6

Best overall "package with storage case"...
1) MEMT R7 earbuds
2) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
3) Snow-Lotus 1.0
4) Yincrow X6

Best overall "solid cable and plug"...
1) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
2) MEMT R7 earbuds
3) Snow-Lotus 1.0
4) Yincrow X6

Hope my comparisons above can help anyone making their next purchase...

-Clear

 

[baskingshark]

My update:
Here are some final comparisons between four(4) earbuds I recently purchased; the Snow-Lotus 1.0, Snow-Lotus plus Blue, Yincrow X6, and my latest MEMT R7 earbud.
Okay, after spending some time during the weekend with the R7 earbuds, I have several comments on the outcome and how they fare with four others from my small collection. They have a smooth and wide soundstage and reminds me of the Snow-Lotus 1.0, but with a more pronounced mid-bass hump and thicker lower MID's providing an interesting texture in this area with good imaging and separation. So, it's a toss-up between the Snow-Lotus 1.0 and the R7 earbuds if you ask me. But, then here comes the Yincrow X6 with a more forward and pronounced midrange and good execution of lower bass. The Snow-Lotus plus Blue provides surprisingly good treble and clarity, but for what it's worth, the earbuds I have by far have its advantages and disadvantages.

Here's what I personally think is best sounding to my ears by sounding mostly natural, coherent, and fun from 1) to 4)...

1) Yincrow X6
PROS: Excellent balance and clarity throughout most of the range
CONS: Lower MID vocals can get shouty at times according to the genre selected

2) Snow-Lotus 1.0 (original)
PROS: Excellent soundstage and clarity
CONS: Lower sub-bass can sound slightly lite according to genre selected

3) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
PROS: Excellent soundstage and clarity
CONS: Treble and overall clarity can sound a little harsh according to genre selected

4) MEMET R7 earbuds
PROS: Nice mid-bass and lower midrange texture with good imaging and separation
CONS: Lower sub-bass can sound slightly lite according to genre selected

Other:
Best overall "built quality with good sound versus price"...
1) MEMT R7 earbuds
2) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
3) Snow-Lotus 1.0
4) Yincrow X6

Best overall "package with storage case"...
1) MEMT R7 earbuds
2) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
3) Snow-Lotus 1.0
4) Yincrow X6

Best overall "solid cable and plug"...
1) Snow-Lotus 1.0 plus Blue (Commemorative Edition)
2) MEMT R7 earbuds
3) Snow-Lotus 1.0
4) Yincrow X6

Hope my comparisons above can help anyone making their next purchase...

-Clear

Nice comparisons, thanks! So is the snow lotus 1.0+ version just more bright than the regular 1.0 snow lotus?

I wonder if anybody can compare snow lotus 2.0 with the 1.0 and 1.0+ versions (if u have heard the 2.0 version). Thanks in advance!

 

[1clearhead]

Nice comparisons, thanks! So is the snow lotus 1.0+ version just more bright than the regular 1.0 snow lotus?

I wonder if anybody can compare snow lotus 2.0 with the 1.0 and 1.0+ versions (if u have heard the 2.0 version). Thanks in advance!

Yes, it's just brighter than the original 1.0.

About the 2.0: I don't have a pair yet.

 

[WoodyLuvr]

Smabat ST-10S Black-Gold sounding fine but the larger diameter is physically hurting the entrance area of my rather small ear canals
Hoping, that I'll adapt to it and the ache goes away with a few more days of wearing them. Double full foams muddied the sound... playing around with double donuts at the moment.

Thankfully the ache went completely away after the third day or so. Very interesting sound. At first it sounds "tinny" almost "metallic" like. But not in a harsh or sibilant manner. Once my ears adjusted and grew accustomed to it I realized it was another level (different presentation) of clarity I was unaccustomed to. These do appear to scale very well with a HeadAMP. The cable is supple and soft; perfectly weighted with absolutely no micro-phonics to speak of. Very pleased with the Smabat ST-10S "Black-Gold" (150Ω); 3.5SE Unbalanced earbuds.

Here they are being driven by a XDuoo XD-05 Plus Black Edition + 05BL Pro (DAC HeadAMP w/ Bluetooth Module)

Spoiler: Additional Pic

 

[baskingshark]

Thankfully the ache went completely away after the third day or so. Very interesting sound. At first it sounds "tinny" almost "metallic" like. But not in a harsh or sibilant manner. Once my ears adjusted and grew accustomed to it I realized it was another level (different presentation) of clarity I was unaccustomed to. These do appear to scale very well with a HeadAMP. The cable is supple and soft; perfectly weighted with absolutely no micro-phonics to speak of.

Very pleased with the Smabat ST-10S Black-Gold 150 Ohms earbuds. Here they are being driven by a XDuoo XD-05 Plus Black Edition + 05BL Pro (DAC HeadAMP w/ Bluetooth Module)

Spoiler: Additional Pic

I'm already extremely happy with the regular SMABAT ST10 (non S version), so I think it must be amazing to have the black gold version of the ST10S in your ears!

 

[DAndrew]

Hey yall,

This is going to be a critique, I hope this is allowed as I want to shed some light on how these "artisanal" earbuds are made.

So I recently got a pair of Moonbuds Crescent from someone from here. ( will keep it anonymous unless he wants to be known ).
Pair was damaged and wasnt playing sounds on one driver. Didnt take long to see what the problem was haha


I went on to try and fix this but I have to say , I was really disappointed in the build quality and material quality.

You can see in the pictures that they didnt really stand the test of time and that anti-repair methods were used when building these...such as using heat gun glue to just glue the cables in the Y splitter and the audio jack. The Y splitter is not even a splitter its just an aluminum tube filled with glue...



The cable was stiff and did not seem of a high quality. I think you can paint a picture.

Moving on to the drivers it seems they are generic cheap chinese drivers, and the "tunning" consists of an extra felt applied to the felt they came with.



The audio jack isnt better, flimsy and already bent, seems to be one of the cheap variant of clones.



Sorry if I come off as too tough but iirc the Crescent was pretty pricey ( too price for this quality, but each his own I guess ).

Overall I would never recommend this builder.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the drivers were really subpar too, I've heard better drivers from aliexpress that cost 3$...

 

[RikudouGoku]

Hey yall,

This is going to be a critique, I hope this is allowed as I want to shed some light on how these "artisanal" earbuds are made.

So I recently got a pair of Moonbuds Crescent from someone from here. ( will keep it anonymous unless he wants to be known ).
Pair was damaged and wasnt playing sounds on one driver. Didnt take long to see what the problem was haha


I went on to try and fix this but I have to say , I was really disappointed in the build quality and material quality.

You can see in the pictures that they didnt really stand the test of time and that anti-repair methods were used when building these...such as using heat gun glue to just glue the cables in the Y splitter and the audio jack. The Y splitter is not even a splitter its just an aluminum tube filled with glue...



The cable was stiff and did not seem of a high quality. I think you can paint a picture.

Moving on to the drivers it seems they are generic cheap chinese drivers, and the "tunning" consists of an extra felt applied to the felt they came with.



The audio jack isnt better, flimsy and already bent, seems to be one of the cheap variant of clones.



Sorry if I come off as too tough but iirc the Crescent was pretty pricey ( too price for this quality, but each his own I guess ).

Overall I would never recommend this builder.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the drivers were really subpar too, I've heard better drivers from aliexpress that cost 3$...

lol thought that you meant MOONDROP crescent.

 

[baskingshark]

lol thought that you meant MOONDROP crescent.

Moonbuds is quite a boutique earbuds brand, yeah I initially mistook them for Moondrop! But haven't tried any of the Moondbuds yet, hope to do so one day though.

 

[bhima]

Hey yall,

This is going to be a critique, I hope this is allowed as I want to shed some light on how these "artisanal" earbuds are made.

So I recently got a pair of Moonbuds Crescent from someone from here. ( will keep it anonymous unless he wants to be known ).
Pair was damaged and wasnt playing sounds on one driver. Didnt take long to see what the problem was haha


I went on to try and fix this but I have to say , I was really disappointed in the build quality and material quality.

You can see in the pictures that they didnt really stand the test of time and that anti-repair methods were used when building these...such as using heat gun glue to just glue the cables in the Y splitter and the audio jack. The Y splitter is not even a splitter its just an aluminum tube filled with glue...



The cable was stiff and did not seem of a high quality. I think you can paint a picture.

Moving on to the drivers it seems they are generic cheap chinese drivers, and the "tunning" consists of an extra felt applied to the felt they came with.



The audio jack isnt better, flimsy and already bent, seems to be one of the cheap variant of clones.



Sorry if I come off as too tough but iirc the Crescent was pretty pricey ( too price for this quality, but each his own I guess ).

Overall I would never recommend this builder.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the drivers were really subpar too, I've heard better drivers from aliexpress that cost 3$...

Man, that is disappointing. I had wanted to grab some Moonbuds at one point but I am sticking to my guns on MMCX or bust. This is a pretty good example of a problem that MMCX could fix--though it would not fix the poor sound quality. Honestly, after having purchased a pair of Willsounds that sounded so bad I literally threw them in the trash, I'm pretty much done on playing Russian Roulette with my wallet.

 

[bigtim]

Man, that is disappointing. I had wanted to grab some Moonbuds at one point but I am sticking to my guns on MMCX or bust. This is a pretty good example of a problem that MMCX could fix--though it would not fix the poor sound quality. Honestly, after having purchased a pair of Willsounds that sounded so bad I literally threw them in the trash, I'm pretty much done on playing Russian Roulette with my wallet.

It's a shame you had a bad experience with Willsound. The Willsound Mk2's are probably my favourite all-round earbud. I have earbuds Willsound / Blurbud / ME-Q and it's a trade off - I could probably do something similar for cheaper with the right materials and time to practice but I don't have the time. In terms of overall SQ the artisinal products may not be that much better than a good pair from Aliexpress or similar but then there's the desirability factor of having something more unique.

 

[bhima]

It's a shame you had a bad experience with Willsound. The Willsound Mk2's are probably my favourite all-round earbud. I have earbuds Willsound / Blurbud / ME-Q and it's a trade off - I could probably do something similar for cheaper with the right materials and time to practice but I don't have the time. In terms of overall SQ the artisinal products may not be that much better than a good pair from Aliexpress or similar but then there's the desirability factor of having something more unique.

I can't remember which Willsounds I bought but they were well recommended (PK shell, cable was blue--$40). They looked nice, but they sounded like they were tuned underwater. The $8 rando-PK buds I got off Aliexpress where much better. Honestly would have been mostly happy with them if they just sounded as good as those cheapo ones I got from Ali because they looked nice. But Alas.