[antdroid]

Are there buds out there with a different driver than a DD?

Or are there some reasons as to why the majority of them use DD?

Dunu made one. alpha i think? it has a BA and DD i believe

 

[cenizas]

Are there buds out there with a different driver than a DD?

Or are there some reasons as to why the majority of them use DD?

There's the pislo earbuds from a Chinese based company mainly selling in mainland China that use a piezo but cost about 7-800usd. I've tried them before, huge stage but resolution wise they're just ok. Unique sound, great looks but the asking price is too tough too tough to swallow.

 

[baskingshark]

There's the pislo earbuds from a Chinese based company mainly selling in mainland China that use a piezo but cost about 7-800usd. I've tried them before, huge stage but resolution wise they're just ok. Unique sound, great looks but the asking price is too tough too tough to swallow.

Wow, that's very unique indeed. How was the timbre on that piezo earbud? So far for the budget piezo IEMs that I've tried, most of them were airy and had good transients/technicalities but they had a weird timbre for acoustic instruments, sounded "brittle" to me. Like for example, they had a very quick decay for drums that sounded a bit too unnatural. But for electronic/synthetic music, they were very good. The piezos were also rather power hungry in general, and scaled better with amping.

Are there buds out there with a different driver than a DD?

Or are there some reasons as to why the majority of them use DD?

DD is probably easier to tune and cheaper than BAs, no crossovers etc I suppose. Earbuds look to me to be relatively cheaper than IEMs, so adding BAs will hike up the price? Like for a couple of bucks you can get musical bliss already with stuff like the Vidos, Monks etc.

BAs used to be very pricey in the past, and were mainly used in hearing aids and military hardware. It is only the past 3 - 4 years or so that CHIFI brought down the prices of BAs, so that we can enjoy some small taste of audiophiledom without needing to sell a kidney. Knowles used to have a stranglehold on the BAs, a single BA western IEM used to go for at least $100 USD and multi BA sets would have been $200 - 300 USD minimum. Now $30 can get u a not to bad sounding multi BA set eg KZ, CCA, TRN, and we gotta thank Bellsing for that. Though the ethics is another issue, there's a big lawsuit now going on in US, with Knowles alledging that Bellsing copied their BAs: https://www.reddit.com/r/headphones/comments/cxqlje/knowles_files_claim_with_us_trade_commission_to/

But I do like the timbre, tonality and natural bass decay/movement of air that come with these DD earbuds, so that's definitely a good point about using DD.

 

[Sam L]

Dunu made one. alpha i think? it has a BA and DD i believe

Interesting, especially considering you'd think the ba would suffer without an iem-like seal.

 

[Danneq]

Dunu made one. alpha i think? it has a BA and DD i believe

Pretty good sounding but the worst fit ever.

 

[RikudouGoku]

Dunu made one. alpha i think? it has a BA and DD i believe

Damn, 16mm dd + BA. But that fit looks horrible.

I wonder how good the vocals would sound in a planar bud though...

 

[Danneq]

Damn, 16mm dd + BA. But that fit looks horrible.

I wonder how good the vocals would sound in a planar bud though...

I really liked the sound of the Alpha 1, not the best I've heard, but it sounded unique. The DD was for lower frequencies and the BA for upper mids and highs. I think the two drivers went together pretty well.

But I could not get a good fit at all. I think it sounded the best with just donut foams on it, but the buds kept popping out from my ears. Didn't like the rings or hooks. Sold them but was tempted to buy a new pair about 1 year later when a seller on Ebay.uk sold them new for £50. But I soon remembered the poor fit and didn't buy it...

 

[mochill]

I have alpha 1 , fits great in my ears and sound is full and detailed

 

[Danneq]

I have alpha 1 , fits great in my ears and sound is full and detailed

What do you use? The hooks, rings or foams?

 

[mochill]

Bass foam

 

[gundam37]

Hi all,

Am new here. Been using the supplied apple earpods for the longest time. Don't really like IEMs as I like to be aware of my surroundings when I listen to music. Looking for a pair of earbuds and would like something with lots of PRAT (i.e. Pace, Rhythm and Timing, toe-tapping...).
Did some searching and it seems that the original VE ZEN 1 is what i am looking for but too late, it is discontinued.
What other alternative earbuds should I be looking at? How is the VE ZEN 2 in terms of PRAT? Is it a worthy contender? People seems to prefer the ZEN 1 in general.
Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[DivineCurrent]

Hi all,

Am new here. Been using the supplied apple earpods for the longest time. Don't really like IEMs as I like to be aware of my surroundings when I listen to music. Looking for a pair of earbuds and would like something with lots of PRAT (i.e. Pace, Rhythm and Timing, toe-tapping...).
Did some searching and it seems that the original VE ZEN 1 is what i am looking for but too late, it is discontinued.
What other alternative earbuds should I be looking at? How is the VE ZEN 2 in terms of PRAT? Is it a worthy contender? People seems to prefer the ZEN 1 in general.
Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

I am also considering the VE Zen 2.0 as an upgrade to my VE Monks (most people agree it is an upgrade, and I should hope so for the price.)
I also took a look at the new FiiO EM5, which seems to be excellently designed but I don't think I'm willing to spend $300 for an earbud right now.
Anyone with the Zen 2.0 want to chime in?

 

[Braekfast]

Hello, I was kindly redirected here from the budget earphones thread by darmanastartes . I hope it's allright that I'll just copy the text from mypost there:

I'm looking to replace my original VE Monk earbuds, since they died. I got myself a Monk Plus and a Monk Mini, but they both seem to sound worse than the original version. I've been looking around the different forum threads and the ME80 seems to come up quite frequently, but that's the only one I've really found so far. Trying to browse Aliexpress itself has been difficult to say the least, since there are like a million different models.

I was looking to stay under 20 euro originally (mostly to avoid import taxes), though I can bump that up to 50 if a really good option presents itself. I realize I'd probably have an easier time finding an IEM, but my ear canals cannot stand to have any kind of IEM tip in them for longer than like 15 minutes. I've tried.

I tend to listen to rock, orchestral (soundtracks mostly), synthwave, metal and vocal stuff (Longest Johns etc). I'm not sure how to desribe the sound I'm looking for, I can only tell you that I liked the VE Monk just fine, same thing with the sennheiser HD555's I use at my desk. I'll also be driving these from my phone, though I don't think that's a problem for most earbuds. Any recommendations are appreciated.

 

[gundam37]

If you basshead you should try
-Zen 2.0 300ohm - mid warm, need powerful dap
-Smabat ST-10 or ST-10s Gold 150 ohm (not Silver), - mid cold, gold better than st-10 green
-Willsound MK2 or KubePlus (from Indonesia)
-Ry4s Plus MMCX cheep option like MK2

Hi @Alex.Grimm , saw your list of recommendations. Would you be able to share their PRAT characteristics and which do you feel has the most PRAT? Thanks.

 

[Sam L]

Hi @Alex.Grimm , saw your list of recommendations. Would you be able to share their PRAT characteristics and which do you feel has the most PRAT? Thanks.

Curious if you are a drummer? PRaT as a term has evolved to more of a esoteric / intensely subjective term.