[forestitalia]

I have Smabat now too, they cost lot more. I feel are different than Nameless, not really 'better' (however much comfortable to my ears)

Now, I want to avoid end with lots of earbuds in the draw, better move directly to Chaconne?........

I have to correct myself: from the Dap was not impressed, but with a proper amplifier Smabat are a lot better
The bass now is another league, those a very good. But damn, how use them in mobility? Need to buy an AK Kann.

 

[RikudouGoku]

I have to correct myself: from the Dap was not impressed, but with a proper amplifier Smabat are a lot better
The bass now is another league, those a very good. But damn, how use them in mobility? Need to buy an AK Kann.

What dap do you have?

 

[samandhi]

I have to correct myself: from the Dap was not impressed, but with a proper amplifier Smabat are a lot better
The bass now is another league, those a very good. But damn, how use them in mobility? Need to buy an AK Kann.

As @RikudouGoku said, which DAP are you using? Also which Smabat pair do you have? If you have the 150 ohm, they will be a bit harder to drive, but any decent DAP should be able to drive them with some volume. To drive them properly is a different thing altogether. I guess, I am not sure how they sound with a DAP that doesn't put out enough power for them (not for volume but to drive them to their fullest) as I use the iBasso DX160, and the iBasso DX3300 to drive them out of the balanced connectors (6.6Vrms & 7.7Vrms respectively).

Also, if your DAP supports it, you could try running them from balanced connector. That tends to supply more power, and have a much quieter background.

 

[forestitalia]

As @RikudouGoku said,......as I use the iBasso DX160, and the iBasso DX3300 to drive them out of the balanced connectors (6.6Vrms & 7.7Vrms respectively).

That is a very good output power.

The Smabat is the ST10S Black Gold, should be 150 ohm. As player I use LG G8x alone or bluetooth with ES100 balanced output, never had lack of power issue before.

 

[RikudouGoku]

As @RikudouGoku said,......as I use the iBasso DX160, and the iBasso DX3300 to drive them out of the balanced connectors (6.6Vrms & 7.7Vrms respectively).

That is a very good output power.

The Smabat is the ST10S Black Gold, should be 150 ohm. As player I use LG G8x alone or bluetooth with ES100 balanced output, never had lack of power issue before.

If those 2 daps dont satisfy you, nothing in the portable world will.....unless you spend big bucks for something like the Ifi Diablo.

5Watts lol. More powerful than a lot of desktop amps (no idea how tbh).

 

[KutuzovGambit]

If those 2 daps dont satisfy you, nothing in the portable world will.....unless you spend big bucks for something like the Ifi Diablo.



5Watts lol. More powerful than a lot of desktop amps (no idea how tbh).

Probably via battery life of four minutes.

 

[Ronion]

As @RikudouGoku said,......as I use the iBasso DX160, and the iBasso DX3300 to drive them out of the balanced connectors (6.6Vrms & 7.7Vrms respectively).

That is a very good output power.

The Smabat is the ST10S Black Gold, should be 150 ohm. As player I use LG G8x alone or bluetooth with ES100 balanced output, never had lack of power issue before.

That should be a sweet bud as that’s the enclosure that driver is made for. I don’t think the minor 3k issue is even present in that shell by looking at their graph. I could certainly be wrong as the conditions of the graph are not clearly stated. Nonetheless, so far that the best earbud driver I’ve heard. I know there are better available, but that’s a nice bang for the buck. My set do well off of my Qudelix when run balanced at 4v. I’m going to try and balance its frequency response tonight. It should be fun.

 

[jrazmar]

As @RikudouGoku said,......as I use the iBasso DX160, and the iBasso DX3300 to drive them out of the balanced connectors (6.6Vrms & 7.7Vrms respectively).

That is a very good output power.

The Smabat is the ST10S Black Gold, should be 150 ohm. As player I use LG G8x alone or bluetooth with ES100 balanced output, never had lack of power issue before.

For mobile use, I highly recommend the Ovidius B1. Pure raw power and nice sound for on-the-go setup. You can read from here to learn more: https://andyaudiovault.com/donglemadness/ovidius-b1-2/

 

[Ronion]

Currently my 4 best buds are the 150ohm SMABAT M2s(40Ohm driver is Floating belly up), the VE Zen Lite, the LBBs, and the EA Earbuds and I was interested in doing a rap shootout Which is not where buds excel, but it is a genre I listen to often and I wanted to see what I should be placing in my ear for the purpose When I need to be able to hear my environment. I listened at multiple volume levels through the Qudelix with the bass under 40Hz cut. I mostly listened to Detroit rappers over a period of 4 hours.

The clear winner is the SMABAT. It has the best bass by far, the clearest vocal, and the a more prominent/clearest treble, a great head stage, and just sounds bigger and more composed than the other 3. None of them audibly struggled at any volume I’d ever listen to.

The next 3 are a mixed bag. Well, they are all a mixed bag really, but SQ goes to the SMABAT.

The LBBs has the next clearest vocal, a bit less pronounced bass but good quality, and probably the best head stage overall (the SMABAT is similar in that regard).

The Earbuds Anonymous have more bass than the LBBs that’s similarly deep (though slightly deeper), but the mid bass more creeps into the vocal more. It has the second most elevated treble level, but tied for the smallest head stage.

THE EA and LBBs have similar clarity/quality in the bass, but the LBBs is closer to a “reference” tuning.

The VE Zen Lite have a warm, prominent, muddier bass that bleeds into the vocal more than the others while it simultaneously has the least extension. It also has a head stage similar in size to the EA Earbuds. The vocal isn’t always buried though (And buried is a harsh word for it), it depends on the rapper. The treble is also the most recessed. As far as rap goes, it handles the genre fairly well—as in it doesn’t distort at sane levels, but I prefer all the others. It’s treble resolution seems to be roughly the same as the LBBs and the EA Earbuds but definitely lower in overall level.

The sound breakdown would look like this to my ear: SMABAT 150 Ohm driver in the M2s Pro shell>LBBs=(Roughly but I’d probably give the nod to the LBBs)EA Earbuds>VE Zen Lite.

Now for comfort it would look like this: VE Zen Lite (easily)>LBBs(definitely)>M2s Pro>EA Earbuds (by a lesser margin but still without a doubt).

Stability: same as comfort.

Ease of driving: LLBs(easily)>EA Earbuds(definitely)>SMABAT>Zen Lite(by a smaller amount)

build quality: SMABAT (but conversely perhaps the easiest to break due to the fact that everything can be modified by my monkey fingers)>Zen Lite(most durable build for sure)>EA Earbuds>LBBs(the shells are great but the strain relief, or rather the lack of, makes me feel like I’m going to break it)

cost: VE Zen Lite($70)>SMABAT($64)>LBBs($35)>EA Earbuds ($25)

Best looking: SMABAT(easily)>LBBs(definitely)>EA Earbuds>Zen Lite

EDIT: THIS IS IMPORTANT

The Zen Lite listening session was done with some generic donut hole foams. That does not characterize the buds well at all. In fact these buds turn out to be every bit the sonic equals of the AE Earbuds and the LBBs. Perhaps their superiors in fact. I also wouldn’t use HeiGi foam on them. Right now I have some fluffy donut foams on them and I don’t know the make. There are rubber rings from VE that work really well with them as do shark fins, but these fluffy foam donuts have been the best overall for me so far. I’ll update this when I figure out what these foams are for future reference of folks who may come across this comparison.

 

[Dany1]

For a TOTL Earbud, what other great options do we have in market besides Bell Onmyoji, Bell Ti Plus, RW-2000 and Chaconne ?

 

[Ronion]

https://www.head-fi.org/threads/earbuds-round-up.441400/page-3540#post-16259145

 

[1clearhead]

What's a X6 upgrade these days? Looking for more detail

Yincrow RW-9

Very airy and detailed!

-Clear

 

[uneri]

‎

 

[WoodyLuvr]

A recent TOTL release that's still only available on Taobao it seems, Simphonio Dragon 3+ (D3+)

True PK size shell, 120Ω, 118dB/mW

120Ω or 150Ω?

 

[1clearhead]

1More E0320: Tuned to be used without foams (the included silicone hooks are great for fit and comfort). Well-tuned treble, airy and detailed without peaks. Mids are forward and very clean. Bass quantity is lower than usual though. Technicalities are good and timbre as well, bright neutral tonality.

Rank: B+



Although I get PSTSD flashbacks to my old Xiaomi Piston/hybrid iems from years ago, where the exact same Kevlar cable always died on me….



1More E1008: Same as the EO320, its tuned to be used without foams. It is tuned extremely similarly to the EO320, but with slightly more bass and a bit less treble, so it ends up sounding more neutral. The treble is airier here and technicalities are a bit better. But there isn’t a lot of piezo timbre in it, so to me it seems a bit pointless to have the piezo driver in it, because all it does is increase the air and improved technicalities a bit but at the cost of coherency and slightly worse timbre.



Rank: B+



In regards to the claims that this is similar to the LZ A7 iem, I completely disagree with it. And it is also completely different from 1More´s own H1707 headphones that also have a piezo driver.

Well? We can all agree to disagree, right?

But, to me personally it has certain similarities to the LZ A7 which the piezo is not as overpowering as the older model, LZ A6. Details sound similar to me where it is not airy but dryer. So, I'm sure the piezo its doing the job it suppose to be doing...Just my 2 cents.

-Clear