[Plancu]

The Donkey is one of the worst performing drivers as far as bass is concerned (still sounds great and I use it for Classical music all the time) and the Vido definitely goes deeper. It goes as deep or even a little deeper than a Sennheiser HD650 which is a highly recommended and lauded headphone. Other buds definitely go deeper like this one I built recently….. SMABAT builds buds with bass…. As far as super cheap buds go, I’m not sure there are any better than the Vido unless you know how to roll your own. Otherwise you’ve got to pay to play (bass).

Sennheisers always seemed bass shy to me. Some say they need to be properly amped to get decent results.

But anyways, the graph you pasted looks similar to the one for the Superlux 668b I own which are pretty good (far from perfect) in terms of bass.
Thank you very much for posting it. I think I'll start with the Vidos.

 

[nofarewell]

Below are three (3) still available earbud candidates that have similar sounding signatures to the 1986 Aiwa HP-V9 Digital which if had to be described in terms of a known full-sized headphone sound signature would be very similar to the Sennheiser HD598. Detailed and present mids that are not too forward. Sparkly, airy highs with no sibilance. Detailed bass that is not boomy but is also a bit weak (little to no impact) and not very present. Bass was the Achilles heel of early golden era Aiwa earbuds (they really didn't get a handle on bass until the 1988 Super PowerBass Pipe-Phone models group e.g. HP-V25/V53/V57/V88/V99).

2016 - Ostry KC08; 32ΩCCAW // Ostry KC08T; 40ΩTi​

2016 - Yinman 音曼 150; 150Ω (no wooden stem; fixed cable)​

2016 - TY Hi-Z HP-650; 650Ω​

Aiwa HD-V series earbuds were known for their excellent timbre and magical mids and highs whereas the Sony MDR-E series was known for it's better, stronger bass, commanding mids, and overall better build quality. I personally found that the earlier 1983 Aiwa HP-V3 Big Red Super or even the 1983 Aiwa HP-V30 Stereo sounded better than the 1986 HP-V9 Digital model by a long shot. And as mentioned before the slightly later 1988 HP-V99 Super PowerBass Pipe-Phone would do circles around all of them. Nothing in the Aiwa earbud lineup could touch the V88/V99 Super PowerBass Pipe-Phones until the arrival of the 1995 HP-V741/V743 Fantasy Bass Flute-Phone or perhaps the 1996 HP-V151 Dream Bass Pipe-Phone.

Thanks again for the detailed and comprehensive answer

 

[samandhi]

Concur. Mine are performing admirably as well. Very unique signature in many ways. I still haven't quite got my head around them yet so I need some more time to mull them over and figure them out but I am definitely understanding why @Alex.Grimm thinks so highly of them.

Take your time, mine aren't going anywhere in the mean-time...

Sennheisers always seemed bass shy to me. Some say they need to be properly amped to get decent results.

But anyways, the graph you pasted looks similar to the one for the Superlux 668b I own which are pretty good (far from perfect) in terms of bass.
Thank you very much for posting it. I think I'll start with the Vidos.

IMHO I don't think that Sennys are "bass shy" as you would put it, though they may seem as such coming from anything that has more quantity. Most of them are pretty neutral, which is also controversial as to what that might mean. However, I consider neutral to be what it would sound like when the band is playing in the studio with no mixing.

But, I actually agree with you in most cases. I do love some neutral well balanced head gear, but sometimes I just like the bass to add warmth and liveliness. It isn't the true sound of the artists (in most cases for the music I mostly like), but sometimes you just don't care and want that toe tapping experience.

Anyhow, it has been my experience that most buds CAN handle some boosting in the mid and sub bass region. I think that maybe manufacturers tune them down for "worst case scenerio" so they never distort. That is opinion only though. Or another theory is that when they are tuning them, they don't tune them to where they sit in your ear, they tune them as if they were pushed all the way in your ear tight.

What I mean is; if you take a decent set of buds, and push (and hold) them into your ears tight, they all of a sudden sound right (lots of bass), but as soon as you let them go, they sometimes get honky and have less bass. The Yinman (as a for instance) I think were tuned to this "resting" position because when I push them into my ears and hold them, they actually have TOO much bass.

Again, just some theories.

 

[assassin10000]

I am dying over here, I'm now wanting to buy the LBBs and am too tired to keep searching head-fi threads for answers. Anyone know of anything similar with an mmcx connector? Or is DIY mmcx not too bad to do?

that's the right road

I want to press checkout so bad and there's only two things stopping me:
my disposable monies, (I have money, I just don't want to use it, but this hobby is pulling my strings)
no mmcx and as far as i can see not much diy mmcx has been done for the LBBs.

1st one, this is the earlier LBS model 2018, which has a much warmer sound signature.

I would not recommend the threaded MMCX connector like this. It was a royal pain to do.

This is the more popular LBBs (2020/2021+) converted.

This has a much easier MMCX connector to add.

I will say, with the MMCX cable ends they are much more stable fitting.

Uwah, the DIY Workroom circle started appearing. Gotta post some of my work too~

Uhhh wait. Are previous diy thread buds are now getting listed or are these just the ones being sold?

 

[captione]

Uhhh wait. Are previous diy thread buds are now getting listed or are these just the ones being sold?

These are new projects though, and I don’t see them getting sold anytime.

 

[Ronion]

Yes, fully agree. No debate here. IEMs do have bottom end humps (at least the cheaper ones I've tried).

But a 90Hz roll off is still very much bass-shy, especially in a frequency graph like the one for Y3 Donkey. A nice accurate graph is as objective as it can get (frequency being one of the few measurable, objective qualities of audio).

I have over the years acquired the taste for decent, clean, fast, non-bloated bass. And the thing I like most about it is that it fits all music genres and, maybe also important, they're easier to equalize.
Bassy headphones make a lot of music sound bad. Even music that should, in theory, benefit from from the extra bass.

I’m betting the new FiiO buds or the new SMABAT would give you enough bass. The graph for the FiiO (which is what inspired me to post the Y3 Donkey) makes it look like it will have bass like that old Japanese driver I posted. It may not equal Xelentos, IER Z1R, or IE900, etc…. But they have enough to do any recording justice. The only posted the graph of the ff3 without a foam on and people were saying it wouldn’t have enough bass, but the foamless bass is deeper than the foamed Donkey. FiiO says that it gets down to 40Hz with the bass foams. Should be enough. Deeper than the majority of available speakers.

 

[Ronion]

Sennheisers always seemed bass shy to me. Some say they need to be properly amped to get decent results.

But anyways, the graph you pasted looks similar to the one for the Superlux 668b I own which are pretty good (far from perfect) in terms of bass.
Thank you very much for posting it. I think I'll start with the Vidos.

The Vido won’t do bass as well as the Superlux. Sorry to say. The superlux would be among the best bass in buds category if it were a bud. Just by the graph, that would be the second best bud I’ve measured.

I almost forgot, there’s another cheap bud with real bass: the HE150 available at Penon. It’s the purple line. Also has the advantage of a large soundstage. https://penonaudio.com/he-150ohm.html


the ST20 pro also goes deep:

 

[mt877]

Yes, fully agree. No debate here. IEMs do have bottom end humps (at least the cheaper ones I've tried).

But a 90Hz roll off is still very much bass-shy, especially in a frequency graph like the one for Y3 Donkey. A nice accurate graph is as objective as it can get (frequency being one of the few measurable, objective qualities of audio).

I have over the years acquired the taste for decent, clean, fast, non-bloated bass. And the thing I like most about it is that it fits all music genres and, maybe also important, they're easier to equalize.
Bassy headphones make a lot of music sound bad. Even music that should, in theory, benefit from from the extra bass.

I’m betting the new FiiO buds or the new SMABAT would give you enough bass. The graph for the FiiO (which is what inspired me to post the Y3 Donkey) makes it look like it will have bass like that old Japanese driver I posted. It may not equal Xelentos, IER Z1R, or IE900, etc…. But they have enough to do any recording justice. The only posted the graph of the ff3 without a foam on and people were saying it wouldn’t have enough bass, but the foamless bass is deeper than the foamed Donkey. FiiO says that it gets down to 40Hz with the bass foams. Should be enough. Deeper than the majority of available speakers.

I'm gonna add to this. Totally agree with @Ronion on the FiiO FF3. There's got to be others on Head-fi that picked up these buds, but since I'm the only one (that I know of so far) who gave any impression... I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the FF3 may become a 'reference' bud for this modern era. It does many things so well. The 3 sets of foams which are included let you tune them to your preference, bassy, balanced or crispy treble. I was using the full thin foams (balanced sound) but ultimately switched to crispy treble (donut foams). People often say a certain bud is good for one genre of music or other, but the FF3 shine with many different genres of music. I've listened to classical, rock, blues, kpop (mainly female), country, jazz, smooth jazz, world, new age, acoustic... and the FF3 do not disappoint. FiiO really tuned the FF3 exceptionally well. If the FF3 are that good (to my ears) right now, I'm really wondering how the upcoming FF5 are gonna be.

 

[samandhi]

I'm gonna add to this. Totally agree with @Ronion on the FiiO FF3. There's got to be others on Head-fi that picked up these buds, but since I'm the only one (that I know of so far) who gave any impression... I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the FF3 may become a 'reference' bud for this modern era. It does many things so well. The 3 sets of foams which are included let you tune them to your preference, bassy, balanced or crispy treble. I was using the full thin foams (balanced sound) but ultimately switched to crispy treble (donut foams). People often say a certain bud is good for one genre of music or other, but the FF3 shine with many different genres of music. I've listened to classical, rock, blues, kpop (mainly female), country, jazz, smooth jazz, world, new age, acoustic... and the FF3 do not disappoint. FiiO really tuned the FF3 exceptionally well. If the FF3 are that good (to my ears) right now, I'm really wondering how the upcoming FF5 are gonna be.

Good deal. Maybe having companies such as Moondrop, and FiiO in with buds will attract other companies to be competitive where they are concerned. My only concern is that if they DO jump in, prices in general will spike like they did with IEMs... I like that buds are much better price/performance ratio than other head gear.

So, I have changed my mind, let's keep these things fairly secretive...

 

[Ronion]

I'm gonna add to this. Totally agree with @Ronion on the FiiO FF3. There's got to be others on Head-fi that picked up these buds, but since I'm the only one (that I know of so far) who gave any impression... I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say the FF3 may become a 'reference' bud for this modern era. It does many things so well. The 3 sets of foams which are included let you tune them to your preference, bassy, balanced or crispy treble. I was using the full thin foams (balanced sound) but ultimately switched to crispy treble (donut foams). People often say a certain bud is good for one genre of music or other, but the FF3 shine with many different genres of music. I've listened to classical, rock, blues, kpop (mainly female), country, jazz, smooth jazz, world, new age, acoustic... and the FF3 do not disappoint. FiiO really tuned the FF3 exceptionally well. If the FF3 are that good (to my ears) right now, I'm really wondering how the upcoming FF5 are gonna be.

There’s an FF5 coming?

 

[mt877]

There’s an FF5 coming?

Planned release is September. Checkout this FiiO news release.

 

[mochill]

How's aiwa v052

 

[assassin10000]

I want to press checkout so bad and there's only two things stopping me:
my disposable monies, (I have money, I just don't want to use it, but this hobby is pulling my strings)
no mmcx and as far as i can see not much diy mmcx has been done for the LBBs.

If you were in the U.S. I'd offer one of my already MMCX modded pairs. I think international shipping kinda kills sending it to you ($17-23 iirc).

 

[Ronion]

Planned release is September. Checkout this FiiO news release.

FiiO is on fire with their latest releases. Seems like they are really putting in the work. Now if they would only bring back the A5 and the Monte Blanc all would be right with the world. The FD series is impressive and it looks like the FF may be as well. Hopefully they’re not plagued by QC issues.

 

[waynes world]

FiiO is on fire with their latest releases. Seems like they are really putting in the work. Now if they would only bring back the A5 and the Monte Blanc all would be right with the world. The FD series is impressive and it looks like the FF may be as well. Hopefully they’re not plagued by QC issues.

I still use my Mont Blanc regularly (I got the pre-production version with extended sub-bass boost). Great amp!