[FranQL]

Believe it or not, it’s not a Super-Fi type of bud that has the biggest soundstage. Keep in mind that I’ve never heard the Rose or the Toneking and they may very well be wider. It’s the cheapo Tingo TG38. They are essentially equivalent. The Tingo lacks the bass and the build quality of the SMABAT ST20 pro. Unequalized, the ST20 pro is actually probably wider, but there’s no way I could tolerate that pinna gain. Ice Pick. Another cheap one with a large soundstage is the HE150. It has bass too, but a weird tonality and cheap cable…

after you reduce the pinna gain, the ST20 Pro’s main driver is so far from the ear drum that you don’t have a lot of efficiency left. You have to drop pinna gain and lower treble/presence region by 15dB before it’s listenable! Once it’s balanced and stabilized, it’s great. Prior to that it’s hell.

I decided to remove the ST20 shell driver. I thought it could give better performance, and wow... I think so, what great drivers Smabat makes, this 50 Ohm LCP is very good, just like its 40 Ohm LCP brother.

In ST20 shell I have inserted a 32 Ohm driver with which I have achieved high performance. What things, an exceptional driver does not give all that it can offer in that shell and a DIY driver sounds great.

Regarding the soundstage, Dendroaspis has it, but they are far from a reference sound (IMO).

We will see the performance of the Smabat 150 Ti driver, which will soon fall into my hands, I also have perfectly clear what I want to do with it, thanks @samandhi .

 

[FranQL]

LOL Ice pick...

For what it costs, you must have a pair of Tingo TG38.... yep

 

[samandhi]

I decided to remove the ST20 shell driver. I thought it could give better performance, and wow... I think so, what great drivers Smabat makes, this 50 Ohm LCP is very good, just like its 40 Ohm LCP brother.

In ST20 shell I have inserted a 32 Ohm driver with which I have achieved high performance. What things, an exceptional driver does not give all that it can offer in that shell and a DIY driver sounds great.

Regarding the soundstage, Dendroaspis has it, but they are far from a reference sound (IMO).

We will see the performance of the Smabat 150 Ti driver, which will soon fall into my hands, I also have perfectly clear what I want to do with it, thanks @samandhi .

So, do you think the 32 ohm drivers sound better in the ST20 shell? Also, what shell are you going to put the driver that came out of the ST20 into?

You should also have another set of 32 bio soon (though one is currently not working, maybe it is fixable?).

 

[samandhi]

Unfortunately that 114$ turns into about 145 euro once shipping and taxes are included. EU VAT is a bit of a bummer, but at least aliexpress prepays them so I don't have to pay the lads at the customs office for "administrative fees", which tend to add another 20-30 euro.
Besides that, I'm not sure my current setup could drive a 600ohm earbud. The HD650 is surprisingly easy to drive, so most days I have it plugged either into a dongle dac at the back of my pc, or just straight into the motherboard and it manages to get painfully loud when maxed. My earbuds meanwhile I exclusively use with my phone or laptop, driven by another dongle dac (the VE odessey hd). And I don't think that little dongle can do 600ohm.
Still, thank you for the recommendation. I've got it bookmarked just in case.


I haven't yet, no. I'll have to get me some next time I order from ali, it's definitely worth a shot. I did try those silicon earhook things, but I could never quite get them to fit right on the LBBS.

You are welcome! And I totally get it. Don't feel like you would offend me if you didn't/don't buy anything I suggest. That is why suggestions are thrown out there, so you can make an informed decision on what YOU want. I know what I like, but I would never try and push something on anyone else. I can only share what those things mean to me (and my specific ears).

I also might throw another suggestion out there that I find to be an excellent pair but are fairly cheap. It doesn't have a removable cable, but are built like a (light) tank, and sound very similar in tuning to the M2s Pro stock driver. That is the NichHCK EB2S for somewhere between $15-$25. You CAN take them seriously even though they have the anime waifu front and center of the packaging.

With all that being said, you should definitely let us know what you end up with, and how they perform for you?!

 

[Braekfast]

You are welcome! And I totally get it. Don't feel like you would offend me if you didn't/don't buy anything I suggest. That is why suggestions are thrown out there, so you can make an informed decision on what YOU want. I know what I like, but I would never try and push something on anyone else. I can only share what those things mean to me (and my specific ears).

I also might throw another suggestion out there that I find to be an excellent pair but are fairly cheap. It doesn't have a removable cable, but are built like a (light) tank, and sound very similar in tuning to the M2s Pro stock driver. That is the NichHCK EB2S for somewhere between $15-$25. You CAN take them seriously even though they have the anime waifu front and center of the packaging.

With all that being said, you should definitely let us know what you end up with, and how they perform for you?!

Oh no, absolutely. If I gave off the impression that I was feeling forced/pressured into agreeing or buying, that certainly wasn't my intention. I'm very happy that you guys are willing to give pointers and recommendation, I seriously would never find even half of these earbuds on my own.

I did have a look at those since I saw them mentioned in the thread elsewhere. They seem nice, though they're 35-ish euro for me. Just the EU VAT doing its thing again, I suppose.
I've got a couple of buds in that price range already though. Off the top of my head: VE monk, VE monk plus, VE monk lite, Kbear stellar, ME180 (absolutely hated these, sounded super thin and bad to the point where I'm still questioning if I got a fake pair or something), faeel datura pro, yincrow x6, and the LBBS. So far, a lot of these feel like sidegrades to eachother. They do one thing better but another aspect is worse, etc. Since I've sorta narrowed down the kind of sound I enjoy, I was just thinking it might be best to spend a bit more money in the hopes of getting a bud with similar tonality/sound/vibe, but with more detail and such. Technicalities, I think the term is? Not sure if my logic here holds up, of course, since earbud pricing is all over the place.

 

[samandhi]

Oh no, absolutely. If I gave off the impression that I was feeling forced/pressured into agreeing or buying, that certainly wasn't my intention. I'm very happy that you guys are willing to give pointers and recommendation, I seriously would never find even half of these earbuds on my own.

I did have a look at those since I saw them mentioned in the thread elsewhere. They seem nice, though they're 35-ish euro for me. Just the EU VAT doing its thing again, I suppose.
I've got a couple of buds in that price range already though. Off the top of my head: VE monk, VE monk plus, VE monk lite, Kbear stellar, ME180 (absolutely hated these, sounded super thin and bad to the point where I'm still questioning if I got a fake pair or something), faeel datura pro, yincrow x6, and the LBBS. So far, a lot of these feel like sidegrades to eachother. They do one thing better but another aspect is worse, etc. Since I've sorta narrowed down the kind of sound I enjoy, I was just thinking it might be best to spend a bit more money in the hopes of getting a bud with similar tonality/sound/vibe, but with more detail and such. Technicalities, I think the term is? Not sure if my logic here holds up, of course, since earbud pricing is all over the place.

I agree, it sounds like you may need to move up to mid-tier or top-tier to get what you are wanting. There are those that charge a lot because they can, then there are the ones that really are worth their price (to me anyhow).

I don't think it is so much all over the place per se'. It is more like IEM pricing cut by 16 (or something like that). So really when you get to $150 + you are reaching flagship/TOTL level for earbuds. Having said that though, I have heard some that are cheaper and are just as good as what you would see priced as TOTL buds. That is where it gets confusing, I think.

Yeah, a lot of the cheaper buds DO indeed sacrifice something for something else. This is the reason I suggested the ones I did. They sacrifice very little in overall sound IMHO. Or what they DO sacrifice, you don't miss as much. Maybe you will have to wait for the new Smabat modular buds. They will be more reasonable in pricing (I think), but if they are anything like the M2s Pro (which I believe they use the same drivers possibly), then they will be fantastic. But even if they aren't OOTB, you can always switch drivers to get the sound you like. Just a thought.

 

[WoodyLuvr]

Regarding the soundstage, Dendroaspis has it, but they are far from a reference sound (IMO).

Very true... although the Green Mambas (Dendroaspis Viridis) have spectacularly wide head/soundstage and do offer sweet vocals and middle mids I totally agree with @FranQL that they are not reference at all especially with a super wonky timbre that is totally off in the lower and upper frequencies due to a ultra mid-centric aggressive primary signature and rolled off bass. They are very 'tinny' sounding with quite harsh and upper mids and lower treble that can be super fatiguing. Plus, the rolled off bass is very noticeable with many genres with heavy upper bass bleed into the lower mids. A real shame as they look totally bad ass and again what they do well (soundstage) is pure magic.

 

[Ronion]

Well, and just like that my little SMABAT fibre driver died. Tested it in the MM and it’s dead…. So my last living SMABAT drivers are the LCP and SO. I have soldered the SO into a hybrid shell and the LCP into the M2s pro. Very depressing.

 

[Eduardiofilo]

When using white lotus s300 or another earbuds of 300 ohm do you activate "high gain"?

I feel that these earbuds need the high gain of my amplifier (Atom amp)

 

[Ronion]

When using white lotus s300 or another earbuds of 300 ohm do you activate "high gain"?

I feel that these earbuds need the high gain of my amplifier (Atom amp)

I know their kissing cousin, the Donkey graphed earlier in this thread, needs some juice to sound its best. A high gain Atom sounds a little overkill, but ‘more power to you’(pun). I bet it doesn’t hurt.

on a side note: the SMABAT LCP has a lot of potential. I put some loose cotton that my wife uses for some reason or another inside the shell, and it’s got the LCP sounding far more balanced than I ever had it before. It’s a sweet sounding bud now. I’m still mourning the passing of the fibre baby, but this is making things go a little easier. Definitely not a replacement, but a worthy companion.

 

[FranQL]

So, do you think the 32 ohm drivers sound better in the ST20 shell? Also, what shell are you going to put the driver that came out of the ST20 into?

You should also have another set of 32 bio soon (though one is currently not working, maybe it is fixable?).

I've only tried one, the idea is that it should be easy to handle, and yes, IMO it sounds better. But I'm not the biggest fan of my two Smabat shells. For M0 I achieved great performance with a driver 400 Ohm + Mod shell, on ST20 with driver 32 Ohm + Mod. IMO the performance of the drivers is much better go out of these shells.

The 50 Ohm LCP driver is now sounding great in another bud manufacturer's shell. With its corresponding faceplate transplant.

 

[Into The Light5]

Has anyone tried these before? Seems like very little information about this brand

 

[jeejack]

Has anyone tried these before? Seems like very little information about this brand

What brand ?
Those drivers are not so good

...I use Smabat M2s shells with the new 64 TI drivers

 

[digititus]

Venture Electronics (VE) Master launched though no specs yet... perhaps it is the previously mentioned 150Ω variant of the Monk Slim Metal or simply a recable of the Monk Slim Metal. Anyone know/have the the details regarding this new earbud model?

2022 - VE Master (80ΩLCP; Metal (?) MX Shell; SPC cable)

Any comments on these yet? Seems to be only available with Megatron

 

[WoodyLuvr]

Any comments on these yet? Seems to be only available with Megatron

2022 - Venture Electronics 微翼音频 (VE) Master; 80ΩLCP (w/ metal MX shell; SPC cable)

@Charlyro222 owns a pair; maybe he will chime in.