[Plancu]

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:

Thank you for the suggestion... I was really leaning into buying the HE150, but opening the link you posted it seems the buds are both in stock and out of stock (probably quantum uncertainty).

So probably I've missed them, as I did with lots of great gear that got discontinued

 

[Plancu]

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.

I really miss the bass-boost button from the old days. Now that it's gone, we'll have to wait for media players to start using AIs to learn our preferences in terms of music, "shaping" the sound and apply the bass on the fly, only where needed. What a great and cultured AI would that be

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.

Yes, I noticed that aswell. The bass is there, the driver can play it, but it's too quiet compared to the rest of the track. But listening with the earbuds pushed in is not sustainable as it would probably ruin a good, irreplaceable pair of ears (which already are passed their prime).

Probably this makes the buds equalizable, but I have never found a digital equalizer that can help in such situation( > 10 db). Maybe an analogue one, but I don't think such a thing exists in portable form.

 

[samandhi]

I really miss the bass-boost button from the old days. Now that it's gone, we'll have to wait for media players to start using AIs to learn our preferences in terms of music, "shaping" the sound and apply the bass on the fly, only where needed. What a great and cultured AI would that be



Yes, I noticed that aswell. The bass is there, the driver can play it, but it's too quiet compared to the rest of the track. But listening with the earbuds pushed in is not sustainable as it would probably ruin a good, irreplaceable pair of ears (which already are passed their prime).

Probably this makes the buds equalizable, but I have never found a digital equalizer that can help in such situation( > 10 db). Maybe an analogue one, but I don't think such a thing exists in portable form.

Three words: Neutron, UAPP, Hiby. All of those apps have amazing DSP for portable (Neutrom being my favorite). And yes Neutron can boost to infinity, though you obviously wouldn't want that.

 

[Braekfast]

Here's another forum thread for your reading enjoyment "Absolute best budget earbuds?". I've not read through that thread, but you might find some recommended budget buds mentioned. Some may not be available anymore, but you might find something.

Thank you for the link, I'll have a read through there.

-snip-

Oh dear, I had no idea IEM's got so expensive. Maybe me being unable to use them is a blessing in disguise, so I don't get tempted to raid my wallet

I don’t know of any US based DIY salespersons. Do you?

Not right now no. The only two DIY people who sell that I know of so far are Rikidougoku and Blur, who are from sweden and singapore respectively IIRC.
I suppose I was just guessing that most would be US based, because it's the case on some other (non-audio related) forums/groups that I'm in that the majority of the english speaking people are from either the US or the UK. You're right that that's merely an assumption on my part, which is my bad really.

 

[ttorbic]

I don’t know of any US based DIY salespersons. Do you?

Newbsound is US based I believe, and @tgx78 is up north in Canada. Not sure about shipping costs from Canada to US...

 

[Ronion]

In other headphones on and over ear You have pads who are working the same way
In IEMs there are also silicones or foams.

Thus:

It can be done with other types of headphones as well, but the results are less predictable, often not what you are looking for, and the cost is considerably higher than with buds. Even the “expensive” foams are cheap on the grand scheme of things. With the economy the way it is, it’s nice to tweak on the cheap.

I think I recall you or someone else saying this earlier on in this thread. I was excited to try out different foams to tune my two earbuds (Riku's Alter Rider 1 and Tgxear's Serratus), but I did not get the results I expected. I wanted to raise the bass on the Serratus, so I swapped out the stock for Hiegi foams, but the bass was weird, bloated, and the stage and tonality suffered. When I wanted to decrease the bass on Alter Rider 1 by switching the stock (dense) foam to Serratus stock foam, the sound became rather thin, and the treble too aggressive. In the end, I went back to stock foam on both sets (I really like them in stock anyway; just thought I'd experiment). And swapping foams is a pain! Ripped one just trying to get it on the earbud.

Anyway, I'm a newbie in the earbuds world so I may have had unrealistic expectations, but so far I haven't had much luck with fine-tuning my sets using foams

That has been my experience With HeiGi as well, but they do feel good and last a long time. Sounds like, you’ve gained the experience now to understand what changes you should expect from different foam densities. I guess I made it sound like it was intuitively obvious. It is not, but it’s much easier to figure out than for cans or IEMs in my experience and a whole lot cheaper. It still won’t work out that way 100% of the time. There are some odd ducks out there, but that’s the way it works most of the time. Basically 3 different foam densities is all you need and it’s cheap and relatively easy to change. I haven’t had the pain in the butt issue with swapping bud foams, but I understand the Cachonne is difficult to foam. When I think of things that are challenging, that doesn’t begin to enter my list. Some IEM tips are easier perhaps, but that’s not a given either. I haven’t changed pads that easier than foams…. Thin foams do rip easily. Buy in bulk if you need them.

Newbsound is US based I believe, and @tgx78 is up north in Canada. Not sure about shipping costs from Canada to US...

I thought tgx was out of Canada, but they use a different postal service and I don’t really consider them American: just our friendly neighbor to the north. Never would have imagined Newbsound was out of the US…. Thank you.
I was just trying to point out that most of the DIY sellers are not in the US and that shipping from the US should not be a major concern.

 

[Halimj7]

Can anyone compare Moondrop chaconne to final piano forte ix? Thanks.

 

[dissociativity]

Thank you for the suggestion... I was really leaning into buying the HE150, but opening the link you posted it seems the buds are both in stock and out of stock (probably quantum uncertainty).

So probably I've missed them, as I did with lots of great gear that got discontinued

I still absolutely adore my HE150 Pro myself, and really enjoy the metal shell and braided cable, it's still my favorite earbud overall years later and definitely has bass that hits deeper than anything else I own barring maybe the 1more E1008, but the 1more is very dark tuned and the HE150 pro is very versatile

 

[WoodyLuvr]

Can anyone compare Moondrop chaconne to final piano forte ix? Thanks.

2019 - MoonDrop 水月雨 Chaconne 夏空 (24Ω)​

2011 - Final Audio Design Piano Forte IX (16Ω; aka 1602SS)​

No comparison. The first is a flathead earbud while the second is a universal IEM and a very expensive universal at that! The first is newer tech born in 2019 while the later is older from ~2011. The first is of open-air design offering a very natural and airy FR while the other is of closed design and offers a very unique and rather unnatural sound signature even for IEMs. Although inspired by horn speakers the Piano Forte IX is far from any horn speaker that I have ever heard with a FR so way off from what we are used to hearing making the timbre and imaging rather odd sounding and thus why these IEMs are commonly said to be of acquired taste only. The only similarity between the two is, like the DQSM Turandot, they are both slippery buggers! From fit to changing ear cushions (foams) or ear tips they are super slippery requiring skilled dexterous fingers and certain ear types to conquer!

 

[Ronion]

@WoodyLuvr , you sir are a living, breathing earbud encyclopedia and I am still in awe.

 

[mellowmoon]

Is there something that would be a direct upgrade to the NiceHCK Traceless (2022)? After bouncing around between tons of different budget buds I like the tuning of these a lot.

 

[samandhi]

@WoodyLuvr , you sir are a living, breathing earbud encyclopedia and I am still in awe.

And it seems as though he also knows IEMs. I had never heard of those before now. LOL

 

[WoodyLuvr]

@WoodyLuvr , you sir are a living, breathing earbud encyclopedia and I am still in awe.

And it seems as though he also knows IEMs. I had never heard of those before now. LOL

LOL! Yes, I think I have almost earned the moniker "earbud encyclopedia" as my timeline has nearly 3,000 flatheads listed on it now.

Yes, I was quite into IEMs there for a good period of time. I believe I have owned more than 150-160 IEMs (mostly universal) since the 1990s and right before I went 'minimal' in SEP/OCT 2020 I had amassed around sixty (60) IEMs which I have since sold and gifted away. My very first IEM was the venerable Etymotic ER4 which I procured sometime in 1991/2 shortly after they first released. I really liked Shure for a good number of years and I was rather fond of the JVC Woody universal IEM line. In particular JVC's HA-FX750 model. But most unfortunately IEMs started giving me treacherously horrific earaches and headaches forcing me to abandon the medium altogether and reintroducing me to flathead earbuds after a twenty some year hiatus. I was pleasantly surprised!

I was also really into full-sized over-the-ear headphones (mostly open-back but I did have a short foray into the closed-back world as well) way back during the Headwize days before we all came over with Jude to Head-Fi in JUNE of 2001. Now I only have one pair, my SENN HD650s packed safely away in their box.

Before that (early 2000s and earlier) I was a two-channel nut for decades which funny enough I do not miss at all.

That all said, I can hands down say that earbuds for me have been (are) the best!

 

[samandhi]

LOL! Yes, I think I have almost earned the moniker "earbud encyclopedia" as my timeline has nearly 3,000 flatheads listed on it now.

Yes, I was quite into IEMs there for a good period of time. I believe I have owned more than 150-160 IEMs (mostly universal) since the 1990s and right before I went 'minimal' in SEP/OCT 2020 I had amassed around sixty (60) IEMs which I have since sold and gifted away. My very first IEM was the venerable Etymotic ER4 which I procured sometime in 1991/2 shortly after they first released. I really liked Shure for a good number of years and I was rather fond of the JVC Woody universal IEM line. In particular JVC's HA-FX750 model. But most unfortunately IEMs started giving me treacherously horrific earaches and headaches forcing me to abandon the medium altogether and reintroducing me to flathead earbuds after a twenty some year hiatus. I was pleasantly surprised!

I was also really into full-sized over-the-ear headphones (mostly open-back but I did have a short foray into the closed-back world as well) way back during the Headwize days before we all came over with Jude to Head-Fi in JUNE of 2001. Now I only have one pair, my SENN HD650s packed safely away in their box.

Before that (early 2000s and earlier) I was a two-channel nut for decades which funny enough I do not miss at all.

That all said, I can hands down say that earbuds for me have been (are) the best!

WOW! Some fantastic history to be sure.

 

[GREQ]

I was rather fond of the JVC Woody universal IEM line. In particular JVC's HA-FX750 model.

Not just an encyclopedia but with good taste too