Tromick
New Head-Fier
FAAEAL Snow-Lotus 1.0 is arrived. I suggest you to read my NiceHCK EB2S journey. (There can be some edit.)NiceHCK EB2S has arrived. Too unhappy.
First of all, the things I will say is completely personal. The thing I don't like can be your favorite, who knows?! But sound-wise all the things are true. This is done in first day without burn-in so take it with grain a salt.
Bass: Sub-bass is definately there and it does not get blend with kicks or mid-bass. Mid bass is not emphasized, sounds flat, even can be recessed. So all the body of the sound feels like coming from sub-bass somehow. Upper-bass is definately recessed.
Mid: Recessed as ***! There is no mid at all... No...
Treble: Treble is definately there. All the human voices coming from treble-side and upper-mid. You know that some producers like to brigthen female singers to make it more dynamic, airy, sexy and girl-ish... Now think about it... Even Rick Astley's voice sound like Britney Spears right now. This is terrible... Upper side of treble is fully opened. It feels like somebody turned up 16kHz fully up. Due to emphasized upper treble, you hear reverbs, echos so clear and it kills the whole point of being "echo" thing. You hear them as the same level of vocals. All the effects of, can be vocal, or instrumental, synthesizer, can be heard transparently. Hi-hats, cymbals sound metallic, very sparkly, very much unnatural and disturbing.
Soundstage: If you think about recessed mid's you can imagine that there is no air in any recordings, there is no spacious-ness or room/hall like feelings in the recordings. (Imagine jazz or classique music, even any 80's songs) Too much clear sound resulted as narrow and blended soup soundstage. I know this sounds opposite of clarity. How can I say... Yes, I hear effects so clearly from right or left, yes but too much trebles at higher volumes starts to cause soup like sound. If you are going to listen at very low levels, like critical listening, then you will like the soundstage.
Depth: There is no depth at all. Everything is so close that you can't feel the layers. There is no mid, there is no depth except emphasized echos. This means there is no darkness.
Instrument seperation: Thanks to the upper of treble and recessed mids, every instrument is heard clearly but this is not mean that you can choose it. Trebles are causing something; In industries, machines would beep in very high pitch, it is because our ears responds more to the higher sounds. This is very tiring and you start to cannot choose anything after 5 minutes of listening. You start to listen hi-hats and cymbals and air whoosing effects as music.
First 30 seconds, I tried with one layer of cushions, then after hearing it's metallic cheap, 2010's chinese in-ear headphone sound-like treble's, I started to wear it with double cushions. It helped a little bit about mids and trebles but it was too small help about overall sound.
All the female vocals sound like mixmastered Britney Spears, Ariana Grande studio vocals. Autotuned female vocals including Britney Spears sounded like alien. There is no timbre of the vocal, just shhhhhhh sounds I am hearing... All the 80's songs sound metallic. All the male vocals sound like Britney Spears.
Also I have tried it with my laptops from around 2010's at the moment. They lack of treble from headphone output but they got amazing stereo crosstalk levels. There is no leaking and there is amazing depth etc. Even with them, they still sound bright but much much better than new technologies like smartphones and new laptops. Still, sound very fake.
Somebody told me, kind of reminds HD650 and boy, I own HD6XX and there is no any similarity. This just sounds like 2010-ish cheap Chinese, in-ears without mid-bass thump. My ears are ringing now. I cannot believe how people suggested this to me.
I only could recommend this to who like to analyze echos, effects, vocal effects, female vocal layering (background double, triple etc.) at low volume levels. It has a clarity that makes very very noticable of older recordings which got low repeating sounds in silent parts. I should remind it again, mids are recessed!
TC200 and TC300 was my first shot into earbuds from AliExpress and it was great shot thanks to ounwx's correct ears. Here, you can see his comment that changed my life:
https://www.head-fi.org/goto/post?id=15096032
Now, I am waiting for that FAAEAL Snow-Lotus 1.0 and just hoping that there is no difference with Snow-Lotus 1.0+ version. If I don't like it that too, I will try to buy that TC200 since TC300, my love is already discountinued.
This text is written in first day without burn-in. The things I hate can be your favorite but this does not mean whole experience is false. I am just typing what I hear. Again, this is done without burn-in. I have used one cushion.
Bass: Sub-bass is touching gently, it is there but it is very weak. You can only enjoy that sub-bass in silent situtations. Mid-bass is definately there with it's being emphasized. It has mid-bass thump so it feels very warm. Upper-bass can be blended with low-mids.
Mid: Mid is there. You can feel the timbre of vocals, that signature character of every individuals. There is emotion. Upper-bass low-mids blending causes a little bit muddy feeling. Upper-mid is heard like flat.
Trebles: Low-treble side is recessed, making muddy feeling worse in some situtations and making female vocals sound like it is given through V-shape EQ. Mid-trebles is not recessed as low-trebles but still you can feel the veil and it sounds grainy. Upper-trebles is almost flat but still, there is a little bit veil.
Soundstage: That is very standart for an earbud. That spacious-ness and airy feeling. It's either sounds like room or hall or any enviroment it's given to. It is wide but not the widest and it is acceptable.
Depth: Vocal echos are coming in layers rather than strong intensity of main vocals. The veil at trebles results as depthness but it could be better controlled with less unrecessed trebles and without upper-bass low-mid blending. No comment.
Overall it is a very dark and warm earbud. It could be much much better if the company were trying to improve that treble side. Grainy female vocals, cymbals can be overwhelming sometimes. Upper-bass low-mid blending make it sound like warm-blended vegetable soup in any volume levels. This needs to be revised definately. So this is means we cannot talk about instrument seperation in any way. (This was something that TC300 professional at.)
If you are okay to sacrifice many of clarity (not talking about sibilance or metallic sounding), this can be your next very very warm and dark earbud.
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