[samandhi]

Newbsound has released two very limited run buds stealthily, and I was fortunate enough to message him at the right time to secure both. Behold them:



Left - Newb50, 32 Ohm Titanium film, 50 USD
Right - Jester, 32 Ohm Biofiber, 100 USD

I have to admit - both of them sound way better than they are priced. The Newb50 easily trades blow with whatever $100 buds I have heard. And the Jester is one of the best I have heard at around $200.

Newb50: Mild U shaped. Highly transparent and revealing set, with a very natural, well-extended, and distinctly present subbass. The midbass has a nice slam as well. Midrange and treble are very prominently present, treble is very well extended also. Big stage, very wide, tall, and nice depth as well. Three-dimensional imaging and outstanding separation. Notes are very crisp and well-defined. Upper mid can be a bit shouty and sound a bit unrefined sometimes - but that is the only con and not always present also.

Jester: If Newb50 blew my mind, Jester blew my whole consciousness. It took the sound of the Newb50 and enhanced it in every possible way. Slightly more emphasized bass, similarly transparent midrange, slightly pushed back treble for a more natural presentation, with similar extension. It is more balanced and more refined as a whole. The stage is more holographic with more depth. Notes sound similarly crisp and slightly more well-defined. No shout in any part of the whole spectrum. Even better separation. Just altogether an exhilarating experience.

There are only 5 units of Newb50 and 4 units of Jester in existence. Extremely lucky to have them in my collection. They have that distinct Newbsound house sound - very natural bass and holographic presentation. Loving them to bits!

@WoodyLuvr can you include this photo to that newbsound post please?

Have not found new ST10.
At any case have ordered few to enter the world (DB1, DX6, Calf, YE01, M4), to get (and probably adapt) own hearing experience.

Congrats on all your new shiny(s)!

@anli according to your criteria, I am not sure about most of those, but I don't think you will like the M4 at all (some drivers worse than others) because of the 15-20dB boost in the 2K-5K range. I wish they were better than that because they are really a great looking (and fitting) bud. Did you order any of the other modular drivers to go with this? Since I am super sensitive to this frequency range I have landed on either the 100 bio (Super One driver), or the 150Ti (ST10S driver) as the closest to what I would call "sane" levels. But, like everything else, YMMV since all of our ears and hearing aren't alike.

The bottom line is that if the extra "shoutyness" type of tuning doesn't bother you, this is an excellent set. I would love them if they didn't hurt my ears with any sort of volume.

Hello everyone,

I've been a lurker in here for quite some time, reading you guys discuss and advise about various interesting earbud topics.

Recently, after seeing it mentioned in a few posts, I purchased the Shozy BK-SE as I wanted to upgrade my old VE Monks+ that I had been using for a good while.
Truth is there are not a whole lot of reviews on the BKSE but the Cygnus and original BK's good reputation made me decide on giving it a shot;and truth is they are great!
I just have one main grip: they seem to pick up a lot of noise from the cable's movement. What is more, I can hear it cristal clear diretly into in my ears every time the metal chin slider hits the also metallic cable splitter.

In my years using earbuds and earphones I have had many whose cable picked up some noise more than the others, and I understand it is normal to some extent. But I really wasn't expecting it to happen in the Shozy BKSE, specially as the other models I mentioned use to get praised for their very good and "silent" cable in most reviews I read.
So I was wondering if anybody has had a similar experience with the BKSE?

From my experience fixing buds' cables that type of noise always was present when I forgot to add a knot to fix the cable in place inside the shell or some other sort of movement-impeding mechanism. So I wonder if it is that Shozy didn't implement such a thing in this new version for some reason? Or maybe (I doubt it) I might have gotten a faulty unit?

Thanks in advance for your time and attention!

I don't think this is a fault of the earbuds, or any sort of technique that was used (or not used), and while it may be possible that there are things that can reduce the microphonics of a cable, it ultimately comes down to the materials used with the cable as to whether it readily transmits sound waves up to your ears or not. One technique that has always helped with IEMs is wearing them "over ear" style. The vibrations coming from the banging of the cable dies before it is able to reach your inner ears.

If you want to experiment, you could put some masking tape (it has the best sound insulation factor of the "common" tapes) over the V split or chin slider, if you are thinking this is the area that is causing the most noise. Of course, you could try any tape and it should work also to varying degrees.

 

[metrics]

I can confirm they do not lack bass, indeed it is very present and punchy! Although presumably it comes from the composite DD...

Fun set for $17, currently listening to this on them:



Product Link (LUN SHENG AEOLIAN):

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005...6121802bSwQGw&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm#nav-review

Would you care to give us some more impressions about them?
How are the mids and highs? The Smabat signature 2k-3k peak is present? The tuning is fatiguing? Technicalities are good?

I'm sorry if I'm being too suffocating, i am really curious, have been searching for impressions on these for a long now

 

[SolaVirtus]

Hey guys. I’d like to try the Newbsound earbuds. I been reading some great things about these earbuds here on Head-Fi and the web. Sorry I don’t do FB, IG or X (don’t do social media at all) but I’d like to add a couple to the collection. Can anyone assist? Thanks.

User irv003 is behind newbsound buds.

https://www.head-fi.org/members/irv003.511456/

 

[mt877]

I can confirm they do not lack bass, indeed it is very present and punchy! Although presumably it comes from the composite DD...

Fun set for $17, currently listening to this on them:



Product Link (LUN SHENG AEOLIAN):

https://vi.aliexpress.com/item/1005...6121802bSwQGw&gatewayAdapt=glo2vnm#nav-review

For the fun of it I ordered these a couple weeks ago from CKLewis. The package cleared US Customs and should arrive in a day or two. I figured with the DD the bass would be ok. What do you think of the overall sound balance? Anyway, I get my chance to listen to them in a day or two.

EDIT: I've mentioned before that I have a couple of Intime IEMs which are dual driver (DD and Piezo) and they perform well, so I figured the Aeolian Bell buds which are dual DD & Piezo if tuned properly might be a nice sounding earbud. I hope I'm right.

Would you care to give us some more impressions about them?
How are the mids and highs? The Smabat signature 2k-3k peak is present? The tuning is fatiguing? Technicalities are good?

I'm sorry if I'm being too suffocating, i am really curious, have been searching for impressions on these for a long now

The buds aren't the typical Smabat design with the labyrinth bass tube design, so I would think the tuning may be more conventional. Of course they could be tuned hot in the 2k-3k region. I'll know in a couple days. Maybe @Tsukimi can share some thoughts...?

 

[Rackhour]

Out of curiosity, how often do you change your foam covers or silicone rings?

 

[metrics]

For the fun of it I ordered these a couple weeks ago from CKLewis. The package cleared US Customs and should arrive in a day or two.

One or two day away? They're close! Can't wait to know what you think of them

I figured with the DD the bass would be ok.

Yeah, i also think that delegating the DD to the low frequencies will show good results. Or at least that's the hope

The buds aren't the typical Smabat design with the labyrinth bass tube design, so I would think the tuning may be more conventional. Of course they could be tuned hot in the 2k-3k region.

You're right, yet i fear this, its Smabat after all.
In fact i actually kind of like a little gain there, i just think Smabat overdoes it

 

[anli]

Congrats on all your new shiny(s)!

@anli according to your criteria, I am not sure about most of those, but I don't think you will like the M4 at all (some drivers worse than others) because of the 15-20dB boost in the 2K-5K range. I wish they were better than that because they are really a great looking (and fitting) bud. Did you order any of the other modular drivers to go with this? Since I am super sensitive to this frequency range I have landed on either the 100 bio (Super One driver), or the 150Ti (ST10S driver) as the closest to what I would call "sane" levels. But, like everything else, YMMV since all of our ears and hearing aren't alike.

The bottom line is that if the extra "shoutyness" type of tuning doesn't bother you, this is an excellent set. I would love them if they didn't hurt my ears with any sort of volume.

I don't think this is a fault of the earbuds, or any sort of technique that was used (or not used), and while it may be possible that there are things that can reduce the microphonics of a cable, it ultimately comes down to the materials used with the cable as to whether it readily transmits sound waves up to your ears or not. One technique that has always helped with IEMs is wearing them "over ear" style. The vibrations coming from the banging of the cable dies before it is able to reach your inner ears.

If you want to experiment, you could put some masking tape (it has the best sound insulation factor of the "common" tapes) over the V split or chin slider, if you are thinking this is the area that is causing the most noise. Of course, you could try any tape and it should work also to varying degrees.

As for M4, I have ordered just the base without additional drivers - will investigate this one before the next steps.

 

[sofastreamer]

You could work with balanced cables with your MMCX buds without any risk. What you don't want to do is to buy adapter to your 3.5mm fixed cable buds to convert them to have 4.4/2.5mm male plug. It is very dangerous to most sources as you would be shorting the negative lines of L and R outputs of your amp into one, but for some reason there are plenty adapters like that in the market. Few amps can work like that, most known are from Ifi, but those are only a few

thank you for clarification. Finally i got it

 

[sofastreamer]

No, it will not ruin your earbuds.

Re-cabling a fixed cable or replacing a mmcx/2-pin earphone cable to balanced will open a "power" doorway found on many of today's available audio source devices. The additional power offered by balanced earphone outputs (e.g. 4.4TRRRS, 2.5TRRS, 3.5TRRS) can give you better low-end performance, as well as improve dynamics with certain drivers especially if they are of higher impedance and/or of lower sensitivity.

Additionally, using a difficult to drive pair of earphones with a balanced, instead of the single-ended, output connection will in many cases reduce the volume and in-turn may lower the demand on the amplification circuit/section of your device. E.g. a close to max volume setting using single-ended output may be pushing your device too hard to 90% plus efficiency-capability demand levels... using the balanced output instead will lower the required volume and may significantly reduce the demand on the amplification circuit/section and in-turn increase the life-span of the said device.

much appreciate your answer! honestly its indeed the amplification that is tempting, so i will get some balanced cables asap

 

[sofastreamer]

Let us not forget the potential of crosstalk which (in this case) is defined as:

A possible negative side effect of an unbalanced connection (line level or headphone) is the potential for unwanted noise, interference or hum to be introduced to the signal. Because the ground is linked, wayward currents from power supply transformer leakages or stray capacitance can become part of the audio signal.

This isn't nearly as relevant as it used to be because most manufacturers implement this in a much better way (from the amplifier) than they used to. Having said that, here is a pretty good article that might help with explaining balanced vs. unbalanced or single ended, and relevant information that relates to this.

Edit: As for your connections, interconnects, amplifier output, and driver wiring there is a good rule of thumb to think of here to keep your equipment safe from harm. If your head gear is wired in a balanced way (read separate grounds for each driver), then you can use either a balanced or single ended interconnect. So if you are looking at the cable connection (where it connects to your source), you can use either 3.5mm SE or 2.5mm balanced or 4.4mm balanced. But.... if your drivers are not wired this way, or your cable only uses 3 wires (L R G) then you cannot use those balanced connectors from your source because you will short out the grounds. This could burn up your amplifier, transducers, or both. Anything having a wire coming into each driver is generally wired as a balanced connection, whereas anything with just one wire coming into one side could be SE or balanced. It is up to you to know which it is, so that you can decide whether to use a balanced wire interconnect or not.

So:

• 3.5mm SE - 3.5mm SE or 4.4mm balanced or 2.5mm balanced = OK
• 2.5mm balanced or 4.4mm balanced - 3.5mm SE = BAD

Having said all of that, there does exist on the market (or you can make your own) interconnects that can go from balanced out of your source to single ended in (on head gear or other equipment) safely, as long as the grounds are not tied together. The problem with buying such interconnects (especially from China) is that while they may be advertised as such, some testing has shown some of them to not be wired correctly and is just a standard SE cable (I can't cite sources right now, as I didn't bookmark them when I read about this). Moral of the story is just to be aware of what you are paying for.

thank you for the additions. thats very helpful!

 

[pabs278]

I don't think this is a fault of the earbuds, or any sort of technique that was used (or not used), and while it may be possible that there are things that can reduce the microphonics of a cable, it ultimately comes down to the materials used with the cable as to whether it readily transmits sound waves up to your ears or not. One technique that has always helped with IEMs is wearing them "over ear" style. The vibrations coming from the banging of the cable dies before it is able to reach your inner ears.

If you want to experiment, you could put some masking tape (it has the best sound insulation factor of the "common" tapes) over the V split or chin slider, if you are thinking this is the area that is causing the most noise. Of course, you could try any tape and it should work also to varying degrees.

Thank you for the insight & the tip. The chin slider recieved the tape-treatment fairly quickly to at least stop it in place, but unfortunately the cable itself is responsible for a fair amount of the picked-up noise.
I suppose I just asked in here to see if another user would come up saying "hey I got mine and they don't have that problem in the slightest", so I could search for something else to blame instead of a poor cable choice. It's just so odd Shozy would put out on the market an earbud with such a 'meh' cable lol, after the Cygnus and th BK's. Even the VE Monk's cheap cable is much better in that regard.
Let's see if another BK-SE owner comes by and shares their experience

 

[ldo77]

I received nicehck earbuds EB2S.
I suppose they need to be burned ?

 

[mt877]

I received nicehck earbuds EB2S.
I suppose they need to be burned ?

Congratulations on getting your new buds.

Some folks will say do a burn in (for headphones, IEMs, earphones, etc...) and some say it does not make any difference. If they sound good to you right now then it might not make any difference. Burn in can't hurt anything, except you don't get to enjoy your earbuds for how many hours you do the burn in... 20, 50, 200 hours. If you do a burn in while you listen to them, then your brain may also adjust to the characteristics of the buds, so that makes it hard to determine if a burn in is beneficial for better sound. Sorry, I can't make a recommendation for burn in or not. I usually just listen to the buds and put on different foams to tune the buds so they sound good to me. Of course, sometimes you get some buds that just won't sound good to you no matter what and almost guarenteed burn in will not fix it. BTW, I don't have the EB2S buds, I'm just making a general comment about burn in.

 

[mt877]

One or two day away? They're close! Can't wait to know what you think of them

Yeah, i also think that delegating the DD to the low frequencies will show good results. Or at least that's the hope

You're right, yet i fear this, its Smabat after all.
In fact i actually kind of like a little gain there, i just think Smabat overdoes it

@metrics, I just received the LUN SHENG Aeolian Bell buds and I've only been listening to them for the past hour, so I'm still trying to think about how to describe them. Here's one thing I will say right now. Just buy them, you will not be disappointed. I'm thinking like, were these even designed by Smabat? They don't have the characteristic Smabat sound signature at all. Solid bass and absolutely no 2k-3k icepick tuning.

My general impression is that they have a nice overall balanced sound. Even though these buds utilize a dual driver, the balance between the DD and Piezo is excellent. I'll just say that the sound from the dual driver is very cohesive. Bass has a nice presence, but does not make things muddy. The mid-range is a touch forward, but it sounds very good. Male and female vocals sound very natural, that wouldn't be the case if the tuning was off. The high end is handled very well by the piezo driver. Very good detail retrieval without being too crisp / edgy.

As @Tsukimi mentioned, these are some fun $17 buds. These just might be the low budget earbud find of 2023, no joke. I will just add if anyone has been thinking about getting these buds, well, think no more. I think you can't go wrong getting these buds and you'll be pleasantly surprised with the sound quality coming from these Aeolian Bell buds. BTW, CKLewis offers these buds with bluetooth adapter or just the buds themselves. I opted to only buy the buds and use my own MMCX cable.

EDIT: Add picture

CKLewis shipped the buds in a JCALLY case and supplied 4 pairs of full foams. The cable attached to the buds is my own cable.

 

[fooltoque]

@metrics, I just received the LUN SHENG Aeolian Bell buds and I've only been listening to them for the past hour, so I'm still trying to think about how to describe them. Here's one thing I will say right now. Just buy them, you will not be disappointed. I'm thinking like, were these even designed by Smabat? They don't have the characteristic Smabat sound signature at all. Solid bass and absolutely no 2k-3k icepick tuning.

My general impression is that they have a nice overall balanced sound. Even though these buds utilize a dual driver, the balance between the DD and Piezo is excellent. I'll just say that the sound from the dual driver is very cohesive. Bass has a nice presence, but does not make things muddy. The mid-range is a touch forward, but it sounds very good. Male and female vocals sound very natural, that wouldn't be the case if the tuning was off. The high end is handled very well by the piezo driver. Very good detail retrieval without being too crisp / edgy.

As @Tsukimi mentioned, these are some fun $17 buds. These just might be the low budget earbud find of 2023, no joke. I will just add if anyone has been thinking about getting these buds, well, think no more. I think you can't go wrong getting these buds and you'll be pleasantly surprised with the sound quality coming from these Aeolian Bell buds. BTW, CKLewis offers these buds with bluetooth adapter or just the buds themselves. I opted to only buy the buds and use my own MMCX cable.

EDIT: Add picture

CKLewis shipped the buds in a JCALLY case and supplied 4 pairs of full foams. The cable attached to the buds is my own cable.

Simple, but nice looking bud for $17.