[mt877]

Hey all, just wondering about driver reccs!
Is there a liked speaker that is warm and tonally balanced? I really do not care about techs, but I am looking to make a fun earbud using the mx500 shell but a custom splitter made by me for a friend! No intention on selling this to anyone haha, it's going to be a gift!

Preferrably not the huayunxin driver or the blue sapphire as that has gained a large amount of popularity for DIYers, since we aren't a huge fan of it :v

150 Ohm Blue Glue is a good choice.
32 Ohm Bio Composite is another excellent choice.

 

[anli]

Nope. I can show you bright and low res IEM/buds, and warm but high res IEM/buds. So, resolution != pierce != bright != shout.

"Resolution" sources are both FR around 2-6KHz and distortions level, agree.

What I see in discussions the first source is presumed just more often: "more resolution" is often correlated with more this FR range rise.

As for "shouting", well, it is absolutely subjective area, and everybody is right here (as well as about "fatiguing").

 

[baskingshark]

Nope. I can show you bright and low res IEM/buds, and warm but high res IEM/buds. So, resolution != pierce != bright != shout.

Lots of CHIFI like to boost the upper mids and lower treble to give "fake clarity".

It sounds super "resolving" on initial listen, but once you listen further, then you realize some of these budget CHIFI have issues with instrument separation and layering in busy or complex tracks with competing riffs. This party trick doesn't hold up to deeper scrutiny.

On the other hand, we have some "monitor"-like IEMs that are actually borderline darkish at the lower treble with not much pinna gain, but they can still show micro-details without forcing it.

 

[ian91]

Clarity is often falsely attributed to a level of resolution. I always air on the side of caution when interpreting what some describe as resolution. As @baskingshark says, there are darker tunings with less clarity but that reveal more note texture. Information isn't only in the upper midrange and information is not strictly a function of tonality/FR.

 

[samandhi]

Lots of CHIFI like to boost the upper mids and lower treble to give "fake clarity".

It sounds super "resolving" on initial listen, but once you listen further, then you realize some of these budget CHIFI have issues with instrument separation and layering in busy or complex tracks with competing riffs. This party trick doesn't hold up to deeper scrutiny.

On the other hand, we have some "monitor"-like IEMs that are actually borderline darkish at the lower treble with not much pinna gain, but they can still show micro-details without forcing it.

Clarity is often falsely attributed to a level of resolution. I always air on the side of caution when interpreting what some describe as resolution. As @baskingshark says, there are darker tunings with less clarity but that reveal more note texture. Information isn't only in the upper midrange and information is not strictly a function of tonality/FR.

Very well said, the both of you.

It is not only common for some to report a set as having good resolution, but some will also say that clarity is excellent based on the amount of treble (and in the case of a lot of ChiFi buds upper mids and lower treble). This isn't wholly false, but it is a false sense of clarity/resolution that they hear in most cases. I would present the Yinman 2.0 600 as a case in point. These have a dark(ish) and warm tuning, and the treble is not airy, and is a bit rolled off. The presence region is NOT boostsed for "false perceived clarity", and the overall presentation is very smooth (as the term goes), but I would also argue that you aren't missing any details or separation, etc... Overall the resolution and clarity are very high on this set despite its smooth nature; one of the reasons I have always loved this set so much. Also, they manage to hvae a very good stage and technicalities despite this lack of upper mid/lower treble boosting. This indicates a good transducer, as well as good tuning.

It is a common mistake to associate clarity or resolution with treble only because when boosted, it DOES add some second harmonics to other frequencies and might sound like those things are cleaner or clearer. But really what is happening here is it is masking the clarity of those other frequencies (sometimes this is a good thing though), making it hard to tell if those other frequencies actually have good resolution or not.

Boosting the upper mids/lower treble area is very common because it is an easy way to add perceived "air" and technicalities (stage width and/or depth) without having to take the energy to tune the treble region properly; which is very difficult on a DD. This is normally because of the limitations of the DD driver being used. DD has always been pretty tricky with respect to tuning the upper frequencies because of their DNA makeup. They inherently lack resolution and separation simply because of how they work. Using a very high impedance transducer helps to hide this but doesn't totally resolve it. A DD will never have the separation as something like a good BA or planar transducer. Strides have been made that lessen this affect (i.e. high impedance, driver coatings, etc...) though.

Having said all of that, the Harmon curve also demands this (boosted upper mids/lower treble beyond neutral), which means that it is a very popular tuning method (which I despise BTW). Chinese listeners also enjoy this as well, so they can hear female vocals best (it is a wonder they aren't all deaf from the shouty nature of this tuning method IMHO). So, because the masses demand it (prefer it), and the limitations of the DD being used, I don't see this going away any time soon. But, make no mistake, this does NOT truly contribute to the resolution quality and clarity of the set.

Just my $.02 on the matter, and my intention is not to lessen the enjoyment for those that enjoy this sort of tuning; but only to provide (hopefully) useful information to those that like to do "critical" listening, and figure all the complexities out.

 

[JAnonymous5150]

Hey guys, sorry I didn't get anything up on the YW-4000s yesterday. Business got in the way, but I will be writing something up in a little later on. We have an evening show in about an hour and a half and I'll write up my impressions afterwards. Again, sorry to keep you all waiting.

P.S. I will say that the RW-4000s are a pretty impressive pair of earbuds.

 

[samandhi]

Hey guys, sorry I didn't get anything up on the YW-4000s yesterday. Business got in the way, but I will be writing something up in a little later on. We have an evening show in about an hour and a half and I'll write up my impressions afterwards. Again, sorry to keep you all waiting.

P.S. I will say that the RW-4000s are a pretty impressive pair of earbuds.

I would love to try them, because I have found all the RW series to be exceptional, but I can't justify paying the boosted price they are charging for them in this case. I can't see them being almost $200 better than the RW3000 IMHO.

Interested to hear your impressions nonetheless.

 

[mt877]

Built this beauty over the weekend.

Golden Bell 32Ω Bio Composite, appropriately named "Goldie"

Interested in building your own?

Get the "Goldie" shell (prewired and assembled MMCX) and the 32Ω Bio Composite drivers.
Tune with a Y3 white tuning paper on the driver. Best bass with the voicecoil downward.
Range of tuning paper to try on the driver is Y2, Y3 and Y4, keep the one that sounds best to you.

EDIT: !! After listening to this build for a couple days I've determined that further advanced tuning is required to bring out the best sound in these buds. If you're not prepared for further tuning experiments, then this build may not be for you.

Enjoy!

 

[jwilliamhurst]

Built this beauty over the weekend.

Golden Bell 32Ω Bio Composite, appropriately named "Goldie"

Beautiful!!!

What the sound signature like on this one?

 

[mt877]

Beautiful!!!

What the sound signature like on this one?

Nice warm bass for a full bodied sound, but not so bassy as to be muddy. High end is clear with good detail, but not in your face either. To my ears a nice balanced sound and good soundstage. Source is Sony NW-ZX707, listening to Rumer right now and her voice is so sweet through these buds.

Switched over to some Jake and I'm really liking how Goldie is sounding.

 

[chavez]

Built this beauty over the weekend.

Golden Bell 32Ω Bio Composite, appropriately named "Goldie"

Interested in building your own?

Get the "Goldie" shell (prewired and assembled MMCX) and the 32Ω Bio Composite drivers.
Tune with a Y3 white tuning paper on the driver. Best bass with the voicecoil downward.
Range of tuning paper to try on the driver is Y2, Y3 and Y4, keep the one that sounds best to you.

Enjoy!

Classic 32bio is a very solid driver, tho not veey popular. Have you tried the 75ohm bio?

 

[mt877]

Classic 32bio is a very solid driver, tho not veey popular. Have you tried the 75ohm bio?

Yep, in this post. 75 Bio is a very nice driver.

 

[jeejack]

Hey all, just wondering about driver reccs!
Is there a liked speaker that is warm and tonally balanced? I really do not care about techs, but I am looking to make a fun earbud using the mx500 shell but a custom splitter made by me for a friend! No intention on selling this to anyone haha, it's going to be a gift!

Preferrably not the huayunxin driver or the blue sapphire as that has gained a large amount of popularity for DIYers, since we aren't a huge fan of it :v

32 BG, 32 bery comp
64 TI ( both),150 BG, 300 LCP

 

[Kyonnie]

Built this beauty over the weekend.

Golden Bell 32Ω Bio Composite, appropriately named "Goldie"

Interested in building your own?

Get the "Goldie" shell (prewired and assembled MMCX) and the 32Ω Bio Composite drivers.
Tune with a Y3 white tuning paper on the driver. Best bass with the voicecoil downward.
Range of tuning paper to try on the driver is Y2, Y3 and Y4, keep the one that sounds best to you.

Enjoy!

Thank you @mt877 for sharing your builds and recipes with links specially because it's hard for me to use the AliX search function lol, I really like how it turned out. I might cop a few of those shells for future use.

I'm also cooking up something rn, soon™ haha.

 

[jeejack]

32 BG, 32 bery comp
64 TI ( both),150 BG, 300 LCP

@ValSuki I would go with both 64ohm builds which are quite similar (one for you one for your friend). Very good all-rounders

My week-end build - 32 bery comp