Earbuds Round-Up

[mt877]

Sorry, my bad. Seached by "tmusic".

Absolutely nothing to be sorry about. Just wanted to help you read up on other's thoughts on the EP3.

 

[samandhi]

This is getting out of hand. Besides the higher shipping fee from the AE seller, we will also be forced to pay a whopping import duty (fees) on shipments from China and Hong Kong starting May 1 or 2.

Let's not forget about that OTHER hidden "tariff fee" that has since been seen as added in addition to the actual tariff, and the duty fee. Even some US companies are adding on this "tariff fee" to their products.

I simply think that the tariffs are unchaining the greediest of companies to take free reign on "gouging". Not sure how those companies sleep at night, to be honest.

i thought the same about the yinman at first listen. but it turned out its my kind of tuning in many ways. im not so much into details, specially if they are fake by louder than neutral treble. compared to some monitor flat headphones like the akg k872 the yinman is similarly neutral. akg has slightly overdone midbass, while yinman gives those db to the sub bass. thats basically it

Very well said!

Still waiting for HB1 300ohm buds from the same seller.

Yeah, while Tmusic shop seems to be reliable (insomuch as you won't get ripped off per se'), they definitely take their times about the whole process; starting with shipping the item out.

I DID finally get my cable for my HB1 300Ω buds. All said and done, from when I started this process up until I finally got the cable that I ordered with the buds the first time, it took over 2 months to get a complete set, and I could finally mark "received item" on AliX.

 

[ttorbic]

@samandhi hi hi, how's the Pavane treating you these days?

 

[MD Rohit]

Lately, I’m getting more into earbuds, and just around that time, I received an offer from Penon to review their new model — the Penon Conductor. Funny thing is, at that moment, I had absolutely zero idea about this thing. This was completely new to me.

Like always, first thing I do after hearing any new name is straight Google search. What I found out was pretty interesting — it’s an earbuds that use a dynamic driver for sound and also a bone conduction driver. Plus, you can even adjust the bone conduction driver output level!

From what I was seeing, the overall design and idea seemed really nice to me, so I immediately told Penon that I’m interested to review it. Fast forward few days later, the product finally arrived at my hand. After a long time of testing and using, today I’m here to share my proper review with you all.

full review
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/penon-conductor.27560/reviews#review-37816

 

[NymPHONOmaniac]

I updated my signature with the list of my earbuds listed in order by purchase date. I had mentioned that I started this yourney to find a decent replacement for Yincrow X6. The biggest surprise so far was the TMusic EP3 earbuds in wooden case. The sound is spacious with well presented mids and strong bass, digging almost as deep as the X6. These sound incredibly similar to the Penon BS1 (official version) costing me 6 times more. The build quality and the unboxing experience were of course very different but soundwise I am not sure if I could tell them apart in a blind test without proper preparation.
What surprised me even more - almost no mentions on Head-fi.

Still waiting for HB1 300ohm buds from the same seller.

very interesting....will most likely order a pair based on your feedback. i have BS1, good but not very competitive in performance.

i still have intense crush on those 11$ Quigom White Lotus 300ohm buds....lush buttery wide in presence vocal, round thick bass wwith plenty of punch, darkish treble, not sharp so it offer intimate mid centric meet deep dense bass musicality, one of a kind....but need crazy power to shine.

 

[h8uthemost]

very interesting....will most likely order a pair based on your feedback. i have BS1, good but not very competitive in performance.

i still have intense crush on those 11$ Quigom White Lotus 300ohm buds....lush buttery wide in presence vocal, round thick bass wwith plenty of punch, darkish treble, not sharp so it offer intimate mid centric meet deep dense bass musicality, one of a kind....but need crazy power to shine.

Thanks for the info on the White Lotus. I've been eyeing these for probably two years but never pulled the trigger for some reason. And now I can't cuz of the ****ing tarrifs.

Anyways, I appreciated your thoughts on them

 

[Pabsu]

I've seen 600 ohm buds on AliX those definitely need an amp

 

[Scubadevils]

Two buds inbound from Penon - nothing new to regulars here but both on my radar a while and decided to take the plunge as part of my current revisit.

 

[droenald]

Lately, I’m getting more into earbuds, and just around that time, I received an offer from Penon to review their new model — the Penon Conductor. Funny thing is, at that moment, I had absolutely zero idea about this thing. This was completely new to me.

Like always, first thing I do after hearing any new name is straight Google search. What I found out was pretty interesting — it’s an earbuds that use a dynamic driver for sound and also a bone conduction driver. Plus, you can even adjust the bone conduction driver output level!

From what I was seeing, the overall design and idea seemed really nice to me, so I immediately told Penon that I’m interested to review it. Fast forward few days later, the product finally arrived at my hand. After a long time of testing and using, today I’m here to share my proper review with you all.

full review
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/penon-conductor.27560/reviews#review-37816

Thank you for your review! But:
Practically no one of the regulars on this thread owns a Penon bud. There are 8 reviews for the Conductor now, and basically none for any other earbud that is widely appreciated around here. Also these reviewers never post anything else here but their glowing reviews, which shows that they usually don't enjoy buds all that much, which in turn puts a big question mark behind the reliability of those 5 stars reviews.
We have talked before about Penon and how they try to push their products.
Apart from your review there seems to be a general upsurge of posts from other people about Penon buds, which makes me think this is a concerted effort by Penon to gain traction in this thread.
I will certainly not buy anything from Penon and hope others won't either. I am frankly appaled at Penon's marketing tactics.
It is a bit sad, because their products might actually be good, but I'll never know!
Excuses if you find my post to be offensive, it might be the case that you and some others are actually getting into earbuds more/again at the same time and this is but a coincidence. After all the world is a strange place!
Also I have been hanging out in this thread for only two years, it might be that Penon buds where a big deal in the earbud community before I joined this thread?

 

[tOMZY]

very interesting....will most likely order a pair based on your feedback. i have BS1, good but not very competitive in performance.

Hmm, why would you want to order EP3 if they are similar to BS1 which you already have and don't like?

Thanks for mentioning the White Lotus - I might like those too. Ordered

 

[vandung2510]

Thank you for your review! But:
Practically no one of the regulars on this thread owns a Penon bud. There are 8 reviews for the Conductor now, and basically none for any other earbud that is widely appreciated around here. Also these reviewers never post anything else here but their glowing reviews, which shows that they usually don't enjoy buds all that much, which in turn puts a big question mark behind the reliability of those 5 stars reviews.
We have talked before about Penon and how they try to push their products.
Apart from your review there seems to be a general upsurge of posts from other people about Penon buds, which makes me think this is a concerted effort by Penon to gain traction in this thread.
I will certainly not buy anything from Penon and hope others won't either. I am frankly appaled at Penon's marketing tactics.
It is a bit sad, because their products might actually be good, but I'll never know!

Oh hi. I own the Penon buds, hehe :v
Personally, i think it's a good buds. I consider it as a cheaper TGX totem if i throw the BCD out of the window tbh.

 

[tOMZY]

Apart from your review there seems to be a general upsurge of posts from other people about Penon buds, which makes me think this is a concerted effort by Penon to gain traction in this thread.

I can assure, me mentioning their BS1 has nothing to do with this. I paid for these full price. If I had bought the EP3 before, I would probably have skipped the Penons. Or maybe not, hoping they would be much better than these

 

[droenald]

i still have intense crush on those 11$ Quigom White Lotus 300ohm buds....lush buttery wide in presence vocal, round thick bass wwith plenty of punch, darkish treble, not sharp so it offer intimate mid centric meet deep dense bass musicality, one of a kind....but need crazy power to shine.

Your description of it is 1:1 what my RY4 300r bud sounded like before I slaughtered it to build another bud with it. It was just too dark for my liking. I believe this is just how this "donkey" driver sounds if you slap it into a MX500 shell. Probably only @jeejack knows how to get a different sound with this driver in MX500!

Oh hi. I own the Penon buds, hehe :v
Personally, i think it's a good buds. I consider it as a cheaper TGX totem if i throw the BCD out of the window tbh.

I can assure, me mentioning their BS1 has nothing to do with this. I paid for these full price. If I had bought the EP3 before, I would probably have skipped the Penons. Or maybe not, hoping they would be much better than these

I didn't want to offend anyone with my previous post, and it was certainly not geared towards you guys, but more towards reviewers who receive the buds for free and don't even usually listen to earbuds. They show up in this thread, link to their review so we get to know this is the best product ever. This is the way Penon and some other companies market their products.
I consider this spamming of this thread. What is happening in this thread usually is products beeing promoted by word of mouth of earbud enthusiasts and their real honest opinions and this is why I hang out here. If I want to watch reviews of people who received a product in exchange for their honest opinion, I'd be going to watch Youtube, but honestly I consider this as a waste of time. We've talked about this not too long ago...
I much more trust the opinions of my buddies on here!

 

[h8uthemost]

Hmm, why would you want to order EP3 if they are similar to BS1 which you already have and don't like?

Thanks for mentioning the White Lotus - I might like those too. Ordered

Nice. Let us know what you think when you get them.

 

[ttorbic]

Time for an exciting announcement! After a short break, our very own @AsciiJC is back to making their own earbuds! You've seen their progress posts some time ago, but now they have launched their official pre-order campaign for Mascara, the V4 of Valbuds:
https://www.instagram.com/p/DI4PKMdsXhm/?igsh=aWZ2MDl3Y3R5c2J0

I am, as many of you know, a friend of Ascii, but I am posting this on my own volition, just because I think these buds are genuinely very exciting. Why? Ascii has designed the shell from "the ground up," and is printing them in nylon using MJF 3D printing technique. They look, subjectively, really nice. It sports a 15.4 mm Foster-like driver, and is tuned neutral. For instrumentals and vocals. All according to the maker, Ascii - I have yet to hear these myself (but Soon).

More details on the Mascara can be found on the Instagram post, but for those who aren't on that platform, please see the screenshots!