[activatorfly]

hmm - I wonder if you're ears are preferring the tones from the midrange carbon DD of the GK10 over the balanced armature unit that's in the i3 serving duty for mids. AFAIK the planar in the i3 is there for treble.

Have you tried other piezoelectric driver IEMs before to compare against those in the GK10? I have neither so just asking, not criticizing your preference or experience here in any way. The older PE units (like Spring 2 and Shouer Tape) that enjoyed some popularity seem to have easily fallen out of favor for other things, so I've skipped trying them.

----------------
1 balanced armature for high frequency
2 piezoelectric ceramic for ultra-high frequency
7mm graphene diaphragm dynamic for middle frequency
8mm dome titanium diaphragm dynamic for bass


If you carefully go over GK10's driver description from AliExpress, it's easy to understand the midbass bloom given that I don't see any evidence of a cross-over built into the unit to restrict the bass driver's FR from the tear down photos earlier in this thread. I also wonder how much of the treble is coming from that single BA over the dual PEs.

Yes I have the original iteration of NX7 & also Shouer Tape Pro (- which I love.) It seems that piezoelectric drivers...have obviously improved dramatically & hybrid configurations implementing them have now seemingly come of age...

 

[TWidXugA]

People should stop advising others to puncture a hole through the vent mesh. I’ve been doing this kind of modification with @james444 for years and you really need a measurement rig to do it right.

Wrong hole... that will just ruin the set. The one to pierce is the one next to the connector, that may be obstructed by solder. See here

 

[tgx78]

Wrong hole... that will just ruin the set. The one to pierce is the one next to the connector, that may be obstructed by solder. See here

Here is top vent. my point is still valid. You should not touch it unless you can graph it to match the channel

 

[TWidXugA]

Here is top vent. my point is still valid. You should not touch it unless you can graph it to match the channel

Well, even without a measurement rig, those with a pair of ears and the willingness to try, especially after reading this post here, might reap some rewards. The fact is, this looks QC related, and you may or may not have a pair with excess solder...

Either way I would not dismiss the GK10 so easily. Bought it with low expectations, thinking it would be just another beater pair, but was positively impressed, and many think so too. They might just be on to something...

 

[tgx78]

I am happy that you are happy with them.

My pair came with some sketch QC so I will refrain from commenting further.

 

[sutosuto]

Received mine few hours ago, I bought it out of curiosity. Straight away tips (sedna earfit, final, ep00, spinfit 100, spiral dot, some bgvp) and cable rolling (nicehck 4n litz silver, nicehck 16core copper and kbear inspiration-s copper silver plated).
To me, the best match is sedna and kbear.

I hear slight bass bloated too but it does not bother me LOL. I do not find it is lacking air, I even enjoy it LOL.

The metal grilled is also folded. It is easy to fix but they should do better.
The 2pin is also very tight. I was worried I would break my cable. If anyone faces the same issue, I suggest you to use the MMCX tool.

It seems it will grow on me.

 

[Narayan23]

Well, I received mine a couple days ago and have let them burn in and been listening since. I have to say right out of the box I liked their sound, the first thing I did was tip roll, Comply T400, Azla Sedna Earfit Light, Tenmak (all wide bore) and some Vsonic narrow bore, I settled on the Azla and wide bore is the way to go with these since it produces a more open sound IMO. Regarding cables I only compared the stock white one to a NICE HCK 16 core copper and liked the stock cable better, it provides an ever so slightly fuller sound. Speaking about the sound, these were immediately more lively and spacious than my Smabat NCO, the Smabat are darker sounding and have a less holographic soundstage, they almost seem dull when first comparing, but with further listening to me they are more neutral and don´t exhibit the midbass bloat the Geeks do. The minor bloat doesn´t bother me though, and moving the IEM ever so slightly outwards (as in millimetre/s) to me amelliorated this characteristic. There is a lovely brightness and sparkle to the sound, I´m treble sensitive and I´ve listened for up to two hours with no fatigue, just the desire to listen to more and more music, music that sounds superb when the recording is good and rather bad when it isn´t since these are revealing IEM´s.

I listened to them out of my laptop, LG V30+ and my Loxjie D30, they do need amping since the sound out of the laptop was uninvolving compared to the other two which sounded fantastic. A minor gripe is that when unlocking the phone and pressing icons, I heard a static / white noise for about four seconds each time, this didn´t affect music playback since once inside Neutron Player all was good, but it does leave me perplexed as this is the first time I´ve experienced such a phenomena.

I´m very happy with the purchase and do prefer these over the Smabat (which I thought were dead but I have managed to rescue with a XINHS cable) they are complementary and different enough to keep and enjoy both.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

Well, I received mine a couple days ago and have let them burn in and been listening since. I have to say right out of the box I liked their sound, the first thing I did was tip roll, Comply T400, Azla Sedna Earfit Light, Tenmak (all wide bore) and some Vsonic narrow bore, I settled on the Azla and wide bore is the way to go with these since it produces a more open sound IMO. Regarding cables I only compared the stock white one to a NICE HCK 16 core copper and liked the stock cable better, it provides an ever so slightly fuller sound. Speaking about the sound, these were immediately more lively and spacious than my Smabat NCO, the Smabat are darker sounding and have a less holographic soundstage, they almost seem dull when first comparing, but with further listening to me they are more neutral and don´t exhibit the midbass bloat the Geeks do. The minor bloat doesn´t bother me though, and moving the IEM ever so slightly outwards (as in millimetre/s) to me amelliorated this characteristic. There is a lovely brightness and sparkle to the sound, I´m treble sensitive and I´ve listened for up to two hours with no fatigue, just the desire to listen to more and more music, music that sounds superb when the recording is good and rather bad when it isn´t since these are revealing IEM´s.

I listened to them out of my laptop, LG V30+ and my Loxjie D30, they do need amping since the sound out of the laptop was uninvolving compared to the other two which sounded fantastic. A minor gripe is that when unlocking the phone and pressing icons, I heard a static / white noise for about four seconds each time, this didn´t affect music playback since once inside Neutron Player all was good, but it does leave me perplexed as this is the first time I´ve experienced such a phenomena.

I´m very happy with the purchase and do prefer these over the Smabat (which I thought were dead but I have managed to rescue with a XINHS cable) they are complementary and different enough to keep and enjoy both.

NCO are special and I feel it's a tragedy that they're discontinued because with little patience they would have sold like hotcakes.

So, the midbass bloat is not an anomaly but part of the signature. But, how much bloat is tolerable it's completely personal and that's what I feel is the cause of this divisiveness in the community.

 

[Nimweth]

NCO are special and I feel it's a tragedy that they're discontinued because with little patience they would have sold like hotcakes.

So, the midbass bloat is not an anomaly but part of the signature. But, how much bloat is tolerable it's completely personal and that's what I feel is the cause of this divisiveness in the community.

Yes, the NCO is excellent, I prefer it to the GK10 actually. It sounds more natural and the bass is breathy and textured. GK10 needs a lot of power and is not as appealing in the low frequencies.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

NCO are special and I feel it's a tragedy that they're discontinued because with little patience they would have sold like hotcakes.

So, the midbass bloat is not an anomaly but part of the signature. But, how much bloat is tolerable it's completely personal and that's what I feel is the cause of this divisiveness in the community.

Yea micro-based listening will have higher chance in disliking the warmth, while macro-based listening will welcome some impacts of that mid-bass region.

I grew up with playing drum in bands, and to me, that mid-bass region need some fullness/body, but I can also understand this mid-bass will interfere with vocals, and it’s all up to listeners taste

 

[Narayan23]

NCO are special and I feel it's a tragedy that they're discontinued because with little patience they would have sold like hotcakes.

So, the midbass bloat is not an anomaly but part of the signature. But, how much bloat is tolerable it's completely personal and that's what I feel is the cause of this divisiveness in the community.

The NCO are really good, in my case there were QC issues since the right driver failed almost immediately and the replacement started showing problems little after arriving, the new cable has solved this (I´ve had to unplug it and plug it in again twice though, MMCX connectors) I have not read about these problems elswhere, but it leaves me wondering if these issues were part of the reason the NCO was discontinued, inexplicable otherwise because of how great they sound.

 

[Taciturn]

Received mine few hours ago, I bought it out of curiosity. Straight away tips (sedna earfit, final, ep00, spinfit 100, spiral dot, some bgvp) and cable rolling (nicehck 4n litz silver, nicehck 16core copper and kbear inspiration-s copper silver plated).
To me, the best match is sedna and kbear.

I hear slight bass bloated too but it does not bother me LOL. I do not find it is lacking air, I even enjoy it LOL.

The metal grilled is also folded. It is easy to fix but they should do better.
The 2pin is also very tight. I was worried I would break my cable. If anyone faces the same issue, I suggest you to use the MMCX tool.

It seems it will grow on me.

Received mine today too, and my first impression match yours. Fortunately I got a good unit.

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

I'm excited ... mine should be here tomorrow or Saturday. High hopes! My toxic masculinity has a minor issue with the shape, but I figure I can counteract it by only listening to them while wearing Sailor Moon fuzzy slippers a manly quilted plaid shirt and sipping on a strawberry flavored milk bourbon.

Given the suspense I'm calling my rating system beforehand: impressions will be measured on a scale of 0-5 Blue Police Boxes from Dr Who ... because it seems like anything could happen :-o

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

Yea micro-based listening will have higher chance in disliking the warmth, while macro-based listening will welcome some impacts of that mid-bass region.

I grew up with playing drum in bands, and to me, that mid-bass region need some fullness/body, but I can also understand this mid-bass will interfere with vocals, and it’s all up to listeners taste

Yeah. Folks focus too much on micro details and consider it as a sign of a 'great' IEM. To each to his own but primary job of an IEM is to be musical and technicalities are secondary. Despite brilliant technicalities if they're not at all musical then what's the point? Only if you are an audio engineer or something like that will have some use for such IEMs. I don't mind midbass or even excess bass as long as all frequencies get their fair share across the spectrum. And, considering, these are inspired from speakers then the tonality makes sense as rarely one can experience sub-bass while listening via a speaker in an open room. Emphasis is usually on the midbass where your body gets the chills and shivers. I'd experiment them with a 5.1 channel separation emulator in Neutron MP to see how they cope with the performance.

The NCO are really good, in my case there were QC issues since the right driver failed almost immediately and the replacement started showing problems little after arriving, the new cable has solved this (I´ve had to unplug it and plug it in again twice though, MMCX connectors) I have not read about these problems elswhere, but it leaves me wondering if these issues were part of the reason the NCO was discontinued, inexplicable otherwise because of how great they sound.

Or probably they never thought these would work and created a small batch. Smabat is primarily an earbuds manufacturer so it's not surprising.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Yeah. Folks focus too much on micro details and consider it as a sign of a 'great' IEM. To each to his own but primary job of an IEM is to be musical and technicalities are secondary. Despite brilliant technicalities if they're not at all musical then what's the point? Only if you are an audio engineer or something like that will have some use for such IEMs. I don't mind midbass or even excess bass as long as all frequencies get their fair share across the spectrum. And, considering, these are inspired from speakers then the tonality makes sense as rarely one can experience sub-bass while listening via a speaker in an open room. Emphasis is usually on the midbass where your body gets the chills and shivers. I'd experiment them with a 5.1 channel separation emulator in Neutron MP to see how they cope with the performance.

Or probably they never thought these would work and created a small batch. Smabat is primarily an earbuds manufacturer so it's not surprising.

What’s so special about GK10 is that it has “stand alone sound from various type of drivers” with “mostly acceptable tuning”.

Most disoriented IEMs got very wild tuning, some specific frequencies standout /becomes dominant, with many huge spikes and dips, which is not the case of GK10, mostly neutral mid to treble (with a spike for sibilance and diffusion factor), and surrounding mid-bass, distant sounding sub-bass. It’s pretty decent tuning. Then it comes with either “separated” or “disjointed” different type of tonal presentation backing up that decent tuning.

It has 4 components of the sound, sub-woofer, midrange cone, BA-tweeter, piezo super tweeters, all got different tonality makes pretty interesting collaborations when jammed together.

Again as I mentioned in my summary, this unique sense of separation is focused on musicality, not positional accuracy and other technical coherency. So if someone values “studio monitor reference”, GK10 is not the choice. It’s not kilobuck IEM slayer, but at some occasions, when staging and dynamism comes to first priority of playing back the track, this thing can be pretty wild, wilder than MEST MKII.

I saw some comments mentioned “some people are overly praising it over kilo buck IEM which is overly hyped”.

My comment is “ nah, not really. Take a look at my score, it’s 85/100 after all. I’m not saying GK10 is superior than MEST MKII in every single aspect, it’s just some limited situations that GK10 could excel at playing back tracks”

“something unique” and “new experience” will be the primary driving factor, whether like/dislike, it’s something there calling people’s attention