So odd. I think the polarity just might be reversed on these. Other IEMs are not displaying the same behavior on the cable I'm using.
Using these in "reverse" sounds much less shrill up high and cuts down some midbass.
So odd. I think the polarity just might be reversed on these. Other IEMs are not displaying the same behavior on the cable I'm using.
Using these in "reverse" sounds much less shrill up high and cuts down some midbass.
Finally got my blue unit, definitely can hear the mid bass bloom and not sure if I need/want to ask replacement as it is what the sound signature is. 200hz eq adjustment around -5 decibels confirm what it supposed to sound, because of that bump male and female vocal becomes unnatural. Everything else is actually sound decent to good, average timbre, good mid/treble and no sibilance, slightly above avg sound stage, oh build quality definitely under average. Is far from giant killer, but to have “neutral sounding” at $50 bracket there are not many options (tinhifi T2 plus comes to mind). Extremely tip sensitive and the original/extra tips in the package is garbage, tiprolling is a must, cable is ok/nice. Final verdict: can’t recommend it to anyone with its questionable QC and inconsistencies.
At the very least i know whose opinion/ear not to trust and who to trust for future reference.
Finally got my blue unit, definitely can hear the mid bass bloom and not sure if I need/want to ask replacement as it is what the sound signature is. 200hz eq adjustment around -5 decibels confirm what it supposed to sound, because of that bump male and female vocal becomes unnatural. Everything else is actually sound decent to good, average timbre, good mid/treble and no sibilance, slightly above avg sound stage, oh build quality definitely under average. Is far from giant killer, but to have “neutral sounding” at $50 bracket there are not many options (tinhifi T2 plus comes to mind). Extremely tip sensitive and the original/extra tips in the package is garbage, tiprolling is a must, cable is ok/nice. Final verdict: can’t recommend it to anyone with its questionable QC and inconsistencies.
At the very least i know whose opinion/ear not to trust and who to trust for future reference.
Finally got my blue unit, definitely can hear the mid bass bloom and not sure if I need/want to ask replacement as it is what the sound signature is. 200hz eq adjustment around -5 decibels confirm what it supposed to sound, because of that bump male and female vocal becomes unnatural. Everything else is actually sound decent to good, average timbre, good mid/treble and no sibilance, slightly above avg sound stage, oh build quality definitely under average. Is far from giant killer, but to have “neutral sounding” at $50 bracket there are not many options (tinhifi T2 plus comes to mind). Extremely tip sensitive and the original/extra tips in the package is garbage, tiprolling is a must, cable is ok/nice. Final verdict: can’t recommend it to anyone with its questionable QC and inconsistencies.
At the very least i know whose opinion/ear not to trust and who to trust for future reference.
I'm still toying with mine. The fit has been tricky but I finally found a perfect seal with the widest, softest tips from a Penon Fan (another stabilized wood IEM).
With that seal there is plenty of sub-bass along with mid-bass.
Somebody suggested it, in this thread or elsewhere, and I added a 20-ohm impedance adapter ($8 shipped to USA from Penon https://penonaudio.com/3.5mm-impedance-adapter.html ) and while it lowers the sensitivity--had to turn up the volume a bit-- it also thoroughly tames the mid-bass bloom. (Listen to a Mozart piano concerto with and without the adapter, and hear the cellos get back in their place.)
These should not have been hyped as giant killers but they are very solid for $45.
Finally got my blue unit, definitely can hear the mid bass bloom and not sure if I need/want to ask replacement as it is what the sound signature is. 200hz eq adjustment around -5 decibels confirm what it supposed to sound, because of that bump male and female vocal becomes unnatural. Everything else is actually sound decent to good, average timbre, good mid/treble and no sibilance, slightly above avg sound stage, oh build quality definitely under average. Is far from giant killer, but to have “neutral sounding” at $50 bracket there are not many options (tinhifi T2 plus comes to mind). Extremely tip sensitive and the original/extra tips in the package is garbage, tiprolling is a must, cable is ok/nice. Final verdict: can’t recommend it to anyone with its questionable QC and inconsistencies.
At the very least i know whose opinion/ear not to trust and who to trust for future reference.
The only opinion you can really trust is your own. I´ve been listening the the Geeks for some more time, and the mid bass bloom has toned down a bit, it didn´t bother me to begin with since I didn´t find it to interfere with my enjoyment of the music. Speaking of music these are very, very good with jazz, acoustic, vocals, pop and even classical, I do prefer my Smabat NCO for rock though, which makes up the bulk of my listening.
If a newcomer were to visit the thread for the first time they would be thoroughly confused, some of us think the Geek is lively and leaning towards bright, others say it´s dark sounding, some find cables to make a great difference, others not so much, some have seen the light piercing holes through vents, others the contrary...I myself prefer a warmer signature than these have and despite thinking the NCO are more neutral I also can´t help but think they sound anodyne for the first minute when going back to them from the Geek. I haven´t had the chance to listen to mid / top tier IEM´s and maybe expectations were set too high for some with comparisons in that regard, but if €50 gives you this sound my heart beats faster thinking of what €500 might bring, absolutely worth the money to me.
Never believe the hype. My rule of thumb is to wait for atleast 45-60 days for reviews and impressions before purchasing because by then not only reviewers but others also receive their orders. This gives a fairly robust insight into how much weight the hype holds. Also, if there are any glaring QC issues then it makes it pretty easy to notice them.
I'd say GK10 was always going to be a hit and miss. It was a blind buy for me and I was almost 20% expecting that they would not be as per my liking, rest 80% was pure hope. I would sell my model soon to recoup some of my investment. But it was a fun experience for me. Maybe I've learnt that poorly done piezo treble is not for me as I faced similar problems with the earlier the SF DT...6.
$45 is slightly steep IMO. But if they go on sale say at $30-35 that's what I believe their true value is. At that cost, they'd struggle in many Asian markets where $45 is a lot of money.
The only opinion you can really trust is your own. I´ve been listening the the Geeks for some more time, and the mid bass bloom has toned down a bit, it didn´t bother me to begin with since I didn´t find it to interfere with my enjoyment of the music. Speaking of music these are very, very good with jazz, acoustic, vocals, pop and even classical, I do prefer my Smabat NCO for rock though, which makes up the bulk of my listening.
If a newcomer were to visit the thread for the first time they would be thoroughly confused, some of us think the Geek is lively and leaning towards bright, others say it´s dark sounding, some find cables to make a great difference, others not so much, some have seen the light piercing holes through vents, others the contrary...I myself prefer a warmer signature than these have and despite thinking the NCO are more neutral I also can´t help but think they sound anodyne for the first minute when going back to them from the Geek. I haven´t had the chance to listen to mid / top tier IEM´s and maybe expectations were set too high for some with comparisons in that regard, but if €50 gives you this sound my heart beats faster thinking of what €500 might bring, absolutely worth the money to me.
The GK10 sound great with reggae and really shine with dub reggae. When I switch back to the SSP (which I love for general listening) they do indeed sound anodyne at first. The GK10 have a complex signature but I think the layering they achieve would be hard to find elsewhere at the price. QC issues aside (which do exist), perhaps it is the complexity of the signature (resulting from the particular driver structure) which leads to such differing but honest opinions. Those who have slightly more sensitive hearing towards the bass end may find the GK10 bloom mid bass and lack impact in the sub-bass. Similarly those with sensitivity towards the higher end my find they tend towards bright, and others may find them reasonably balanced.
Yup some burn in time, the sound stabilize but it’s still wonky till you play with eq. Out of the box sound is not as bad as people portray otherwise the hype train never started, but once you hear better/more “typical” preferred sound and compared to this, you do noticed the mid bass bloom bloom and can’t unhear it (very noticeable with male/female vocal, slight flu like sound, either the singer or the listener) With the driver configuration, is not overpriced, but its inconsistent QC and built quality is hard to recommend. In a way is similar to “nice little gem that have to tone down the sibilance/spike” but it happen in the 200hz (lower mid bass) region.
Some iem strive to be best of something, some to be jack of all trade and GK10 fall into the latter with its own problem. The “neutral” with a bit of warmth should not be achieved by bumping mid bass, but to use slightly elevated sub bass and hardened dynamic driver (for faster bass respond) and layered sound. Will I dip my toe again in Geek Wold, probably with a review unit, but not with my own money. The $50 price bracket is getting crowded and there are better sets depending on what you trying to achieve.
As far for trusting opinion/ear, because we don’t have unlimited budget and time, is nice to know other members that have similar sensitivity/taste that we can rely on to give honest/accurate feedback.
agree with you and still enjoying my set. I really think the mids are pretty good on the GK10 and I'd buy these again. On certain kinds of music these sound really great and have an interesting edge that isn't there in BA/DD drivers. I started going through some of the more ambient and darker side of electronica and these are actually quite good for that as a genre. I do have a pretty aggressive V dialed in. I found the midbass to be best when dialing up subbass to match it, rather than trying to EQ it out/down. It takes away too much from the lower mids and screws up the sound. The piezos can be buzzy up top, but on material like this ambient rework of Blade Runner Blues, the effect is truly quite dazzling.
Single ended these are still starved for power from my little BTR3K. I'm still waiting on an inexpensive balanced cable to get full power out of it. I think I've got the same impedance mismatch on my desktop dac-amp, as no amount of eq fiddling seems to make them sound good.
Speaking about buzzing noises - a good chunk of NIN's catalog is actually a great fit for the Geek.
Moving on toward the metal side of the house, anything slow and grungy works well. Sun O))), Melvins, and Sleep all make for interesting sessions with the Geek.
Back in blues rock territory, Samantha Fish just released a nice little swamp boogie number in 4K that sounds very good here, too.
Wait until these truly burn in! They are excellent.
Wide bore tips - tick; low impedance source - tick; silver cable - tick; slow burn-in process (an hour or two a day on listening level music of wide variety for 20 plus hours or more) - tick!
But, but, but why can't they sound great out of the box with any tips, any source impedance, any cable, etc? Sorry, these are not those type of IEMs. They are complex creatures that require some nurturing.
This was largely the music I based my first impressions on. The lack of subbass presence doesn't cause an issue for what I listen to and infact accentuates an air and lightness to the signature that suits instrumental music. It's a signature with a particular timbre and tonality that won't suit everyone.
I'm listening to my GK10 now (post-poke, so who knows what FR is bubbling away in there) after about 2 weeks away from them and I'm thoroughly enjoying them. I stand by my review. I think these are value for money at the price point provided they suit your niche and you can tip/source roll. What is inexcusable is vast unit variation / standard of QC.
With the GK10MKII on the horizon I'm looking forward to seeing better QC between batches and where this tuning and driver configuration will go.
Edit: Comparing Mele and GK10 side-by-side, I prefer the GK10. I can overlook the lack of single driver coherency just for the light touch presentation and brilliant technicalities at this price point. Interestingly, the BA/piezo treble is some of the smoothest and most enjoyable treble I've heard (with burn in). Opinions vary so drastically on this set it's bemusing.
