[IEMusic]

No wonder you was having some mixed feelings about them.

Yeah, I‘m generally trying not to jump to conclusions too quickly. I was hoping that breaking them in and changing tips/cables may fix the problem, but alas, no. I also wanted to give some time, because something as simple as a stuffy nose or time of day can sometimes affect these things, but it’s still there.

Have you tried blowing/sucking air on the problematic side? Just try if it got vacuumed while in transit.

I tried, but unfortunately it didn’t help. I was hoping it was maybe some glue or other residue/covering that was blocking the right vent, bit haven’t been able to find any such thing.

I just tried CP145 and it sounds like a different set of earphones now. Slight honkiness that bothered me is gone and bass is also stronger now.
I was using stock blue, azla sedna short and spiral dots and they just sound wrong compare to the spinfits. Never experienced this drastic sound changes before with any other iems.

The D02 definitely seems to play better with narrower bore ear tips in general. I find the the CP145 and the ePro horn tips tend to sound very similar on a lot of IEM, despite the ePro being more wide bore. My D02 sounds best with the ePro and Final E tips so far. Due to the wide nozzle and the pronounced nozzle lip I finally had an IEM that my JVC SD+ tips would fit well on, but they sounded terrible to me on my D02, very thin and shouty.

A few observations that have me quite impressed. Soundstage and imaging are excellent for a single DD IEM. Clarity and detail retrieval are also top notch, up there with the best DDs I’ve heard, as is the transient response. The sub bass is LOT more than I expected (not bass head levels though, mind you), and the mid bass is full, but tame enough that it didn’t sound bloated at all on my most offending tracks. The upper mids are too prominent and shouty to be ideal for me in stock form, and the switch didn’t help, but this is very easily remedied with tip selection and a little MP tape. Treble extension is fine, but not as good as I hoped. It is quite a bit better on my IT00. Though the treble extension may not be the best (similar to the NA2), the clarity of treble and treble sparkle are still excellent.

If everything works properly, the D02 seems to be major challenger to the FDX1, especially with classical music and jazz. Very similar levels of clarity and detail, neutral-ish tuning, but not as cool sounding (not warm either). The D02 has better midrange weight. I think the D02 is somewhat analytical sounding, but not nearly as much as the FDX1. The bass is a lot more than the FDX1 though. Timbral accuracy is about the same.

 

[Dsnuts]

So I am almost done with my review and I always try amping especially for dynamic earphones. If you guys have a way of amping your D02. Give it a go. Will surprise you.

I had a good 2 hour session last night with my IFI black label and my goodness the sound becomes headphone like. Needless to say the D02 does extremely well with more power.

 

[dharmasteve]

So my ISN D02's are nowhere near burned in, but they are good. Like 'honey on a razors edge' they can be a hard one to fix. So a couple of things that may help if others find them edgy or shouty. The supplied SPC cable does them no favours. If you can manage to get the MMCX cable off (pant, pant, phew) try a decent copper cable, and..tips seem to make a BIG difference with this set. At the moment after playing around with tips, I'm using a copper cable and Spiral Dots. These ISN D02s will need playing around with, a bit like the Blon 03......new tips and a cable change make a clear difference. It can sound fantastic, but you will have to earn it by working with them. These are not a set for the lazy.

 

[IEMusic]

So my ISN D02's are nowhere near burned in, but they are good. Like 'honey on a razors edge' they can be a hard one to fix. So a couple of things that may help if others find them edgy or shouty. The supplied SPC cable does them no favours. If you can manage to get the MMCX cable off (pant, pant, phew) try a decent copper cable, and..tips seem to make a BIG difference with this set. At the moment after playing around with tips, I'm using a copper cable and Spiral Dots. These ISN D02s will need playing around with, a bit like the Blon 03......new tips and a cable change make a clear difference. It can sound fantastic, but you will have to earn it by working with them. These are not a set for the lazy.

I’m starting to think ISN should just include a set of SpinFit CP145s with the D02,

 

[dharmasteve]

I’m starting to think ISN should just include a set of SpinFit CP145s with the D02,

It's funny because at first I thought 'wow' what great tips and so many. Not so once I used them. I eventually found a narrow bore tip which did help. Once I'd changed the cable though it was pretty clear the cable is a mismatch with the IEM. They could most certainly enclose some Spinfit clones and definitely supply a better copper cable. With the new cable though the Spiral Dots are fine. On the SPC cable they were horrible.

 

[tgx78]

I have couple of pure copper cables in transit. Would love to try them on D02 first.

 

[Dsnuts]

So a bit of an insider info on the D02. The stock stuff is standard and you can even say a bit on the cheap end. If they included a premium cable and some spinfits or other premium tips. What would the cost of the D02 be? I am very certain over the magic $100 range.

In a pure marketing term. They are trying to give you one of the best sounding earphones for the price. For the price means they had to give you the basic accessories set. What matters here is that the D02 sounds superb. Are you gonna tip roll and cable roll ?. I bet you are anyways even if they did include a much better cable and better tips. So in the end I would have much rather they sell the D02 for the cost they are vs adding needless stuff that will up the charge.

The included tips by the way is actually a good one. Unlike a lot of needless tips thrown in by other manufacturers. They are very close to the form and shape of the Symbio W tips. Very identical. I use those tips on a variety of my in ears so at least for me not a set of tips that are useless. The cable however. Well lets just say they are no worse than what most folks throw in with earphones now a days.

 

[dharmasteve]

So a bit of an insider info on the D02. The stock stuff is standard and you can even say a bit on the cheap end. If they included a premium cable and some spinfits or other premium tips. What would the cost of the D02 be? I am very certain over the magic $100 range.

In a pure marketing term. They are trying to give you one of the best sounding earphones for the price. For the price means they had to give you the basic accessories set. What matters here is that the D02 sounds superb. Are you gonna tip roll and cable roll ?. I bet you are anyways even if they did include a much better cable and better tips. So in the end I would have much rather they sell the D02 for the cost they are vs adding needless stuff that will up the charge.

The included tips by the way is actually a good one. Unlike a lot of needless tips thrown in by other manufacturers. They are very close to the form and shape of the Symbio W tips. Very identical. I use those tips on a variety of my in ears so at least for me not a set of tips that are useless. The cable however. Well lets just say they are no worse than what most folks throw in with earphones now a days.

The tips are really good....in fact excellent, but not on the D02 (at least for me). I do think they have 'shot themselves in the foot' a little through supplying that SPC cable. This 'edgy' IEM isn't helped by the SPC cable. They should quickly change production to include a copper cable, or even a choice. Would not change the price. They are a great IEM and suit my musical taste now that I have fine tuned them a bit. So thumbs up. I'm not sure if the 'on' setting is necessary as it actually made it a tad more 'shouty' for me. I hope everybody are willing to do a little 'work' to get the best out of them.

 

[tgx78]

So I am almost done with my review and I always try amping especially for dynamic earphones. If you guys have a way of amping your D02. Give it a go. Will surprise you.

I had a good 2 hour session last night with my IFI black label and my goodness the sound becomes headphone like. Needless to say the D02 does extremely well with more power.

Great to know that the D02 scales with amping. I will try it on my 9038SG3 with 6n OFHC copper balanced cable.

 

[IEMusic]

It's funny because at first I thought 'wow' what great tips and so many. Not so once I used them. I eventually found a narrow bore tip which did help. Once I'd changed the cable though it was pretty clear the cable is a mismatch with the IEM. They could most certainly enclose some Spinfit clones and definitely supply a better copper cable. With the new cable though the Spiral Dots are fine. On the SPC cable they were horrible.

I didn’t get enough sleep last night. I keep getting SD (Spiral Dot) and SF (SpinFit) confused when reading too quickly. I though you were using SpinFit tips . I was sort-of joking about including the SpinFit tips. While I like them a lot, not everyone will, and it would not make business sense for ISN to include name brand tips at the D02 price point.

So a bit of an insider info on the D02. The stock stuff is standard and you can even say a bit on the cheap end. If they included a premium cable and some spinfits or other premium tips. What would the cost of the D02 be? I am very certain over the magic $100 range.

In a pure marketing term. They are trying to give you one of the best sounding earphones for the price. For the price means they had to give you the basic accessories set. What matters here is that the D02 sounds superb. Are you gonna tip roll and cable roll ?. I bet you are anyways even if they did include a much better cable and better tips. So in the end I would have much rather they sell the D02 for the cost they are vs adding needless stuff that will up the charge.

The included tips by the way is actually a good one. Unlike a lot of needless tips thrown in by other manufacturers. They are very close to the form and shape of the Symbio W tips. Very identical. I use those tips on a variety of my in ears so at least for me not a set of tips that are useless. The cable however. Well lets just say they are no worse than what most folks throw in with earphones now a days.

Certainly, what they include is perfectly appropriate for the price point, and they definitely throw in enough tips to choose from. The cable is not special, but is not bad either IMO. It is thin, but seems constructed well enough. It would be nice if they perhaps used a cheap copper cable rather than a cheap SPC one though.

 

[ibti]

I will wait for mine to arrive hopefully without QC issues. Will buy a Upocc copper cable. As for tip rolling i have spiral dots and cp 155. Lets see how it goes.

 

[BobJS]

Never saw this before ... Waiting a week and a half for D02 tracking to budge from GUANGZHOU , I see it has an alert status. Emailing Penon, they said it was returned to them for a "security issue"?

Anyway, they said they would resend. I have no qualms about Penon as a reputable dealer, but can't recall waiting this long for a product. Except from Drop, of course.

 

[tgx78]

Opened it up and checked how tubing was installed. As you can see they are slightly angled behind a stock steel mesh. I feel I needed to get rid of that metal mesh to eliminate unwanted reflection and resonance point. Switched it out with a thin nylon type Tanchjim filter. Still trying out different ear-tips to find an optimal sound path for my ear canal.

 

[tgx78]

Never saw this before ... Waiting a week and a half for D02 tracking to budge from GUANGZHOU , I see it has an alert status. Emailing Penon, they said it was returned to them for a "security issue"?

Anyway, they said they would resend. I have no qualms about Penon as a reputable dealer, but can't recall waiting this long for a product. Except from Drop, of course.

Ouch that sucks, but that is nothing compared to how long I had to wait for my Urbanfun to arrive from Linsoul. Took 4 months to Canada.

 

[HanselPA]

Opened it up and checked how tubing was installed. As you can see they are slightly angled behind a stock steel mesh. I feel I needed to get rid of that metal mesh to eliminate unwanted reflection and resonance point. Switched it out with a thin nylon type Tanchjim filter. Still trying out different ear-tips to find an optimal sound path for my ear canal.

Any change just by switching to the new mesh? Do you know the measurements? I already have 3.7mm and 4.7mm.
Thanks.