[Fox2twenty]

The Magosi K3 HD is the one to look into if you want something with a more refined treble. The K3 HD has better mids and treble than either the F9 or the Zs6 at the expense of the bass being less present and slightly less extended.

Is this what you are recommending at ~100?

Magaosi K3 HD Balanced Armature Dynamic Driver Hybrid IEM HiFi Audiophile In Ear Earphone
http://s.aliexpress.com/v2emQjEV
(from AliExpress Android)

 

[Fox2twenty]

Is this what you are recommending at ~100?

Magaosi K3 HD Balanced Armature Dynamic Driver Hybrid IEM HiFi Audiophile In Ear Earphone
http://s.aliexpress.com/v2emQjEV
(from AliExpress Android)

@Wiljen, is the K3 HD 60$ better than the ZS6?

 

[vector84]

I find it odd that all bright iems sound 'detailed' and 'clear'. Is it actual detail that we hear or are our brain tricked into thinking that the sound is detailed when there is a boost in certain parts of the higher frequencies. The feeling of hearing more details than we actually would in a live performance isn't good right?

Bright and detailed describe very different things, but they are commonly found together for good reason.

Bright tends to correlate to an overall balance shifted towards a treble bias.

Detailed tends to correlate to hearing microdetails and not having them painted over by other things.

From there, it should be fairly obvious that an overall treble bias helps prevent your brain or your gear from painting over microdetails - however you want to think of it, both are probably true to some extent.


And where exactly do you draw the line between "tricking your brain" and the nature of your reality?
A and B are the same color.

 

[HiFiChris]

I would be willing to pay 100k for a toyota corolla if they 'upgraded' it to a lamborghini huracan engine, body, seats, dash, drivetrain, transmission and also a huracan logo..

Jokes aside. How much would you actually be willing to pay for a stock zs6 assuming you didn't know the retail price.

Without the hot and sizzly upper treble and with a more decent stock cable (like the cheap but well-made braided/twisted Knowledge Zenith silver cable), I would say that a (very) low three-digit price would be absolutely justifiable due to the sound signature, not too shabby technical performance and great build quality.
As it is and without any EQ corrections applied - maybe $35 (not including build quality) to $55 (including build quality).

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Trebly headphones are "detailed" in the same sense that turning off the subwoofers in a home theater system makes it more "detailed." You're hearing microdetails that aren't supposed to be plainly audible. Not surprisingly, these "details" are almost always artifacts that just so happen to exist way up on the frequency spectrum. Peculiar how no one ever describes a warm headphone as detailed. Hmmm...

BTW, picked up those "Bee" foam tips from Amazon for $6. I think I prefer them to the Comply just because the shape is more tapered, makes them easier to sit in place.

 

[Keller2]

I have a (Lenovo) Zuk Z2, and yeah it's a great phone on paper but the software is lacking. There are a lot of small glitches everywhere. Overall, the phone is not as good as the specs would suggest. But it's still amazing for the price.

I don't know about Xiaomi. Maybe they're better than Lenovo. My next phone might be Xiaomi. The Redmi 4x is super cheap and still a good phone, provided you don't need big specs (which only matter for gaming apps, so I don't see the point).

Unlock it, put carbon rom on it and you'll have a good software experience on it aswell.

 

[Fahim Foysal]

And where exactly do you draw the line between "tricking your brain" and the nature of your reality?
A and B are the same color.

That is deep man.

Trebly headphones are "detailed" in the same sense that turning off the subwoofers in a home theater system makes it more "detailed." You're hearing microdetails that aren't supposed to be plainly audible. Not surprisingly, these "details" are almost always artifacts that just so happen to exist way up on the frequency spectrum. Peculiar how no one ever describes a warm headphone as detailed. Hmmm...

BTW, picked up those "Bee" foam tips from Amazon for $6. I think I prefer them to the Comply just because the shape is more tapered, makes them easier to sit in place.

Another thing i noticed is that bright iems are also the ones that give you that overly spacious and airy sound. You are supposed to hear details that are meant to be heard in a live recording and the sound is supposed to be as spacious and airy as it would in a live recording. I don't understand why many so called 'reference' iems with multiple ba driver iem have coloured upper frequecies. BA are supposed to produce more detailed sound by nature. Why overdo it?

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Another thing i noticed is that bright iems are also the ones that give you that overly spacious and airy sound. You are supposed to hear details that are meant to be heard in a live recording and the sound is supposed to be as spacious and airy as it would in a live recording. I don't understand why many so called 'reference' iems with multiple ba driver iem have coloured upper frequecies. BA are supposed to produce more detailed sound by nature. Why overdo it?

Because "audiophiles" have constantly praised brighter headphones for their accuracy and the anti-Beats backlash has caused a serious disdain for headphones with potent bass. It's definitely true, crank down the low end and crank up the treble and wow things are gonna sound "detailed" and "airy" simply because there's no bass frequencies in the air. Drives me nuts.

 

[-sandro-]

how much did the zs5 cost when it came out? and how long did it take to get to $15?

 

[vector84]

Another thing i noticed is that bright iems are also the ones that give you that overly spacious and airy sound. You are supposed to hear details that are meant to be heard in a live recording and the sound is supposed to be as spacious and airy as it would in a live recording.

There's no simple answer to this. Live sound is a directional experience (and has elements of touch in addition to hearing). Headphones and IEMs are not. In theory planars come closer but it's still not the same.

It would probably be helpful for you to understand the nature of our perception of directional sound. In a live sound environment acoustic reflections produce gain and damping factors in relation to specific frequencies relative to others, these colorations along with stereo audio cues are decoded by our brain to place the sound in space while adjusting it to its "proper" coloration/tonality. This process is simply not possible when the speakers are strapped to your head - what you perceive as directionality then is a combination then of stereo cues (timing and volume bias) and whatever portion of the audio stream your brain chooses to decode as positional information, largely based on hints from those same stereo cues (which can include the coloration itself being interpreted as spatial information)

You can find all sorts of research on this subject but we are yet again well off track for this thread

I don't understand why many so called 'reference' iems with multiple ba driver iem have coloured upper frequecies. BA are supposed to produce more detailed sound by nature. Why overdo it?

Different hearing biases and preferences and different opinions on what monitoring and reference means in different contexts - musicians on stage might want a specific bias for any variety of reasons, for example.

And a healthy dose of marketing voodoo. BAs by nature produce sound at increased electrical efficiency (lower power use). You can attach all sorts of other contextual connotations to them, but that is what they were designed to do, plain and simple.

 

[peskypesky]

Because "audiophiles" have constantly praised brighter headphones for their accuracy and the anti-Beats backlash has caused a serious disdain for headphones with potent bass.

I have serious disdain for headphones with less-than-powerful bass.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

I have serious disdain for headphones with less-than-powerful bass.

Same. Nothing ruins music faster than a weak rhythm section, IMO. If the bass drum doesn't feel like it's hitting me in the chest, then I don't want to be listening. My first test tracks are rock/metal songs that I know have well-recorded drums and bass guitar, because if that doesn't sound authentic I know I'm out.

Still having moments of mild surprise with the ZS6's sibilance, though I'm not going to call it necessarily bad, just that hearing the cymbals sound more prominent is taking some adjusting to with an IEM.

 

[Fox2twenty]

Bright and detailed describe very different things, but they are commonly found together for good reason.

Bright tends to correlate to an overall balance shifted towards a treble bias.

Detailed tends to correlate to hearing microdetails and not having them painted over by other things.

From there, it should be fairly obvious that an overall treble bias helps prevent your brain or your gear from painting over microdetails - however you want to think of it, both are probably true to some extent.


And where exactly do you draw the line between "tricking your brain" and the nature of your reality?
A and B are the same color.

Are you serious about this optical illusion? You're blowing my mind!

 

[Fox2twenty]

Trebly headphones are "detailed" in the same sense that turning off the subwoofers in a home theater system makes it more "detailed." You're hearing microdetails that aren't supposed to be plainly audible. Not surprisingly, these "details" are almost always artifacts that just so happen to exist way up on the frequency spectrum. Peculiar how no one ever describes a warm headphone as detailed. Hmmm...

BTW, picked up those "Bee" foam tips from Amazon for $6. I think I prefer them to the Comply just because the shape is more tapered, makes them easier to sit in place.

The New Bee foams are super cheap on Gearbest.

 

[Wiljen]

how much did the zs5 cost when it came out? and how long did it take to get to $15?

$37 if memory serves on gearbest and less than 3 months later they are $17 on sale. I expect the Zs6 will be $29 by Christmas