[voicemaster]

I don’t have the AS10, so I can’t opine on how it sounds, or compare it to the BA10, but just with a quick glance, the AS10 and BA10 graphs don’t really look similar other than both being V-shaped. I can completely understand being deterred by the shape of the BA10 though.

BA10 is vented while AS10 is not should be an obvious difference in sound.

 

[Alpha Whale]

It's 5am.

The CKX came in last night and I've been up since 3:30 am putting it through it's paces.

Thus far, you can color me impressed.

Initial impressions are that the CKX is a great bang-for-buck hybrid set.

I completely ditched the DQ6 after getting the CKX

DQ6 is becoming one of my favorite DD sets but your point here is well noted.
The CKX has improved resolution, imaging and layering. Glad I ordered two sets.

That being said, my DQ6 isn't going anywhere.
It's a fantastic Tri-Dy!

Still, the CKX is a definite keeper. I'll need to put it up against several of my favorite hybrids to see how it holds up. My gut tells me it might still be standing after a full 15 rounds.

I'll only get 90 minutes more sleep before starting my day but the CKX was worth the interruption.

 

[saldsald]

DC

It's 5am.

The CKX came in last night and I've been up since 3:30 am putting it through it's paces.

Thus far, you can color me impressed.

Initial impressions are that the CKX is a great bang-for-buck hybrid set.





DQ6 is becoming one of my favorite DD sets but your point here is well noted.
The CKX has improved resolution, imaging and layering. Glad I ordered two sets.

That being said, my DQ6 isn't going anywhere.
It's a fantastic Tri-Dy!

Still, the CKX is a definite keeper. I'll need to put it up against several of my favorite hybrids to see how it holds up. My gut tells me it might still be standing after a full 15 rounds.



I'll only get 90 minutes more sleep before starting my day but the CKX was worth the interruption.

Maybe you should also try the BQEYZ BQ3. I think this and the CKX can easily compete with IEMs several times of their asking price.

I hope you get enough sleep btw.

 

[Jet Black]

How does cca ckx compared to an old trusty kz zs10 pro?

 

[Joseph Lin]

It's 5am.

The CKX came in last night and I've been up since 3:30 am putting it through it's paces.

Thus far, you can color me impressed.

Initial impressions are that the CKX is a great bang-for-buck hybrid set.





DQ6 is becoming one of my favorite DD sets but your point here is well noted.
The CKX has improved resolution, imaging and layering. Glad I ordered two sets.

That being said, my DQ6 isn't going anywhere.
It's a fantastic Tri-Dy!

Still, the CKX is a definite keeper. I'll need to put it up against several of my favorite hybrids to see how it holds up. My gut tells me it might still be standing after a full 15 rounds.



I'll only get 90 minutes more sleep before starting my day but the CKX was worth the interruption.

Have you listend to KZ ZAX? I recently ordered almost all KZ earbuds and some CCA including CKX. I returned all of them except ZAX and CKX. CKX's fitting is the best, very comfortable. Sound wise, ZAX is a bit better than CKX, better lower end extension. The high end is more airy as well. The tuning of these two earbuds are almost the same to my ears. I think both represent the best, true flagships of both brands. It is not worth it to "upgrade" to AS16. AS16 has a tiny bit of improvement of resolution, but the bass is lacking. I am not a bass head, but a good quantity and good quality bass makes music sound more fun.

 

[BrunoC]

DC

Maybe you should also try the BQEYZ BQ3. I think this and the CKX can easily compete with IEMs several times of their asking price.

I hope you get enough sleep btw.

BQ3? Please don't. What a waste e of money. Awful tuning, dark sound, strange treble. BQ3 was an error.

My $3 Vido is 100x better.

 

[saldsald]

BQ3? Please don't. What a waste e of money. Awful tuning, dark sound, strange treble. BQ3 was an error.

My $3 Vido is 100x better.

It is wonderful to my ears. 3d stage, nice flat tuning, deep bass, warm sound and warm treble but requires the right cable. Your experience obviously is different from those who reviewed the BQ3.

 

[BrunoC]

It is wonderful to my ears. 3d stage, nice flat tuning, deep bass, warm sound and warm treble but requires the right cable. Your experience obviously is different from those who reviewed the BQ3.

I was hyped by good reviews and bought it.
My BQ3 might be a lemon, as it's totally the opposite sound of your description. But believe me, I have seen some others that share my opinion.

Anyway what cable and source are you using? I even tried a pure silver cable and a bright source like the Ziku HD-X9 (Cirrus Logic DAC) to no avail.

 

[saldsald]

I was hyped by good reviews and bought it.
My BQ3 might be a lemon, as it's totally the opposite sound of your description. But believe me, I have seen some others that share my opinion.

Anyway what cable and source are you using?

I have really good result with the new Trn T6 and I mainly use my Fiio M11 Pro. The BQ3 can easily be too bassy with the wrong cable IMO so maybe you can do some cable rolling first. The sound can feel quite wrong due to the excessive bass which bleeds into the mids due to the cable. But once you found the right cable it is just quite wonderful. Also, I use JVC spiral dot, which is wide bore.

 

[wopossum]

Recently, I started arguing with my buddy about budget headphones. Not that it was intentional.
My initial argument about IEMs being a better choice is that they have a greater chance of being "bang for the buck", simply because it's a smaller form-factor, it requires fewer materials, which then means there is a greater chance that these materials would have more quality compared to the full-sized headphones(for the same price).
You can't buy a bag of cigarettes and then pretend that you can buy a submarine fully loaded with them for just $1, do you?
I'm not saying that it's that simple, and there are some complications behind the scenes.

He says IEMs were created as a continuation of hearing aids and their purpose is for musicians and not audiophiles. So I thought, even then, what kind of issues we're dealing with if we use IEMs instead of full-sized headphones? I know, they lack soundstage because of physical distance to the eardrum and small-sized drivers. And there's also a resonance peak at 8k Hz. Two things. What else? Why it's not supposed to be used as something that you would consider for high-quality listening experience?
Later on, he says "what about THD(total harmonic distortion) in these IEMs"?
I said: ok, there's 1-2% in peaks even when we're using Knowles BA drivers.
Then he said: is that not enough?

So I started to think, theoretically losing 1-2% in peaks shouldn't be much of a worry. I also knew that BA drivers do have a somewhat .. high THD? And I said about that. Then I asked him, do you think that because of THD, full-sized headphones in the same price range would sound definitely better than, for example, KZ ZAX? He said yes, of course.
I looked it up what can we have for just $60. AKG K92(clickable).
I sent this link, and he immediately says: these are going to be worse. They have a dynamic driver that still has a high THD. I say: ok, what's the better option?

He says. Electrostats. Their THD is incomparable to anything else.

I thought that it was a joke and googled what's the cheapest option available. Stax SR L300. Hey, just x10 times more expensive. Haha.
On that note, I understood that our discussion is over.

Ok, guys, what's your thoughts? Do Campfire Audio, Noble, Astell&Kern and other Summit-Fi brands treat everyone as idiots and sell their expensive IEMs just for fun? I don't think there would be any market if IEMs are that bad compared to the full-sized headphones.

 

[Tonymac136]

Recently, I started arguing with my buddy about budget headphones. Not that it was intentional.
My initial argument about IEMs being a better choice is that they have a greater chance of being "bang for the buck", simply because it's a smaller form-factor, it requires fewer materials, which then means there is a greater chance that these materials would have more quality compared to the full-sized headphones(for the same price).
You can't buy a bag of cigarettes and then pretend that you can buy a submarine fully loaded with them for just $1, do you?
I'm not saying that it's that simple, and there are some complications behind the scenes.

He says IEMs were created as a continuation of hearing aids and their purpose is for musicians and not audiophiles. So I thought, even then, what kind of issues we're dealing with if we use IEMs instead of full-sized headphones? I know, they lack soundstage because of physical distance to the eardrum and small-sized drivers. And there's also a resonance peak at 8k Hz. Two things. What else? Why it's not supposed to be used as something that you would consider for high-quality listening experience?
Later on, he says "what about THD(total harmonic distortion) in these IEMs"?
I said: ok, there's 1-2% in peaks even when we're using Knowles BA drivers.
Then he said: is that not enough?

So I started to think, theoretically losing 1-2% in peaks shouldn't be much of a worry. I also knew that BA drivers do have a somewhat .. high THD? And I said about that. Then I asked him, do you think that because of THD, full-sized headphones in the same price range would sound definitely better than, for example, KZ ZAX? He said yes, of course.
I looked it up what can we have for just $60. AKG K92(clickable).
I sent this link, and he immediately says: these are going to be worse. They have a dynamic driver that still has a high THD. I say: ok, what's the better option?

He says. Planars. Their THD is incomparable to anything else.

I thought that it was a joke and googled what's the cheapest option available. Stax SR L300. Hey, just x10 times more expensive. Haha.
On that note, I understood that our discussion is over.

Ok, guys, what's your thoughts? Do Campfire Audio, Noble, Astell&Kern and other Summit-Fi brands treat everyone as idiots and sell their expensive IEMs just for fun? I don't think there would be any market if IEMs are that bad compared to the full-sized headphones.

Horses/courses. My best pairs of cans are AKG K702 and Hifiman HE400i, so I'm fishing at the budget end of the scale. Soundstage is better than any of my IEMs, but the timbre and technicalities are far better with certain of my IEMs. Also, I have 30 odd pairs of IEMs which would get expensive if I tried to achieve with cans.

Both types have their pros, their cons, their lovers and their haters. And you know what? If you enjoy your music with your gear and somebody else disses your gear... F them. Who really cares? If you're more bothered by your gear than your music you need to stop chopping and changing gear and get back to the music.

 

[G777]

Recently, I started arguing with my buddy about budget headphones. Not that it was intentional.
My initial argument about IEMs being a better choice is that they have a greater chance of being "bang for the buck", simply because it's a smaller form-factor, it requires fewer materials, which then means there is a greater chance that these materials would have more quality compared to the full-sized headphones(for the same price).
You can't buy a bag of cigarettes and then pretend that you can buy a submarine fully loaded with them for just $1, do you?
I'm not saying that it's that simple, and there are some complications behind the scenes.

He says IEMs were created as a continuation of hearing aids and their purpose is for musicians and not audiophiles. So I thought, even then, what kind of issues we're dealing with if we use IEMs instead of full-sized headphones? I know, they lack soundstage because of physical distance to the eardrum and small-sized drivers. And there's also a resonance peak at 8k Hz. Two things. What else? Why it's not supposed to be used as something that you would consider for high-quality listening experience?
Later on, he says "what about THD(total harmonic distortion) in these IEMs"?
I said: ok, there's 1-2% in peaks even when we're using Knowles BA drivers.
Then he said: is that not enough?

So I started to think, theoretically losing 1-2% in peaks shouldn't be much of a worry. I also knew that BA drivers do have a somewhat .. high THD? And I said about that. Then I asked him, do you think that because of THD, full-sized headphones in the same price range would sound definitely better than, for example, KZ ZAX? He said yes, of course.
I looked it up what can we have for just $60. AKG K92(clickable).
I sent this link, and he immediately says: these are going to be worse. They have a dynamic driver that still has a high THD. I say: ok, what's the better option?

He says. Planars. Their THD is incomparable to anything else.

I thought that it was a joke and googled what's the cheapest option available. Stax SR L300. Hey, just x10 times more expensive. Haha.
On that note, I understood that our discussion is over.

Ok, guys, what's your thoughts? Do Campfire Audio, Noble, Astell&Kern and other Summit-Fi brands treat everyone as idiots and sell their expensive IEMs just for fun? I don't think there would be any market if IEMs are that bad compared to the full-sized headphones.

Did he mean electrostats? Planars can be had for under $200 (e.g. the HE400i).

I haven't tried any $100+ IEMs, but I can say my HE400i is far better than any IEM I own. Soundstage and openness definitely plays a big part in that. Sometimes I even prefer the KSC75 to the IEMs.

But IEMs are definitely the far better value in the budget range. I get the impression that in higher price brackets, the performance of full-sized headphones scale better than IEMs.

Personally, headphones and IEMs serve different purposes and compliment each other. Can't really wear full sized open-back headphones outside, so that's where IEMs mainly come in for me.

 

[wopossum]

Did he mean electrostats? Planars can be had for under $200

Oh, my bad. Yes.

 

[nraymond]

He says. Electrostats. Their THD is incomparable to anything else.

How old is this guy? This sounds like the type of argument I'd overhear in a dorm hallway in my undergrad years. Arguing for arguing's sake.

Crinacle recently reviewed the Sennheiser HE-1, and he gave it props for not sounding like an electrostat. He explained it this way:

It’s no secret that I have a love-hate relationship with electrostats. Love the detail and resolution that seems to come almost by default with an electrostatic setup, and hate the fact that a wonky tuning also seems to similarly come by default.

I’m not sure what it is that makes an electrostatic driver so hard to tune with a half-decent tonality, but that’s mainly my biggest hangup with electrostatic headphones in general. Not the fact that one is tethered to a desk with an estat, not even the fact that its fragility makes it susceptible to things as simple as dust, but rather that so few electrostatic headphones out there can at least match their excellent resolving ability with a tuning that doesn’t sound like a dying car horn.

 

[unifutomaki]

My interest in audio gear only goes so far as the gear I can practically take on the go with me in order to shut out the rest of the world. Full-sized headphones need not apply.