voicemaster
Headphoneus Supremus
Yes, buy single DD/planar IEM. Problem solved!!
Knowledge Zenith (KZ) impressions thread
- Thread starter bhazard
- Start date
real or just gimmick 3 dd at least my dq6 sounds good
UnderpathBum
New Head-Fier
I was enjoying my DQ6s' all 3 dd until this fiasco. Now I have to put it aside because I can clearly hear only 1 dd is working.
ExTubeGamer
1000+ Head-Fier
Good idea. BA only IEMs have turned out to be so sensitive that many sources are unusable.Yes, buy single DD/planar IEM. Problem solved!!
BAs are honestly far too sensitive for most audio dongles.
Yes, buy single DD/planar IEM. Problem solved!!
Errr actually no. DD materials can be faked too.
Like purported beryllium drivers being hyped by manufacturers for advertisement/marketing gimmicks:
Case in point: BGVP DN2:
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/bgv...d-new-ba-series.894331/page-327#post-15987274
https://www.facebook.com/groups/audioreviews/permalink/4831960826844190/
Last year was the year of the beryllium hypetrain, and every cat and dog and manufacturer wanted to ride on this claim for their DDs. TBH, I tried some beryllium DD sets that didn't sound any better than conventional drivers. Besides, beryllium is toxic to process, I wonder how some of these companies charge sub $30 USD for "beryllium" IEMs, when one has to factor in the added costs for safety/personal protection equipment for labour for beryllium materials (perhaps CHIFI don't care about their workers?)
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SpaceOperaVillain
100+ Head-Fier
This is worse than KZs BA scandal and you've been rightly calling it out for awhile. I feel like we have to take our pound of the blame, though, as consumers.
We can blame it on fashion and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses type thinking, but all this mania is driven by ... 1) us, COVID confined, addiction prone personalities that have chosen head-fi gear over drinking or gambling or some other life destroying thing that requires rehab and spending the rest of your days in a sober and joyless bitterness after a 6 month stint in rehab, surrounded by complete jacka$$es and psycopaths claiming to know your childhood better than you do, and also 2) the wheels of progress.
So what we have here with beryllium is that a feisty startup produced an exotic coated driver to break away from the herd, it caught on and drove sales with high accolades in the reviews, then everyone else was left scrambling to remain relevant driven by panicked sales executives demanding this new wonder material in a new product or face shutting the doors for good. This isn't new or news.
This kind of nonsense occurs everywhere, in fact, not just HiFi. I present to you OLED. But not all heroes wear capes: notably, I would point to KOSS' titanium coated drivers on the KTX PRO1 that still sound wonderful, are dirt cheap to make and can be bought for a song. I think these came out in the early oughts - Amazon says 2001. But they're not IEM. They look like something that nerds wear to Comic Con as part of their costume. I had a pair that I used in private, connected to my juiced up PC with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster sound card but they broke and I never replaced 'em. I was already listening to my Grados at the time the most, and figured that I already served my time rocking Porta-Pros in the early 90's when the big competition was coming from the Realistic house brand of Radio Shack.
I feel that we need to look ourselves first for accountability. By our own hands ChiFi has taken some beatings trying to drive sales with sensible designs made with exotic-yet-well known materials. There are two high quality products at fair prices that I'm thinking of, and both are single dynamics.
1) KBEAR's Aurora uses titanium coatings,
2) Moondrop's KATO utilizes Diamond-like Carbon (DLC), another proven material that's chemically inert and completely nontoxic.
Respectively each of these firms have spent a solid chunk of their advertising budget promoting these IEM but, from an amateurs view of the market, have not seemed to rack up much in the way of runaway success on the sales front. The broader IEM market is routinely disinterested in them, despite a solid stream of reviews for each, and is constantly distracted by hypetrains, guru collaborators, and the eternal thirst for the new new thing.
The only downside to titanium and DLC coatings is that they're not new, they don't have any obvious flaws to drive Devil's Advocate sales (*cough* GK10 *cough*), and they don't color the sound artificially enough to draw raving proclamations of 3D spaces and being drawn spiritually nearer to the ghost realm of dead rock stars.
Let's briefly investigate the IEM Executive's sales formula bingo card. Which ones have you fallen for? It includes:
a) absurdly high driver count
b) exotic driver tech (EST/MST/Piezo/Bone conductor)
c) exotic film/coating tech on the primary dynamic driver
d) ridiculous packaging and/or accessory bundles that are 80% useless
e) any and all combinations of a-d that might resemble a unique offering in a crowded market.
I'm guilty of loving and recc'ing several combinations here myself. But I'm a soulless capitalist. For me, this is just how Free Markets (TM) work. Without this process, we'd just be arguing about which colors on yaxi pads shift the frequency response around the most on our porta-pros.
This is worse than KZs BA scandal and you've been rightly calling it out for awhile. I feel like we have to take our pound of the blame, though, as consumers.
We can blame it on fashion and keeping-up-with-the-Joneses type thinking, but all this mania is driven by ... 1) us, COVID confined, addiction prone personalities that have chosen head-fi gear over drinking or gambling or some other life destroying thing that requires rehab and spending the rest of your days in a sober and joyless bitterness after a 6 month stint in rehab, surrounded by complete jacka$$es and psycopaths claiming to know your childhood better than you do, and also 2) the wheels of progress.
So what we have here with beryllium is that a feisty startup produced an exotic coated driver to break away from the herd, it caught on and drove sales with high accolades in the reviews, then everyone else was left scrambling to remain relevant driven by panicked sales executives demanding this new wonder material in a new product or face shutting the doors for good. This isn't new or news.
This kind of nonsense occurs everywhere, in fact, not just HiFi. I present to you OLED. But not all heroes wear capes: notably, I would point to KOSS' titanium coated drivers on the KTX PRO1 that still sound wonderful, are dirt cheap to make and can be bought for a song. I think these came out in the early oughts - Amazon says 2001. But they're not IEM. They look like something that nerds wear to Comic Con as part of their costume. I had a pair that I used in private, connected to my juiced up PC with a Creative Labs Sound Blaster sound card but they broke and I never replaced 'em. I was already listening to my Grados at the time the most, and figured that I already served my time rocking Porta-Pros in the early 90's when the big competition was coming from the Realistic house brand of Radio Shack.
I feel that we need to look ourselves first for accountability. By our own hands ChiFi has taken some beatings trying to drive sales with sensible designs made with exotic-yet-well known materials. There are two high quality products at fair prices that I'm thinking of, and both are single dynamics.
1) KBEAR's Aurora uses titanium coatings,
2) Moondrop's KATO utilizes Diamond-like Carbon (DLC), another proven material that's chemically inert and completely nontoxic.
Respectively each of these firms have spent a solid chunk of their advertising budget promoting these IEM but, from an amateurs view of the market, have not seemed to rack up much in the way of runaway success on the sales front. The broader IEM market is routinely disinterested in them, despite a solid stream of reviews for each, and is constantly distracted by hypetrains, guru collaborators, and the eternal thirst for the new new thing.
The only downside to titanium and DLC coatings is that they're not new, they don't have any obvious flaws to drive Devil's Advocate sales (*cough* GK10 *cough*), and they don't color the sound artificially enough to draw raving proclamations of 3D spaces and being drawn spiritually nearer to the ghost realm of dead rock stars.
Let's briefly investigate the IEM Executive's sales formula bingo card. Which ones have you fallen for? It includes:
a) absurdly high driver count
b) exotic driver tech (EST/MST/Piezo/Bone conductor)
c) exotic film/coating tech on the primary dynamic driver
d) ridiculous packaging and/or accessory bundles that are 80% useless
e) any and all combinations of a-d that might resemble a unique offering in a crowded market.
I'm guilty of loving and recc'ing several combinations here myself. But I'm a soulless capitalist. For me, this is just how Free Markets (TM) work. Without this process, we'd just be arguing about which colors on yaxi pads shift the frequency response around the most on our porta-pros.
Well said haha.
Just to add, another sure win formula for sales = put waifu anime babe packaging LOL.
InvisibleInk
Headphoneus Supremus
Sorry to hear that, buddy. The drugs are working, though, amirite?
ExTubeGamer
1000+ Head-Fier
EST drivers sound like especially peaky BAs. This was my exp with Shuoer IEMs. I don't really see the point.
PROblemdetected
Previously known as sakt1moko
I carried them today to my job.
Setup is BTR3K, Kbear Rhyme 2.5 cable and kbear silicone white tips (open)
I usually play with foam tips on BA-only iems, but I wanna try them without enhanced bass, so these are my impressions:
-Comparing with BA10, that I assume is a W-shape iem, these AS12 are less miss bassy and more sub-bass, but still having that W-shape setup to my ears
-The upper mids are cleary pushed up, making the higg frecuencies a little bit relaxed
- BA10 and ASX are a little vit funnier or vibrant, this is more neutral.
To clarify, I tried expensives BA-only iems, and KZ ones still having an unique tonality, no matter how many of the 6ba per side are really working (maybe 3?)
And the holographic presentation and layering still surprise me, still hard to believe that sny of them are dummies...
EDIT. My playlist is electronic focused. Right now im playing this album
https://tidal.com/album/157152447
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PROblemdetected
Previously known as sakt1moko
From an TRI STARLIGHT user. EST could give so much detail on the high frecuencies than a BA.
Anycolouryoulike
New Head-Fier
BA10 works fine with my CX39133 DAC.
Nimweth
Headphoneus Supremus
I have been trying out the AST with a Faaeal Hibiscus copper cable and KBEAR wide bore tips. The copper makes a big difference to the sub bass, much more depth and a bit more warmth in mid bass and the mids. I really like this combination.
seanwee
Headphoneus Supremus
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They are best used in hybrids to handle the highs. They don't do well standalone
