[jananan78]

i think different iems only have different sound signatures as they use different drivers and materials and different cavity for soundstage and separation. there is no saying which is best as different iems suit different songs. single DD and single BA is good enough and the other improvements only have small effects on the sound. who's to say my creative ep630 sounds worse than a 12 BA configuration, no offense to anyone.

i think we all can agree that BA improves the high FR of a DD iem and everything else is just variations from there and it's not a matter of which is better, again no offense to anyone.

when a good quality single DD can produce most frequencies like the CRA, the rest of the drivers just provide variations on the sound signatures.

personally i think a good quality single DD coupled with a good quality BA is good enough for most songs. anything more like multiple DD and multiple BA and EST crammed into a tiny shell doesn't help much with producing a cohesive sound that suits all genres.

buying a perfect iem only works if you plan to listen to the same song over and over again everyday experimenting on what sounds good only to find that perfection you discovered for song A doesn't suit song B at all. and then rinse repeat all over again on the quest to find the perfect pair, again.

 

[ExTubeGamer]

According to my experience, many multi driver IEMs suffer from bad tuning compared to single driver IEMs.

Single DD IEMs can be detected by their precise tuning.

 

[jananan78]

I also thinking of myself being silly listening to my gear using music, in the past I would just happy listening to my favorit music using same gear

yeah totally agree

 

[jananan78]

Very good question indeed! I think it tells how little they are involved in the tuning and production processes. I mean, as if they didn't even know what's really inside.

i think most reviewers can tell the difference between a DD driver and BA because even i can sometimes tell if there is a BA involved but when more than just 2 drivers are crammed into a shell things go downhill from there as there are many overlapping sounds.

 

[jananan78]

this is just my personal opinion,i am not sure if anyone hears this but I feel with kz their high frequencies are always either too much being harsh and sibilant or too less that it's inaudible because it's tuned with too less treble extension. they just can't tune it right when it comes to BAs. they have come a long way with DD though. that's why i think they should pair their DD with a well tuned BA, surely a winner. again just my personal opinion...

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

I'm rethinking this whole silly hobby now. If the most popular reviewers can't tell if they are listening to one driver or multiple drivers, then what reason is there to ever have more than one driver? Prior to this happening I was also always wondering how a reviewer could go on & on about a fancy $500 IEM, and then people would buy them and quite a few wouldn't even like them. I always thought if I bought a $500 IEM it would blow me away, but now I don't think that at all.

I really don't think even the most popular reviewers could tell the difference between a $50 IEM and a $500 IEM if it was a blind test. This is kind of a silly hobby. Once you have an IEM that plays your music without any glaringly obvious flaws then there's really nowhere else to go. You're done. That's it. You've reached the limitation of what an IEM can do. There's no more magic left in the bottle!

Let me go see what's on AliExpress now. Since my DQ6 only has one working driver, I feel like I need to find a replacement.

At the thick outer circle of people engaged in any hobby is the consumer's emotional cycle from building anticipation, the purchase event and experience, and the emotional release during a honeymoon phase with the product. It has nothing to do with the subject of the hobby. It's about fulfilling unmet emotional needs through the camaraderie experienced by a group of peers during the purchase process and a subsequent attachment to merchandise which represents membership to a group. The subject matter of the hobby is just a context for the sale of goods and a pretext for the emotional bonds with the club i.e. tribe.

And so what if it is. What else are you gonna do? Feel free to discover day trading or real estate clubs.

Admit it: you want to ditch your DQ6 because that bond has been tarnished and you seek renewal and acceptance into a new and enlightened group of peers. You don't want to be left dangling like that as a mark, or a sucker.

Well, I thought the DQ6 was great for loud radio rock and I fully stand by that assessment. If it's just trash to you now then ask yourself why you want to throw it away. Is it because it doesn't meet your standard for quality? Or is it because you're still permitting someone else to lead you around by the nose with sentiments, people who back up their claims with slight-of-hand and junk science, which is in and of itself just another grift?

The stonewall rule of head-fi is that price is not an indication of sound quality. This is the hardened inner core of the hobby. Hearing and listening are different things. The latter is largely a trained activity. We've all got mostly the same equipment for hearing, but it takes time and skill development to move past the strictly gear side of the hifi hobby and to concentrate on listening. Most of the disappointed people here are casual, passive listeners who feel betrayed. Well, a considerably high number of people in this thread and on this forum are good listeners and quite critical of the gear they buy and keep.

Upgrade into head-fi on the whole and turn off YouTube and then this hobby will go a bit better for you. We come here to share experiences and make our choices, not to get caught up emotionally in online hype trains or the subsequent drama. I really wish people would stop dragging it here. I'm sick of people crapping on our front porch. If that's you, then be gone.

I personally wish KZ had never stooped themselves to these collaboration exercises, but times are tough, and they're doing what they can to stay in business and drive growth. If you don't see value in that, then move to the country and start an organic dairy farm or whatever and leave those of us left here alone. If you want to keep learning, mind the porch and you'll see that the door here is wide open.

My .03

 

[phower]

I'm rethinking this whole silly hobby now. If the most popular reviewers can't tell if they are listening to one driver or multiple drivers, then what reason is there to ever have more than one driver? Prior to this happening I was also always wondering how a reviewer could go on & on about a fancy $500 IEM, and then people would buy them and quite a few wouldn't even like them. I always thought if I bought a $500 IEM it would blow me away, but now I don't think that at all.

I really don't think even the most popular reviewers could tell the difference between a $50 IEM and a $500 IEM if it was a blind test. This is kind of a silly hobby. Once you have an IEM that plays your music without any glaringly obvious flaws then there's really nowhere else to go. You're done. That's it. You've reached the limitation of what an IEM can do. There's no more magic left in the bottle!

Let me go see what's on AliExpress now. Since my DQ6 only has one working driver, I feel like I need to find a replacement.

Finally, you are enlightened. There is very little development in driver technology in the last 25 years or so. A PET/Mylar DD from 30 years ago still delivers amazing sound quality if tuned correctly and hence why Sennheiser or Focal didn't jump onto BA/piezo/planar drivers.

All of these technologies are actually quiet old. They have existed for more than 30-40 years and didn't become popular because of several disadvantages.

DD is still the king and for me $10 ED9 from KZ is amazing value and I don't need any crazy multi driver IEM with their own crossover distortion and associated problems.

 

[RikudouGoku]

KZ AS16, half the treble drivers arent even connected.

 

[MacAttack7]

KZ AS16, half the treble drivers arent even connected.

Sounds like this may not be accurate per saldsald's comment below.
I still have hope that my ASX & AST are legit!

 

[saldsald]

KZ AS16, half the treble drivers arent even connected.

Do some fact check before accusing please. That is the correct wiring of 31736... this took me 20s btw.

 

[RikudouGoku]

No way! If this is true, this company is done for.
Who wants to sacrifice some more KZ earphones to see what else is going on inside some of their other models?

I bought two of the AST's....ugh....I'm guessing they got me!
At this point it's hard to imagine all 12 drivers on each side are hooked up & working properly.
At least I'm not so worried about dropping them now.

nvm, the picture source checked again and it is wired.

 

[MacAttack7]

nvm, the picture source checked again and it is wired.

KZ is saved!

 

[saldsald]

KZ is saved!

Too many heros-wanna-be sadly.

 

[RikudouGoku]

KZ is saved!

Their older stuff seems to be safe, cant say the same for the newer ones. (CA16 Pro, CA24, DQ6, DQ6S, NRA, ZES, ZEX, and ZEX Pro/CRN)

https://www.headphonesty.com/2022/03/kz-fake-multi-driver-iem-scandal/

 

[r31ya]

From KZ official response, It seems the train of thought is,
"People have complaining about our sharp metallic BA and some complain a bit about incoherence in the multi driver setup. Should we get better driver and multi driver tuning?"
"No, its expensive. Let's just put crossover and resistor to make that BA and supporting driver barely audible so it won't be a problem"

Which possibly the reason why, despite shitloads of BA, KZ still somehow get rolled off treble.
It kinda works, since i doesn't particularly fond of KZ old Multi driver as it seems every driver screeching on their own indisregard on song harmony. The newer setup is somewhat better, well through wrong method which also cost them the actual treble details.
Depending on the unit, the multi driver sound layering still there, like in ZEX Pro which still outmatch Aria in separation and layering. Aria still outperform it in every other factor but still.

Again, if they basically choose to put 1 DD and 5 cheap BA only to choke that 5BA, why don't they get 1 DD and good 1 BA?
TRN TA1 have works wonders and on that end and it seems its the way to go for Fiio and the like.