[4ceratops]

The castor bass is NICE. What surprised me is that the bass is not tubby or bloated. It's well defined and tight, but not as tight and punchy as E.G. the BAs I have. It's just good, musical bass. How they can make those and sell them for $16 shipped is a mystery.

I have to agree that Castor Bass has the bass sorted out, but those extremely drowned mids and irritating (and stripped away from the rest) highs make him just a genre performer for electronic music without vocals. Listening to anything acoustic, it's an ordeal. CCA Trio is much better, although the slight recession on the mids is still present. Even so, I think the Trio is at least 2 classes above the Castor and much more versatile (it will play any genre with honor).

 

[r31ya]

I have to agree that Castor Bass has the bass sorted out, but those extremely drowned mids and irritating (and stripped away from the rest) highs make him just a genre performer for electronic music without vocals. Listening to anything acoustic, it's an ordeal. CCA Trio is much better, although the slight recession on the mids is still present. Even so, I think the Trio is at least 2 classes above the Castor and much more versatile (it will play any genre with honor).

yup,
The bass overpower mids and other freq, something that Trio fixed with a much cleaner bass.
I gave away my Castor Bass after i got my trio.

the person got my Castor Bass really liking it tough. it was his first proper iem (after a lot cheapo earbuds or iem).
he liked it enough, he now have tidal subscription

 

[Carpet]

I'm considering just saving a bit longer and getting the iBasso DC03PRO or the Moondrop Dawn Pro.

I hate to wait much longer but I'm starting to feel it might be worth it.

Summer sale at AliExpress is not far off. Bound to be good deals on at least one of the 43131 DACs on sale. Do you want a play/pause button as well as volume?

 

[MightyBalzaq]

Do you want a play/pause button as well as volume?

Not really a necessity I don't guess.

 

[MightyBalzaq]

I have to agree that Castor Bass has the bass sorted out, but those extremely drowned mids and irritating (and stripped away from the rest) highs make him just a genre performer for electronic music without vocals. Listening to anything acoustic, it's an ordeal. CCA Trio is much better, although the slight recession on the mids is still present. Even so, I think the Trio is at least 2 classes above the Castor and much more versatile (it will play any genre with honor).

Well since, like I said, I wanted a strictly basshead set for the genres I listed in my original post and don't currently need another set that does pretty much every other genre since I have the PR2s I felt like the Castor Bass would be fine.

 

[Hung Tuan]

In Akros' XuanNV review, at the Trio comparison part, he said since his Trio review he changed from L to M tips and got a deeper fit. Apparently that did wonders to the mids and treble and he called the Trio "a beast".

I agree with him. Deeper insertion enhances the Trio quite a lot, in both details and treble extension. But I have to use 1100 setting.

 

[Okcerg]

I agree with him. Deeper insertion enhances the Trio quite a lot, in both details and treble extension. But I have to use 1100 setting.

What tips are that?

 

[Hung Tuan]

What tips are that?

this one, I bought SS but I think MS or M should be good.
https://www.amazon.com/AZLA-SednaEarfit-Crystal-Replacement-Eartips/dp/B08TWGQCHN

 

[SpaceOperaVillain]

CCA Castor Harmon version on its way. I think I might wait for this summer sale to see if some of the better new models are offered at a nice price. I logged a short and overdue review of the ZEX Pro.

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/knowledge-zenith-kz-x-crinacle-crn-zex-pro.25580/review/33888/

 

[independent]

I'm considering just saving a bit longer and getting the iBasso DC03PRO or the Moondrop Dawn Pro.

I hate to wait much longer but I'm starting to feel it might be worth it.

If you're looking for a cheap decent dongle dac, try the F.Audio KS.01. I did just cos I'm a sucker for Sabre dacs and it's cheap (US$22-27) on special recently. Single ended, was itching to try the balanced 764 cable mod mentioned a few pages previously but the price of this 9038 dac was just too good. My Tempotec dongle DAC has sharted the bed so my backup is gone.

It's great, got a little oled display and volume buttons. Woohoo. I'll give it a bit more of listen but sounds detailed and silent where it needs to be, so far so good. Something about the Sabre Dacs and all BA IEMs. This one has less elevated bass than my ibasso DC05, which is good with my plentiful-bass iems, and sounds nice

 

[MightyBalzaq]

If you're looking for a cheap decent dongle dac, try the F.Audio KS.01. I did just cos I'm a sucker for Sabre dacs and it's cheap (US$22-27) on special recently. Single ended, was itching to try the balanced 764 cable mod mentioned a few pages previously but the price of this 9038 dac was just too good. My Tempotec dongle DAC has sharted the bed so my backup is gone.

It's great, got a little oled display and volume buttons. Woohoo. I'll give it a bit more of listen but sounds detailed and silent where it needs to be, so far so good. Something about the Sabre Dacs and all BA IEMs. This one has less elevated bass than my ibasso DC05, which is good with my plentiful-bass iems, and sounds nice

I'll check it out.

Thanks.

 

[jbfps116]

Well I FINALLY got some stuff in from Aliexpress... dang that app kept refunding me on all my orders, saying there's shipping problems -mostly with their bundle deals... anyhow got the KZ D-fi in and I was like... I paid 4$, is this a fake? I opened it up and nearly panicked when I saw no switches...!!! I look on the back of the box and it says the option is no mic, no switches. I check the KZ website, and sure enough, you can get the D-fi with no switches. Guess that's the sets no one wants so they're being dumped for cheap. EVERYONE here was going on about the switches so I never realized they sold a non-switch version. Besides, Iistening to them for a minute or two before hooking them up to burn in a little, they sounded good enough I could tell they weren't fakes. Guess my old KZ single DD king is about to fall! (the EDX.)

 

[r31ya]

Well I FINALLY got some stuff in from Aliexpress... dang that app kept refunding me on all my orders, saying there's shipping problems -mostly with their bundle deals... anyhow got the KZ D-fi in and I was like... I paid 4$, is this a fake? I opened it up and nearly panicked when I saw no switches...!!! I look on the back of the box and it says the option is no mic, no switches. I check the KZ website, and sure enough, you can get the D-fi with no switches. Guess that's the sets no one wants so they're being dumped for cheap. EVERYONE here was going on about the switches so I never realized they sold a non-switch version. Besides, Iistening to them for a minute or two before hooking them up to burn in a little, they sounded good enough I could tell they weren't fakes. Guess my old KZ single DD king is about to fall! (the EDX.)

Someone praised the Non switch DFI as an attempt to create a cheap Oxygen tuning.
this is the tuned version vs oxygen fr

There is a bit of unit variation in d-fi (or measurement variation)
to be specific, some unit have 4k~5k that nearly perfectly mimic that oxygen tuning.

 

[o0genesis0o]

I agree with him. Deeper insertion enhances the Trio quite a lot, in both details and treble extension. But I have to use 1100 setting.

Ey, that’s exactly how I wear these IEMs. Treble is almost always more extended and less peaky with deeper fit. More treble extension generally equals to better technical performance.

 

[Okcerg]

I'm not a basshead, but I bought Castor Bass out of curiosity. Way too bassy for me.
Yesterday I replaced the stock nozzle silver filter with a 5mm 500 filter. The transparent area is much bigger in the 500 filter.
Filters held up against a window:

Stock filter to the right. (It's silver, but looks black due to the backlight.)

I must say they sound amazing now. Great extension but never sibilant. Still very bassy, but it's not bloated. I'm using them as my "fun set" for hip hop and edm.
Setting 0011 and using Tang Sancai balanced tips.