Pros: Solid build. Detachable cables. Generous accessories. Stealthy design. powerful bass.
Cons: Bass is a bit slow and can overshadow mids and highs. Average soundstage. Springy cable.
INTRODUCTION
The
Alpha & Delta AD01 is the first house-brand product from
Lend Me UR Ears. LMUE is well-known to adventurous Head-Fi members who like to experiment with bang for your buck Asian portable audio gear. I've purchased several IEM from LMUE and was intrigued when I ran across an email announcing the AD01, so I reached out to LMUE to see if we could set up a Head-Fi tour to see what the community here thinks of their first product. LMUE was very receptive to the suggestion, and here we are. A big thanks to
@TEOSJ from LMUE for helping me set this up!
Here's LMUE's Product Description for the AD01:
"
Alpha & Delta AD01 is the result of a collaboration between Lend Me UR ears and a Chinese manufacturer. In English, the noun "alpha" is used as a synonym for "beginning", or "first" while the greek symbol for Delta is used to denote change. Thus, the name Alpha & Delta was coined to represent a new chapter in LMUE's history and the wish that this brand will chart a new direction for the company.
Dual Driver Design for Excellent Sound Quality
In designing this IEM, we aimed to create a pair of earphones that has a strong punch bass while maintaining the overall clarity in the mids and the highs. To this end, a dual driver design is used for such purposes.
Modular Design
AD01 also adopts a modular design. This means that that drivers and the wires can be easily replaceable if damaged or lost. The drivers and wires will be made available for sale separately.
Well designed connection pins
For AD01 to use a modular design, the wires needs to be detachable. However, several existing solutions for the connector pins can lead to loose connection overtime. To this end, AD01 overcomes such build quality issues by adopting the 2mm dc plug connector pins which are extensively tested for reliability."
Sounds pretty interesting. There are some pretty good bang for your buck dual drivers with quite different sound signatures on the market like the Havi B3 Pro I and TTPOD T1E. What will LMUE's first IEM bring to the table? Read on to find out...
First, here are some links for further exploration:
@thatBeatsguy's review
@ljokerl's review
Dedicated AD01 thread
DISCLAIMER
I was provided the Alpha & Delta AD01 as a review sample as part of a U.S. + Canada Review Tour I'm coordinating. There is no financial incentive from LMUE in writing this review. I am in no way affiliated with LMUE, and this is my honest opinion of the AD01. I would like to thank @TEOSJ for giving the Head-Fi community a chance to test drive the AD01, and I hope our feedback proves useful for fellow Head-Fi members as well as for LMUE.
(PHOTOS COURTESY OF LMUE)
ABOUT ME
I'm a 43 year old music lover who listens to a wide variety of genres and artists (but mostly electronic, metal, and modern composition these days). As with a lot of people my age, I've got some hearing issues - some upper frequency loss and mild tinnitus.
My portable music journey started with the venerable Sony Cassette Walkman and then progressed to portable CD players, minidisc recorders, and finally on to DAPs like the Rio Karma, iRiver IHP-120, iPod, iPhone, and the newer crop of DAPs from Fiio and iBasso.
My headphone journey started with Sony MDR e888 and Eggos back in my minidisc days. I moved on to full-size Beyerdynamic and Ultrasone cans and Shure E2 and E3 IEM. Those all served me well for quite some time. Then I rediscovered Head-Fi, and my poor wallet...
SPECIFICATIONS
| Drivers | 9.8mm and 6.0mm Dual Dynamic Driver |
| Frequency range | 10Hz- 25KHz |
| Impedance | 9 Ω |
| Sensitivity | 102 dB/mW |
| Rated / Max power | 10 / 20mW |
| Weight | Shells: 7g
Shells, tips, cable: 17g
|
| Cable | 1.30 mm 18N OFC cable with 2mm DC connectors |
Connector
| 3.5mm, gold-plated right-angle plug |
| Warranty | 1 year |
MSRP: $99
PACKAGING & ACCESSORIES
I'm not one to go on about packaging and accessories, so I'll keep this short and sweet and let the pictures do the talking.
Here's the packaging:
Flip the lid back, and you find:
Lift off the top foam layer, and you get to the final bits:
Here are the AD01 and accessories:
What's missing? A shirt clip and ear guides are what immediately came to my mind. Other than that, you get a nice selection of tips and a semi-hard case. Speaking of the case, it could use a mesh pocket or two inside to hold your extra tips - but it does have a wrist strap if you need one of those for some reason.
BUILD & ERGONOMICS
Let's see how well the AD01 are constructed and how well they fit.
Starting with the shells, they appear to be mostly metal construction, are very smooth, and seem quite sturdy. The shells are ~23mm long and ~12mm in diameter at their widest point. There are two small vents indicated below with red arrows. I'm sure you could try a tape mod or two (or maybe three) with these vents if your heart so desired. The nozzles are pretty standard 5mm in diameter, meaning you can engage in a lot of tip rolling, as well. Tips were held in place quite securely. Metal mesh wax guards are glued down over the nozzle and don't look like they be easy to remove / replace, so keep them clean!
Here are the 2mm DC connectors. I read in
@thatBeatsguy's review that the MEE M6 Pro also use this type of connector. I've also seen DC connectors used by T-PEOS in their higher-tier IEM, but it's a much bulkier implementation. The male connector is 2mm in diameter and 3mm long. The strain relief is ~20mm, with the first 10mm housing the actual connector and the remaining 10mm being the flexible cable entry point.
Once inserted, the connection is quite stable. Note that while there are L / R indicators on the strain reliefs, they are very subtle. This makes it hard to determine which orientation to insert them in under less than ideal lighting connections.
Here is the stock black cable and the upgrade cable. The stock cable is springy and reminds me of the SoundMagic E50 / E80 cables. The upgrade cable is less springy and is still OFC. Both seem solid with solid connections and good strain reliefs. The y-splitter is in the normal spot and hits me in the middle of my torso. I didn't find either cable to be overly microphonic, but then again I do use the chin slider. If you don't like using chin sliders, the springy stock cable might cause some problems for you. Unfortunately, there's no shirt clip to help abate this.
Here's a close up of the L-plug, y-splitter, and chin slider. The plug is narrow enough to fit into smartphone cases, which is much appreciated. The chin slider is pretty grippy, so it's not the easiest to get sliding but stays in place very well! There's really no visible difference between these components on the stock vs. upgrade cable besides the color.
Under ear fit was very comfortable for long periods of time with my smaller than average ears. Over ear fit was a bit trickier due to the length of the connector's housing and strain relief. LMUE has indicated that they'll be providing ear guides to help solve this issue for existing and future owners. Good show!
Ok, so what's the takeaway? Obvious positives are the solid build, detachable cables, and (for me anyway) comfortable housings. Suggestions for improvement would be to use a more supple stock cable, implement an improved system for distinguishing L / R earpieces, include ear guides and/or reduce the connector + strain relief size for easier over ear fit, include a shirt clip for more secure fit and reduced microphonics, and offer a silver-plated copper upgrade cable to tighten the low end and open up the upper end a bit.
SOUND
I'm going to keep this section simple. I appreciate reviewers who wax eloquent, describing each peak and valley - but that's not my forte. There are others on the AD01 Review Tour who will do a much better job than I will at describing all the nuances, so stay tuned!
With that disclaimer out of the way, how does LMUE's rookie IEM sound?
Here's a quote of
@TEOSJ from
@thatBeatsguy's review:
“
The AD01 has a V-shaped sound signature. Even though the bass is punchy, it does not bleed in to the mids and the overall clarity of the IEM is still there. Several people compared it as the Havi B3 Pro 1 with a good and punchy bass. I will also be offering an upgrade cable which will improve on the highs and the mids while taming the bass a little.”
Does the AD01 live up to that description? Somewhat. I'll try to explain. Instead of describing the sound signature as v-shaped, I'd instead describe it as a reverse checkmark shaped sound signature with copious amounts of bass, very sightly recessed mids, and flat upper end. What does that mean for the listener? Well, it will obviously mean different things to different people, but I'll tell you what it meant for me.
I listened to the AD01 as my primary IEM for a couple weeks, using it the Shanling M3 DAP I was testing, as well as my Fiio X3 & X5 DAPs and iPhone 5s. I listened mostly to experimental electronic and metal because that's what's I groove on. In addition to daytime listening, these were well-burned in with my music collection on shuffle at moderate listening levels overnight for the first week.
LOWS
- Bass emphasis is focused on lower bass, so it has good impact but doesn't sound overly boomy despite being generous as would a more mid-bass focused low end
- Bass speed is a bit slow due to the generous bass quantity but speeds up with a bit of bass reduction
- Bass definition and texture also improves with a bit of bass reduction in EQ
MIDS
- Mids are slightly recessed and dry, keeping the AD01 from feeling overly warm but making vocals sound a bit sterile and distant
- Mid register vocals are more affected than upper register vocals
- A bit of bass reduction in EQ makes the mids feel less intimate but keeps the dry tonality
HIGHS
- The upper end has just a hint of sparkle and maintains a decent amount of clarity
- Cymbals sound distant and a bit muted - definitely not splashy at all
- Treble heads will find this too relaxed
SOUNDSTAGE
- Soundstage is pretty closed in compared to brighter IEM but is on par for this type of sound signature
- If you're looking for something spacious like Dunu DN1000, Havi B3 Pro I, or TPEOS Altone200, move along
EQ
I used the tone controls on my Fiio X3 to adjust the AD01's sound signature with the following results
- -2 bass changes these from a reverse check mark to slight v-shape sound signature, tightening up the bass a bit
- -4 bass makes these quite neutral but not as fun, but the bass feels much faster now
- -1 or -2 treble should help those with extreme treble sensitivity
- My preference is 0 to -2 bass with no treble adjustment depending on what I'm listening to and my mood
TIPS & CABLE
For me, the sweet spot was with the hybrid-style tips and upgrade cable. It's practically impossible to do any type of valid A/B comparison with time spent changing tips and cables, so take this with a few grains of salt. The hybrid tips seemed to tame the low end a touch and sweetened up the mids slightly without noticeably impacting the upper end. Adding the upgrade cable seemed to enhance this effect. All of this back and forth took so much time that I was relying a lot on audio memory, which is notoriously faulty, so again - grain of salt, please!
@TEOSJ: I'd really like to see a silver plated copper cable for these from LMUE to further tighten up the low end and bring out the upper end a bit more!
SUITABILITY FOR MY MUSIC
As I mentioned earlier, I listen to a lot of experimental electronic and metal. How did the AD01 work out for me, taking my musical preferences into account?
For electronic music, it worked out pretty well. A lot of my enjoyment there relies on high-impact, well-extended bass. Without that and a nice soundstage, you just can't get the same feeling you get from larger cans or speakers. The AD01's got you covered with the bass. It extends well and has nice impact, but if there were sections where the bass hit hard and fast the AD01 stumbled, losing articulation and blurring a bit. If my electronic music has vocals, they're usually female vocals. Since they usually hit the upper midrange, female vocals felt more forward and covered more emotion, which I preferred. The upper end had enough sparkle to be satisfying without getting fatiguing in any way. Soundstage and placement weren't the AD01's strength but were ok. For electronic music, I didn't touch the EQ much.
For metal, it depended on the type of metal I was listening to. For doom / stoner / sludge and old school metal, the AD01 were pretty good! The low end beautifully conveyed the sense of ponderous weight needed for these genres, the upper end was just sparkly enough to liven things up, and the mids, well... I could've used a bit more emotion there but it was okay. I didn't touch the EQ for these metal sub-genres. For black and death metal, I ended up using the EQ to reduce the bass a bit so it didn't get bogged down during kick drum blast beats. And just for black metal, I ended up using the EQ to reduce the treble a bit - but black metal is often mixed quite hot even for my older ears, so that shouldn't be too surprising. With the black and death metal sub-genres, who can really tell what they're singing anyways, so the mids weren't as much of a factor for me. So with a bit of EQ, the AD01 were pretty good for these sub-genres, too.
I listened to other music with them and found that in general, the AD01 sounded pretty good with older music recorded before the loudness wars. This music was less compressed and often recorded leaner than the majority of today's music is. For instance, with older Black Sabbath and Rush, the AD01 filled out the low end quite nicely. This gave those recordings body and texture they lack with a more neutral IEM. With a lot of today's highly compressed music, you just might find yourself reaching for the EQ.
ISOLATION & MICROPHONICS
Not much to say here that I didn't cover earlier. Isolation is on par with my other dynamic driver IEM, and microphonics can be easily controlled by using the chin slider. That said, I'd still appreciate a shirt clip to further control microphonics.
VS. OTHER IEM
vs. TPEOS Altone150 (single dynamic driver) with Heir-style tips - $89
Despite being bass-enhanced IEM, these two couldn't be more different. Basically this comes down to whether you're looking for a bass-enhanced IEM that sounds cleaner / more neutral (AD01) vs one that sounds sweeter / warmer (A150). Versus the TPEOS A150, LMUE certainly succeeded in producing a more audiophile-oriented bashed IEM. I think that's what they were going for here, so that's a good thing!
vs. Vsonic VSD5 (with stock tips) - ~$70
Okay, I intentionally chose an IEM with a radically different sound signature this time. The VSD5 is much more focused on the mids and upper end than but isn't lacking in the lower end by any means. With the VSD5, soundstage is less intimate and vocals are more prominent, as are cymbals and (unfortunately) sibilance. Moving back and forth between the two, I'm sensing a lack of engagement on the low end with the VSD5, but that's balanced out by the more engaging vocals and added clarity up top. However, the upper end can be a bit hot - especially with poor recordings. With the AD01, the bass is slower and boomier but more engaging, the mids are recessed making vocals more distant, and the top end lacks clarity but is much easier to listen to for extended periods.
SUMMARY
The AD01 are an interesting first house-brand product from LMUE. The target seemed to be an audiophile-friendly bass-enhanced IEM. I'd say they came close but fell short due to lack of clarity up top. Design-wise, I really liked them - especially the connectors they used for he detachable cables. I hope more manufacturers start using these 2mm DC connectors! Aesthetically, the plain black or silver shells with no branding are quite attractive yet unassuming at the same time. Ergonomically, they worked very well for me. The shells were comfortable, and I actually prefer IEM that are worn down so that was a plus. Finally, LMUE included a pretty good accessory package.
What could be better? As far as the sound goes, tone down the low end a bit while keep the same overall sound. This will make it more responsive and less boomy. It will also make the mids stand out a bit more, making vocals more engaging. Bump up the upper end a tad, increasing clarity. I think these changes would keep this IEM differentiated from the competition, retain the basic sound signature it seems LMUE was after, and better please the audiophile crowd. I'd also suggest pairing the AD01 with a more supple stock cable with better L / R markings and slightly smaller strain reliefs. This would help fix concerns about microphonics and make over ear fit more ergonomic. Including ear guides (already in the works) and a shirt clip would help out here, as well. Finally, I really think a silver plated copper cable would be of benefit to tighten up the low end and open up the upper end if the same tuning is kept.
Thanks again to
@TEOSJ at LMUE for the opportunity to give these a listen, and please stay tuned for more reviews from the U.S. and Canada tours!
