[etlouis]

You heard the Monet17 too lol

Maybe once I have enough money again, I'll collect FitEars again.

Tell me your profession please.

Let see if I can still make the change.

 

[riverground]

Tell me your profession please.

Let see if I can still make the change.

LMAO

I'm just a lowly warehouse worker, with photography as a side job at the moment (been really quiet due to the pandemic though).

 

[named name]

Also, funnily enough, one of the DREAMCATCHER members [JIU] ha 2 IEMs made for her in a span of less than a month. I wonder why?
(Ga Hyeon back in March was also using the UE11PRO as well)

From UE to JH…

This was posted July 22nd



And this was from August 19th.

I don't know much about K-Pop, but I know enough about women to point out the obvious fact that these IEMs are effectively ear jewelry (though very practical ones!).

 

[Precogvision]

Purchased my own Helios after some consideration yesterday. Sounds too good for me not to. It really is remarkable how good its technicalities are for a 4BA setup, and after more A/B with my U12T, I do feel that the Helios has excellent dynamics, possibly even in the micro-dynamics department. Only thing I’m still iffy on is the fit of this IEM. It’s a chonky boi due to all the stuff that’s been crammed inside. Also probably not the IEM for people who want something flashy haha.

 

[aaf evo]

Why is the IEM so big for just 4 BA’s, what else is inside that requires taking up real estate?

I’m not too caring on how an IEM looks but man the shape of this one is… weird.

 

[SHOOTINGTECHIE]

Why is the IEM so big for just 4 BA’s, what else is inside that requires taking up real estate?

I’m not too caring on how an IEM looks but man the shape of this one is… weird.

+1 and damn I was minute late with the same question

 

[Precogvision]

Why is the IEM so big for just 4 BA’s, what else is inside that requires taking up real estate?

I’m not too caring on how an IEM looks but man the shape of this one is… weird.

I asked the same question haha. This was Symphonium’s response:

 

[aaf evo]

Just checked out your graphs of it, the tuning of that IEM actually looks pretty good for my tastes… except that mid bass I’m a sub bass person but not that slutty

 

[twiceboss]

Helios mids to highs look super good to me (most probably cant ask for more). I'm just shy of its lows. A bit too subbaby and less thumpy for the body which scared me to drop my grand.

 

[antdroid]

Another graph of it on my rig and my target. This is a really excellent IEM imo. If it fit my right ear a little better, I'd probably buy one too.

 

[kadinh]

I got my IER-Z1R about a week ago. Loved it when I first heard it out of the box, it blew me away. I let them burn in for about 150 hours until I really wanted to start hearing my new purchase. I didn't think I would mind the "weak mids" myth, but mids are definitely weak. I was listening to an 80s song (I'll edit if I remember what it is) and using the Z1R with Apple Music Lossless/HIDIZS S9 Pro and it sounded like the lead singer was a backing track, could barely hear him.

I really like the bass and highs, plus the openness of the soundstage, but without some decent mids, I dont know if I can truly enjoy it. Been wanting to check out the U12t for a while to see if I like that sound better, but not sure if there is a way I can demo both the Z1R and U12t side by side (no decent audio stores within 6 hours of me).

I probably could fix the dip in mids with EQ, but with an iPhone, HiBy FD3 dac/amp 4.4mm port, and the Z1R, I haven't found a practical way to EQ on the go. I still plan on going through the systemwide PEQ on my Mac and running through Topping A50s/D50s 4.4mm port, but that really isnt a mobile solution.

 

[toaster]

Based on what you’re saying, I think you will absolutely love the u12t.

just gonna throw that out there.

 

[kadinh]

Is there anyone doing a U12t passaround within the next ~20 days before my Amazon return window closes?

 

[eloelo]

Demoed some iems recently using DX160. My preference is heavily tilted towards iems that do vocals/midrange well. Bass and treble quality/quantity/extension take a smaller portion of the score.

Symphonium Helios- top notch imaging, everything is outside the head which makes for an easy non- congested listen. Copious amounts of air, without fatigue. Slight sibilance and sharp transients, but neither of which bothers me. Isn't as thin sounding as I thought, maybe slightly thicker than viento b uni. Hard to drive, running at 40/100 low gain on dx160 (for reference i run my qdc 8sl around 6-8/100). Feels upper compressed a little, and could def do with more lower mids, because vocals lack some emotion in ballads. Could do with bit more midbass for pop songs too. Ba timbre shows itself sometimes when playing shouty songs. But technically can't see any fault, so if you don't value the lower mids as much, this would be highly recc - A rank (for my preference only)

Oriolus traillii - sound feels pretty dull and dark. Even went to the extent of changing dap filters and players. Not much treble extension or air especially coming after Helios, soundstage feels slightly congested. Feels downwards compressed. Vocals don't pop. At least resolution is decent. Hard to recc for the price. - B rank.

Elysian annihilator 2021 - once I got used to the large amounts of upper treble, this sounds amazing. It has enough lower mids to balance with the treble to keep the emotion of vocals. No lack of air, bass extension is amazing too. It does sound pretty intense though, and I might be nearing fatigue after 30min of listen, yet I still yearned to listen more. Mids/vocals a little recessed for me, but that seems to be case for every iem with lots of treble and bass relative to mids. I wouldn't say vocals dynamics are excellent since I don't get the lowest oomph of chest voices and vocals don't make full use of the stage, but micro dynamics are amazing and when vocals soar they soar all the way instead of stopping short like in U12t lel. There is some sibilance as well, but no issue for me. I noticed the pinna peak is pretty close to 2k, which agrees with my preference of the peak being nearer to 2k than 3k. Arguably best iem I've heard so far. Needed 30/100 on dx160 to drive. Not many iems punch me in the gut this hard. S-/S rank

Elysian X - doesn't sound too different from annihilator, except I noticed sibilance is worse and upper mids is drier and grittier higher up the FR, therefore the balance isn't as perfect as annihilator. It does have greater macro dynamic swings, and does awesome for male vocals, metal, and subbass is extra woofer like. But because vocals are important to me though - A+ rank

Dunu SA6 - midrange is actually excellent. I love that it sounds similar to my qdc 8sl with more forward full sounding midrange, esp in atmospheric mode. Don't hear any BA timbre here. However, technicalities in terms of imaging, air and resolution lacks compared to 8SL. It is perhaps too smooth and I would appreciate a bit more intensity and lower midrange. Otherwise, it is an impressive iem, which has decent macro dynamics. A rank

Dunu Est 112 - midrange sounds pretty dead compared to everything above. Vocals sound thin and get cut off too early during their vibrato and there's hardly any air. Nearly fell asleep listening to this. At least there is some Resolution. Didn't want to listen further. Maybe C+ rank

Ibasso Dx300 dap - wow this elevates my 8sl compared to dx160. I don't hear the gaps/dips in the music that dx160 sometimes give, but rather a very pleasant slightly warm smoothness throughout the frequencies, while still sounding engaging. It also helps to hide 8sl's ba timbre lol.

Cayin n6ii R01 dap - this is the sweetest sounding dap I've heard. Everything from loud pop music to soft ballads gets squeezed into a liquid smooth buttery sound that is very pleasant and lulls me to sleep (in a good asmr-ish way). I suspect the dynamic range is narrowed down quite a bit as excitement factor and macrodynamics feels cut down? It is warm, but not distorted like tube amp in cayin n3pro, and does not muddy the sound. Noticed a slight hiss with my sensitive 8sl. Very interesting sound sig, would recc people to try.

 

[ToastersMakeTea]

Some Brief Thoughts on Individual HRTF and IEM Preference

Hey everyone, I wanted to share some comments on the relationship between individual HRTFs and IEM preferences. I'm not an expert or anything of the sort; these are just some of my thoughts on the subject. Disclaimers aside, I see a lot of talk about how "everyone's ears are different and YMMV", to the point of which it often comes off as sort of a platitude. Well...at the meet-up yesterday, we took measurements of the Everest. This was done using an in-ear microphone with the headphones over it and playing a sine sweep through REW. The interesting thing about this is that this measurement procedure is dependent on the bodily anatomy of a listener unlike an external coupler with IEMs. Most industry headphone measurement rigs also use a set ear for consistency. Anyways, all four of us took turns taking measurements with the Everest on our respective heads.



(Green - Juan, Dark Blue - MRS, Light Blue - Me, Red - Evan)

I can't show the rest of the measurement as the project is still under wraps, but pictured above is the pinna compensation region. For those who might not be familiar with the term "pinna compensation," your body has natural resonance peaks that a headphone or IEM must account for, as these transducers bypass many of them. That in mind, the use of "pinna" in the term is not technically correct; it's just become somewhat colloquial.

You'll notice something interesting with the measurement above, though: the pinna compensation region is different for all of us. There were no broken seals here, as all of us measured identically up until around 1.5kHz. The above (disregarding measurement variation, placement, and other confounding factors) basically shows that all four of us have inherently different pinna compensations. What follows is my totally unscientific theory.

Juan (green) and MRS (dark blue) have noticeably more elevated pinna compensations, which implies that their perception of neutrality is based on a higher degree of pinna gain. We know that IEMs bypass the pinna; therefore, IEM manufacturers have to effectively "guess" at what the ideal pinna compensation is for a given listener. This might explain why MRS and Juan enjoy more "shouty" IEMs. They adore the Moondrop SSR, for example, because the SSR's high pinna compensation gets them closer to what they normally hear in real-life. These types of IEMs might not even sound shouty to them! On the other hand, we can see that my pinna compensation (light blue) is lower than both of theirs. All the IEMs that I regularly use - the 64 Audio U12t, CFA Andro 2020, and Sennheiser IE900 - have what would qualify as more relaxed pinna compensation. I find these IEMs more pleasing, and closer to my neutral, likely because my requirement for pinna compensation is inherently lower. Evan's measurement is more of a wild card, as his favorite IEM is the Shure KSE1200. The KSE1200 does have quite the dip after 2kHz, though, which is reflected in his measurement (he has the greatest dip after the pinna, moving into 4kHz).

I think this illustrates why an IEM that might sound "shouty" to one person might not to another, and why a more "muted" IEM might not sound so for one person but will for another. Now, I know, I know. This probably isn't anything groundbreaking (or really even new), as it mostly serves to corroborate what we already know. This also isn't an excuse for why some stuff sounds and objectively measures like trash. That said, it's stuff like this which might help to explain some broader listener preferences, and it's what really gets my head ticking because I want to learn more about this stuff.

Nothing can make the SSR not shouty, even my high inna. Good writeup summarizing our findings.