What a mishmash mesh-up review!
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Precog's IEM Reviews & Impressions
- Thread starter Precogvision
- Start date
Tested the U4S at CanJam Singapore extensively this weekend. The showroom floor is arguably not the best place to get a solid impression, I felt that though
the U4S are no slouch in technical chops, when stacked against some other TOTL models (and even other 64 Audio gear), the U4S isn't that resolving. No doubt the Apex modules can change the sound signature a bit, so in a way you are getting more than one IEM with a purchase.
With a 6Ω impedance, the U4S are also fussy with source pairing, as per the rule of eights, so folks with a source with a higher output impedance might want to take note.
o0genesis0o
Headphoneus Supremus
64 Audio IEMs have LID circuit inside, making them immune to impedance mismatch. I used the U12T to review sources recently. It’s a nightmare, given how stubborn this IEM is to different sources. I get Precog’s stand on Apple dongle (“is all you need”) from these tests. Can I hear the difference between Apple dongle and my desktop setup with U12T? Yes, after difficult A/B tests for 30 minutes. And then after that, it’s easy to pick out the difference.
If not for the high price, 64 Audio IEMs would be perfect EDC.
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main character
100+ Head-Fier
Agree that 64 audio LID or Custom art FIBAE tech ameliorate impedance matching problem. Though, if U4s impedence is too small, it may be difficult to match portable amps due to too high minimal volumes. U6t/U12t impedance were adequate for portable amp use..
I noted U18t, Forte, Forte blanc do not sport LID technology. Probably they were developed before LID was available.. U18s and Tia trio do have LID. (Correct me if I am wrong)(They feature U18t in the LID tech explanation page btw. Caught by an Audiophile!)
Photo: @drftr ‘s Canjam Singapore post
https://www.head-fi.org/threads/can...essions-thread-march-25-26-2023.967460/page-8
Courtesy of
https://www.headphonezone.in/
LID:
https://www.64audio.com/pages/lid
Attachments
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Hanesu
1000+ Head-Fier
I am wondering why the review only compares to other 64 Audio stuff? I‘d be interested in a comparison to other popular 4- or 5 driver Hybrids like the VxV or IT07!
Hi Theo!
I did not know that there was your U4s review at Headphones.com! Enjoying it!
I was wondering.. what eartip are you using with U4s? Due to the presence of shell vent, insertion need to be a little bit shallower than U6t/12t? Which tips are you using for U6t/12t?
Is this.. Azla Sedna Light Short?
Sorry, I missed this earlier. Yes, I normally run the Azla Sedna Light Shorts. Those are my favorite to use with the U6t and U12t as well. And yes, I find that I cannot completely jam the U4s flush with the back of the concha like I do the 64A full-BA IEMs. The Tia Trio and Fourte also have their vents elsewhere on the IEM which allows this.
How is your A3T going? Still good? I finally add the U12T to my collection, the day you announced you sold itLooking for an EDC but none of the ChiFi on my review desk at the moment matches the comfort of APEX and the sheer sound quality of U12T. I’m thinking about the A3T again.
Any rumor about U3T, btw?
Congrats on the 12t!
Honestly, I rarely use my A3t which is a shame given that it has the best fit of any of my CIEMs. If I use it, it's mostly for gaming or watching movies, both of which I don't have much time for nowadays. I asked in the past about a U3t being released and was told that they didn't have any plans for it at the time. But it does exist in the form of their demo units for the A3t, so who knows?
Anyways, I talked all about the A3t extensively in my review, so I won't re-hash what I said there other than that I don't really recommend it in terms of sound.Sure, I have them for A/B. U6t is generally smoother all-round: more coherent and with a slightly more refined midrange tonality. The other differences are pretty much as you'd expect. The U4s sounds more detailed and dynamic due to its dynamic driver and extra energy around and past 10kHz. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to the decay of transients on the U4s. There's an extra bit of detail, sense of reverb trails that get picked up on, from the upper-treble boost. This also has benefits for timbre on the U4s. Obviously the measurements aren't entirely accurate past 10kHz, but I can confirm that's more or less how they sound in subjective listening as well.
main character
100+ Head-Fier
Thanks so much Theo!
I am interested in U4s! Probably a good tester for Tia Trio/Forte realm.
I will definitely try out Azla Sedna Light Shorts for my U6t/U12t later. Currently, I am using stock CP155 for U6t and Eartunes Fidelity U for U12t(deeper insertion and more ‘direct’ sound than CP155 imo)
U4s comes with stock 64 premium cable. I am little bit concerned that it only comes with 3.5mm SE(Single Ended) plug, so I won’t be able to use DAP’s balanced out plug.
Custom cables will add to the U4s budget
.. Do you feel stock cable is enough? I wish it came with flexible Effect audio Term X or OE audio plugs..Do you recommend any particular cable for U4s, or U6t/U12t? Were you using stock thin cable for U12t when you were using it? Thanks!!
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main character
100+ Head-Fier
64 Auio U4s Reviews:
Headphones.com(Precogvision)
https://headphones.com/blogs/reviews/64a-u4s-review
Techpowerup:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/64-audio-u4s-in-ear-monitors/
Headfonia:
https://www.headfonia.com/64-audio-u4s-review/
Headfonics:
https://headfonics.com/64-audio-u4s-review
Majorhifi:
From Headfonia review:
“
vs 64 Audio’s Duo
The U4s has a sharper edged and brighter treble tuning. The Duo on the other hand has superior resolution, staging and imaging. The Duo is one of the (if not the) best performers in this price category when it comes to technicalities, and the U4s won’t change that.
“
Is Duo that good with resolution, staging and imaging? 4drivers cannot even beat 2 drivers?
Headphones.com(Precogvision)
https://headphones.com/blogs/reviews/64a-u4s-review
Techpowerup:
https://www.techpowerup.com/review/64-audio-u4s-in-ear-monitors/
Headfonia:
https://www.headfonia.com/64-audio-u4s-review/
Headfonics:
https://headfonics.com/64-audio-u4s-review
Majorhifi:
From Headfonia review:
“
vs 64 Audio’s Duo
The U4s has a sharper edged and brighter treble tuning. The Duo on the other hand has superior resolution, staging and imaging. The Duo is one of the (if not the) best performers in this price category when it comes to technicalities, and the U4s won’t change that.
“
Is Duo that good with resolution, staging and imaging? 4drivers cannot even beat 2 drivers?
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Some quick meetup notes from this weekend
I hung out at @MRSallee place over the weekend with some friends and wanted to share something that might pique interest given the recent talk about CIEMs vs. UIEMs. My friend's sister recently purchased a SoftEars RSV CIEM (the only one I've seen before), so we wanted to see how it measured. As you can see, it measures extremely closely to the universal version up until around 5kHz. While there are inaccuracies due to the nature of how this was measured (using putty and the reference plane of the coupler), this illustrates a common phenomenon you'll observe between CIEMs and UIEMs. The deeper insertion depth of CIEMs will usually 1) raise the frequency of the typical 8kHz resonance (akin to when insertion depth is increased with a UIEM on the coupler) and 2) dampen its magnitude. Bearing this in mind, it usually requires a complete redesign of a UIEM to develop a CIEM that sounds close to being identical. Most manufacturers do not do this, which has its pros and cons. For an IEM like the Hidition Viento that was designed around being a CIEM, for example, the CIEM will actually sound better than the UIEM which has an excess of energy at 8kHz. But hopefully this illustrates why it's usually not realistic to expect UIEMs and CIEMs to sound 1:1.
I though this was an interesting IEM. The Moondrop Droplet uses DSP to achieve a very impress bass curve. I will not lie: I thought the Droplet used a dynamic driver until Mark casually mentioned that it's a single-BA. In any case, this illustrates the effects of concentrating enough SPL under 200Hz, especially in the way a DD would typically curve in this region. Outside of this cool quality, though, I found the Droplet to be rather low-res sounding. The upper-midrange was quite gritty and the treble was dark and rolled-off.
Now, I had my suspicions that the Nothing Ear 2 were predicated on their looks more than their sound, but these were genuinely atrocious. They literally sounded like broken laptop speakers; the upper-midrange on them was sharp and shouty to the point of which it started drowning out the bass. Anyways, these need a major retune or a miracle DSP profile to salvage them.
When it comes to cables, the main thing I care about is their practicality. This means I index for features like pliability, microphonics, and swappable terminations. At least for the features that I prioritize, I find the 64A cables to be fine. But frankly, I use even cheaper cables on my IEMs like the ones from AliExpress. As long as you're not using a cable with high impedance (which can make measurable differences), I don't think you need to worry too much about the cables you're using outside of aesthetic and practical considerations.
Driver count has little bearing on sound quality, and the idea that more drivers is better is a common marketing gimmick. It matters much more how the drivers are implemented than how many there are (e.g., quality over quantity is much more important). I won't comment on that excerpt other than to say that I do not agree with most reviews that I read online. Taking impressions from a single source - including myself - at face value is a recipe for disaster in this hobby, and I suggest aggregating across multiple reviewers and cross-referencing their impressions with your own if possible
I hung out at @MRSallee place over the weekend with some friends and wanted to share something that might pique interest given the recent talk about CIEMs vs. UIEMs. My friend's sister recently purchased a SoftEars RSV CIEM (the only one I've seen before), so we wanted to see how it measured. As you can see, it measures extremely closely to the universal version up until around 5kHz. While there are inaccuracies due to the nature of how this was measured (using putty and the reference plane of the coupler), this illustrates a common phenomenon you'll observe between CIEMs and UIEMs. The deeper insertion depth of CIEMs will usually 1) raise the frequency of the typical 8kHz resonance (akin to when insertion depth is increased with a UIEM on the coupler) and 2) dampen its magnitude. Bearing this in mind, it usually requires a complete redesign of a UIEM to develop a CIEM that sounds close to being identical. Most manufacturers do not do this, which has its pros and cons. For an IEM like the Hidition Viento that was designed around being a CIEM, for example, the CIEM will actually sound better than the UIEM which has an excess of energy at 8kHz. But hopefully this illustrates why it's usually not realistic to expect UIEMs and CIEMs to sound 1:1.
I though this was an interesting IEM. The Moondrop Droplet uses DSP to achieve a very impress bass curve. I will not lie: I thought the Droplet used a dynamic driver until Mark casually mentioned that it's a single-BA. In any case, this illustrates the effects of concentrating enough SPL under 200Hz, especially in the way a DD would typically curve in this region. Outside of this cool quality, though, I found the Droplet to be rather low-res sounding. The upper-midrange was quite gritty and the treble was dark and rolled-off.
Now, I had my suspicions that the Nothing Ear 2 were predicated on their looks more than their sound, but these were genuinely atrocious. They literally sounded like broken laptop speakers; the upper-midrange on them was sharp and shouty to the point of which it started drowning out the bass. Anyways, these need a major retune or a miracle DSP profile to salvage them.
U4s comes with stock 64 premium cable. I am little bit concerned that it only comes with 3.5mm SE(Single Ended) plug, so I won’t be able to use DAP’s balanced out plug.
Custom cables will add to the U4s budget
Do you recommend any particular cable for U4s, or U6t/U12t? Were you using stock thin cable for U12t when you were using it? Thanks!!
When it comes to cables, the main thing I care about is their practicality. This means I index for features like pliability, microphonics, and swappable terminations. At least for the features that I prioritize, I find the 64A cables to be fine. But frankly, I use even cheaper cables on my IEMs like the ones from AliExpress. As long as you're not using a cable with high impedance (which can make measurable differences), I don't think you need to worry too much about the cables you're using outside of aesthetic and practical considerations.
Driver count has little bearing on sound quality, and the idea that more drivers is better is a common marketing gimmick. It matters much more how the drivers are implemented than how many there are (e.g., quality over quantity is much more important). I won't comment on that excerpt other than to say that I do not agree with most reviews that I read online. Taking impressions from a single source - including myself - at face value is a recipe for disaster in this hobby, and I suggest aggregating across multiple reviewers and cross-referencing their impressions with your own if possible
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TooPoorForHiFi
Previously known as MidNighTempest
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DynamicEars
Headphoneus Supremus
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- Jan 5, 2019
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Hey @Precogvision Are you gonna review the new Tansio Mirai RGB with those massive amounts of drivers? 17drivers (9 BAs and 8 ESTs) wonder how this set compared to Subtonic Storm
DynamicEars
Headphoneus Supremus
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Did you write your impression somewhere?
I think there might be a US tour unit available to him if he is interested.
hevelaoak
100+ Head-Fier
woah, how much is that gonna cost?
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