[chickenmoon]

This is super interesting. Is there anything interesting happening in non-chifi at the moment.

Plenty I guess, just not in the ultra-budget segment.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

...and how Sennheiser and Co. are snoozing...

They're milking everyone by throwing their name on IEMs which are below average and charge a premium. In the sub $50 or even the sub $100 segment, it's Chi-fi where the real action is. Big brands are happy using their 9 or 10mm DD in flimsily built IEMs and making humongous profits.

 

[kingcro]

They're milking everyone by throwing their name on IEMs which are below average and charge a premium. In the sub $50 or even the sub $100 segment, it's Chi-fi where the real action is. Big brands are happy using their 9 or 10mm DD in flimsily built IEMs and making humongous profits.

Blon uses DD and it sounds good. BAs are almost always plasticky.

I think the only non-Chinese IEM I have is HA-FR201 due to its bass (which still doesn't beat Blon in terms of bass quality). You guys should try overears by Ollo. And I would love if Serbian brand Raal made cheaper headphones. With Serbian salaries, they could easily do cheap and good stuff. Ribbon by Sennheiser would cost 30000$ or even more. Raal probably beats out Orpheus.

 

[Monkey Puzzle]

They're milking everyone by throwing their name on IEMs which are below average and charge a premium. In the sub $50 or even the sub $100 segment, it's Chi-fi where the real action is. Big brands are happy using their 9 or 10mm DD in flimsily built IEMs and making humongous profits.

Very true (looks at broken Sennheiser IE80 flinsy housing at cable connector).

 

[Otto Motor]

They're milking everyone by throwing their name on IEMs which are below average and charge a premium. In the sub $50 or even the sub $100 segment, it's Chi-fi where the real action is. Big brands are happy using their 9 or 10mm DD in flimsily built IEMs and making humongous profits.

I have contacts within Sennheiser and fired off my question whether they will embrace the DLC technology in their future generation DDs. Their ie40 PRO are quite good and fairly priced imo.

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

Blon uses DD and it sounds good. BAs are almost always plasticky.

I think the only non-Chinese IEM I have is HA-FR201 due to its bass (which still doesn't beat Blon in terms of bass quality). You guys should try overears by Ollo. And I would love if Serbian brand Raal made cheaper headphones. With Serbian salaries, they could easily do cheap and good stuff. Ribbon by Sennheiser would cost 30000$ or even more. Raal probably beats out Orpheus.

I too like DD sound. Haven't heard about Ollo but if they're available in my country I'll try them. I do prefer IEMs to be affordable as in India audio gear is sold at a substantial premium. So Chi-Fi gives superb price to performance value. In India, most of the local brands repackage Chinese earphones and sell with basic price hike. But I get your point

 

[Barusu Lamperouge]

I have contacts within Sennheiser and fired off my question whether they will embrace the DLC technology in their future generation DDs. Their ie40 PRO are quite good and fairly priced imo.

Probably they are good value in the Western market. In India, they're selling it for ~$150

 

[citral23]

I did some further A/B-ing between the Blon BL-03 and the KBEAR Diamond (Beta version)...and also threw some others in the mix. Both excel by their natural reproduction ("organic sound") compared to similarly priced BAs, and the Diamond has quite a bit better definition/resolution than the Blon (fun wise they are the same to me)...but, as said, the Diamond's bass needs some tightening (only a wee bit, it is quite acceptable as is). The Diamonds will generate big waves between DD aficionados. I wished I could compare them to pricier models such the Moondrop Kanas Pro, but I passed that one on. I am also sitting presently on a bunch of BAs but they don't thrill me in comparison. It appears that DLC technology is the way to go. Good times!

I can tell you that the blon has at least on par, maybe even superior timbre compared to the KPE, and imo the slightly more forward high mids make it even more emotional on vocals and some instruments like violins.

However, the driver sounds "loose" to me, which means bass is not well defined and easily distorts, instruments separation, imagining, soundstage are rather poor.

So the blon is a great tuning but on technical aspects, you still get a huge improvement with the KPE imo, which is why I don't buy too much in the "30$ giant killah is all you need and anything more only brings a 5% improvement" and still think you get what you paid for.

T4 vs KPE will be interesting.

 

[kingcro]

I can tell you that the blon has at least on par, maybe even superior timbre compared to the KPE, and imo the slightly more forward high mids make it even more emotional on vocals and some instruments like violins.

However, the driver sounds "loose" to me, which means bass is not well defined and easily distorts, instruments separation, imagining, soundstage are rather poor.

So the blon is a great tuning but on technical aspects, you still get a huge improvement with the KPE imo, which is why I don't buy too much in the "30$ giant killah is all you need and anything more only brings a 5% improvement" and still think you get what you paid for.

T4 vs KPE will be interesting.

Why is Kanas Pro KPE? Why not KP?

 

[citral23]

Why is Kanas Pro KPE? Why not KP?

Kanas Pro Edition

 

[Slater]

Kanas Pro Edition

So is the regular Kanas just K?

 

[kingcro]

So is the regular Kanas just K?

What about MDK? IMHO, Moondrop >> Massdrop

Love my Spaceships.

 

[logiatype]

I can tell you that the blon has at least on par, maybe even superior timbre compared to the KPE, and imo the slightly more forward high mids make it even more emotional on vocals and some instruments like violins.

However, the driver sounds "loose" to me, which means bass is not well defined and easily distorts, instruments separation, imagining, soundstage are rather poor.

So the blon is a great tuning but on technical aspects, you still get a huge improvement with the KPE imo, which is why I don't buy too much in the "30$ giant killah is all you need and anything more only brings a 5% improvement" and still think you get what you paid for.

T4 vs KPE will be interesting.

This is actually a great take. I can tell the KXXS is a higher quality sound but the BLON tuning makes it "feel" more pleasant.

 

[citral23]

So is the regular Kanas just K?

Fortunately there's no Kanas King Kong or we'd have a drama

 

[peter123]

Fortunately there's no Kanas King Kong or we'd have a drama

Just wait and see