[jant71]

I've sent Kopikaya few suggestions, as well as apologies for being overly personal.
The main point actually will be that the quality of DLC, as well as CNT, coatings may vary widely much more than the properties of the materials themselves. So how the coatings are made - integrity and consistency of the films - will matter the most (after the tuning, of course).

No offense but why this hill to die on. We always could have done this with the Carbon drivers, Titanium, Graphene, CNT, bio-cellulose etc. etc. that came before. What about the quality of the rest of the speaker the coating is on, the magnets, the voice coil etc. Don't we always just let the reviews/impressions show the quality in the end. Can't always believe what is told anyhow. The proof is in the pudding.

I for one don't want threads bogged down further with more and more about the coatings. They have always varied and with all the other components having an effect that could still ruin a better version of a certain coating it still comes down to getting a concensus of how well the final product was done.

 

[CactusPete23]

<cue eerie theremin music>
I could see the cheap throwaway cable being wired incorrectly, but the head-scratcher for me was it's the actual earpiece wired wrong. I'd crack it open and flip the connector upside down if I had the slightest idea how to crack them open. This also begs the question… which one is wired wrong?

You can switch either and be fine.
Murphy's Law Strikes again! "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong"

 

[loomisjohnson]

Surely, I humbly may
It won't help to cover the blatant factual mistakes of the discussed publication, though.

we very much appreciate your response. and, equally, welcome your counterpoint.

 

[1clearhead]

I remembered being happy with the BLON BL-03 three weeks ago. Then the BLON Cardinal appeared a few days back.

I hope i can hold off from any more audio purchases on black Friday and christmas.

Have you tried the HECATE GM360 by EDIFIER?

Quick impression:
They have dual 6mm micro drivers on each side and provides higher details than the BLON. Bass goes deep and very similar to the BLONS with slightly less midbass focus. They sound slightly better on a technical level with higher micro-details and wider soundstage, but slightly less airy. So, the BLONS are extremely good and airy, while the HECATE GM360 are extremely good and technical. They got an incredible following on taobao with over 13,000 purchases! ...I think that's saying something!

*NOTE: FR Graph is from Edifier Taobao/TMALL website

PROS: Extremely good and technical for such a very low price point!

CONS: No detachable cables, but are better than average and thicker than normal cables.

You can check them out at the link below...
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?i...spm=a230r.1.14.1&sku_properties=1627207:28341


-Clear

 

[baskingshark]

Have you tried the HECATE GM360 by EDIFIER?

Quick impression:
They have dual 6mm micro drivers on each side and provides higher details than the BLON. Bass goes deep and very similar to the BLONS with slightly less midbass focus. They sound slightly better on a technical level with higher micro-details and wider soundstage, but slightly less airy. So, the BLONS are extremely good and airy, while the HECATE GM360 are extremely good and technical. They got an incredible following on taobao with over 13,000 purchases! ...I think that's saying something!

*NOTE: FR Graph is from Edifier Taobao/TMALL website

PROS: Extremely good and technical at such a very low price point!

CONS: No detachable cables, but are better than average and thicker than normal cables.

You can check them out at the link below...
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?i...spm=a230r.1.14.1&sku_properties=1627207:28341


-Clear

Nice, looks quite basshead. I'm not sure if the 6 and 10 kHz peaks are artefactual, but I'm a but wary of those peaks.

How's the timbre on this set? I know the BLON BL-03 is not the best in technicalities, but I love it a lot for the natural timbre it conveys for acoustic instruments. If this set can match or surpass the BLON's timbre, I'm game to try it on Black Friday. Though the non detachable cables is quite a con for me.

 

[1clearhead]

Nice, looks quite basshead. I'm not sure if the 6 and 10 kHz peaks are artefactual, but I'm a but wary of those peaks.

How's the timbre on this set? I know the BLON BL-03 is not the best in technicalities, but I love it a lot for the natural timbre it conveys for acoustic instruments. If this set can match or surpass the BLON's timbre, I'm game to try it on Black Friday. Though the non detachable cables is quite a con for me.

The overall sound signature is very similar to the BLONS, especially in the bass region, but the HECATE does sound more technically detailed in the treble range. Though, the BLONS convey better natural timbre, they are both "on-par" playing acoustic instruments well.

 

[1clearhead]

The overall sound signature is very similar to the BLONS, especially in the bass region, but the HECATE does sound more technically detailed in the treble range. Though, the BLONS convey better natural timbre, they both are on par playing acoustic instruments well.

...Plus, they can easily be seated "front row" with the BLONS and SONY MH755!

 

[Dsnuts]

So this is my take on the NX7 pros. .https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/nicehck-nx7-pro.24064/reviews#review-22955

I figure I would put this out there before sales tomorrow.

 

[Otto Motor]

I've sent Kopikaya few suggestions, as well as apologies for being overly personal.
The main point actually will be that the quality of DLC, as well as CNT, coatings may vary widely much more than the properties of the materials themselves. So how the coatings are made - integrity and consistency of the films - will matter the most (after the tuning, of course).

I couldn't agree more. But what I was interested in was learning about the principal differences. In my case, the DLC coated Trident Diamond Beta has a nice'n'tight sound for a DD, which surprised me. Now I know why...

 

[baskingshark]

Carbon-based drivers? Graphene? CNT? DLC? What's the difference? What is better? What is best?

Spoiler: Here

The main point actually will be that the quality of DLC, as well as CNT, coatings may vary widely much more than the properties of the materials themselves. So how the coatings are made - integrity and consistency of the films - will matter the most (after the tuning, of course).

I couldn't agree more. But what I was interested in was learning about the principal differences. In my case, the DLC coated Trident Diamond Beta has a nice'n'tight sound for a DD, which surprised me. Now I know why...

100% agree with @PhonoPhi and @Otto Motor that all these special materials, be it beryllium, graphene or diamond or whatever, needs to be coated and implented properly to truly make a difference. In fact if you coat it wrongly it may make the driver sound worse by affecting its physical properties.

The official DUNU folks here on headfi made some interesting comments about the lining/material of drivers: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-discovery-thread.586909/page-2968#post-15288735
"The PVD layer has to be thick enough and the microscopic grain pattern has to be regular enough to confer that pistonic motion beryllium is so famous for. That's why our sub-$100 products (DM-380 and DM-480) are still titanium drivers. Even the TITAN 6, at $139, is only coated on one side."

We discussed this previously in the CHIFI thread, personally I have a sneaky suspicion that at the budget CHIFI level, some of these novel material applications on drivers may be an element of marketing gimick to stand out from the fierce competition at that price range. For all we know they are just sprinkling a few flakes of certain coatings on their drivers instead of uniformly applying it in the prescribed quantities to truly be effective.

DUNU says they have difficulty implementing this Beryllium coating in their sub $100 USD gear. And we already see unit variation in macroscopic areas in these budget CHIFI in terms of sound and build, so forgive me for being skeptical that some $30 - 50 USD CHIFI budget IEMs can ensure good QC for all their units when it comes to microscopic application of these novel materials in the proper layering. Though DUNU is talking about Beryllium, I think Carbon, Graphene and DLC coating may be cheaper, so who knows, maybe with economies of scale and cheap labour/materials in China, these budget CHIFI companies can still turn a profit with these coatings that are implemented professionally.

Though at the end of the day, I personally am not bothered what material the drivers are made or coated with, as long as they implement the coating properly and tune it well. I'm more concerned that the IEM sounds good, matches my budget and suits my sonic preferences.

 

[Coyro]

So this is my take on the NX7 pros. .https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/nicehck-nx7-pro.24064/reviews#review-22955

Have just noticed that Pro having in the sheet the impedance of 58Ω instead of 55Ω. Strange.

 

[genck]

Have just noticed that Pro having in the sheet the impedance of 58Ω instead of 55Ω. Strange.

It's not weird at all, likely the measurement was done from the phones themselves and the other was done through the cable (accurate version)

 

[Otto Motor]

100% agree with @PhonoPhi and @Otto Motor that all these special materials, be it beryllium, graphene or diamond or whatever, needs to be coated and implented properly to truly make a difference. In fact if you coat it wrongly it may make the driver sound worse by affecting its physical properties.

The official DUNU folks here on headfi made some interesting comments about the lining/material of drivers: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/the-discovery-thread.586909/page-2968#post-15288735
"The PVD layer has to be thick enough and the microscopic grain pattern has to be regular enough to confer that pistonic motion beryllium is so famous for. That's why our sub-$100 products (DM-380 and DM-480) are still titanium drivers. Even the TITAN 6, at $139, is only coated on one side."

We discussed this previously in the CHIFI thread, personally I have a sneaky suspicion that at the budget CHIFI level, some of these novel material applications on drivers may be an element of marketing gimick to stand out from the fierce competition at that price range. For all we know they are just sprinkling a few flakes of certain coatings on their drivers instead of uniformly applying it in the prescribed quantities to truly be effective.

DUNU says they have difficulty implementing this Beryllium coating in their sub $100 USD gear. And we already see unit variation in macroscopic areas in these budget CHIFI in terms of sound and build, so forgive me for being skeptical that some $30 - 50 USD CHIFI budget IEMs can ensure good QC for all their units when it comes to microscopic application of these novel materials in the proper layering. Though DUNU is talking about Beryllium, I think Carbon, Graphene and DLC coating may be cheaper, so who knows, maybe with economies of scale and cheap labour/materials in China, these budget CHIFI companies can still turn a profit with these coatings that are implemented professionally.

Though at the end of the day, I personally am not bothered what material the drivers are made or coated with, as long as they implement the coating properly and tune it well. I'm more concerned that the IEM sounds good, matches my budget and suits my sonic preferences.

The $49 Dunu DM-380 has a FR like this - I don't comment on the sound yet (but it is exactly what you expect from the graph):

Spoiler: FR graph

 

[praxis22]

Have you tried the HECATE GM360 by EDIFIER?

Quick impression:
They have dual 6mm micro drivers on each side and provides higher details than the BLON. Bass goes deep and very similar to the BLONS with slightly less midbass focus. They sound slightly better on a technical level with higher micro-details and wider soundstage, but slightly less airy. So, the BLONS are extremely good and airy, while the HECATE GM360 are extremely good and technical. They got an incredible following on taobao with over 13,000 purchases! ...I think that's saying something!

*NOTE: FR Graph is from Edifier Taobao/TMALL website

PROS: Extremely good and technical for such a very low price point!

CONS: No detachable cables, but are better than average and thicker than normal cables.

You can check them out at the link below...
https://detail.tmall.com/item.htm?i...spm=a230r.1.14.1&sku_properties=1627207:28341


-Clear

Vaguely reminiscent of the KZ ATE. They're course, but they have a lot of presence for 14 Euro. These seem much cheaper.

 

[Coyro]

It's not weird at all, likely the measurement was done from the phones themselves and the other was done through the cable (accurate version)

I'm speaking about declared values on AE.

But to my shame I can't properly decipher the part with "there's none, but it is".