[Dsnuts]

I threw on a much higher end cable just now on the GK10. I just can't get over their sound. It makes absolutely no sense.

I don't advise to throw on a $699 cable on a $45 phone. Lol.

You know what these sound a bit like to me. They sound a bit like a cheapmans version of the Ibasso IT07.

 

[tkddans]

Have you tried IT01X? That's my top recommendation in that price range. I did a comparison against the Starfield in my review.

This one? iBasso IT01X Audiophile in-Ear Monitor Earbuds for Professional-Quality Sound, Red https://www.amazon.com/dp/B094YL26RY/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_KY2A27J8FRJV9AKPRG9K?psc=1

EDIT: to be honest, even if the sound is great, they look….really tacky

 

[RikudouGoku]

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002967359026.html


That cable looks pretty nice. (they charge around 10 usd for that cable, you can buy it with only the iem at 30 usd)

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005002941092309.html

Damn, that cable looks very nice.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

We are sorry that because the GK10 blue panel has run out. It was not available in time, so now we have made some red and green colors. Customers who have purchased blue panels and have not shipped, we will inform you change the color or postponed.

https://penonaudio.com/geek-wold-gk10.html

Ahh! Red one!

If I liked the green one that I ordered, I may order another set, this time red for sure.

 

[darkgod5]

Ahh! Red one!

If I liked the green one that I ordered, I may order another set, this time red for sure.

Red with black accents on heart shape is

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

@Dsnuts !!! I told @activatorfly i wasn't going to break down and buy another pair of earphones, but dammit, you talked the big talk, and when Penon offered RED, I couldn't lay off anymore. Plus with the coupon code they sent to my email, this was cheap as chips. Still...grrrrr......grrrrr....but RED? I can't pass up red.

 

[baskingshark]

I too have noticed a similar trend. I prefer reviewers who are closer to my age like @RikudouGoku although our listening preferences differ but there are certain things that I can always pick up as a point of reference like treble and other stuff that usually people over 45 yrs are hardly able to discern.

I'd totally dig that red one!

I work in the medical line and in general yeah, hearing for the higher frequencies does tend to drop with increasing age. But it is not uniform that every older audiophile will hear worse, as it also partially depends on our leisure and occupational exposure to noises, our own constitution etc.

https://www.researchgate.net/public...n_Update_on_Cochlear_Mechanisms_and_Therapies

But I think in general a 17 year old is gonna hear rather differently the treble frequencies from a 70 year old.

But most important is to just follow some reviewers or headfiers who u know share the same preferences and everyone hears differently anyways, even if the audiometry is the same across two people. Treble perception can defer too as we use different sources, different volumes (fletcher munson curve), different ear anatomy (affecting pinna gain).

So most important is we enjoy our earphone and the hobby! And different strokes for different folks, we respect all impressions and opinions.

 

[Dsnuts]

So the NA2+ out of the box sound pretty bad. Music sounds thin and bright. Been blasting the drivers as soon as I got home. After a half a day of run in, these do sound a lot like the NM2+. especially with a copper cable.

For now I can tell they are a bit smoother sounding than the NM2+. NA2+ has an airy quality to the sound that I am liking. Very nice clarity and that imaging and stage is intact from the NM2+..It seems like a slight sound tweak vs being a different model altogether. The NM2+ with a good copper cable is what these sound like. I would imagine for folks that like to mod the stock tuning a bit further could make the older NM2+ sound pretty much the same way to the NA2+.

In a way it really isn't surprising that these guys stuck to their house tuning on this one. All their models are slight tweaks minus the original NA2 which was their bassiest earphone. The NM2 NM2+ and now the NA2+ are all pretty much tweaks of the original NA1 sound tuning.

Will have some more to post when they get some proper driver flexing.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Hey discovery peeps. I still only have a few IEM’s of the maybe 10 budget sets coming in total…but so far I prefer the Starfield over the Legacy 2 and the Sennheiser IE 100 Pro. If the starfield continues to win as my most enjoyable set even after others come in, then it’ll be the one to get a video with impressions and recording comparisons focused on it.

I’m actually very impressed with it for only $110. We’ll see if it remains as a top budget recommendation soon enough!

Oh, and I really didn’t find much joy in the sennheiser IE100, unfortunately.

Have you tried Moondrop Aria? Currently my sub$100 budget king it is. I like your youtube channel! keep it going!

 

[AmericanSpirit]

I work in the medical line and in general yeah, hearing for the higher frequencies does tend to drop with increasing age. But it is not uniform that every older audiophile will hear worse, as it also partially depends on our leisure and occupational exposure to noises, our own constitution etc.



https://www.researchgate.net/public...n_Update_on_Cochlear_Mechanisms_and_Therapies

But I think in general a 17 year old is gonna hear rather differently the treble frequencies from a 70 year old.

But most important is to just follow some reviewers or headfiers who u know share the same preferences and everyone hears differently anyways, even if the audiometry is the same across two people. Treble perception can defer too as we use different sources, different volumes (fletcher munson curve), different ear anatomy (affecting pinna gain).

So most important is we enjoy our earphone and the hobby! And different strokes for different folks, we respect all impressions and opinions.

didn't know there is a gender deviation nice comprehensive graph you got it there! very informative.

It perfectly makes sense that 50yo+ male is 10-20db less sensitive to 4-8khz treble, which NM2+ has a significant boost around that range.

And yea I do think the different reviewer is telling their truth, each one has own unique hearing in a sense so that following the same profile or close profile reviewer/user's impression is the shortest way of salvaging the core values. I also substruct those curve variance of experienced reviewers and add back some variance gap to true-up the core impression sometimes, as the experienced reviewers spent decades in listening.

 

[tkddans]

Have you tried Moondrop Aria? Currently my sub$100 budget king it is. I like your youtube channel! keep it going!

Thanks! Im really looking forward to sharing more. Man the reference list I put together….

Aria is in transit!

 

[chinmie]

didn't know there is a gender deviation nice comprehensive graph you got it there! very informative.

It perfectly makes sense that 50yo+ male is 10-20db less sensitive to 4-8khz treble, which NM2+ has a significant boost around that range.

And yea I do think the different reviewer is telling their truth, each one has own unique hearing in a sense so that following the same profile or close profile reviewer/user's impression is the shortest way of salvaging the core values. I also substruct those curve variance of experienced reviewers and add back some variance gap to true-up the core impression sometimes, as the experienced reviewers spent decades in listening.

i didn't know too, but my mom does can hear better in the upper freq compared to my dad (both are in their 70s: 75 and 79 respectively).

i don't know if it's because of the gender only, or because of men are generally expose themselves to louder environment, whether work related or simply by lifestyle (hobby and such)

 

[AmericanSpirit]

It’s a TWS but after reading this article, I couldn’t resist ordering a “near-perfect positioning” IEM per the Japanese reviewer I know he reviewed hundreds of IEM (he has 3,825 articles, well respected ) including recent release of the hyped GK10, and Very very new CCZ Plume.

Here is translated article(I wish that’s no a commercially paid article)
https://www-ear--phone--review-com....x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=ajax,nv,elem

Still a bit skeptical about ordering “for gaming” type, but anyway, Final VR3000 for gaming was indeed a good purchase for positioning and sound field accuracy, and natural timbre, I have good hope for that “Gamer No.1”

It’s available from Amazon Japan, not on us market so I ordered with $18USD intl shipping, original cost is like $30USD

Wish me luck
Here is the link just in case if anyone else interested:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B08XBHQ..._dl_VMSVX01EJWNMXK8H37CV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

My current “near reality” simulator is Softears RSV, hope this $30 IEM could beat that.

 

[tkddans]

It’s a TWS but after reading this article, I couldn’t resist ordering a “near-perfect positioning” IEM per the Japanese reviewer I know he reviewed hundreds of IEM including recent release of the hyped GK10, and Very very new CCZ Plume.

Here is translated article(I wish that’s no a commercially paid article)
https://www-ear--phone--review-com....x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=ajax,nv,elem

Still a bit skeptical about ordering “for gaming” type, but anyway, Final VR3000 for gaming was indeed a good purchase for positioning and sound field accuracy, and natural timbre, I have good hope for that “Gamer No.1”

It was available from Amazon Japan, not on us market so I ordered with $18USD intl shipping, original cost is like $30USD

Wish me luck
Here is the link just in case if anyone else interested:
https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B08XBHQ..._dl_VMSVX01EJWNMXK8H37CV?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

My current “near reality” simulator is Softears RSV, hope this $30 IEM could beat that.

Totally into hearing what it’s about when you get it. Any ETA on the arrival?

 

[baskingshark]

didn't know there is a gender deviation nice comprehensive graph you got it there! very informative.

It perfectly makes sense that 50yo+ male is 10-20db less sensitive to 4-8khz treble, which NM2+ has a significant boost around that range.

And yea I do think the different reviewer is telling their truth, each one has own unique hearing in a sense so that following the same profile or close profile reviewer/user's impression is the shortest way of salvaging the core values. I also substruct those curve variance of experienced reviewers and add back some variance gap to true-up the core impression sometimes, as the experienced reviewers spent decades in listening.

i didn't know too, but my mom does can hear better in the upper freq compared to my dad (both are in their 70s: 75 and 79 respectively).

i don't know if it's because of the gender only, or because of men are generally expose themselves to louder environment, whether work related or simply by lifestyle (hobby and such)

Yeah I think it is as you folks say, men generally work in louder places in their jobs eg construction, military, manufacturing, field work, transport, airports etc. And perhaps some noisy hobbies like cars/motorbikes, rock concerts/clubbing, guns (firing range), even our audiophile hobby etc are kinda male predominant.

But the biggest factor why men don't hear so well as they get older, is that the woman nags at the husband, especially every time a new IEM hypetrain comes in the mail. Over years this causes noise induced hearing loss hahaha. I'm kiddin' K, no offense, but every time something audio related arrives in the mail, I have to sneak it in beyond the hawk eyes of the wifey! I've managed to lower the chances of getting caught by avoiding headphones (too big to conceal), avoiding exotic coloured/design shells (eg BLON BL-05S hospital green, BLON MINI macaroni shell), and just using conventional black/silver IEMs/earbuds, they look the same to her from far.