The discovery thread!

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Opus #3 really elevates the DUNU EST 112 to NO DOUBT THE BEST earphone in my collection. Aerosmith's Dream On has an echo that on most of the budget IEM's, sounds faint and distant, and on the higher end ones, appears more prominent, but also recessed, but with the EST 112, it's very present and extended. You hear sighs within the echo, and it's a little more forward than say the IE800, RE800, or even the Timeless. I was blown away by the presentation of the EST driver on that song through the Opus #3. Also the stage was so wide and three dimensional. Definitely the king of my court. Silvers are fun too, and the Miles Davis Trumpets sound like full size cans. This is getting interesting as I work my way down the collection.

 

[jagujetas72]

Finally got around to posting this, and yeah I honestly struggled to put more than a hundred or so hours into these IEMs. Musicians might have more luck

https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/knowledge-zenith-kz-x-crinacle-crn-zex-pro.25580/review/27646/

 

[W0lrince]

Sadly no one hype about Lunar New Year sale, you can buy stuff from taobao for cheap. Btw i'm on the market for est iem and found some interesting one
https://m.tb.cn/h.fj7B52a?sm=cc3199 匠声S1三分频平衡手机耳机入耳式有线监听发烧动铁hifi静电圈铁
XY S1 or something priced at 210$
10mm DD + dual 30265(mid)+ 29689 (upper mid) + dual 30017(High) + piezo (ultra high)

Review said that bass is linear but deep enough, mid is sweet, high is clear and transparent. Soundstage and imaging is really good especially for classical.
Keep in mind this is a DIY iem, but this kind of configuration and review seems very positive

And i found more interesting iem that might beat some 500$ iem with est (??? Doubt that but yeah)
Edit: One thing that i don't understand is the graph. CHIFI GRAPH

 

[twister6]

@Dobrescu George is quickly becoming my favorite reviewer. First his review of the Hifiman RE800 silver helped me pull the trigger on their purchase, and his observations were right on target, and I absolutely love these fun v shaped detail monsters. Now the Bit Opus #3 arrived, and once again. his observations were spot on! Easily the DAP I now own that has the widest stage, with an airy and open sound, with a creamy lush midrange, and articulate but certainly not overwrought bass, and enough power to play all my IEM's and even the Amiron without the need for an amp. Now I haven't amped it, so I imagine it provides even more scaling and juice for the hard to drive headphones and IEM's, but I'm not compelled to use one. These are just as good, if not better, than the Hiby R5. The Hiby has smoother highs, and bigger bass, but has less stage and the 3D presentation is really spacious and fun! After running an update. the player accepts 400GB chips, with 64GB of onboard memory, so i've got plenty of capacity, and now it's time to give every major 'phone in my collection a spin. This thing is 4 years old, and outpaces newer DAP's I've since sold off because they didn't meet my preferences. The touchscreen is very responsive and intuitive. No lag at all, with zero glitches, which plagues the Hiby's at times. Currently a steal at $400.00.

Someone pinged me with a reference to this post, asking about Opus#3. As far as I know, this 5 yr old dap was discontinued, fw support halted, and theBit as a company might not be in business anymore, can't even get to their website (just tried it). Truly a shame. TheBit with their Opus#1 back in 2016 was a shinning star, released as a budget alternative to AK120ii. Then, quickly followed by Opus#2 flagship that sounded great. Opus#3 didn't sell well at all, so they went back and released Opus#1s dap and Opus#11 dac/amp, and then disappeared.

 

[W0lrince]

YS Dream: 1DD (LCP) + 3BA + 2/4 Sonion Est priced at 360$/454$ (MSPR) and 298$/391$ (New Year sale) + 50$ cable (optional)
https://m.tb.cn/h.fQTmUah?sm=544153 YS域森（DREAM）梦定制HIFI发烧七单元圈铁静电公模私模旗舰耳机

Seems like the cheapest tribrid with sonion Est out there
But since i'm not knowledge enough to understand chinese so

 

[jant71]

Just what the buck are you showing us here?

 

[darmanastartes]

Fiio JD3 First Impressions​

I received the Fiio JD3 today and had a brief listen. Also measured them to see if the manufacturer's graph aligns with the actual product.



The general signature is bass dominated and quite muddy. The upper-bass starts rising from 500Hz which is too early and as a result masks the lower midrange. Male vocals sound drowned out and too recessed.

Female vocals fare better but barely so. Acoustic instruments lack bite and definition. Guitar riffs lack crispness. Treble is too dark as it practically falls off a cliff after 6KHz. Left/right separation is quite good (thanks to bullet shape) but imaging is poor and stage lacks height/depth (though decently wide, mostly due to midrange recession). At this price, I am not expecting stellar imaging or staging so that's alright.

For $20, the build quality is very good and I like the felt carrying pouch. Comfort could be better as the shells are heavy and needs re-adjusting when wearing cable-down.

Following is the measurement on my own unit (measurement done using an IEC-711 compliant coupler). I used Lotoo PAW 6000 as source and the stock tips.



For comparison, the following is the graph Fiio put on the JD3 website:



The graphs look quite similar so kudos to Fiio for that.

Overall, I think for a few dollars extra, the Final E1000 is a much better buy. If you want something bass dominated, the JD3 might be up your alley but frankly I find the bass to be too engulfing. Skip this one if you need anything remotely close to clarity or definition. Nothing stands out here vs the competition.

Disclaimer: bought this myself.

The FR graph looks very similar to the Quarks and Tanya?

 

[darmanastartes]

I was inspired by @RikudouGoku to find out how terrible my Sora Light 2019 channel matching really is, so I went and bought a Dayton IMM-6 along with some vinyl tubing, and read up about REW. My graphs are raw and I'd appreciate advice as to how to make them more comparable with other published graphs, but for the purposes of channel matching comparisons I've managed to get things to line up where they should:



My CCA CRA looks to have excellent channel matching. My Sora, however, is a trainwreck as well:



Oh brother.



Thankfully, my A4000 appears to have passed the channel matching test, otherwise I would be a truly sad guy.

This is what I did: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/general-iem-measurements-discussions.903455/page-11#post-14979635
The more IEMs you can do this for the more generally applicable the resulting curve will be.

 

[W0lrince]

Just what the buck are you showing us here?

I don't know lol just show it for more information if you can read that

 

[kmmbd]

The FR graph looks very similar to the Quarks and Tanya?

I don't have the Tanya measured in my database but Quarks are much leaner in the bass region.

 

[darmanastartes]

I don't have the Tanya measured in my database but Quarks are much leaner in the bass region.

The midrange tuning profile specifically looks very similar, I should say.

 

[kmmbd]

The midrange tuning profile specifically looks very similar, I should say.

There are some similarities in the lower midrange where both showcase some congestion but the upper mids sound more up-front and "shouty" on the Quarks (this effect is somewhat reduced with a deep fit).

Between JD3 and Quarks the latter sound much cleaner though build quality is far superior on JD3.

 

[unifutomaki]

This is what I did: https://www.head-fi.org/threads/general-iem-measurements-discussions.903455/page-11#post-14979635
The more IEMs you can do this for the more generally applicable the resulting curve will be.

Thank you, this is very helpful!

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

Someone pinged me with a reference to this post, asking about Opus#3. As far as I know, this 5 yr old dap was discontinued, fw support halted, and theBit as a company might not be in business anymore, can't even get to their website (just tried it). Truly a shame. TheBit with their Opus#1 back in 2016 was a shinning star, released as a budget alternative to AK120ii. Then, quickly followed by Opus#2 flagship that sounded great. Opus#3 didn't sell well at all, so they went back and released Opus#1s dap and Opus#11 dac/amp, and then disappeared.

The firmware was available for updating. The player itself is stellar, and I'm enjoying it. Available on Amazon, but if they're gone. that's a shame. They made some really nice product.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

YS Dream: 1DD (LCP) + 3BA + 2/4 Sonion Est priced at 360$/454$ (MSPR) and 298$/391$ (New Year sale) + 50$ cable (optional)
https://m.tb.cn/h.fQTmUah?sm=544153 YS域森（DREAM）梦定制HIFI发烧七单元圈铁静电公模私模旗舰耳机


Seems like the cheapest tribrid with sonion Est out there
But since i'm not knowledge enough to understand chinese so

Hmmm......!!!!!