[lushmelody]

The Allure is among my favorite single DDs. This set made me realize why I like certain single DD IEMs more than others: It's the 10 kHz dip! The higher the 10 kHz SPL the more likely I am to like the IEM. This is not the sole factor for sounding good to my ears but a strong one.
I checked all my favorites and compared to my less liked sets and surprise here is how it looks.

Sets I like a lot. All have a rather high/stable 10kHz SPL or weak dip:

Allure


JQ 4U (non pro)

Tri HBB Kai


Not so liked single DD IEMs, strong dip:

Aria


Heartmirror Pro


Blon A8 Prometheus

The ~air~ killing dip. Everyone complained chi-fi was sibilant, then they did homework and now most sets contain 6k and 10k dips.

Aw, but the resolution lost! Indeed. But the so desired "sonic comfort" is there. It all depends if you are a long or short session listener.

If you like organic sound but still want so much more technicalities is only spending more to get it, unfortunately. Better and/or more drivers will squeeze a bit more of a less trebly tuning, but the price rises too much very easily.

Anyway, I like the Dunu Talos concept. It has both tuning "philosophies" in one. You can have a long listening or that detailed and fatiguing 10 minutes hearing all details lol

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Truthear HEXA is out:
https://shenzhenaudio.com/products/...hybird-earphones-with-0-78-2pin-cable-earbuds

The graph Looks nice, that 3khz pinna gain peak fits with my 3054hz spot, I may try depending on the BA quality.,. Any info on BA?
I recall HeyGear is moon drops OEM for shells of the Blessing series. So that's a good sign of housing quality. The shell design is almost the Variation, so I guess the fit would work great for me as well.

Maybe that's gonna be a budget-Dusk with LCP DD.

P.S. nvm I ordered. Looking forward to comparing with B2 and Variations.　My brain forced my fingers not to order the one with the acrylic stand, the VIRGO, but my my finger had independent wisdom...

 

[lushmelody]

The graph Looks nice, that 3khz pinna gain peak fits with my 3054hz spot, I may try depending on the BA quality.,. Any info on BA?
I recall HeyGear is moon drops OEM for shells of the Blessing series. So that's a good sign of housing quality. The shell design is almost the Variation, so I guess the fit would work great for me as well.

Maybe that's gonna be a budget-Dusk with LCP DD.

P.S. nvm I ordered. Looking forward to comparing with B2 and Variations.

Yeah, it mimics Blessing 2 formula for way less

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Yeah, it mimics Blessing 2 formula for way less

Cool! Is this truthear, the HeyGear's original brand?

 

[lushmelody]

Cool! Is this truthear, the HeyGear's original brand?

I dunno. It may be. Their marketing is a cost effective brand and it seems every new product is well planned and probably tier benchmarks

 

[AmericanSpirit]

I dunno. It may be. Their marketing is a cost effective brand and it seems every new product is well planned and probably tier benchmarks

$80USD for this quality IEM maybe a new tier benchmark.

I can speculate the logo and naming HEXA does tell some story for HeygGears and Truthear. Especially the logo is 180 degree rotated and skewed one of HeyGears’s logo, translates into “back side of heygear”

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Actually the comfort is really good on the HEXA. I've used it for about 6 hours continuously today without any discomfort (average sized ears). The profile is very small, and on the inner aspect, there are no edges pressing on the concha/auricle of the ear.



In terms of sound, the Truthear HEXA is neutral with a sub-bass boost. Definitely very different from the usual Harman spam sidegrade tunings.

Note weight is on the slightly thinner side, timbre is natural (despite the BAs) and it is very coherent despite the 3BA + 1DD config. In fact, if I didn't know it was a hybrid setup, I would have thought that this was a single driver set. The DD bass can keep up with the BAs in speed and timbre.

Technically, the HEXA has very good imaging and layering, but as the treble isn't very boosted, it perhaps doesn't have as great sheer resolution as some treble-boosted hybrids. Soundstage is also below average, but it makes up for this intimate soundstage with pinpoint imaging.

The HEXA is sub-bass focused, just slightly north of neutral at the bass, with a small tickle in the sub-bass. There is a mid-bass scoop, so EDM and hip-hop fans best consider alternatives. The mids are neutral, with just a slight boost in the upper mids, nothing fatiguing, but the vocal heads may want vocals a bit more forwards. Treble as described, is very safe and sibliant-free.

The HEXA however, is quite hard to drive for a hybrid. Amplification is recommended, cause without sufficient juice, dynamics sound quite flat.

The isolation is very good, in addition to the aforementioned good ergonomics. In fact, I think it will make an excellent budget stage monitor cause of these properties, plus the neutralish tuning with good technical performance.

The stock cable is quite bad - tangly, thin with microphonics. But no biggie just replacing it with an aftermarket cable. Comes with foam, wide bore silicone and narrow bore silicone tips, a leatherette soft case and a standing waifu called Shiroi.

I'd rate it a 4.5/5 if you like this tuning (neutral with sub-bass boost). Bassheads and those that do not have a more robust source, might wanna look elsewhere. Soundstage is compressed, but the good imaging/layering makes it up somewhat in this aspect.

Thank you! Pretty much a summary of HEXA. That impression is exactly what I felt from Dusk, less the bass part because of rather slow response of Dusk’s paper dome DD.
So it sounds like Dusk with added bass speed quality less some upper-end detail retrieval and soundstage. Cool! Sound like a keeper for J-pop genre.

I see, Yume siblings may face a direct competition with HEXA. It’s less than a half price of Yume II.. both has full-resin filled solid shell, and both tuned alike.

Didn’t expect blessing 3 to come in like a hummer H2 shaped rectangular form

 

[wdelta06]

Talking about BA bass, really the sony open BA is similar concept like 64audio TIA system BAs
Moondrop S8 double Sonion BA i rated it 6.5 / 10 even they are fast and accurate with great tuning
Moondrop Kato bass is 7 /10
Hana 2021 bass is 5.5 / 10
Tri Starsea bass is 5.5 / 10
Sony M7 / M9 bass is getting 7.5 / 10 for me, one of the few that reaching pass the 7 score for my picky bass scoring
best bass I've rated is 9.5 / 10 in the Z1R

The Kato has bass...?
New Hana 2021 (Lil bro to Oxygen) bass is less than Kato...?
Starsea bass is less than Kato...?

Wow, my hearing must be irreparably damaged because Kato always struck me as very bright leaning. Oxygen and Hana 2021 were my bass twins.

My bassiest (and most musical) in the flock now are Serial, Vortex, & EST50 (ISN/Penon house sound).

Such a wonderfully wide spectrum of hearing profiles amongst the auditory congregation (Can I get an, Amen!).

 

[o0genesis0o]

The Kato has bass...?
New Hana 2021 (Lil bro to Oxygen) bass is less than Kato...?
Starsea bass is less than Kato...?

Wow, my hearing must be irreparably damaged because Kato always struck me as very bright leaning. Oxygen and Hana 2021 were my bass twins.

My bassiest (and most musical) in the flock now are Serial, Vortex, & EST50 (ISN/Penon house sound).

Such a wonderfully wide spectrum of hearing profiles amongst the auditory congregation (Can I get an, Amen!).

Maybe bass quality, not quantity he is talking about. Fit and ear tips might also contribute. I think KATO comes with the spring tips. Those tend to roll off the bass, at least to my ears.

People talk about different thing when they mention “bass” as well. For example, Sony’s XB stuffs have a lot of boom boom and “umm ummm” sound, whilst “audiophile” bass might be no “boom boom” but a lot of deep rumble.

I’m also puzzled how @DynamicEars rate KATO so highly in terms of bass quality, given its reputation of pillowy bass. To be fair, I have yet to hear a Moondrop with above average bass quality (haven’t heard Variations, so drop your pitchfolks, folks )

 

[JAnonymous5150]

I agree with both @o0genesis0o and @Scuba Devils and can recommend the Zen Pro. I have never heard the Zen myself but from all the reviews I have read, the Zen Pro pretty much addressed the criticisms of the Zen and in a good way. The Zen Pro has great technical performance and is such a coherent iem. Pretty good resolution too!

Somehow I overlooked that you posted this to me, yaps. Knowing how similarly we view/hear some other things makes me think the Zen Pro is now a must try for me. Thanks, bro!

 

[DynamicEars]

The Kato has bass...?
New Hana 2021 (Lil bro to Oxygen) bass is less than Kato...?
Starsea bass is less than Kato...?

Wow, my hearing must be irreparably damaged because Kato always struck me as very bright leaning. Oxygen and Hana 2021 were my bass twins.

My bassiest (and most musical) in the flock now are Serial, Vortex, & EST50 (ISN/Penon house sound).

Such a wonderfully wide spectrum of hearing profiles amongst the auditory congregation (Can I get an, Amen!).

Should have mentioned earlier, its all about quality not just quantity, my bad. Even my Z1R actually dont have that big quantity, but they are very impactful.
I have H40 too, big and bold bass, rate it 6.5 / 10 for the bass quality.
Some of the bass have very boosted sub bass, but really bleed in the mid bass area, yet not as impactful as others. My criteria for good bass is clean bass shelf, have great impact, great texture, can go deep on low extension, not overwhelming boosted only, or linear from 300 hz up that made 100hz more than +5db (100hz-300hz are danger dirty area for me)

Maybe bass quality, not quantity he is talking about. Fit and ear tips might also contribute. I think KATO comes with the spring tips. Those tend to roll off the bass, at least to my ears.

People talk about different thing when they mention “bass” as well. For example, Sony’s XB stuffs have a lot of boom boom and “umm ummm” sound, whilst “audiophile” bass might be no “boom boom” but a lot of deep rumble.

I’m also puzzled how @DynamicEars rate KATO so highly in terms of bass quality, given its reputation of pillowy bass. To be fair, I have yet to hear a Moondrop with above average bass quality (haven’t heard Variations, so drop your pitchfolks, folks )

Yes you are absolutely right, I give score for the quality not quantity. About KATO, from my review session listening, they can go deep and rigid, with great texture with passable impact. I bought the KATO together with hana, FD5 etc to compare entry level midfi single DD, and found the KATO for the best quality bass for the quality, impact and texture and depth. They may be have lowest quantity among the rest but have more impact (moving air), along with EX800ST.
Hana bass I can't accept since they sounded like bloated air with bad airflow (i even open the filter to make sure because I assumed because of the bad damper) but taking out filter can't help much. The DD on New Hana is more towards tactile types, fast, great control on mid bass and have great technicalities on higher end points, think like CRA if come out in budget level, but the bass attack is blunted and cant reach the same depth as KATO does. meanwhile the KATO is like XUN driver as oppose to thin driver on CRA, more impactful and weighty.
And eartips, SpinFit W1 is great for KATO, the moondrop Spring is more peaky on 4-6khz and have lighter bass.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Should have mentioned earlier, its all about quality not just quantity, my bad. Even my Z1R actually dont have that big quantity, but they are very impactful.
I have H40 too, big and bold bass, rate it 6.5 / 10 for the bass quality.
Some of the bass have very boosted sub bass, but really bleed in the mid bass area, yet not as impactful as others. My criteria for good bass is clean bass shelf, have great impact, great texture, can go deep on low extension, not overwhelming boosted only, or linear from 300 hz up that made 100hz more than +5db (100hz-300hz are danger dirty area for me)

Yes you are absolutely right, I give score for the quality not quantity. About KATO, from my review session listening, they can go deep and rigid, with great texture with passable impact. I bought the KATO together with hana, FD5 etc to compare entry level midfi single DD, and found the KATO for the best quality bass for the quality, impact and texture and depth. They may be have lowest quantity among the rest but have more impact (moving air), along with EX800ST.
Hana bass I can't accept since they sounded like bloated air with bad airflow (i even open the filter to make sure because I assumed because of the bad damper) but taking out filter can't help much. The DD on New Hana is more towards tactile types, fast, great control on mid bass and have great technicalities on higher end points, think like CRA if come out in budget level, but the bass attack is blunted and cant reach the same depth as KATO does. meanwhile the KATO is like XUN driver as oppose to thin driver on CRA, more impactful and weighty.
And eartips, SpinFit W1 is great for KATO, the moondrop Spring is more peaky on 4-6khz and have lighter bass.

Have you tried Dunu Falcon? I haven’t but I‘ve always wonder how the ECLIPSE driver scale down to mid-fi level.

 

[DynamicEars]

Have you tried Dunu Falcon? I haven’t but I‘ve always wonder how the ECLIPSE driver scale down to mid-fi level.

Nope as they are more mid bass focus so I skip them (not intend to buy but will happily try if I got chance to)

 

[WAON303]

Have you tried Dunu Falcon? I haven’t but I‘ve always wonder how the ECLIPSE driver scale down to mid-fi level.

The Vernus's bass sounds impressive with very good authority and tactility, it's a far cry from the mediocre DD used in the Starfield and B2 Dusk.

Part of this is probably baked into the mid bass emphasis but impressive nonetheless.

Probably the best bass I've heard on any IEM to date.

I'd love to get one of the big bass bois next year.

 

[FreeWheelinAudioLuv2]

How i'm enjoying the NX7 mk IV. The thickened mids and the deeper bass is so much fun. The BE plated dual DD has more rumble and sub bass than the MK III, so for my hip hop, pop, and bass driven music, it's just so enjoyable. More excited sound than before and that's welcomed.