[o0genesis0o]

Yea your closing word, it’s not bad if you don’t have $50 good IEM. Is basically one sentence summary of cadenza. Definitely not “sub $50 king” as hyped. This is my final conclusion after tip rolls, and 100hrs of burn in to Cadenza.

Attention calling for ongoing trend of “frequent collab reviewer”.

cadenza hit HBB’s top sub 50 ranking list based on:
▶︎Tonality tuning fits on his preferred curve (warm bass, inoffensive treble, neutral mid)
▶︎Possible business incentives of potential future collaboration with Kiwi Ears. Well at least Cadenza isn’t going to depreciate his HBB brand, not a bad IEM, so there will be a good monetary motivations. (I’m not indicating he is being bribed by Kiwi Ears. It’s most likely his voluntary hype)

Same business incentive applies to Crinacle’s latest ranking list. I see some “unusual” positive/negative biased scores that could be rooted from his own collaborations motivations. Not many, but countable few of them.

From professional ethics standpoint, these conflicts of interests are not good ingredients for their reviews. As one human being it is hard to completely separate personal interest with unbiased reviews. In business world, the professional firm providing “business consulting” shall be separated from the professional firm conducting objective audits.

That’s what I see from HBB/Crinacle’s once-purely-personal review has been transformed to somewhat “95% of them sounds fair, but some questions remained” one. That 5% is a bit phony, as they are not “review amateurs” that can mistakenly assess the score with more than 10% of margin of errors in the actual performance. The positive/negative bias is beyond margin of errors, which makes me wonder if there are any intentional biases are involved.

I’m not implying
“Don’t believe Reviewer’s score who does —constant—collaborations/consultations “

Just take it with a gain of salt.
Noting that there maybe monetary/intangible motivations and incentives behind self-proclaimed unbiased review.

Then apply subjective adjectives to “potential positive/negative biases” of their review product, to estimate the realistic result. This is called “Stress Test” technical analysis. Apply stress to potentially biased dataset, salvage recap result.

Back to Cadenza, it can be used as daily IEM to watch TV shows on tablet. A good dynamic theater like sound reproduction. Technically is just average. If not a bit rough textured detail articulation and mushy bass.

Recap of Cadenza:
Not bad. Not a game changer. If you own good $50-class single DD, it’s not worth to buy. If not, it’s a fair offer. But there will be better choice, like Tripowin’s Lea that could be found as low as $23 vs Cadenza’s $35.

I have just seen this one. Boy, that’s serious

No comment on the bias thing, especially since some people make a living writing these reviews.

I think that this race to the bottom is getting out of hands. We get it, you (chi fi manufacturers) nail the tuning. No need to brag about good tuning on a budget, it’s not 2021 anymore.

Give us good technical performance, give us good build quality. Perhaps those things are not as cool as “look how nice we tune” or making a statement “you don’t need to pay for tuning” (personally, who cares? If you have poor technical performance, you still create poor listening experience even if you hit Harman 100%. If you have outstanding technical performance, you can get away with slight tuning mistakes)

 

[r31ya]

Yea I was thinking Final E is old school, but when tried with Performer 5, it had pretty warm and nice bass resonance. Final E still can do good job to some good matching ones.

Just like Final E = Get Final E500 $20 which comes with full set of Final E,

Moondrop Spring Tip = Get Chu$19, it comes with full set of Spring Tips if separately bought $12.99

Also if you get Moondrop’s Stellaris, around $109. It comes with full set of Softwars UC (S, M, L). If separately bought it only has Sx2 or Mx2 or Lx2 for $19. Stellaris, is questionable one from Moondrop. Sounds like KZ’s ZS10 in terms of tuning. Can handle some acoustic genre pretty well, and Planar driver’s spec is very good.

My speculation is that KZ and Moondrop sent their product design to same ODM. ODM mistakenly put KZ’s Planar design as Moondrop Stellaris, and Moondrop’s Design as KZ PR1PRO. That makes sense.

KZ curve.


Moondrop Curve

KZ need to go through PLA13 and PR1 Balance+Hifi before reaching PR1 Pro.
it was constant request to tune it "to be more balanced", reduce the bass to get more clarity, and finally reach PR1 Pro who still need Foams to deal with that rather harsh"clarity"

---

and oh, i was trying to spend my time with my PR1 Pro with stock setup to see whats what and its a bit underwhelming. pretty good for $42, not sure its that competitive in $80 segment.
but then i finally goes "eh lets just use balanced cable". Planar would love more juice and yuup, everything is beautiful again.
the vocal is not quite upfront but it is in the center, encircled by instrument.
bass is now somewhat impactful, bass guitar while still melds in the background in some songs is now more easily found, guitar is super sharp, vocals... detailed but not "lush". its a bit dry. pretty high in resolution, tough it came with a bit of harshness in the treble.

the staging... everything have proper "space" with noticeable "gap" between instrument which suppose to be good. especially done with 1 driver.
but the issue being the placement of instrument is a fair bit different that i used to and its not quite "grand" sounding somehow.
it feels like a band in a stage that is too big for their group and they got a bit too spaced out.

bracket redefining at @80? eeeh.
competitive sounding with balanced cable at $80. i guess yeah. not like i have alot of iem in that price bracket tough.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

KZ need to go through PLA13 and PR1 Balance+Hifi before reaching PR1 Pro.
it was constant request to tune it "better", reduce the bass to get more clarity, and finally reach PR1 Pro who still need Foams to deal with that rather harsh"clarity"

Yea, It’s a Joke. Moondrop to come up with ZS10, and KZ to come up with pretty nicely tuned one.

 

[r31ya]

Yea, It’s a Joke. Moondrop to come up with ZS10, and KZ to come up with pretty nicely tuned one.

moondrop love neutral bright and with planar driver, they manage to recreate the sun.
hence "stelarris"

 

[AmericanSpirit]

I have just seen this one. Boy, that’s serious

No comment on the bias thing, especially since some people make a living writing these reviews.

I think that this race to the bottom is getting out of hands. We get it, you (chi fi manufacturers) nail the tuning. No need to brag about good tuning on a budget, it’s not 2021 anymore.



Give us good technical performance, give us good build quality. Perhaps those things are not as cool as “look how nice we tune” or making a statement “you don’t need to pay for tuning” (personally, who cares? If you have poor technical performance, you still create poor listening experience even if you hit Harman 100%. If you have outstanding technical performance, you can get away with slight tuning mistakes)

Haha, yeah, it just a precaution to “apply stress test” to hyped IEMs.

Especially for hyped one by influential reviewer with possible business incentives behind.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

moondrop love neutral bright and with planar driver, they manage to recreate the sun.
hence "stelarris"

Touche! That makes sense.

 

[Jmop]

KZ need to go through PLA13 and PR1 Balance+Hifi before reaching PR1 Pro.
it was constant request to tune it "to be more balanced", reduce the bass to get more clarity, and finally reach PR1 Pro who still need Foams to deal with that rather harsh"clarity"


---

and oh, i was trying to spend my time with my PR1 Pro with stock setup to see whats what and its a bit underwhelming. pretty good for $42, not sure its that competitive in $80 segment.
but then i finally goes "eh lets just use balanced cable". Planar would love more juice and yuup, everything is beautiful again.
the vocal is not quite upfront but it is in the center, encircled by instrument.
bass is now somewhat impactful, bass guitar while still melds in the background in some songs is now more easily found, guitar is super sharp, vocals... detailed but not "lush". its a bit dry. pretty high in resolution, tough it came with a bit of harshness in the treble.

the staging... everything have proper "space" with noticeable "gap" between instrument which suppose to be good. especially done with 1 driver.
but the issue being the placement of instrument is a fair bit different that i used to and its not quite "grand" sounding somehow.
it feels like a band in a stage that is too big for their group and they got a bit too spaced out.

bracket redefining at @80? eeeh.
competitive sounding with balanced cable at $80. i guess yeah. not like i have alot of iem in that price bracket tough.

Yeah, nice graph with the foams.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

So near my endgame listen. Absolutely beautiful and creamy sound. Mature, creamy, with punch and resolution. AKG N5005 + Sony A55 with Mr Walkman mod + Fiio Mont Blanc IEM Edition amp + Fiio pure silver interconnect + DD hifi gold 3.5 adapter for AKG 2.5 balanced cable + spinfit silicone tips.

The Q1 mk II is an excellent semi-budget amp ($100-$130), but it's bassy and dark. The Mont Blanc is more transparent and balanced. Less colored, so it suits the A55 and AKG N5005 much better. I also have my Cardas interconnect, which is a superior interconnect to the Fiio pure silver, but I wanted to keep it more balanced with more clarity in the highs, and the fiio does that trick, because the A55 has that thick Sony house sound.

So far it's been aural bliss for me and I absolutely have to thank @AmericanSpirit for the AKG recc. Had it not been for him, I wouldn't have taken the plunge. Cheers!

p.s. I'll be hooking the Mont Blanc to my DX170 with the Cardas interconnect and 3.5 termination, and see where my ears take me?

oops I overlooked. Great to hear that! Hope N5005 has a good pair with DX170.

I put both BT cable and 2.5mm cable in the case, it is very good to have an option for wireless and when charging, or serious listening, balanced 2.5mm.

I was doing direct AB test between same 4BA+1DD N5005 and latest knocking boy AFUL P5.

I think I will be picking N5005 if I was to tell pick only one to home.
P5 is technically amazing especially for the bass performance, and very neutral and natural sounding set piece.

N5005’s “pleasant” focused tuning per se is the main reason what I would value more than neutrality. The tuning could not go wrong at any genre, where P5 at a time had some fatiguing moment.

 

[XerusKun]

Interesting. I don't have any devices (other than my phone) that takes USB-C, so I am hesitant on buying these. I trust you as a reviewer and we listen to similar genres of music; however, I consider myself a treble-head and like more treble than necessary. Would you still think they are a better option for me than the Chu?

Also, are we getting a review of the Quarks DSP from you? I know these reviews take time and I would understand if you aren't going to.
P.S. I love the way you review things: waterfall graphs, stage instrument location images, and music tests!

A very late reply..
I really have no plans on reviewing them and just want to enjoy them as it is, but I am loving how they sound the longer I listen to them.. so yeah, I hope it helps.
https://www.head-fi.org/showcase/moondrop-quarks-dsp.26233/review/29797/

 

[o0genesis0o]

Why would an IEM listener want a big audio brick? Nearly two years after asking that question, I finally got to answer that question myself with Topping G5. My review is online on Head-fi as well as my personal blog (no ads or affiliation link, but if you visit, the visitor number on my dashboard would make me happy )

Topping G5 is a versatile source. It can be used as a desktop all-in-one, a Bluetooth portable DAC/amp, a portable amplifier, and even a DAC for speakers. It also offers good build quality and excellent handling. The sound quality of the G5 is also excellent. Its desktop effect is addictive, especially if you listen to many complex mixes and recordings. This effect puts G5 one solid step above most dongle DAC/amps.

The main drawback of G5 is the EMI noise. I choose to work around this issue rather than buy a different one because this kind of device is rarely available at this price point. Suppose you are okay with some infrequent noises when stacking your phone on the amp. Topping G5 can be a practical endgame for your portable audio, especially if you do not want a digital audio player.

Pros:

• Analog volume pot
• Neutral, uncoloured midrange tonality
• Pitch black background with sensitive IEMs.
• Punchy and dynamic presentation with most IEMs
• Expand the soundstage of most IEMs
• Volume can be low enough to work with sensitive IEMs
• Enough power to fully drive most head-fi gears

Cons:

• Channel imbalance at low volume
• Susceptible to EMI noises

 

[Guipnox]

A little old school but the TRI I3 Pro (tribrid-planar, ba, dd) should be considered...

Bass is off the charts while maintaining pretty good mids & treble.

[FYI they're available on Amazon for $169, but have a $20 discount putting it within striking distance of your $$$ range.

AliExpress has these even cheaper but won't arrive before Xmas]

Definitely worth a go...

Strectching my budget a little bit, how is ISN EST50 for electronic music?
I've read some reviews.
It seems insane!

 

[Guipnox]

How close is the sound to ISN EST50? I probably want this for my daily commuting.

Thanks

How have been your experience using ISN EST50?
Are they really crazy for EDM?
Dubstep, Drum & Bass, PsyTrance, Hardstyle, Tech House.

 

[lgcubana]

Hey guys

Looking for a budget basshead IEM.
Up to $100-150 USD.
Fit is very important.
Any recommendations, please?

Thanks in advance,
Gui.

iKKO OH10

on AliExpress, look for “iKKO LOT Store”.
$116 USD, new in box
Got my second unit during the last sale, for just under $100 USD

This has the sub bass hit that will give you some chest rattle, with a well defined decay. Not BA style, which can be authoritative, with a fast recovery; which I would equate to Death Metal.

 

[Leonarfd]

How have been your experience using ISN EST50?
Are they really crazy for EDM?
Dubstep, Drum & Bass, PsyTrance, Hardstyle, Tech House.

I'm guessing you have read about EST50 and you like good sub bass. EST50 should be a good performing IEM with subwoofer like bass. Personally I like to have my subwoofer on for the genres you mentioned. Still there is alot IEMs thats good with bass heavy fast electronica genres. Just a tip many of the hardstyle and Dubstep songs are badly made and often sound better on cheap consumer sets. Or IEMs that sound more analog and not super detailed, can only reccomend Penon Serial from top of my mind.
This depends again as many Artists make good Electronica that sounds spectacular on higher end gear with good detail.

 

[Tzennn]

Seriously? It's actually quiet in the ciry of Da Nang? No screeching howling motor scooters buzzing in every direction, etcetera?

It is quieter than other city the usual buzzing ... Well just asian problem in general haha, Danang is energetic but people there just take it slow. People in Hue (my hometown) always rushing for no reason so ...