[Ace Bee]

Thanks for the opinion. You raise a valid point.

You also reminds me of the discussion with another reviewer: “if an IEM on discount tomorrow, should it score increase?”

A belief of mine after testing many kilobucks that I can audition is that most of the stuffs are average or adequate. The gap is not very large even with my nitpicking about staging and resolution and other little things. That’s why most of the stuffs in my rating are actually 3/5 - average. 4/5 - good is rare but not extremely rare nowadays. 5/5 is still very rare, especially if you want 5/5 across the board. I personally don’t think the performance ceiling of IEMs is that high, that kilobuck is far far ahead the level of a well done $100 IEM.

Without comparing across the price bracket, people cannot identify golden performers. Say, in the review, we say certain IEM X is outstanding with all kinds of beautiful descriptions. The question would be if it is that good, where would it fit in the grand scheme of things? Is it truely an amazing value? Or it’s good, like 3/5 good?

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Having owned 2 kilobuck iems (Unique Melody Mirage and FAudio Dark Sky), I can definitely tell that the gap between kilobuck iems and midrange, may be around $500 or even around $300 iems are not very large. I sold Mirage, but I absolutely love Dark Sky. There are iems that sound a bit more airy than Dark Sky, bit more spacious, like MEAOES Eagle (well it sounds more spacious than any other iems in my collection)...so it does not excel above all of my collection regarding soundstage.
However, what it presents are bigger notes, which feel more real, more three-dimensionally defined, more alive! Yeah, it makes the complete music sounds so much more alive and real than all the rest of my iem, that I cannot help but appreciate and acknowledge its value as very much justified. And except Eagle, it sounds much more spacious than any other iem of mine. The whole presentation is just so big and alive...I can't even listen to anything once I start listening to it!

But does that mean my LOAK-T(CL), or Dark Matter, or Miroak-S are significantly behind it? Certainly not. The differences are at most 20%-30%, at best 40%, but definitely nowhere beyond that. And that is the reason why I have decided that I will most definitely not get any iem beyond $1500 max. That is my limit. I know hybrid, tribrid, etc. of that range will definitely sound more spacious and bigger than full range DD iems of the same range, however, I am so intoxicated by the single DD coherency that such magnificent separation, imaging, and stage have started to sound unnatural to me, incoherent sort of, and I absolutely do not want to feel such dissatisfaction with an iem of that price were I to get it.

My current wishlist iems are - Technics EAH-TZ700, Acoustune HS1750CU, Softears Twilight, and by the suggestion of a certain gentleman here, the Radius HP-W300. It is not possible for me to audition any of them, since in India they are not available, so I will have to blind buy one of them...which one - that is my current quest.

 

[o0genesis0o]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Having owned 2 kilobuck iems (Unique Melody Mirage and FAudio Dark Sky), I can definitely tell that the gap between kilobuck iems and midrange, may be around $500 or even around $300 iems are not very large. I sold Mirage, but I absolutely love Dark Sky. There are iems that sound a bit more airy than Dark Sky, bit more spacious, like MEAOES Eagle (well it sounds more spacious than any other iems in my collection)...so it does not excel above all of my collection regarding soundstage.
However, what it presents are bigger notes, which feel more real, more three-dimensionally defined, more alive! Yeah, it makes the complete music sounds so much more alive and real than all the rest of my iem, that I cannot help but appreciate and acknowledge its value as very much justified. And except Eagle, it sounds much more spacious than any other iem of mine. The whole presentation is just so big and alive...I can't even listen to anything once I start listening to it!

But does that mean my LOAK-T(CL), or Dark Matter, or Miroak-S are significantly behind it? Certainly not. The differences are at most 20%-30%, at best 40%, but definitely nowhere beyond that. And that is the reason why I have decided that I will most definitely not get any iem beyond $1500 max. That is my limit. I know hybrid, tribrid, etc. of that range will definitely sound more spacious and bigger than full range DD iems of the same range, however, I am so intoxicated by the single DD coherency that such magnificent separation, imaging, and stage have started to sound unnatural to me, incoherent sort of, and I absolutely do not want to feel such dissatisfaction with an iem of that price were I to get it.

My current wishlist iems are - Technics EAH-TZ700, Acoustune HS1750CU, Softears Twilight, and by the suggestion of a certain gentleman here, the Radius HP-W300. It is not possible for me to audition any of them, since in India they are not available, so I will have to blind buy one of them...which one - that is my current quest.

Your collection and Wishlist are quite unusual and interesting. Hat's off to you and looking forward for your future reviews and impressions.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

KZ has actually came a long way in a short while. Starting listening to the public, should have been less influencers but I did buy the $40 first week deal on the PR1 PRO and goota say it is better than my Timeless tonally wise and stage as well.

Wow! That’s good to hear. KZ starts to revitalized with the planar then!

I’m still waiting their ZAS successor in a form of TWS, or DQ6S in a form or TWS

Hopefully KZ starts to find an LCP ODM for their IEMs for the dynamic drivers,

 

[superuser1]

I wholeheartedly agree with you. Having owned 2 kilobuck iems (Unique Melody Mirage and FAudio Dark Sky), I can definitely tell that the gap between kilobuck iems and midrange, may be around $500 or even around $300 iems are not very large. I sold Mirage, but I absolutely love Dark Sky. There are iems that sound a bit more airy than Dark Sky, bit more spacious, like MEAOES Eagle (well it sounds more spacious than any other iems in my collection)...so it does not excel above all of my collection regarding soundstage.
However, what it presents are bigger notes, which feel more real, more three-dimensionally defined, more alive! Yeah, it makes the complete music sounds so much more alive and real than all the rest of my iem, that I cannot help but appreciate and acknowledge its value as very much justified. And except Eagle, it sounds much more spacious than any other iem of mine. The whole presentation is just so big and alive...I can't even listen to anything once I start listening to it!

But does that mean my LOAK-T(CL), or Dark Matter, or Miroak-S are significantly behind it? Certainly not. The differences are at most 20%-30%, at best 40%, but definitely nowhere beyond that. And that is the reason why I have decided that I will most definitely not get any iem beyond $1500 max. That is my limit. I know hybrid, tribrid, etc. of that range will definitely sound more spacious and bigger than full range DD iems of the same range, however, I am so intoxicated by the single DD coherency that such magnificent separation, imaging, and stage have started to sound unnatural to me, incoherent sort of, and I absolutely do not want to feel such dissatisfaction with an iem of that price were I to get it.

My current wishlist iems are - Technics EAH-TZ700, Acoustune HS1750CU, Softears Twilight, and by the suggestion of a certain gentleman here, the Radius HP-W300. It is not possible for me to audition any of them, since in India they are not available, so I will have to blind buy one of them...which one - that is my current quest.

Acoustune HS1750CU

 

[DynamicEars]

Been like 2 weeks away from head-fi and catching up news here, this thread already stacked up like 40 pages from my last read
aside from new KZ of the week, i found that @AmericanSpirit have interesting points for me :
from the choices of eartips, seems like you're have idealism and detail attention to resonance, like blocked airflow etc that in line with my beliefs. Even few of famous reviewers seems don't care about these, but dampers, resonance (materials, shape of eartips) actually have big impact on sound. And what you said about different eartips really similar with my experience.

I have eartips measurement to make conclusion, still updating until now (havent put azla crystal and Max here)
But I agree that small bore is reducing lower trebles, especially 5-7khz area that will perceived bigger bass. So differences is affecting by seal and fit (will be useless if the eartips wont fit you or break the seal > size of bore > length (for insertion depth) > materials (soft, hard, that have effect on resonance, tight mid bass / absorbing sparkles in trebles)
Some eartips can shift the pinna gain too because of the insertion depth, but mostly will affect treble extension.
And like @AmericanSpirit said before, the eartips bore size ideally must be same width with IEM's nozzle, not narrower because can block airflow and resonance.

and Why I choose Sora for this measurement? because Original Sora have medium size nozzle, and can grip well to various eartips, easy to measure because of the shell shape and personal love for the orginal Sora (I rated 9 / 10 tuning above my Z1R and Mest, very close to my own target, just the tuning OK, technicalities are different story). And I bought lot of Sora variants actually, only to find out which sora have best tuning, and turn out the original ones.


Secondly, what surprised me is @AmericanSpirit statement that made @Tzennn bought the Soundpeats Gamer no 1 . Mest imaging level at budget price? seriously?? that is a very bold statement since Mest have 1 of the best imaging and layering of all IEMs I have tried (I rated it 9.5 /10 for imaging, yes above 9/10 Z1R and hairline above IER-M9 and above everything else)

 

[AmericanSpirit]

yeah, i was surprised that Timmy just recently reach 100K viewers.
i watch that more recognizable name in iem review is at 10K~50k viewers.

Their review style and way of fanbase acquisition maybe one factor.

Maybe Timmy is good at youtube marketing, which I’m not professional of those, but at least, there are technics as a proper youtuber to gain more subscribers, the way they create video thumbnails, tonality of the scripts/narratives, fonts, colors, pace of the speech, timing of silence and motions, cut/edits, BGMs, sounds/visual effects, etc etc, in making a professional yourube video contents. If youtube’s AI decided the content shares many copy&paste patterns, their video may be ranked lower for contents quality, thus less competitive in search results/ auto-play recs. Crin, noticed that part, and I guess he is hiring or already hired someone knowledgeable aboht all those “know-hows” of digital(youtube) marketing.

 

[Ace Bee]

Acoustune HS1750CU

You have it??!!

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Been like 2 weeks away from head-fi and catching up news here, this thread already stacked up like 40 pages from my last read
aside from new KZ of the week, i found that @AmericanSpirit have interesting points for me :
from the choices of eartips, seems like you're have idealism and detail attention to resonance, like blocked airflow etc that in line with my beliefs. Even few of famous reviewers seems don't care about these, but dampers, resonance (materials, shape of eartips) actually have big impact on sound. And what you said about different eartips really similar with my experience.



I have eartips measurement to make conclusion, still updating until now (havent put azla crystal and Max here)
But I agree that small bore is reducing lower trebles, especially 5-7khz area that will perceived bigger bass. So differences is affecting by seal and fit (will be useless if the eartips wont fit you or break the seal > size of bore > length (for insertion depth) > materials (soft, hard, that have effect on resonance, tight mid bass / absorbing sparkles in trebles)
Some eartips can shift the pinna gain too because of the insertion depth, but mostly will affect treble extension.
And like @AmericanSpirit said before, the eartips bore size ideally must be same width with IEM's nozzle, not narrower because can block airflow and resonance.

and Why I choose Sora for this measurement? because Original Sora have medium size nozzle, and can grip well to various eartips, easy to measure because of the shell shape and personal love for the orginal Sora (I rated 9 / 10 tuning above my Z1R and Mest, very close to my own target, just the tuning OK, technicalities are different story). And I bought lot of Sora variants actually, only to find out which sora have best tuning, and turn out the original ones.


Secondly, what surprised me is @AmericanSpirit statement that made @Tzennn bought the Soundpeats Gamer no 1 . Mest imaging level at budget price? seriously?? that is a very bold statement since Mest have 1 of the best imaging and layering of all IEMs I have tried (I rated it 9.5 /10 for imaging, yes above 9/10 Z1R and hairline above IER-M9 and above everything else)

Wow! You’d actually measured those!! It’s already 2am here, so I’d read the contents later but definitely very high quality observations you’ve got there!

And that IEM intime Sora Very niche one you’ve for there, I guess only sizable few of us know that. Are you from Japan or sth? I thought that’s JDM (Japan Domestic Market) IEM.

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Been like 2 weeks away from head-fi and catching up news here, this thread already stacked up like 40 pages from my last read
aside from new KZ of the week, i found that @AmericanSpirit have interesting points for me :
from the choices of eartips, seems like you're have idealism and detail attention to resonance, like blocked airflow etc that in line with my beliefs. Even few of famous reviewers seems don't care about these, but dampers, resonance (materials, shape of eartips) actually have big impact on sound. And what you said about different eartips really similar with my experience.



I have eartips measurement to make conclusion, still updating until now (havent put azla crystal and Max here)
But I agree that small bore is reducing lower trebles, especially 5-7khz area that will perceived bigger bass. So differences is affecting by seal and fit (will be useless if the eartips wont fit you or break the seal > size of bore > length (for insertion depth) > materials (soft, hard, that have effect on resonance, tight mid bass / absorbing sparkles in trebles)
Some eartips can shift the pinna gain too because of the insertion depth, but mostly will affect treble extension.
And like @AmericanSpirit said before, the eartips bore size ideally must be same width with IEM's nozzle, not narrower because can block airflow and resonance.

and Why I choose Sora for this measurement? because Original Sora have medium size nozzle, and can grip well to various eartips, easy to measure because of the shell shape and personal love for the orginal Sora (I rated 9 / 10 tuning above my Z1R and Mest, very close to my own target, just the tuning OK, technicalities are different story). And I bought lot of Sora variants actually, only to find out which sora have best tuning, and turn out the original ones.


Secondly, what surprised me is @AmericanSpirit statement that made @Tzennn bought the Soundpeats Gamer no 1 . Mest imaging level at budget price? seriously?? that is a very bold statement since Mest have 1 of the best imaging and layering of all IEMs I have tried (I rated it 9.5 /10 for imaging, yes above 9/10 Z1R and hairline above IER-M9 and above everything else)

This ear tip variations is very great study conducted with vast variety of ear tips.

For transient measurements, do you happened to have impulse response of those? That’s the core of timbre implications of changing ear tips, not only notable change in FR. If you happened to have impulse response of those, it will be worth to write an academic research paper

 

[AmericanSpirit]

Been like 2 weeks away from head-fi and catching up news here, this thread already stacked up like 40 pages from my last read
aside from new KZ of the week, i found that @AmericanSpirit have interesting points for me :
from the choices of eartips, seems like you're have idealism and detail attention to resonance, like blocked airflow etc that in line with my beliefs. Even few of famous reviewers seems don't care about these, but dampers, resonance (materials, shape of eartips) actually have big impact on sound. And what you said about different eartips really similar with my experience.



I have eartips measurement to make conclusion, still updating until now (havent put azla crystal and Max here)
But I agree that small bore is reducing lower trebles, especially 5-7khz area that will perceived bigger bass. So differences is affecting by seal and fit (will be useless if the eartips wont fit you or break the seal > size of bore > length (for insertion depth) > materials (soft, hard, that have effect on resonance, tight mid bass / absorbing sparkles in trebles)
Some eartips can shift the pinna gain too because of the insertion depth, but mostly will affect treble extension.
And like @AmericanSpirit said before, the eartips bore size ideally must be same width with IEM's nozzle, not narrower because can block airflow and resonance.

and Why I choose Sora for this measurement? because Original Sora have medium size nozzle, and can grip well to various eartips, easy to measure because of the shell shape and personal love for the orginal Sora (I rated 9 / 10 tuning above my Z1R and Mest, very close to my own target, just the tuning OK, technicalities are different story). And I bought lot of Sora variants actually, only to find out which sora have best tuning, and turn out the original ones.


Secondly, what surprised me is @AmericanSpirit statement that made @Tzennn bought the Soundpeats Gamer no 1 . Mest imaging level at budget price? seriously?? that is a very bold statement since Mest have 1 of the best imaging and layering of all IEMs I have tried (I rated it 9.5 /10 for imaging, yes above 9/10 Z1R and hairline above IER-M9 and above everything else)

Sorry for separating the posts, but it’s a different topic.

For soundpeats Gamer No.1, nobody back then believed my claim, so that Gamer No.1(silly name) was about to finish its presence without being recognized at western audiophiles community until @Tzennn actually tried it.

SoundPeats, isn’t a random small boutique s, they have tech experts, I’d suspect maybe even few PhDs, let alone Masters in engineering. They’ve applied their theoretical experiments in sound image coordination by tweaking loudness status management, with that 2DD standard quality driver.

I’m not a tech expert, so just take it as a gain of salt. That method is sending 2 different path of signals with different transducers, to give a sense of virtual sense of staging effect.

For MEST, the genius in Unique Melody achieved by using the bone conduction driver to materialize the 3D staging. For Gamer No.1, the genius in SoundPeats executed with that additional dynamic driver. Eureka!

Sad part is, they are not audiophiles, and that gaming IEM got a joking “gaming mode” that boost bass to kill miraculously crystallized 3D staging.

This is my personal observation from how I perceived UM MEST MKII is materializing a magical “fake pinna” stimulations, which only fullsize headphones could usually do.

Here, is my old rough idea of delayed phasing of bone conduction driver of MEST MKII.

 

[gadgetgod]

Shouldn't they name this FR6 or may be RF6? Nonetheless I am super excited for this one.

 

[o0genesis0o]

Shouldn't they name this FR6 or may be RF6? Nonetheless I am super excited for this one.

Competing with the Cayin RU6? Seems fun

 

[r31ya]

Sorry for separating the posts, but it’s a different topic.

For soundpeats Gamer No.1, nobody back then believed my claim, so that Gamer No.1(silly name) was about to finish its presence without being recognized at western audiophiles community until @Tzennn actually tried it.

SoundPeats, isn’t a random small boutique s, they have tech experts, I’d suspect maybe even few PhDs, let alone Masters in engineering. They’ve applied their theoretical experiments in sound image coordination by tweaking loudness status management, with that 2DD standard quality driver.

I’m not a tech expert, so just take it as a gain of salt. That method is sending 2 different path of signals with different transducers, to give a sense of virtual sense of staging effect.

For MEST, the genius in Unique Melody achieved by using the bone conduction driver to materialize the 3D staging. For Gamer No.1, the genius in SoundPeats executed with that additional dynamic driver. Eureka!

Sad part is, they are not audiophiles, and that gaming IEM got a joking “gaming mode” that boost bass to kill miraculously crystallized 3D staging.

This is my personal observation from how I perceived UM MEST MKII is materializing a magical “fake pinna” stimulations, which only fullsize headphones could usually do.

Here, is my old rough idea of delayed phasing of bone conduction driver of MEST MKII.

One of the famous tws from soundpeats is a 1DD+1 knowles BA hybrids. Soundpeats H1
So yeah, someone seems to love audio in that company.

Now they add LDAC support in their sub$100 tws.
Not to mention unlike KZ, soundpeats seems to nails the TWS aspect (battery life, mic and all)

 

[r31ya]

Their review style and way of fanbase acquisition maybe one factor.

Maybe Timmy is good at youtube marketing, which I’m not professional of those, but at least, there are technics as a proper youtuber to gain more subscribers, the way they create video thumbnails, tonality of the scripts/narratives, fonts, colors, pace of the speech, timing of silence and motions, cut/edits, BGMs, sounds/visual effects, etc etc, in making a professional yourube video contents. If youtube’s AI decided the content shares many copy&paste patterns, their video may be ranked lower for contents quality, thus less competitive in search results/ auto-play recs. Crin, noticed that part, and I guess he is hiring or already hired someone knowledgeable aboht all those “know-hows” of digital(youtube) marketing.

Something that crin nails is he knows if you want big number, you need it to be entertaining.
Droning about one object only going to invite small niche audience.
Thats why his actual mass review video usually only once per month. And he filled the rest with feature vids

Linus noted it as well as the main channel can't do much in depth review like nexus without tanking the viewership number.
Hence he is going to create separate channel with lttlab for that thing in near future.

 

[Barndoor]

Shouldn't they name this FR6 or may be RF6? Nonetheless I am super excited for this one.

A dongle or battery powered DAC/Amp? R2R I assume.